*Badger Claws* Clauses

A tip of the hat to retired teacher, Mrs. Ranney for this repost!

Mrs. Yollis' students have been reading about a Chumash boy named Badger Claws. It's been a great way to learn about the Chumash culture! We've also started learning how to improve our writing using dependent clauses. 

What are dependent clauses?

Dependent clauses start with special words:

After, Before, Since, While, When, If, During.

A dependent clause ends with a comma and cannot stand alone as a sentence. It must be followed by an independent clause, which is a sentence that can stand alone!

Here are some excellent examples of sentences with dependent clauses from our story about Badger Claws. 

1. If mischievous Badger Claws had not gone into the hot sweathouse, he would not have been caught by the Shaman!



2. After the Shaman left the brave Badger Claws in the high mountains, Badger Claws took a nap.



3. If Badger Claws shoots the fluffy, furry rabbit, he will have to skin it, clean it, and cook it before he eats it.



4. Since Badger Claws couldn't shoot a furry rabbit, he practiced shooting down the bumpy trail.



5. After Badger Claws shot a furry, little rabbit, he needed to skin the rabbit's soft fur.



6. When Badger Claws woke up in the freezing night,
he saw two monstrous "grizzly bears!"


7. Since brave Badger Claws found out the tracks were littleraccoon tracks, he was laughing like crazy!


8. Before Aged One got home, he devoured several acorn cakes and then lied about it. 

9. During the first two moons, Badger Claws was able to construct an ap, make acorn cakes, and adopt an orphaned raccoon. 


10. While Badger Claws slept, the little raccoon escaped and ate several acorn cakes.  

How did you like our dependent clauses?

If you have a sentence with a dependent clause that you'd like to share, we'd love to read it! (Hey, that was a dependent clause sentence!)

Maybe you can leave a sentence with a dependent clause about your biography subject! 

Again, dependent clauses start with special words: After, Before, Since, While, When, If, During.

Thank You, Mrs. Ranney

We LOVE Mrs. Ranney! She has been so helpful this year with science, quality writing, and being a good friend to all!

She brought science to life!

She shared her friends with us! 

We enjoyed meeting Scrubbers! 

What is a memory that you would like to share?

Please, show your appreciation using high level words and compound sentences!

Mrs. Ranney Matters!

Matter Matters!

The science experiments and demonstrations Mrs. Ranney has been sharing with us about matter, really matter. We have learned so much!

FACT: Matter has three states, solid, liquid, or gas.

The experiments done with Mrs. Ranney explored the gas we call air. Here are the physical properties of air: takes up space, has mass, exerts pressure, and can move. 

The fabulous Mrs. Ranney shared several lessons.

#1 Air (a gas) has mass. Two balloons were filled equally. The one on the right was popped. When the balloon was popped, the mass of air was released making the right side lighter. Because it was lighter, the right side rose up.

#2 Air (a gas) exerts pressure.   First, each student held a piece of paper to their stomach. When they removed their hand and started walking, the paper fell to the ground. Gravity prevailed!

Second, students held a piece of paper to their stomachs. When they removed their hand and started running, the paper stuck to their bodies! The invisible air pushed against the paper holding it in place.

The student on the left was FASTER than the student on the right. 

#3  Air (a gas) exerts pressure. Student were given a cup of water and a straw. Each student placed the straw in the water. Then each student covered the top of the straw with their finger. Finally, they removed the straw from the water (with the finger still covering the top). Air pressure outside of the straw pushed against the water via the bottom (open end) of the straw. When the finger was removed from the top, the water fell back into the cup...or somewhere else!  

#4 Air (a gas) exerts pressure. Here is the same experiment done with a cup instead of the straw. Air pressure is exerted on the card holding the water in place. Yes, the cup is upside down! Science is cool!

#5 Air (a gas) takes up space. 

Mrs. Ranney placed a DRY paper towel in cup. The towel was taped to the cup so it would not fall out when she inverted it. Next, Mrs. Ranney placed the inverted cup into a container of water. Snappy had a close look, and confirmed that the paper towel was dry when removed from the water. Truly, air takes up space, even thought we cannot see it!

What was your favorite experiment or demonstration? 

Do you have a question or comment for Mrs. Ranney?

Marvelous Masterpieces With Mrs. Ranney

Today we had a special visitor, Mrs. Ranney! She is a good friend and colleague of Mrs. Yollis. 

We were talking about the two parts of a sentence, the subject and the predicate.

A subject tells WHO or WHAT the sentence is about.

A predicate tells what the subject did or does.

____________________________________________

Mrs.  Ranney introduced the class to a masterpiece sentence. 

A masterpiece sentence is a descriptive sentence with a lot of detail.

Mrs. Ranney finish the following sentence for us:

The bear _______________________________________.

Here is her masterpiece sentence:

The enormous brown grizzly bear waded into the freezing water to catch a delicious salmon swimming upstream. 

WOW! 

Can you make any of these subjects into masterpiece sentences?

The tunnel  ___________________________________.

Stan ________________________________________.

My camera ___________________________________.

Snoopy _______________________________________.

Thanksgiving __________________________________.

Mrs. Ranney and Mrs. Yollis _______________________.

Leave the class a your masterpiece sentence in a comment!