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Next week will be a short one, though as you can imagine, we will still have three busy days! There will be no vocabulary quiz, but I will give you the next set of words so that you can begin learning those words. We will spend a good portion of Tuesday and Wednesday sharing songs from your figurative language project. Remember that there is a 5 point bonus if you pass your project in a day early! The early bird gets the worm. We will continue discussing idioms, particularly during double. We will also delve further into the importance of pronouns. What I find so interesting about pronouns is that we use them every single day in almost every single sentence, yet when I asked certain students what a pronoun was, they suddenly forgot. Pronouns are simply substitutions for nouns within a sentence (I, me, you, them, he, she it, they, her, his, ours, yours, their, theirs, mine, etc.). They make our lives immensely easier.
Not to beat a dead horse, but I have come to the strange conclusion that, as a society, we often complain about the very things that help us most—things which we really could not live without. We get intimidated (which means scared) by words like subject, predicate, pronoun, and conjunction. However, without knowledge of these, we would never be able to form a coherent (which means logical) thought! Imagine a sentence without a subject or predicate! That would be an incomplete sentence. Imagine a sentence without a conjunction. Life without FANBOYS would be terrible! How would we ever link ideas together? Lastly, imagine a paragraph without a pronoun! That would be uninteresting! I would probably lose my love for reading if my favorite authors did not care about subjects, predicates, pronouns, and conjunctions!
Remember Leroy Lebowitz (the guy I made up today)? If I had to write a sentence and I was not allowed to use the pronoun “he” when speaking of Leroy Lebowitz, then my sentences would be unnecessarily boring, lengthy, and even confusing. (Leroy Lebowitz woke up at 6:00 AM today. Leroy took a shower and then Leroy made Leroy’s lunch. When Leroy stepped outside, Leroy noticed that it was raining cats and dog. Therefore, the apple of Leroy’s eye, Martha, told Leroy to hold Leroy’s horses. Then Martha gave Leroy an umbrella, and Leroy gave Martha a kiss on Martha’s forehead.) I love to read, and even I was not impressed by that! (That is bad when you are bored by your OWN writing!) Pronouns add variety to our sentences when we write and when we speak. When you enter my room, I usually say, “Make sure you write your homework down in your agenda book.” Now how would I even say that one sentence without a pronoun?! Although we usually use the abbreviation “pro” when speaking about professionals, like pro athletes, a pronoun is obviously not a “professional” noun! However, I do expect you to become a pro at pronouns! With practice, you will soon find them to be a piece of cake!
-Ms. Sanford
P.S. Have you seen any idioms lately?!
Not to beat a dead horse, but I have come to the strange conclusion that, as a society, we often complain about the very things that help us most—things which we really could not live without. We get intimidated (which means scared) by words like subject, predicate, pronoun, and conjunction. However, without knowledge of these, we would never be able to form a coherent (which means logical) thought! Imagine a sentence without a subject or predicate! That would be an incomplete sentence. Imagine a sentence without a conjunction. Life without FANBOYS would be terrible! How would we ever link ideas together? Lastly, imagine a paragraph without a pronoun! That would be uninteresting! I would probably lose my love for reading if my favorite authors did not care about subjects, predicates, pronouns, and conjunctions!
Remember Leroy Lebowitz (the guy I made up today)? If I had to write a sentence and I was not allowed to use the pronoun “he” when speaking of Leroy Lebowitz, then my sentences would be unnecessarily boring, lengthy, and even confusing. (Leroy Lebowitz woke up at 6:00 AM today. Leroy took a shower and then Leroy made Leroy’s lunch. When Leroy stepped outside, Leroy noticed that it was raining cats and dog. Therefore, the apple of Leroy’s eye, Martha, told Leroy to hold Leroy’s horses. Then Martha gave Leroy an umbrella, and Leroy gave Martha a kiss on Martha’s forehead.) I love to read, and even I was not impressed by that! (That is bad when you are bored by your OWN writing!) Pronouns add variety to our sentences when we write and when we speak. When you enter my room, I usually say, “Make sure you write your homework down in your agenda book.” Now how would I even say that one sentence without a pronoun?! Although we usually use the abbreviation “pro” when speaking about professionals, like pro athletes, a pronoun is obviously not a “professional” noun! However, I do expect you to become a pro at pronouns! With practice, you will soon find them to be a piece of cake!
-Ms. Sanford
P.S. Have you seen any idioms lately?!