1. Greek name: Persephone

2. Four traits of character: Beautiful, young maiden, loving, naive.

3. Relative of: Daughter of Zeus and Demeter, Spouse of Hades

4. Symbols: Pomegranate, Seeds of Grain, Flowers, and Agriculture

5. Who feels: Annoyed that Hades tricked her into eating the pomegranate seeds.

6. Who needs: To come up from the underworld to visit her mother once a year.

7. Who fears: Being alone in the underworld and not being with her mother.

8. Who gives: The earth vegetation and springtime when she visits her mother.

9. Who would like to see: Her mother and the sunlight.

10. Resident of: The Underworld

11. Roman Name: Proserpina

Another Mini-lesson [Myths]

If I was teaching fourth grade, my mini lesson would be to:

Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes and topics (e.g., opposition of good and evil) and patterns of events (e.g., the quest) in stories, myths, and traditional literature from different cultures.

I would remind my students about myths and how myths affect different types of cultures.  I would mention that some of the myths were created to explain the unexplained.  Afterwards, for fun, our class can mention little things that are unexplained to them in their everyday lives, such as why the sun goes up and down.  Then, we as a class could come up with silly explanations (little myths of our own).

For the class assignment, my class will work in groups and be assigned certain tasks within the group.  Students will work together and use our school’s computer lab and search up creation myths from different cultures.  The students will have to create a mini presentation on the creation myth about the summary of the myth, which culture it came from, key characters in the myth, and key symbols.  Students will also need to create a poster for their creation myth, “if this myth had a band poster or album cover, what would it look like.”  Then, on presentation day, our class will talk about the different creation myths and post our posters around the classroom.

Moral of the Story- Sometimes in life people will write off how they feel about a certain thing, because they were frustrated and unable to try harder to reach their goals.

Animal- Fox

Setting- Vine tree/forest

Sequence of events-

• Fox sees grapes
• Fox wants grapes
• Fox tries to jump for grapes
• Fox tries again and again
• Fox is unable to reach grapes
• Decides that the grapes are lame and disgusting
• Moves on

Questions for class: 

What is a moral?

What is the lesson/moral of this fable?

Can you think of ways the fox could have achieved his goal?

How would you have rewritten this fable to get a better outcome?       

Here a couple fables that I worked on ages ago and never got around to completing, until this very fine moment.  Below each fable is a description and moral of the story.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18SsWqPTx3nOqpOSvcLm14bL09BNQfSGLSbIZ-tkfxos/edit?usp=sharing

For my picture book reading, I chose to read This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen.  This book has wonderful illustrations that really make the book such a great read.  And the ending will have you at the edge of your seat wanting more! #guaranteed

Please click this man and his fish hat for my video!  Once you are done with the video, come back to this wonderful gif!

Peggy Sharp believes pictures book are for all ages and not just for younger students.  I particularly enjoyed when she said, “I cringe when I hear these books referred to as baby books.”  During one of my organization meetings, I read a picture book to my entire club.  It was a lovely way to start our meeting and break down any nerves since the book way wacky and funny.  Sharp goes on to explain the light and airiness of the book Swimmy.  Picture books are literally works of art that tell a story! The mood can change with warm colors and cool colors. If a book has a fun and cheery plotline, the color and facial expressions of characters can really emphasize. Illustrations help students who may not understand the text and have a difficulty picking up on cues within the text. Illustrations can be viewed along side text for students to interpret the words printed on the paper.  Projects and crafty activities can also be inspired by various illustrations!

"The Places I'll Go"

I am a little caterpillar

trying hard to find my way.

All morning and all night,

I think about what I should say.

Working tougher than anyone I know,

trying harder each time

While crawling and glancing around,

looking for a sign.

Eating food

is what gives me so much pleasure.

When finding snacks around me,

it’s like finding treasure.

I try my best to aim for my goal,

even if I’m slow.

At least, I know what to do

and where I will go.

To fly, fly, away into the sky for a while,

And upon my face will be the biggest smile.

This is a poem I wrote a little while ago about figuring out who I want to be and where I want to go!

"Morning Sorrows"

Separation when morning comes.

Dawn breaks the enchantment.

Day by day, longing and waiting.

But by night, sweet night.

Our touch, though it may not be much.

Sends sweet remedies.

Eyelids gently grow heavier,

Weaker and weaker.

Serenity and security greet

us like old friends.

Time has slipped away from us,

But at last, a spell we seek.

Guiding us to everlasting sleep.

A poem about my bed.

For my assignment, we can use Dr. Seuss’ The Sneetches!  The star belly sneetches and the plain belly sneetches are excellent examples to discuss discrimination in a classroom, or even “who’s better than who”.  The answer: No one is better than anyone.

For my activity, my students would be able to learn that no matter how they or what they wear, they are special in their own ways.  For the sneetches, a star and no star decided whether or not a sneetch was “cool” or “uncool”.  Students will have the opportunity to create their own personal symbol that represents what makes the student unique. 

Students will color the template of the sneetch any way they would like and in the center of the belly, draw a significant symbol to them.  For example, a heart can represent a loving student, a group of people can represent family or friendship, or even a simple smile can represent a happy, ecstatic student! 

Our sneetches will be hung around the room to remind us all that there is something unique about every single on of us!

These online reading workshops were especially helpful in visualizing an actual classroom, instead of just reading about how a workshop would look like.  I enjoyed the 1^st Grade Mini Lesson with teaching students book story vs. life story.  The teacher interacted with the students and gave them opportunities to not only work with her but also with each other.  She emphasized and encouraged her students about being GREAT READERS.  She mentions that it is a secret to great readers, and it allows the students to feel part of something.

The writing workshop on good spaces between words gave for a good example of enunciation when talking to a room of tiny humans.  The teacher made sure to cover the most important parts of good spaces and went back to go over other skills the students have been working on.  She makes sure that the students are always looking at her and participating with her story while noticing her finger spaces.

(For future workshops, a steadier hand would greatly improve the videos!)

For my workshop, I chose to work with second grade students and discuss alliteration, rhymes, and repeated phrases in text and song.  I provided definition and examples to introduce the workshop and practice lessons to incorporate play with learning.  Here is my powerpoint!