Terse Verse :: Twitter Time!

We recently completed a unit on folktales.  

What are folk tales? 

folk tale

noun

plural noun: folktales

1. a story originating in popular culture, typically passed on by word of mouth.

One type of folk tale is the fairy tale. 

Fairy tales have some basic elements:

• Often start with "Once upon a time..."
• Involve magic and enchantment
• Royalty 
• Wicked characters 
• Good characters
• Reward goodness
• Often end with "And they lived happily ever after."

After students read and shared several fairy tales, they worked together to summarize the fairy tale for Twitter. Because Twitter only allows 140 characters, the summary needed to be brief. 

Behold! A Twitter Terse Verse

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More Terse Verses to come! 

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HOW did we write our Terse Verses?

We used a collaborative Google Doc!

First, students signed in to the shared Terse Verse Google Doc with their partner. It was fun to watch everyone arrive on the Google Doc!  It looked like magic as a plethora of cursors moved independently. Bit by bit the terse fairy tale summaries were written.   

Students read and followed the directions at the top of the Terse Verse doc. Everyone learned how to highlight words or phrases, and how to find out the word count of the summary.  

Which fairy tale was your favorite?

What do you notice about the photos?

The Cursed Cursor!

Quality writing practice through blogging can really enhance a student's language skills! It can also bring about a love of writing. I have seen it happen repeatedly with my young third graders. 

Today in class we had a lot of trouble trying to publish some posts. The cursor kept jumping around and open different applications. We laughed about our cursed cursor and persevered with our blogging. The events of the day inspired Chloe. She went home, opened up her Google Drive, wrote this creative story, and shared it with me. That is the beauty of connected learning community. Enjoy!

                  

The Cursed Cursor!
By: Chloe
 

Illustrated by Mrs. Yollis

One day, Mrs. Yollis and her class were writing a blog post about Mr. JR. We were trying to end with some science questions on the post Simple Machines are Useful on Google Chrome. Suddenly, the cursor started to click on Firefox, Scratch, and Finder! Everyone gasped!

“What’s going on?” shouted Chloe.

“Don’t holler out, Chloe,”Mrs. Yollis replied. “But what IS going on?

Keira politely and quietly raised her hand. Mrs. Yollis complimented her and told her she could talk.

“Maybe you can call Mr. Yollis to see if he knows!” Keira suggested.

Mrs. Yollis nodded. But right before Mrs. Yollis picked up the phone, the phone started jumping and dialing numbers! Everyone backed up with fear. The phone kept jumping up and down. Then the class heard a voice! It was Mr. JR!

“Hello?” Mr. JR wasn’t suspecting a call. “Hello?!”

Mrs. Yollis tried to hold the phone, but it kept jumping. She went on her knees where the phone was dangling and said, “Mr. JR, our computer is opening up all different types of browsers! Do you think you could help?”

“Um….” Mr. JR then came up with an answer. “Oh, I know! All you have to do is…”

The phone hang up just then.

“What? Mr. JR? What?” Mrs. Yollis was anxious. The phone made a loud, long sound. “Everyone, go to your desks and read. I’ll call Mr. Yollis with MY phone.”

Mrs. Yollis did so. Mr. Yollis said that he never learned how to fix such a thing. Mrs. Yollis was glum and gloomy. Just then, all the desks started floating, but not the chairs. Four desks started floating to the computer with the wicked cursor! The five laptops started floating to it too! Beverly and Panda were even floating!

The finished robot was complete. Laptops as two legs, two arms, and a tail. The four desks were the body, the computer with the evil cursor was the head, and Panda and Beverly turned into robots. They were the curser’s sidekicks. The class started screaming! Mrs. Yollis escorted the children outside. The children started running to the library.

“I know the rules are NOT to run,” Mrs. Yollis began. “But this is an emergency!” She began to run too!

Then David, Rocky, Cooper, and Georgie appeared. They all gathered together because they sniffed and smelled their owners in danger. They started growling at the cursed computer.

“We are the Super Awesome Neighborhood Dog Squad!” The dogs chorused together. “We are here to defeat you!”

Quickly, David and Georgie started biting cyber-Panda and cyber-Beverly. They ripped out stuffing and fake fur.

Rocky and Cooper started using their super cool karate moves to kick the desks and laptops out of place. It was pretty hard because the desks were put in place by clear Elmer’s glue, and the laptops were put together by double sided Scotch tape, but they managed. All that was left was the face of the monster, the computer.

The dogs surrounded the evil electronic and started stalking around it in a circle, but the computer wasn’t scared.

“Oh, so you little puppies think you can scare me, thy awesome, thy cool, thy powerful…..”

Then David, Georgie, and Cooper held the computer down with its screen up. Rocky started walking slowly with pride and his nose in the air. When he reached the computer screen he put his head down close to the screen and said with a growl, “You tried to threaten our owners, their classmates, and the fabulous Mrs. Yollis! Now you will get a taste of your own medicine!”

Rocky lapped up some water from a nearby bowl and shot it out on the computer screen. The computer sparked and jiggled and shocked. Then it turned off completely. There was a big cheer from Mrs. Yollis and her class. The four dogs bowed and got bacon-wrapped bones. Heather, Keira, Chloe, and Clare promised they would save up with lemonade sales and car washes to get enough money to get Mrs. Yollis another computer.

One Year In the Future…

The four dogs are now famous and started to destroy other computers, but their owners had enough money to manage. Heather was a world famous veterinarian with Rocky as her assistant. Keira was a scientist with Cooper as her inspiration. Clare was an award winning dancer with Georgie as her back up. Finally, Chloe was a writer with David at her side.  They all lived in giant quartz mansion with their owners. They got manipedis and Italian velvet beds.

Photo mashup created using: ipad camera, Skitch, and PuppetPals

Where will the next computer calamity occur?