Sunday, December 11, 2011

It’s late for remembrance day,but I want to share a really famous poem written by John McCrae.

In Flanders Fields

May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

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Well, it’s almost Christmas, and guess what, I’m going to Taiwan for the holidays. It’s fine that I get to go somewhere for the holidays even if I don’t want to (I don’t), because if we went to Japan, there would be snow to play with and you could make snowmen. We normally go to Japan to ski and have snowball fights with other children. Once, we went to the 62nd Sapporo Snow Festival. I am now an expert at skiing and can ski on any slope in the world. I accidentally ate some snow once, it wasn’t that bad. I hope that in the Chinese New Year, Easter and Summer Holidays I can go somewhere I am really keen to go to.

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Last month, Jack Gantos, an author, came to our school and gave us a funny little lecture about how he loved books and how he got inspiration for his books. He told us tons of wonderful and funny stories, and we enjoyed him a lot.

His presentation in the LLAC was highly engaging as well as informative and I know the students learned a great deal about how they might develop the ‘writing habit’. The following are the top tips shared with us, students:

• Keep a journal/notebook (keep it SMALL!)
• Draw a map of your home and record (through pictures and words) where all of the exciting events take place
• Make a list of common ideas and let it grow (keep these to your own world – things you know)
• Write everyday, even if for only 10 minutes
• Pull some of your ideas and writings together to create a first draft
• Read your draft and ensure that you have included all of the elements

Characters, Setting, Problem / situation, Action / plot, Crisis, Resolution / solve problem, Physical and emotional ending

1 + 2 + 3 paragraphs= beginning  4 + 5 paragraphs= middle  6 + 7 paragraphs= end

• Revise for word choice, remove the ‘dull’ (nice, good, really, like…) and replace with images (similes, metaphors, precise and descriptive adjectives…)

Click here to visit his website!

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Photo Of The Day! Today’s photo is about a bald eagle sitting on wood debris along the Squamish River in Squamish, British Columbia. The eagles gather in the area each winter to feed on salmon chum in the local rivers.

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