• KIDS WRITE ABOUT

    THE CRAFT THEY LEARN AND USE

     Below is DARA ZELTT'S unedited commentary on craft and an her analysis of her own writing.

    “It all started on October 31, 1994 - Halloween night.  There was a full moon, it was windy, and the sky was like a tornado: dark, scary and spooky”.

    This is some of a piece I wrote with my friend Amanda.  Like in the other story I wrote I did the same craft, super sizing a simile.  I really liked this story I made because it is making the reading keep on reading.

     “Sparkly, sparkly, sparkling sunsets

    Dizzy, dull, different sunsets

    Rainbow-like sunsets”

    This is one of my favorite poems I wrote.  In the part that is above is my favorite part of the poem.  It has two crafts, ___,___,___ing “Sparkly, sparkly, sparkling sunsets” and a

    alliteration “Dizzy, dull, different sunsets”  You do the same letter in the beginning of the word.

    I had long nails, a hat and a dress.  I had on all black. Guess what I was.  That’s right a witch!!!!!!!! got hundreds , thousands , millions!!!!!!!!! (Not really) But I got a lot of candy and a big bag of candy is a lot for my age.

    IN the part of the piece above the first part of it was cool because I gave people clues of what I was but not the real thing.  In the other part of the piece I kept on adding on more.  Got hundreds, thousands, millions!!!!!!!!!

    ***************************************************************************************************************
    ***************************************************************************************************************
     
    Below is Jaime Swank's unedited commentary on craft and an her analysis of her own writing.
     

    In this piece I will write about favorite crafts I used in my writing. Mr. Murphy taught us some of these crafts, but in other sentences I just liked how they sounded.

    “F is for French fries- the salty, deep-fried, yummy in your tummy treat you can get from McDonald’s or Chick-Fil- A.”

    This piece is from my piece of writing called “Eating My Way Through The Alphabet”. In the piece above I did a craft called “super-sizing a simile”. The super-sized simile is “the salty, deep-fried, yummy in your tummy treat”. This is one of my favorite crafts I’ve used in my writing! 

    (Note: This is technically not a super-sized simile, but Jaime has used a portion of a super-sized simile!)

    “Don’t be impactful in a bad way, do it in a good way. Smile at someone when they’re sad. Donate to charity. Make the world happy. Do it!”

    This piece is an excerpt from my writing “What Impactful Means to Me”. I used a craft called “varying the sentence length”. I also included some ideas on how you can be impactful. Maybe you should do one!

        “Friendship is something that comes from the heart,

    Let it go,

    And it’ll never start.

    Friendship is something sweet and kind,

    Something that’s yours,

    Something that’s mine.

    Friendship is something that’s not only fit for a lass,

    Something I hope,

    Everyone has!

    This piece is called “Friendship”. You know, I really don’t know why I put this piece here. I guess I just like it!

    “In the country acres of Gresham, Nebraska, where cows moo, long and loud, like there’s no tomorrow, there lived a boy.”

    This is from my piece “The Boy of Gresham,Nebraska”. It is about my Grandpa Jack and World War II. The craft I used is called a “super-sized simile reversed”.

    **************************************************************************************

    **************************************************************************************

    Below is Nagisha Devala's unedited commentary on craft and an her analysis of her own writing.

       

        

    CRAFT DISCUSSION

    BY NAGISHA

    Everyday in August when people go to the Ohio State Fair, the first place they go is the massive slide. It is 45 feet tall and 144 feet long. They walk the many, many stairs just to go to the giant slide. It is the largest ride at the Ohio State Fair. Everyone who is going to go there is going to love the giant slide. It’s an amazingly amazing fair. GO THERE!

    I really like the word “massive” it is a good description of big. Because when you hear the word big your not surprised but then when you hear the word massive it’s like BAM! So use a good word not a soggy one.

    These are just a few

    Nice moms

    Mean moms

    Run, Run, Running Moms

    Tiny, teeny, trivial moms

    Pretty moms

    In this small piece there is a craft called alliteration. It is a craft where you use three or more words and it starts with the same letter. It’s like a tongue twister. Here’s how I did it: Tiny, teeny, trivial moms. See how I used three words that start with the same letter. I think you should try it.

    ************************************************************************************

    *******************************************************************************

    Below is Jason Millstein's unedited commentary on craft and an his analysis of his own writing.

    Finding craft by Jason Millstein

    I remember when I went on my first cruise there was many fun parts but the best part was that I won $500. I was one, one little number away from winning a free cruise for two!

    In this piece I used a craft witch I didn’t even know that this was but it sounded super cool. Later my teacher told me what it was called. It was called immediate repeat.

    Once upon a time there was a young girl named Dark Skywalker. Her arch enemy was Rainbow Vader. Dark Skywalker’s master is Buda, he was a high class lifesaver master. His flavor was cherry the highest flavor on tambourine (the planet). Dark Skywalker’s flavor is plum and Rainbow Vader’s flavor is lemon. This is the best story the one story to rule them all! Rainbow Vader’s friend was Harry Potter. The top class wizard at Pogwarts. His most powerful spell is oodakis makiss. It will tickle them into a coma Rainbow Vader’s other friend is Poe. He will hug them to death. Dark Skywalker’s friend is Mr. Clip. He is bendy. So now we have Rainbow Vader, Harry Potter and Poe in the good team. On the bad team we have Dark Skywalker and Mr. Clip. “Gjfrndajhpohichh” (that was Poe saying I’m hungry). So Poe ate Dark Skywalker’s life saver.

    This story is about nonsense. At first I was going to make it about the opposite of star wars. But I couldn’t write anymore so I added the nonsense. Now my story is better.

    Tasmanian devils.

    Tasmanian devils.

    Tasmanian devils.

    Sweet Tasmanian devils.

    Evil Tasmanian devils.

    Biting, running and eating Tasmanian devils.

    Hunting for food, hiding for food and tricking for food Tasmanian devils.

    These are just a few

    Loving Tasmanian devils.

    Fierce Tasmanian devils.

         Chase chase chasing Tasmanian devils.

    Screaming scratching sleeping Tasmanian devils.

    Cuddly Tasmanian devils too.

      Rough Tasmanian devils.

    Nipping Tasmanian devils.

      Don’t forget wild Tasmanian devils.

    Last of all best of all,

    I like tamed Tasmanian devils.

    By Jason 11-7-05

      AUTHOR’S NOTE

    I chose Tasmanian devils because I didn’t know that much about them. I heard about them on animal planet. So I studied them. I used alliteration, blank blank blanking and opposites. I had to use them for this type of poem. It was a little hard but I did it. I got the pictures of line.

    This was a hard piece to write because I had to first research on them. I went to Google and I searched “Tasmanian devils”. I got a website called DPIWE - Tasmanian Devil.

    ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­B est day of the year

    I t’s my birthday today

    R apping presents is what parents do

    T ommorw it is all over

    H yper time and acting tumultuously tumultuous  

    D on’t say your presents are bad     

    A wesome amazing acting lessons is what Evan should get    

    Y et it only comes around once a year

    This writing has a lot of craft. It has alliteration adverbing an S.A.T word. I also wrote this on my birthday. So that is why I said it’s my birthday.

      

    ********************************************************************************

    ********************************************************************************

     

    Below is Lauren Shain's unedited commentary on craft and an her analysis of her own writing.

    Craft Discussion Lauren Shain

    Orange looks like a patch of pumpkins.

    Orange smells like a bucket of candy.

    Orange feels like being scared on a Halloween night.

    Orange sounds like bats flying around

    Orange tastes like a pumpkin pie: delicious, warm, crispy.

    In this piece I did a supersized simile. Just like this:

    "Orange tastes like a pumpkin pie: delicious, warm, crispy." This is one of my best crafts

    **************************************************************************************************

    **************************************************************************************************

    Below is Mitchell Soufleris' unedited commentary on craft and an his analysis of his own writing.

    I was dashing, thrashing and darting to win the race!

    I chose this excerpt because it uses rhyming rhyming not rhyming in it. It also tells how hard the person was trying to win  the race.

    _______________________________________________________________________________________

    _______________________________________________________________________________________

    *******************************************************************************************

    *******************************************************************************************

    Below is Michael Trivelis' unedited commentary on craft and an his analysis of his own writing.          

                        Nature is everything you see outside almost.

                                     Grass, leaves, trees, branches.

                                              All that is nature.

                         Nature is the wind blowing in your hair.

                           Nature is snow falling on your tongue.

                           Nature is the sun shining on your face.

                     Nature is piling leaves and jumping into them.

                                      Nature is just……………life.

    When I wrote this I was outside and I remember all the stuff that’s in nature. I wrote all these things in my journal and I typed it all on the computer and then I have my own little piece of nature.  Just think, aren’t they all a little part of nature.

    ****************************************************************************************************************

    ****************************************************************************************************************

    Below is Sami Procz's unedited craft discussion! 

    Craft Discussion

     

    This year I learned a lot about writer’s crafts. It really helped me to write more and make my writings sound Sublime.

     

    Once on Halloween night, something terrible… something… horrible… something… yummy happened!!! “Yummy.”My friends and I went trick-or-treating.

     

    The piece above has one great craft. It is about sentence length. You can really only do this if it makes sense.

     

    The next morning I got on the bus. I ran to tryouts but there was an extremely long line. “I saw someone, someone I knew. It’s her, the girl from the classroom.”

     

    The excerpt above is from a story I’m writing called: How to Survive School. It has a craft that I really enjoy. I’m writing this story with my friend Jordyn It is called an immediate repeat. I use it a lot.  Here is an immediate repeat.

     “I saw someone, someone I knew. It’s her, the girl from the classroom.”

     

    My markers are prismatically prismatic.

        

    This craft is called adverbing an adjective.  I have a whole booklet of this craft. This is another one of my favorites. The word “prismatic” means colorful. It was one of  my S.A.T. words.

     

    That Interesting Book Tackled Me with Thoughts

     

    This craft is called personification. It is used to make non-moving objects come to life. Okay, a book can’t tackle you!!!!!

     

    MY TEACHER WAS   WRITE, WRITE, WRITING MATH PROBLEMS ON THE BLACK BOARD

     

    This cool new craft

     

    __________________________________________________________________________________________________

    __________________________________________________________________________________________________