March 23

I would want to move to a farm area because I could have a lot of pets and animals. I also would like the open land. I could buy a four wheeler or a dirt bike. I would like to ride all through the corn fields.

I would also want to have a pond on our farm so I could go fishing all the time. I always go fishing for bass. They are my favorite fish to catch. I have lots of different kinds of bait and tackle to use.

If I lived in a country area I would always make bonfires to make s'mores. I would gather my family to do the bonfire. When it would get dark I could play manhunt with my friends. Manhunt is sort of like hide and seek, only it is for us older kids.

I would be able to grow fresh crops like corn and green beans. I wouldn’t like to live in the city because it can be real crowded and noisy. There is also a lot of traffic. In a country area there are not many people living near you. There is no traffic that you would have to worry about. That makes it safer to ride a four wheeler.

If my family and I moved to a farm area I would get them to buy two golden labs and a bulldog. I would like the gold labs because they are fun to play with. I would get the bulldog because they look funny. So I would want to live in a country area. In the country area, I could have all the animals that I wanted. ~ Chris S.

March 9, 2010 - Descriptive Paragraphs

The paragraphs keep on arriving! I had the opportunity to read some wonderfully-crafted paragraphs about students' hometowns this week--I'm impressed with your writing skills! I even saw some semicolons used properly--very nice! Do we have some future authors here? Please see below for three descriptive paragraphs created by your classmates. You will find more student paragraphs in this week's Tuesday Tip which is waiting for you in your
k-mail inbox!

Seven years ago we had a change in homes. We used to live in Scranton which was convenient. My sister and I could walk to the store or to the pizza shop. I also had lots of neighbors to play with. Then we moved to the quiet, open country where I have acres of woods to explore and room to have exciting pets like ducks and a horse. The only drawback is there are no friends nearby to associate with, and stores are miles away. I prefer the country because of the fresh air and open space. ~ Aaron H.

I live in North Philadelphia only several blocks from Route 1, the Fox Street entrance. We live in a three-bedroom row house. Our community playground is only two blocks around the corner. Recently our playground / community center needed some real work done to try and make it beautiful again. We wanted to do something about it. What we did was we got involved in a program for teens to come together and make repairs, add flowers, fix and replace fences, and paint pictures throughout the area on walls and the ground. We also put new basketball courts up so that everyone can play and enjoy how it looks. This is my service to my community. ~ Angela W.

Although my address says Philadelphia, my house is actually located on the north side of the city about 20 minutes from central city. If I walk to the right, there is a small park. If you walk about an hour, you'll find shopping stores. There is not a lot of nature around, but there are buildings and houses--even some abandoned ones. We have neighbors on each side, and sometimes you can hear them; maybe they can hear us, too! In the summer, everybody is outside playing music. We are always in our yard; it's a small yard with a pool and a barbeque. I would like to live in New York, but for now, Philadelphia is okay! ~ Joseph P.

Tuesday Tip for Feb. 16

Here's hoping you all had a great 3-day weekend! I enjoyed the time with my family. Our snow cave needs a little work, and the snow wasn't great for sledding on Saturday--but we had a good time in it anyway! Have you taken some time to "play" in the snow? Take a moment to post a comment about your recent snow activities!

This week's Tuesday Tip involves commas again. When a city and state (or country) are used together in a sentence, remember to place a comma after both of them. This week's mission is to create a sentence that includes the city and state of your birth--with properly placed commas! Here's mine: Mrs. Allen was born in Woodbury, New Jersey, and then moved to Pennsylvania.

Tuesday Tip for Feb. 2

Commas, commas, commas!

Rule #1: Use commas to separate items in a series (three or more things), including the last two items.

Example: He hit the ball, dropped the bat, and ran to first base.

Rule #2: Use a comma + a conjunction (and, but, or, for, nor, yet, so) to connect two independent clauses.

Example: I need to earn some money, so I would like to mow your grass.

Your mission: Add commas where they belong in the sentence below.

I used tape glue string and gum but the stamp still fell off the envelope.

Tuesday Tip 3 (Jan. 26) - Come blog with me!

Your mission this week: Read Mrs. Allen's very first blog post! It's called Tuesday Tip 2 - Fragments. Then, post a message for Mrs. Allen...right here on the Agora MS English Enthusiasts blog site!

Tuesday Tip 2 - Fragments

Hi there, Middle School students! Welcome to Mrs. Allen's first attempt at blogging!

I received many wonderful corrections to the sentence fragment I gave you last week. Your responses have been so numerous that I decided to try this format so that your work can be seen and enjoyed by more people than just one teacher!

Originally, I said that I would share one corrected fragment from a 7th grader and one from an 8th grader, but there were too many creative fragment fixes for me to choose just two! So...see if your fragment fix appears here, and plan to visit my blog again for next week's Tuesday Tip. Enjoy!

Your mission was to: Add your choice of words and any necessary punctuation to the fragment "But the ice cream melted" to make it a complete sentence.

I thought I could eat my ice cream while I took a shower, but the ice cream melted.
~ Travis H.

On Tuesday, we tried to eat the sundaes we made on Monday, but the ice cream melted.
~ Alycia W.

I put the frozen, cookies - n - cream ice cream in the kitchen freezer, but the ice cream melted because the freezer wasn't plugged in.
~ Brandon S.

The young girl got her first ice cream cone, but the ice cream melted before she was finished eating it.
~ Brandy H.

I waited twenty minutes in line at the ice cream truck, but the ice cream melted as soon as I got it.
~Bradley A.

I bought an ice cream cone for my sister, but the ice cream melted before I could get home to give it to her.
~ Nathanael V.

We bought ice cream at the grocery store, but the ice cream melted on the way home.
~ Madelyn M.