Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina)Image via Wikipedia My sixth grader came home today with an interesting, and very tricky, sentence exercise that she had worked on in class. And now she is doing another one to try and ‘trick’ her teacher – as her teacher was not at all tricked by the one she did in class. I’m totally not making sense, am I? ;)

Let me explain it. The kids had to write one main idea sentence and then write three supporting detail sentences. Once they had that done, they show someone their detail sentences and the person tries to figure out their main sentence.

My daughter’s teacher figured out hers in just one second! She wants to stump her teacher, though. Here are the ones she wrote in class:

Supporting Detail Sentences

  • I used to have a white cat.
  • I once had a box turtle.
  • I’ve had many birds.

    • Main Idea Sentence

  • I’ve had many pets in my life.

    • We are sitting here wracking our brains trying to think of one that will stump her, but, it is hard! I did come up with one way to stump her that did not impress Sam. If you were to express an opinion in the main idea, and the supporting sentences only contained the facts! I think it’s brilliant! I’m not sure, though, if that means they really are supporting sentences! This is what I came up with:

    Supporting Detail Sentences

  • My mom has seventeen angel figurines.
  • My dad has a ton of knives.
  • My brother has lots of Pokemon cards.

    • Main Idea Sentence

  • I really don’t like the stuff my family collects.

    • Wait a minute! Stop the presses! She just threw a whole new monkey wrench into this darn thing! You actually show the person all four sentences! That’s crazy! I thought you just show them your supporting sentences and they have to come up with your main sentence! This is even harder than I thought! And no wonder she didn’t like my idea!

    Ok, now I’m really scratching my head! You guys gotta help us out! Let’s all put our heads together and think! Think! Think! Think!

    This is one time I’m not gonna yell at you to Go Read A Book – because, I want you thinking!!

    Anyone? Anyone?

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