Overrall opinion of English 360

I really enjoyed taking this class. I grew up reading children's books and still love them today, but this class gave me a new appreciation for children's literature. It really gave me an insight of how important it is and the variety of ways it can be used. As a future teacher, I knew reading to children was important, but I have learned how much more of an impact it can really make on a child. By taking this class, it showed me a whole new perspective on how to look and analyze different pieces of literature. Looking back at the traditional fairy tales was so interesting, because a lot of them I had never heard some of the versions, and I think they really show have children's literature has been shaped over the past few decades. The novels were great too, because a lot of them I read as a child, but did not appreciate them or was really interested in them. Overrall it was a great course and I think has really influenced me and will really come into play when I become a teacher.

Realistic Fiction

Realistic fiction is one of the most controversial types of children literature, however it can be one of the best methods for bibliotherapy. Realistic fiction books are stories that are not necessarily real situations, but are stories that could very well happen. They include a variety of topics that they cover such as divorce, adoption, domestic violence, sexuality, growing up, and gangs. Most children really enjoy these types of books because they can easily relate to them and are usually very entertaining. Some of the more famous realistic fiction authors include Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, and Betsy Byers. Judy Blume is actually one of the most controversial authors of realistic fiction. Realistic fiction is a great genre of books to use in a classroom, but as a teacher you need to make sure you read the book before presenting/reading it in class.

Where the Wild Things Are- Class Discussion

Where the Wild Things Are, is a classic story, that most every child is familiar with. Children have grown up on this story and there is so much to it, that most people do not even pick up on. It is a classic tale, of a young child's imagination and a trip into his fantasy world. After a little fight with his mom, he goes to his room and his thoughts start running wild, with what type of world he dreams of living in. The main conflict is child vs civilization/ or in this case mom's authority. The book has amazing illustrations, that really create a vivid picture of the story. It is a great book, that I think every child should read and it is a grat story that every kid could relate to.

Charlotte vs Charlotte

I just recently watched Charlotte's Web the movie and it was really interesting to compare and contrast to the class story. I watched the newest movie, that Disney just came out with and it was really good. I really enjoyed it and it surprisingly was just like the book. It was harder for me to find differences, which was really shocking. Even the quotes are almost exact from the book. The one main difference I noticed, was the challenges of Charlotte. In the book, she was a very well respected spider and all the characters including Wilbur knew it. In the movie however, Charlotte had to prove herself more to the other animals. They barely even knew she existed, and that made her role a lot more challenging. She started off as sort of the underdog, in which not many of the animals believed in her and than ended up as a Hero... as the character who saved Wilbur's life.

Anne of Green Gables

One of my all time favorite stories, was Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. It is a story about a young orphan who comes to live with an elderly brother and sister on their farm. Anne, is a very vivacious 11 year old girl, who basically turns the town upside down. She is a very entertaining and loveable character, and I think she is easy to relate to. She has a great heart, but somehow always finds herself getting into trouble. It is a great story of the value of family and friendship. I loved the whole series of these books and also the movies. It is really easy to get attached to Anne and neat to see how she grows up in all these books.

Picture Books

I thought it was really interesting how we discussed picture books today in class. I think everyone as a child loved picture books, and I know I still love them today. It was neat to really analyze them and show how the illustrations and the placement of the text can really impact the story. In picture books, the text and the illustration share space equally and neither one overshadows the other. In the Russel text it discusses how picture books rely a lot on repetitive patterns, so it allows children to keep up with it easily. Picture books also contain very simple plots, but as children get older the books will become more complicated. The protagonists are usually children or animals and the language is very carefully chosen. Children also rely strongly on dialog, so that is a major part in the picture books as well.

Incorporating literature into the curriculum

This semester I have learned a lot about children's literature and the strong impact it can have on children. Not only in just the classroom, but at home as well. I have realized how much you can utilize children's literature and how creative you can be with it. Each of the piece's we have touch in class, can be use in a variety of ways. Some of the books would make great read a louds, such as The Hobbit and The Giver. When reading The Giver, you could have the students do a writing project on their idea of a perfect community or if they would want to live in a place like Utopia, why or why not? By reading the fairy tales, the options are endless, they could do a comparison paper, or make their fairty tale. I thought by reading the poems, it gave me a great insight to children's literature and how certain stories came about. Also, most definitely with the picture books, those all are great books for the younger children in learning to read and learning about rhyming words. This class has just really given me a greater appreciation for children's literature and as a future teacher has made me really think of the different ways to use these pieces in my classroom.

The Mouse and the Motorcycle

I just recently read The Mouse and the Motorcyle by Beverly Cleary. I remember reading this book as a child and loved it! Beverly Cleary was one of my favorite authors and I loved just about all of her books. This story is about a little mouse, named Ralph, who is very adventurous and always finding himself getting in trouble. His mother is a big worrier and always cautioning him on being careful and does not approve of his wild and crazy escapades. They live in a hotel, and the little mouse meets a boy named Keith. Keith gave Ralph one of his little motorcycles and it opened up a whole new world for Ralph. This is a great story about friendship and it is very enteratining reading about all the things Ralph gets into. I was definitely suggest it for young kids to read and also it is a great read aloud book for teachers.

The Giver

I think I have read The Giver in middle school, but I could hardly remember it. At first I was a little hesitant about this story... but it was a lot more interesting this time around. I have realized that happening a lot, since taking this class. The books I hated when I was younger, I am actually enjoying now. I think it helps, when we disucss them in class because I am seeing it from a different perspective. In the book, we discussed how "Utopia" is like this perfect place. It is a community where everyone is happy and polite, there is no prejudice, competiton, and everything is just peaceful all the time. The major part of the community is the fact that there is no memories, where all of this seems appealing at first, but as you read the book it seems to not be as perfect and it causes a lot of problems later on.

Comprehension Questions

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss is one of the most popular children’s books and has been like that for many years. My grandparents read it to my parents, my parents read it to me and I am sure I will read it to my kids. It is such a great book for beginning readers and it teaches a wide variety of vocabulary and a major emphasis on sight words. It would be a great book to test vocabulary comprehension and reading level. I created some comprehension questions for this book that would probably be for 1^st graders.

1) What is the name that the main character is talking to?

a. Sam- I- Am

2) What type of food is Sam-I-Am trying to get the character to eat?

a. Green eggs and ham

3) Name some of the words that rhyme in this story.

a. Fox and box, house and mouse, see and tree,

4) What happens at the end of the story?

a. He likes the green eggs and ham

5) Name a certain food that you didn’t think you liked until you tried it?

The Best School Year Ever

One of my favorite books to read, that I read multiple times was The Best School Year Ever by Barbara Robinson. It was a great book because it was a easy read and also very entertaining. It is kind of a sequel to The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which is about this family called the Herdmans, who are known for the constant trouble they cause wherever they go. In The Best School Year Ever, it describes this family and their school experiences. I loved it because the kids are so entertaining and it constantly keeps you engaged. Also as a kid, I felt like you could always pin point other students in your classes that you thought of when reading this book. It has a really great theme, because in the end of the story, the children end up doing a a major turn around. It is a great read and I would definitely recommend it for children!

The Hobbit

I have read The Hobbit before in elementary school and really did not like it too much. As I have gotten older, I have seen all of the Lord of the Rings films and so reading The Hobbit again has intrigued me a lot more. I thought it was interesting watching that video today and how J.R.R. Tolkien came up with the idea for The Hobbit. When we discussed Bilbo in detail today in class, there was a lot that I had never realized before about him, such as looking at him as almost child-like and the sense of innocence to the outside world. Also I had never realized the significance of the riddle battle between Gollam and Bilbo. It was so true, how it was the first steps of Bilbo becomming a hero.

Bibliotherapy

By taking this class and another childrens literature type class I have realized a lot on how as a teacher you can use children's books in a lot of different ways. You can use them obviously to help children learn how to read, and to expand their vocabulary. One eof the ways that has really impacted me is using them as a way to help children cope with different personal or emotional issues. There are books out there that deal with just about everything and are great for younger children who may feel that they cannot open up or talk about personal conflicts. Jamie Lee Curtis has a lot great stories dealing with self-esteem and identity, which I think are absolutely great for children of all ages. Also books dealing with divorce, or losing a parent, or even more serious issues can really make an impact on children and I think they should be used more.

Activities with a variety of different books!

Intro. to Colors:

- Color by Ruth Heller
Activities: Art mediums, mixing colors, color magic, color connotations (hot and cold)

- Colors by Gallimard Jeunese and Pascale de Bourgoing
Activities: Identification and sorting activities, mixing colors

- Hello, Red Fox by Eric Carle
Activities: Sequencing and recall color wheel- complimentary colors and secondary

- Skippy Jones- Color Crazy by Judy Schachner
Activities: Motivation for creative artwork,writing prompt on what colors your world would be

- My World of Color- by Margaret Wise Brown
Activities: Metaphors, colors in nature, sorting and categorizing objects by colors

Colors & Moods:

-My Many Colored Days by Dr. Suess
Activities: Moods and Colors, rhyming words, and using art for expression

Colors in Fruits and Vegetables:

- Eating the Alphabet (Fruits and Vegetables from A to Z) by Lois Ehlert
Activites: Matching fruits/ vegetables to their colors, characteristics of different fruits and vegetables, make a sald

- The Very Hungary Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Activities: Transition from a caterpillar to a butterfly, what other animals eat

Poems

There are a variety of different types of poems, such as lyrics, ballads, narratives and haikus. The following are a bio- poem and a haiku.

Holly

Daddy’s Girl

Happy, Loving, Loyal, Passionate

Loves sports, shopping, and children

Who believes the best in people.

Who wants to become a great teacher, have a family and live a long fulfilled life.

Who uses her faith, the support of her friends and love from her familiy.

Who gives advice, patience and love.

Who says that everything happens for a reason.

Callaway

Soft sand in your toes

Warm summer breeze through your hair

Hot sun beating down

Tickly Octopus

I work in a church nursery on Sunday mornings and help with the 3-4 year old class. I absolutely love it and one of my favorite things to do with them is to read out loud to them. Recently I read to them Tickly Octopus by Ruth Galloway. It was a really cute book, and the kids seemed to really enjoy it. The main theme of the story is about a little Octopus being comfortable within itself and finding its true value and identity. Those type of stories are always great, because children can easily relate. This book was also really neat, in the sense that is emphasized rhyming and alliterations. I notice those characteristics a lot now, since I am a future educator. Tjhe illustrations are also really colorful and vibrant, which really engaged the kids. I find it really interesting how kids react to books and how they interact.

Shel Silverstein Bio

Shel Silverstein is a famous American poet, but also known for his work as a songwriter, composer, cartoonist and author. He has a wide variety of books out and is very popular especially with the children. As a child, I had all of his collections of poems and read them constantly. In the first grade classroom, that I observe it, they have chosen quite a few of Shel Silverstein's poems to recite often. He has a very laid back style and a great sense of humor in his poems. His writings began while he served in the U.S. Army, he would draw cartoons for the the military newspaper. Silverstein accomplished a lot between his writings and music, but he will be mostly remembered for his unforgettable works in children's poetry. Children today, still are growing up reading his poems.

Bartholomew and the Oobleck- Lesson Plan

*Instructional Objective (measurable)

State what students should be able to do after completing the lesson. Be sure to align your objective to the TEKS and your assessment. Use only the formats that have been discussed in class.

1. Students will be able to observe Oobleck and compare it to the movements of solids and liquids.

2. Students will be able to list the properties of solids and liquids and compare them to the properties of Oobleck.

Rationale

Why are you teaching this lesson? What is the purpose of this lesson?

Students will become familiar with the states of matter, specifically solids and liquids. Also, children’s literature will be incorporated by reading the book, Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss.

*Teaching Procedure

Within this section you should provide details for what is planned. Describe instructional strategies. Keep in mind to use cooperative learning, methods of inquiry or investigation when possible. You may feel the need to rearrange, omit or add additional sections due to the lesson style you are using. This is appropriate and should be done.

a. Focus (Also called motivation, set-up or engagement)

Include something to capture student interest and motivate them for learning. This may be in the form of a question or doing a demonstration. Be creative but make sure it connects to the overall lesson objective(s). Make sure to address learner’s prior knowledge.

· Begin the lesson by introducing some principles of solids and liquids.

Solids	Liquids
Has definite shape.	Does not have definite shape.
Has definite volume.	Has definite volume.
Has definite mass.	Has definite mass.

· Explain that because a liquid does not have a definite shape, this means that it will take on the shape of its container.

· After discussing the principles of the two, show the cover of Bartholomew and the Oobleck and allow students to guess what the Oobleck will be based on the illustration.

All directions and explanations of the lesson should appear in this section. Indicate how the activity should be done. Include details for what is planned, questions for understanding, and all activities that occur as a group during the beginning half of the lesson.

· Read the book Bartholomew and the Oobleck with the class.

· While reading, ask questions according to the illustrations. For example, when the Oobleck appears in the book, ask students to describe it based on what they see. Some answers could include, “It looks like rain”, or “It looks sticky”. Also point out words provided in the story that tell us about the Oobleck. For example, one part of the story says it’s like “greenish molasses”.

· Once the book is finished, explain to students that they will be working with their very own Oobleck. Refer back to when they guessed what the Oobleck would be and inform students that it is possible for a substance to have properties of both a solid and a liquid.

b. Practice (how will the children practice the concepts)

Provide independent/group practice. If students are exploring and investigating an activity first, you may allow students to explain results, follow with questions, and then provide necessary content information or expected solutions based on student experiences and questions. Be sure and include questions from a variety of Bloom’s levels that you will ask as you monitor students as well as modifications that will make the practice successful for all students

· Refer back to the focus activity and refresh students on the concepts of solids and liquids. Have students give examples of things for both categories. Answers for solids could include a table, a car, a book, etc… Answers for liquids could include water, milk, paint, etc…

· Provide students with pre-made Oobleck in plastic bags. Allow students to freely explore the properties of the Oobleck. It is safe to touch and put your hands in, although it can get a bit messy (but it washes off easily with water).

· Have students describe to you some of the words they think of after experimenting with the Oobleck. Do any of these words or descriptions fit perfectly with properties of solids or liquids? Where the students correct in their initial guesses of what they thought the Oobleck would be? Would you say the Oobleck is both a liquid and a solid?

c. Going Further (Also called extensions or elaboration)

Suggest ways to extend the activity for learners. Indicate what learners could do to apply the concepts and process skills learned to new situations. This can be used as extended activities for students who complete work or are ready to move on. No new information is taught here—learners are applying what they have learned in the lesson to new context.

· One option for extending this lesson could be allowing the students to work in making the Oobleck on their own. Instead of providing students with the pre-made bags, you could give the students the opportunity to really experiment with the substance.

· For making the Oobleck, provide students with something the mix in, a pie pan would work great. There isn’t an exact science to the making of Oobleck; just use cornstarch, water and a little bit of food coloring until you reach the desired consistency. Generally more cornstarch will be used than water to make a good batch.

· Also, provide students with a little bit of trivia. Can they think of something that can be a liquid at one time, and then become a solid, or vice versa? If they answer “ice” discuss the difference that temperature can make. What does it take to freeze water or melt ice?

d. Closure

Bring the lesson to a close. Restate the instructional objective. You may want to or have your students summarize the activities, or you may ask students to respond to questions to check for student understanding of the basic concepts addressed by the lesson.

As a review the teacher could ask the students what the three types of matter are and their characteristics. Also see if the kids could make a list on the board of examples of the different types of matter and see how many they could come up with. Lastly the teacher could even ask if they changed the experiment by adding more water… what would happen to the Oobleck, or if there was more starch added…

Modifications

Modifications should be included throughout your lesson. It is helpful to highlight the modifications within your procedure. In this section, you should add suggestions for what you will do to re-teach the lesson or additionally modify within the lesson for students who are having difficulty understanding concepts or skills taught in the lesson. Be sure to include behavioral and academic modifications for a variety of levels of learners (including G/T).

For modifications when discussing the elements of solids, liquids and gases the teacher could bring in some visuals. For example, he/she should could show how water can become solid when its frozen, liquid when it melts and than a gas. For students that need help making the Oobleck, they could work in partners and help each other.

*Assessment (Evaluation)

Explain how you plan to assess the learner’s mastery of objectives. Include any materials that are needed. Note: The assessment component does not have to be an additional activity. It may be something done/created during your lesson that can be evaluated for objective mastery (ex. Journal entry, graphic organizer, worksheet, observation and questioning).

The Impact of Childrens Literature

Many people may not think that reading to a young child can have an impact, but in reality the affects are incredible. I know as a child, my parents were big on reading to me, and by the time I was starting to read it became a lot more natural. The question is though, how soon to you start? In a recent class of mine, a young mom came in and spoke to us about how she started reading to her son at birth. She brought her son into class and he is just 2 years of age and you could already see the impact that it had on him. He absolutely loves books and can sit down for hours and be read to. For those of you who may not know, a two year old rarely can sit and do one thing for longer than about 10 minutes. Not only would he sit and listen, but he was very engaged into the story and loved interacting with the books. Some of his favorite books, were the Eric Carle ones and ones that would pop up and have different textures. Seeing this made me realize how important it is to start reading to children at a young age and how much it can affect them later on especially in school.

Response to Poem's Lecture

I thought it was interesting in class on Friday March 7, when we began discussing poems. I grew up loving poems, especially the Shel Silverstein collections. It was neat to talk about Mother Goose rhymes, because those were some of the first things that were ever read to me. I did not know that they were uniquely English and that John Newberry had attached the name Mother Goose to them. I also had not really ever thought of the difference between nonsense verse and humorous verse. After the discussion, it made me interested to go back and look at some the familiar poems and see if I could differentiate between the two. Poems are a great way to encourage reading with young children. It expands their vocabulary and allows them to pick out patterns in the words as well as they are just entertaining.

** Goodnight Moon **

One of my all time favorite stories as a child was Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. A lot of children grew up with this story and it is well known for its colorful and appealing illustrations. It is a great book for beginner readers, because it uses a lot of simple words and has pictures to go along with it. It uses a lot of adjetives and the illustrations correlate well with the words, so it is fun for kids to match the words with pictures. It is neat because each page alternates colored pages with black and white, so you could start reading this book to a small infant. I would strongly encourage it for parents to read it to their children at a young age. I still love this book even as an adult!

Curious George

When teaching a child how to read, it is important to not only teach how to read the text, but also the parts of a book, and how actually how to read it. A great beginning reader is the Curious George series by Margret Rey and Alan J. Shalleck. These books are based off a TV series, but they seem to be very popular with the young children. Also when teaching children how to read, it is important to stress the literary elements. In the book, Curious George Goes to School, is a great book to start off with, because it would be easy for kids to relate to. It is a story about George’s, the monkey, first day of school and how it does not start off too smoothly. In art class, George had kind of made a mess of things and all the art work was scattered all through the classroom. At first George was very sad, but at the end of the story it ended up being a good thing, because they found the missing artwork. It is a good story, of how sometimes things might not start off all that great, but in the end it worked out for the better.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom was a childhood favorite of mine. It had been awhile since I had last read it, and I had forgotten how much I loved it. It is a great book to help young children learn their alphabet and it puts it in a creative way, in which it goes through the letters without the children even realizing. It also has a great rhythm to it, so it is an easy story for children to help read along and also very entertaining. There are a variety of different activities a teacher could do with this book to help teach about letters. As a child, we acted out a little skit using this theme, and each student was a different letter. It is a great book and I would highly recommend it in the classroom.

Oral Comprehensive Lesson

In one of my reading classes I am taking this semester, we are discussing the variety of ways you can test a student's comprehension of stories. One of the methods we went over, I thought was very interesting. It was an oral comprehensive assessment, and it seemed very effective. I just recently read Franklin and the Thunderstorm by Paulette Bourgeois. I used to love Franklin stories as a child, so I thought I would use this story as an example. As a teacher I would have the student read the book and than answer the following questions. As a teacher you would pick a topic that related to the book, so in this case it could be weather. During the first part, you pick a subject and have the student name as many words, that relate to that subject in a certain period of time and also compare different subjects.

Naming:
1) Different types of weather
2) Types of clothing to wear correlating to the weather
3) Compare the different seasons

Describing... ( You can pick a word in the book, to define)
1) Barometer

Pictures: ( Have the students think of pictures to represent parts of the story to help them remember it)
1) Turtle (Franklin)
2) Beaver or Snail (Friends)
3) Clouds/Rain
4) Rainbow

Comprehension Questions: ( Could do this at the end of the lesson)
1) What was Franklin scared of and why?
2) Where did Franklin and his friends go to get away from the storm at the beginning?
3) What did Hawk say that the thunder was?
4) How did Franklin overcome his fear?
5) Is there anything you are scared of? If so how could you overcome it?

This is just an example of how you could set up this lesson and it could go for all ages. This one in particular would probably be best for 1st or 2nd graders.

Biography of Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss wasmy inspirtation to begin reading as a child. One of the first books I ever read was The Foot Book, and I read it so much that I could probably still recite it by memory today. Dr. Seuss is an amazing author and his books are known for their unique rhyming text and loveable quotes. I know even as an adult some of his quotes are absolutely inspiring. Seuss has written and illustrated about 44 books and a lot of them have been made into films, such as The Grinch and The Cat and the Hat. Theodor Suess Geisel was born in Massachusetts and his family had immigrated from Germany. He went to Oxford with all intentions of earning his Ph.D, however he did not quite make it, so the "Dr" is in acknowledgement for his father's dreams for Seuss. His love for writing and drawing started at a young age. He was inspired to write children's book later on in his adult life when he had read an article about the low literacy rate of American schools due to the material not interesting children. As we know today, Dr. Seusss completely changed that for children and his books became famous for teaching young children how to read and sparking their passion for reading.

Response to Alice

Our discussion in class gave me a new insight on the book Alice Adventure’s in Wonderland. I had never read the book before, but I had seen the movie as a child. I was never a big fan, but I think reading it at an older age will allow me to see it in a different perspective. I had never realized it was a story about a young girl finding her own identity. I remember from the movie, how she kept changing sizes and it really frustrated me. Now looking at it mirroring a girl not being happy with her physical identity and constantly wanting to change it completely makes it more intriguing. This is a great story and most everyone has probably been able to relate to it, in the sense of not knowing really who they are.

Factors of Fantasy Literature

When you either are reading a fantasy book or want to teach a unit on fantasy there are many important factors to take notice of. The main theme of fantasy stories are suspending your disbelief and allowing you to be placed in an unrealistic world. Authors can do this in a variety of different ways and there are so many examples out there. I have been reading Charlotte’s web and I did an analysis of how E.B. White chose to go about it. He kept the setting for the most part in a very realistic setting, but allowed the characters to take the reader into a more fantastical situation. The animals in this story are humanized in the sense they can communicate with each other, they have feelings and morals like humans and are forced to make decisions, however this behavior is only between the animals. The humans in the story have no insight that the animals can talk to each other. The key to fantasy literature is to not make it too unrealistic, the reader needs to be able to somewhat relate and allow themselves to be engaged before it becomes unbelievable.

Charlotte's Web

I have started reading Charlotte's web for one of my outside readings and it has been great. I remember reading it as a child and not really being interested in it untill I saw the movie. Years later and reading it again it has been a whole new experience. It has abled me to see some of the underlying meaning within the different characters and what other lessons the story portrays. It is really neat how you can go back and read books especially children's books and get something new out of it everytime. I think everyone has been able to relate to Wilbur at one point in their life; feeleing lonely and insecure with yourself. This is a great story about friendship and how believing in yourself can take you so far. Also about having dreams and allowing yourself to fight for them and take action. This story is a great read and very enteratining and I definitely recommend that everyone read it again as an adult.

Mary Engelbreit

Ever since I can remember I have always loved Mary Engelbreit. One of the first books I ever owned was The Snow Princess. It has been once of my favorite books since than. I always buy the Mary Engelbreit calendars because I absolutely love her artwork. Mary Engelbreit grew up in St. Louis and had her very own art studio at age 11. She has estimated that she has done more than 4,000 illustrations from the start of her career and all are based from her own life experiences. I have always felt that I could relate to her artwork and he quotes have always been very uplifting and inspiring. She has her own line of greeting cards in which we all love. Engelbreit does amazing work and I hope to expand my collection of all her pictures and children's books.

Literary Elements Activity

As a teacher, when teaching about literature it is very important to discuss the literary elements. Once a child can pick out the elements that make up the story, it really tests their comprehension skills. The literary elements are the characters, the setting, plot/conflict, theme and conclusion. For a first grade class, a good example of a book you could use is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.
Character- The Caterpillar
Setting- Outside... trees
Plot/Conflict- The caterpillar is very hungry and trying to find food to eat...
Theme- The life cycle of a butterfly
Conclusion- The little caterpillar changes into a beautiful butterfly

This a great book to start off with because the kids love it. It is simple and the story line is very familiar with children. Also there are a variety of ways you could teach the literary elements with this story.

Comparison of the Ellas

After discussing Ella Enchanted in class and reading the book it interested me to watch the movie as well. I thought it would be neat to compare the Ellas and see how the movie depicted the story. As I started watching the movie, I was really disappointed. I had surprisingly really liked the book, but not so much the movie. The movie, was very different from the story in a variety of ways. In one way, the movie had a very modern aspect on it and it took away from the actual story line. Ella in the movie, was not as witty and independent as she was in the book. Also, I did not like how she and the prince met in the movie. The movie came off to me really cheesy and even if I had not read the book, I probably still would not have liked the movie.

Ella Enchanted

Through all of the Cinderella versions we have talked about in class, I think Ella Enchanted is one of my favorites. Besides the original version of Cinderella, this has been one of the ones I have been more interested in. I think I like it because it seems like a more modernized version and Ella seems easy to relate to. The fairy Godmother figure has really stuck out to me because she does not fall into that typical role. It is interesting because it is Ella's cook and Ella did not even know that she was a fairy. It is very unfortunate, that she is not able to really help Ella that much. I know when I was reading the story I would get frustrated because I would just want her to be able to use her powers to break Ella's curse. I really like the type of character Ella is refletced as; independent, strong-willed, stubborn and somewhat rebellious. I like how even though she is forced to be obedient, she always has different thoughts of what she would rather do.

Sarah, Plain and Tall

It is really neat to read a book you read as a child because you find new meaning in it, that you never had found before. I have been reading Sarah, Plain, and Tall, and I remember that was one of the first actual chapter books I read as a child. I remember when I read it before, I did not really like it and I thought it was very boring. As I read it now, I like how it is very descriptive and it is a great book to teach setting. This family lives out in the plains, so it describes in detail just their surroundings and the animals that they see and the colors etc. It is a great story of how a family comes together and what holds them all into place. I feel that this would be a great book for children who have lost a parent or group up in a single parent home because they could really relate. After reading it, it made me really want to use this book in teaching.

A Rhyming Lesson

As a future elementary teacher you are always keeping in mind ideas of how to teach certain lessons. After taking many reading courses, it has taught me how children's books can be such a great asset in the classroom and are capable of teaching children so many things. Tonight I was looking through some of my children's books and I came across Miss Spider's Tea Party. As I was reading I noticed it had counting in it, rhyming, mentioned a variety of different insects and a great theme on friendship. It got me thinking of the different ways I could use this book to teach a variety of different lessons. I really liked the idea of using it to teach rhyming. I thought as a teacher I could read the book out loud to the children and then once we were finished we could go back through and point out all the words that rhymed. This book is particular a fun book because it has very vibrant pictures that are very intriging. Once the children could point out the words that rhymed you than could discuss other words that rhyme. As an extra activity that would be really fun, you could have the children add to the story by coming up with their own insect and rhyme to go along with it.

Disney's Cinderella

Now that we are reading about Cinderella it made me want to watch the classic disney animated version. I used to love watching it as a child and dressing up and pretending I was a princess just like her. After we have been talking about it in class and read multiple versions it has made me see Cinderella in a variety of different perspectives. As I watched the movie tonight it brought me back to when I was younger when I looked at her as this young innocent girl living in this unfortunate life, which is very similar to the Grimm's version of the story. Than I thought about the Catskin versions where they portray Cinderella as a stonger character who holds her own fate. It was really neat going back and watching this movie, after all we have discussed in class.

"Oh, the Places You Will Go"

Dr. Seuss was one of my favorite authors as a child. The Foot Book, was one of the first books I learned to read on and I read it so much I could pretty much just recite it without even looking at the pages. One of my most favorites still to this day is Oh, the Places You’ll Go. It is a book, that I believe could be inspiring to people of all ages and you could get something out every time you read it. In a teacher’s perspective it is a great book to encourage children to have dreams of their own and that they can do anything they put their minds to.

Story contd.

As I jumped in the shower, I instantly felt this sharp sting…yep imagine that… no hot water at all! I took the quickest shower known to man and hurried along my getting ready process. As I was blow drying my hair, I looked at the clock and it was already 10:30 and that is when I needed to be leaving. I could not even finish drying my hair because I had to hurry and throw my clothes on and be on my way. So it continued… my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day!

I arrived on campus and had to park probably the furthest spot away from my class as possible. I started walking faster and faster hoping that I would not be late. Luckily I made it, but as soon as I arrived there was a note on the bored stating “turn in papers at the front.” I began to break out in a sweat, my stomach churning, and blood rushing to my head. I had completely forgot my paper! My terrible, horrible, no good very bad day just got a whole lot worse.

My own "Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!"

In one of my reading classes today, my professor read to us Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst. It is one of those type’s of children’s books that every single person can relate to at least once in their life. After class it got me thinking of my own “terrible, horrible, no good very bad day!” I thought I would being to write my own little short story describing it.

When I went to sleep that Sunday evening, I never could have imagined what kind of day I would be waking up to. “Beep! Beep! Beep” my alarm was going off and to my surprise it had been going off for at least 15 minutes by this point. I jumped out of bed and quickly ran to turn on the shower. Considering that I never give myself extra time in the morning, I could already tell it was going to be one of those days… a terrible, horrible, no good very bad day!... to be continued…

"Just Plain Fancy"

My favorite year of elementary school by far was second grade. I had an amazing teacher named Mrs. Rose, and she instilled in me my dream to become a teacher and also my love for reading. She introduced a variety of different books, but one children’s author that always stuck with me was Patricia Polacco. I loved all of her books and had quite a collection of them. One of my favorites of hers was Just Plain Fancy. I think that book will always have a lot of meaning to me, because the setting is in an Amish city in Pennsylvania. During elementary school, my family and I lived in a small town in Pennsylvania right outside of Lancaster. When reading this book it brings back a lot of memories of when I was a child. This book, when I read this as a child, gave me an insight to a new type of culture that I knew nothing about. Even though on the map we were basically neighbors with these people, I knew very little about what they were all about besides the fact that they dressed funny to me and rode in horse and buggies.

** Outside Reading **

Picture Books:

Tickly Octopus by Ruth Galloway

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

Curious George Goes to School by Margret Rey

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault

Just Plain Fancy by Patricia Pollacco

Other Books:

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Particia MacLachlan

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

The Best School Year Ever by Barbra Robinson

The Mouse and the Motorcyle by Beverly Cleary

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery