The First Day of Spring 

Today is officially the first day of spring. I wanted to be prepared for spring so I made sure to put away all of my snow supplies. When it snows I use a snow scraper, shovel and broom to clean off the side walks. I was able to put the salt, ice melter and car brush away. I was so excited to have all the winter supplies until I hard the weather. I watched the weather on channel 2,4 and 10 but unfortunately they all said the same thing. All of the weather channels said that snow was on the way. This means I needed to talk all of those snow supplies out of the garage!

Vocabulary:
supplies: what material you use to get a task done
shovel: used to pick up large amounts of something
broom: used to move things away from the currently location
weather: rain, snow, wind, rain, sun
garage: a place with a car or supplies are stored

Vocabulary Exercise:
Fill in the blank with the correct vocabulary word

I need to pick up all the __________________ that I am going to use for my science project.

Please put the bag in the ________________ so we can store it till next year

I cant believe that the _____________ for Saturday is rain.

We need the _____________ to move all of this mess off the floor.

Grab the ___________________ so we can pick up all this snow.

Grammar Point: 
Commas can be used to separate a list of items. For example, when I was listing all the weather channels I was watching, I used a comma to separate them.

Grammar Exercise: 

Medieval Times 

     Last night I went to Medieval Times in New Jersey. When you go to Medieval Times you sit down for dinner and watch knights fight in tournaments. When you sit down for dinner you notice right away that nobody has a fork or knife since there was no silverware during the Medieval Times. Each table is assigned a certain color knight to route for. My table cheered on the blue knights. Through the show, the knights road on horses who were decorated that colored cloth to match the knight. The tables around us were celebrating birthdays. I was there to celebrate my friends birthday. The first tournament had to the knights racing back in forth passing the sword to each other. The second tournament had the knights throw the sword at a target to see which knight's sword landed closest to the bulls-eye. The last tournament had each knight choose weapons to fight to the death! These tournaments are acted out by actors therefore it is not a pretend fight. After dinner everyone was able to take pictures with the actors before leaving. I suggest everyone go to Medieval Times. 

Vocabulary:
tournaments: more than one game where people compete in a contest
knights: more than one solider during the Middle Ages
horses: more than one horse
birthdays: more than one celebration of the day someone is born
weapons: more than one device used for defense or attack
actors: people who pretend to play a role

Vocabulary Exercise:
Match each phrase to each pictures below.

1. tournaments                               a. 4 men pretending to be police officers

2. knights                                        b. 4 horses

3. horses                                         c.  2 knives and a sword

4. birthdays                                   d. Jenn and Chris are both born on March 3rd

5. weapons                                    e.   7 middle aged soldiers

6. actors                                         f.    5 races


Grammar Point: Plurals 
In this paragraph I used the plural form for some words. I did this by adding an s to the end of the word. Knight is the singular form but i used knights which is the plural form. Knights is plural since I am now talking about more than one thing. 

Grammar Exercise:
Write 5 words in the singular form. Then take each word and write its plural word form next to it.

In The Past 

Since this paragraph is all about what i did yesterday, this paragraph is all about the past. Yesterday was Monday and I woke up very early. I made sure to get dressed fast because i didn't want to be late for work. Once I was dressed, I brushed my teeth and combed my hair. I grabbed my lunchbox and was out the door. I walked into my classroom and was greeted by my students. I worked till 2:45 and went home to get ready all over again for my night class.

Vocabulary: 
dressed(verb): to put on clothes
brushed(verb): to scrub
combed(verb): to smooth or arrange
grabbed(verb): to hold something
walked(verb): a way of moving
greeted(verb): to welcome someone

Vocabulary Exercise:

Grammar Point:
When writing about things in the past we add an -ed to the ending. The -ed ending tells the reader that we have done this already. For example in the sentence, I washed my car, tells the reader that I my car was washed in the part, meaning it has been done. If i said I will wash the car, this means that has not been not yet.

Grammar Exercise:
Please visit the website below and click on past tense worksheet to practice!
Past Tense Practice

Dinner Please!
Tonight I could not decide what to make dinner so I went out to a restaurant. When I walked in I was greeted by the hostess, who showed me to my table. I looked through to menu until I found what I wanted to ordered. I waited for the waitress to come take my order. I was very excited when sandwich arrived. I picked up my silverware and began eating! When I was done eating the waitress brought over the bill. I left the money for the bill on the table. I was sure to take my leftovers when I left, so that I would have something for dinner the next night.

Vocabulary:
restaurant (noun): a place where meals are served
hostess (noun): an employee of a restaurant that shows the costumer to their seat.
waitress (noun):n employee of a restaurant that helps the costumer order their food.
menu (noun):a list of food that you could order at a restaurant
silverware (noun): items that are used to eat
bill (noun): a statement of money that is owed.


Vocabulary Exercise:
In the word search below try to locate the vocabulary words listed above.

Grammar Point:
A noun is a person, place or thing. In the paragraph above the hostess and waitress were nouns since they are people. A restaurant is a place therefore it is also a noun. A menu and silverware are nouns since they things. Now you try to come up with 3 nouns (1 person, 1 place and 1 thing). Once you have come up with 3 nouns, try to put them all into one sentence!

Winter Wonderland

Today school was canceled. Since it is winter school is canceled sometimes because it snowed outside. Snow is white and fun to play in. First i went outside and built a snowman. Then I saw my classmates and they asked me to have a snowball fight. Before it go too dark out, I went sledding with my brother.

Vocabulary/Definitions
- canceled: when a planned event does not take place
- winter: a season that is cold during December, January, February and March
-snow: white, cold powder
- snowman: a figure that is made out of snow
- snowball fight: a game where snow is thrown friends
- sledding: sliding down a mountain using a sled

Fill in the blank. Use the words and definitions above to complete the sentence. 
- There was supposed to be a concert on Wednesday, but there is not anymore because it was ______________.
- Since it was ____________, I knew to pack my gloves.
- During the _______________________ I hit John in the knee with snow.
- Do you want to build a _____________________ ?
- When there is white powder on the ground it must be ___________________.
- When we get to the park we need to walk up the hill first so we can go ____________________.

Grammar Point:
The beginnings of words may be similar. These are called per-fixes. Snow is the pre-fix for snowball, and snowman. This pre-fix gives you a hint that the word is related to activity with  snow.

The School Day 

Even though it is January, today is my first day of school. I checked my schedule multiple times to make sure I was in the right classroom. Last night I packed my backpack with all the materials I would need for class. I begin to wonder about my assignments. Then I started to worry that the assignments may be to hard for me. Before my mind could worry anymore, I stop and remember that I can always look towards my classmates for help. I am excited about this semester. 

Vocabulary and Definations:

- schedule: a written plan

- classroom: a room in a school where classes are held

-backpack: a device carried on your back that can hold items 

-assignments: a task that needs to be done 

- semester: a certain amount of time that school is in session for

-classmates: someone who is in the same class as you 

Fill in the blank. Use the words and definitions above to complete the sentence. 

- When I go to English I look for the _______________ with the red door.

- I made sure I put my book in my _______________, so I had it for school tomorrow. 

- Since John and I are in the same class I like to call him my ____________________.

- When I need to find out where to go for class I check my ______________________.

- The teacher let us know that the _________________ was due on Monday and had to be 3 pages long.

- This _____________ will be 15 weeks total. 

Grammar Point: 

Last night, January, semester are all related to time. These words can help a writer give more description. Days of the week and months are examples of time (ex: April, Tuesday). Other examples are yesterday, tomorrow, the day before and tomorrow morning.