Sit in your assigned seat WARM UP: Complete the essay outline. Laptops can be used once I check the graphic organizer.

Introduction There might be as many as ten quintillion insects living on the Earth on any given day! This fact may be why we are all very familiar with bugs. One of these common bugs is the __________. In the poem “_Cicadas_” by Paul Fleischman the sound, (or habitat, lifecycle, etc) cicadas make is called a “joyful noise” personifying the insects as if they are a church choir singing hymns. opener transition thesis

Sample summary In “Mayflies” the life cycle of the mayfly is told in comparison to the longer lives of humans or even redwood trees. The mayflies “emerge from the river” and immediately seek a mate. They are “courting on the wing” and “mating in midair.” Unlike the “redwood’s (centuries)”, a species that has many years to reproduce. Within the day, mayflies lay eggs in the stream. This final act signals the end of their lives as they are “lying, dying” back into the stream that hatched them only hours before.

Sample research The usual habitat of a house cricket, according to the World Book encyclopedia, is a field where they can live hidden among the grasses, rocks and debris. They like cool, dark spaces with some humidity. When a field cricket finds its way into a house they can be called house crickets. They are attracted by the warmth and food that is often found in human homes.

Sample literary devices In “Grasshoppers” the tone is fun-loving and light-hearted which Fleischman creates by using repetition of the word hopping as well multiple synonyms which all mean to jump. “Grass-jumpers, grass-leapers, grass-soarers” are used to emphasize the excitement that grasshoppers must feel when leaping about. Also, there is some more word magic using alliteration. By repeating the “s” sound, “Autumn-laid eggs, splitting, young stepping into spring” the pace quickens which mirrors that happy feeling.

Sample conclusion In conclusion, it seems as if Fleischman has carefully observed the digger wasp planning and preparing for her “children’s” future. His poem creates an emotional plea, as if a human voice filled with love and sadness, has taken over the psyche of this simple insect. The plea that all mothers wish; to be loved and appreciated by their children.