After a hiatus, Malcolm picked up his notebook with his Writing Strands work and started reading. He laughed at his story about the kitten and the ducklings and at his essay about Mr. Lin and his televisions. He decided to finish his essay on Sombrito, which I am sharing with his permission.




Sombrito

Sombrito is my pet poodle, who, being a dog, does not go to school. He lives with me at ***********, Boulder Creek, CA, USA, North America, Earth, the Solar System, the Milky Way, the Universe.

He is 1' 3" tall, the perfect size for a dog. He is large enough to not be in (much) danger of being stepped on, but small enough to not be scary. He weighs 21 pounds, so he still can be picked up easily. Picking him up is the only way to get him to take a bath.

He has light skin, but it's hard to see it. His black fur blocks it. It's so soft, and it's quite curly. It feels nice to pet him.

When he wants something, he looks at you with his sweet brown eyes and wags his tail. But when he defends his bone, those sweet caramel-colored eyes become fierce, and he shows his teeth and growls loudly. When he's hot, thirsty, or exhausted, he sticks out his tongue and pants. His favorite thing to do is to sleep by the fire or in a sunbeam. He's very cute.

The Writing Strands program works pretty well for Malcolm. He's working at level 3, which focuses on helping students organize their thoughts. It guides him through the process of writing an essay by having the student write the answers to a series of questions, then putting together their answers to make an essay.