Writing Scavenger Hunt

[Scavenger Hunt] This assignment has two parts. Part One: For the next week, you're on a scavenger hunt. Usually, when you have a scavenger hunt, you physically gather objects on a list. Instead of gathering the objects on your list, write complete descriptions of the items as you find them. You'll use these descriptions in an assignment next week.
an angry exchange
something unpleasant
an out-of-place object
something fresh, new, or unused
a well-loved object
a lost or forgotten object
something well-used
a home-made or hand-made object

[Something unpleasant] a bunch of squishy, thick, light-brown sit at the bottom of the toilet, a urine-soaked square of toilet paper concealing them, and littler, not as graceful-looking floating above them in a light-yellow pool of liquid.

[Something fresh, new, or unused] I stare at my new swimsuit. There are light-green, blueberry, strawberry-pink and bright white polka dots all over the sky-blue background, except for where a pink thick bodice cuts across at the waist. It would favor my chest.

[A well-loved object] I always strained to zip up my cuddly, soft, bright yellow and light orange furry cat-face design traveling pillow/blanket. The peeling dirty-yellow colored zip-tag never budged.

[Something well used] The shelf I used to store my school and home stuff had two plastic red drawers on the top, two orange drawers under that, and then two green drawers, and two drawers of blue and purple under that. They each had a shiny silver plastic knob for handles, and the metal frame that held the whole thing together was always icy cold from lack of touch. The stuff inside the labeled drawers was constantly messy, even if it was just papers.

[An out-of-place object] The one knotted red poppy flower designed curtain always looked out of place in our messy home because that knot is of a fashionable kind, and I had seen it in a popular restaurant. The thick, simple knot interrupting it’s rough fabric just looked out of place.

[an angry exchange] The filthy Lady Sabrina and Sir Pelham de Bone were trading insults. They shouted and shrieked, but their ugly insults were nothing compared to their own ugliness. Lady Sabrina was losing her bloodstained, yellow little toe, and Pelham had slapped it because he didn’t want it to fall out.


[a forgotten object] I hugged the huge, silky, curly-haired and soft dolphin. It was good to see it again. Even though it was almost as big as me, it was great for throwing in the air. It had hard, black, and shiny eyeballs, which were only attached to the cloth of the dolphin, so I loved to turn them upside-down when I was excited.

[a home-made object] I had a beautiful drawing of a waterfall and a waterfall's background that wasn't quite finished yet, but it was still beautiful. I had used Van Gogh's style for this, using diffrent colored stripes to make the sun on the hills above the waterfall, the waterfall and the river from which it came, and the the earthy wall that the waterfall fell over. I had stuck pieces of paper and cardboard to the wall for rocks, and a verse to the wall on the left of the wall. I had mixed together the stripes on the waterfall and the wall on the right of the waterfall by running water [real water] over it. It was the wall on the left of the waterfall that was not finished.

character profile for the story I am writing

first name:Ellen
middle name:Jane
last name:Gwentin
date of birth:April the 16
place of birth:Iceland
eats for breakfast:ham sandwich and piece of Brie
looks like:Golden hair-only a few wisps of that color left,icy blue eyes,fair skin
favorite color:light,natrual shade of green
greatest fear:rats
strengths:perseverant, hardy, strong of mind
weaknesses:old, too self confident

Write to Learn-Ancient Egypt

The beautifully carved ceder table in the middle of the tapestry covered dining room was piled with delicous food. Roast geese, fattened in lush pastures until near bursting, black beer sloshing in smelted silver goblets, plump figs and deep purple grapes spilled out of pure gold bowls. Mouth watering scents wafted above to the glided ceiling. The room was warm with high spirits and merriness. The noble's wives cooled their foreheads with linen hankerchiefs, for relief from the heat. Nobles toasted each other again and again, getting more loud and disreputable each time. The female slaves and male servants lingered in the shadows, desprateley wishing to taste the scrumptious food.

"Hello,my pretty.""Don't act a smiling face, Mr.Hoffman," said Alina. Mr. Hoffman's happyface twisted itself into a ugly sneer."And why would that be, Alina?"Because I know you aren't happy. If you are not happy don't smile." Alina replied.Mr. Hoffman scowled."Get to the point, girl." snapped Mr.Hoffman."I just wanted you to know that the police are coming in five hours to arrest you, so you should probally escape while you can.""Why? So that you can use that mighty brain of yours to capture me again?"sneered Mr. Hoffman. He stalked over to the tiny apartment window and looked out.Alina sighed and twisted a few strands of her long, coal-black hair. Eventhough Mr.Hoffman was a murdering crimanal now, he still had a mocking sense of humor."No. It's just that..."She took a deep breath. This was not going to beeasy to say. [despite her prize-winning wits]" You've helped me in the past" she said carefully [anybody that angered Mr.Hoffman was thrown out of the window if they were lucky.] "and I want to repay you."" You think I'm going to believe you just like that?Mr.Hoffman said scornfully. "No doubt you have a whole police patrol down there, just waiting for me to stroll downstairs and get caught like a fly in a web." Alina sighed heavily. Mr.Hoffman was proving difficult to sway.
"My train is leaving at one o' clock." Alina said stiffly. "I will pack for my journey." She was sure Hoffman would fall for her trick once she was gone.
"Well, good-bye then." he sneered. "Or rather, bad-bye."
Alina did not answer, but merely left the room. Inside, Hoffman sat on his spindly chair, thinking.
He was wondering whether he should go downstairs, and trust Alina-Ismeana or sneak downstairs and start shooting the police patrol Alina-Ismeana had supposedly left for him. On one hand, he was pretty shaken by what he had saw Alina-Ismeana stealing for the twin pickpocket twins on Main Street, but on the other hand, Father's still rang in his head even though it was already thirty years from his death. "Never trust Alina
Glockin, son." He had said. "She's got a heart hard as granite and a brain as sharp as the dagger I'm wearing right now." Whereupon he had flashed the bright blade he carried on his poached alligator skin belt at all times.
Mr.Hoffman decided not to trust Alina-Ismeana. "I'm staying right here."
he thought. "They can try to pry me off with a stick all they want, for all I care." And he sqatted down even lower on the spindly chair and stayed still as a statue. And he stayed there until he died of starvatoin. The End.

Pert-lively and bold
Paucity-scarcity,lack
Rococo-very highly ornamented
Smelt-to melt metal in order to refine it


A young prince lived in a mottled, ivy-covered castle. Today was his birthday, and his father, king of the country, was wasting no time getting the castle decorated. The castle had been polished so that the gray, sandstone blocks that made the castle shone like silver. The castle was so rococo that there was only a inch of castle that you could see beneath all the banners and paper chains decorating the castle. Inside, it looked even more beautiful and merry. There was a pile of brightly wrapped presents in a corner, among them a graceful smelted iron statue still too hot from its melting to be covered. The wooden oak table in the center of the room had, however, a paucity of things on it's surface, unlike the rest of the rococo castle. The king had just given yet another toast to the prince.
" To our pert, young, and stupid prince." he announced, taking a mighty swig of the ale from his gold goblet.
"Father!" protested the prince. "You're being ignominious! More than I've ever seen you!"
"Well, of course I'm ignominious, blockhead. There's a whole 300 nobles here. I've got to be... What was that ignominopinior mean?"
The prince sighed.
"Disgraceful, father,"
"That's it, son. If you don't push yourself, you'll learn what these words mean."
The prince nearly groaned.
"Really father, maybe we should pass out the trenchers to the inpecunious people now."
he said, trying to change the subject.
"No, son, charity for the poor comes later. For now, go into the yard and pull up the turnips. I want to see if you are strong."
This time, the prince did groan.
"Oh well, at least I'll be somewhere else."
He tramped to the door to the vegtable gardens. Once there, he stared up at the frightening palisade looming around the palace.

My Chain Memory

Activity: Write a new blog post. Describe a recent event or topic that reminds you of a memory:

Last week on Friday I went to writing class. It was only my second time at Felicia's [Felicia is our super cool writing teacher.]house. On this occasion, we learned a lot of new words. One of the new words was titan. When I heard the explanation, I instantly remembered what the word meant. Titan was the name of the gods[I'm actually a Christan.]that gave birth to Zeus and his siblings. I had read about this in a book about myths from around the world. [I don't remember what the book is called, so don't ask me.]
That's really what titan had reminded me of. I feel sort of torn about the book [once I start to think about it] because for one thing, it was a really good book, but for another thing, I didn't want to drift away from my faith because I was reading about pagan faiths.

“The orphan girl was very kind and sweet. She was good at writing fantasy stories and she liked gardening flowers. She lived in a manor on a large, gray cobblestone street. In the yard behind the manor there were lots of voilets , daisies, and a row of lemon trees filled with delicous fruit. In the manor there was a spacy room with forget-me-not flowered walls, and another narrowwer room with big, stuffy armchairs and paper chains hanging above. The girl’s room was filled with thick fantasy books and thinner ones she had wrote herself. She had lots of strong oak chairs and spindly maple chairs in her room. She loved to be in her room and think about faraway castles and beautiful princesses with hair long enough to climb.”

Jennifer's Homework

activity #1
1. Sign in to your blog.
2. Click on 'manage posts'.
3. Open the post 'pugnacious/titan' and finish writing it.
4. Click 'publish post'.

activity #2

1. Copy and paste the following passage into a new blog post.

passage:

“The girl was very nice. She was good at stuff and she was interested in things. She lived in a house on a big street. In the yard there were some plants and a bunch of trees. The house had a large room with colored walls, and another room with furniture and decorations. The girl’s room was filled with her stuff. She had furniture. She liked to be in her room and think about other places and things.”

2. Replace the general words with more specific words.

3. Check your spelling.

4. Click 'Publish Post'

pugnacious/titan

"Hello,my pretty."
"Don't act a smiling face, Mr.Hoffman," said Alina. Mr. Hoffman's happy
face twisted itself into a ugly sneer.
"And why would that be, Alina?
"Because I know you aren't happy. If you are not happy don't smile." Alina replied.
Mr. Hoffman scowled.
"Get to the point, girl." snapped Mr.Hoffman.
"I just wanted you to know that the police are coming in five hours to arrest you, so you should probally escape while you can."
"Why? So that you can use that mighty brain of yours to capture me again?"
sneered Mr. Hoffman. He stalked over to the tiny apartment window and looked out.
Alina sighed and twisted a few strands of her long, coal-black hair. Even
though Mr.Hoffman was a murdering crimanal now, he still had a mocking sense of humor.
"No. It's just that..."She took a deep breath. This was not going to be
easy to say. [despite her prize-winning wits]
" You've helped me in the past" she said carefully [anybody that angered Mr.Hoffman was thrown out of the window if they were lucky.] "and I want to repay you."
" You think I'm going to believe you just like that?
Mr.Hoffman said scornfully. "No doubt you have a whole police patrol down there, just waiting for me to stroll downstairs and get caught like a fly in a web." Alina sighed heavily. Mr.Hoffman was proving difficult to sway.

"My train is leaving at one o' clock." Alina said stiffly. "I will pack for my journey." She was sure Hoffman would fall for her trick once she was gone.

"Well, good-bye then." he sneered. "Or rather, bad-bye."

Alina did not answer, but merely left the room. Inside, Hoffman sat on his spindly chair, thinking.

new words

1. Titan=person of enormous stature or achievement
2. Zealot/Zealous=someone very strong in his/her belief
3. Voracious=having a big appetite
4. Salubrious=good for your health
5. Pugnacious=quarrelsome, eager to fight

Writing Activity-specific and general nouns

In this activity, we wrote paragraphs using only general words. Then we traded places, and rewrote each other's paragraphs using specific words. Adora rewrote my paragraph in the comments section. You can visit http://seedsoflearning.blogspot.com to see my rewrite of Adora's paragraph. Here is my general paragraph:

I saw an opening in the stone wall. It was strong enough to withstand kicks. I wanted to open it, but I remembered the saying: curiosity killed the cat. Satisfaction brought him back. I opened its security device. Then I moved it open. Inside was a garden. The garden had many plants. In front of me was a walkway leading to a crossing over a waterway.