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Talking

Talking benefits students in the classroom because it gives them a chance to communicate with each other and share ideas. The students can learn a lot from each other. Students can engage in classroom debates. The students could read a story and talk as a group to decide what they think should happen next. Students could read poetry aloud and discuss what they thought it was about. Talking gives student the opportunity to share their point of view and learn new ideas from their classmates. Students can even have fun with talking and act out a play and be silly, but they are still learning the content and reading the literature. Talking gives teachers an opportunity to have an interactive and fun filled classroom.

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Memories

One memory that could make you cry was the memory I have about the day my daughter got hurt. My oldest daughter, Amanda was only 3 and a half years old. The baby was about 15 months. She had just learned how to walk and run. The girls were playing together stacking peek-a-blocks on the carpet, and they were having lots of fun. My husband had just came home from work and it was time for me to leave for work. I had looked over at the pile of blocks on the carpet and thought "should I make the kids pick up the blocks?" unfortunately I did not. I got in my car and headed off to work. My routine is I talk to my husband on the way to work, on my cell phone. I had not gotten far from the house when I heard a blood curdling scream come through the phone and then the phone had gone dead. At this point I was in a full panic. I turned the car around in the middle of sommerset road. My cell phone rang, it was my husband. In a scared and shaken up voice he said "Amanda has had an accident, she has knocked out her teeth and I don't know what to do! Will you please come back and help me!"

I entered my gate going 40 miles an hour, how I did not crash god only knows. As I walked into my house I saw a puddle of blood on the carpet with a trail leading to the bathroom. There stood my baby girl standing on a phone book crying with a swollen face and blood pouring out of her mouth. I was horrified. The only thing going through my mind was that it was all my fault because I did not make them pick up the blocks. Amanda had chased her baby sister and fell face first into the blocks they had previously been stacking. She knocked front three baby teeth outward and caused tissue damage to her jaw. We spent 6 hours in the emergency room. They had Amanda on codine for almost 10 days until she could get dental surgery repair the damage. She had a pediatric parcial at the age of 3 and a half. They said she may not get her permanent teeth. About 3 years later she cut her adult teeth. We were very happy that was a true blessing.

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I found a really unique author. His name is Eric A. Kimmel, he writes a lot of children's books. One of his books I really enjoyed was Anansi and The Magic Stick. The book was about a spider that was too lazy to clean his house. He found a magic stick in the hyenas yard, he took the stick home. He used the stick to clean his yard, but all the trash went into his friends yard. Aanasi fell asleep while watering his yard, it soon created a lake and all the animals rebuilt their homes and had lakeside homes. I thought this story was really cute. This author may many other books such as Anansi the Spider Party, The Frog Princess, Anansi Goes Fishing, Anansi and the Talking Melon, and many others. This author also post a teachers guide to his books which you can download free online. http://www.ericakimmel.com/guides.htm

Another very interesting author is Jane Belk Moncure, she has tons of book and believes every child can learn. Some examples of her works are:

A Dragon In a Wagon is an imaginary travel adventure with Laura and a happy dragon. Their journey introduces a cluster of transportation words to young readers. Laura and the happy dragon ride in a wagon, a car, a bus, a boat, a sled, a truck, a train and airplane, a parachute, a big balloon and a circus wagon. Children recognize and count the many unusual passengers who ride along to a surprise ending. Pages 30 and 31 contain a word bank of travel words. The book provides a good starting point for learning more about the many ways people travel from place to place.

A Color Clown Comes To Town introduces young readers to the wonderful world of color. Laura and her funny clown introduce children not only to many familiar colors, but also to new colors that they can make themselves. The clown helps children name colors by playing a color game. As children read the story, they join Laura in playing it too. At the end of the story, Laura uses all of the colors to make something very special. She invites the readers do the same. Pages 30 and 31 reinforce the cluster of color words to young readers. The story encourages children to keep experimenting with colors using paint, chalk, and crayons and other tools

The Biggest Snowball of All is an adventure story about Little Bear and the many different sizes of things she encounters on her way down the mountain side of snow with her friends, Rabbit and Raccoon. The three friends find all kinds of ways to turn a tiny snow ball into the biggest snowball of all. They build a great snowball house only to watch it melt away when the warm sun shines again. The book is fun to read when children are also playing in the snow and making snowballs themselves. The size words include words such as; tiny, small, big, bigger, and biggest, shortest ,short, long, narrow, wide, small ,smaller and smallest.

Here We Go 'Round the Year introduces the twelve months of the year with twelve little bears playing a game. Each bear carries a flag of one of the months, beginning with January and ending with December. As the bears march around the year, each bear dramatizes something special about each month. The bears play in the snow, ice skate, fly kites, make mud pies , plant flowers, have picnics, jump in the leaves, play ball, and go for sleigh rides, learning the names of the months in sequence as they play together.

Away Went The Farmer’s Hat is an tale about a farmer’s hat that blows away on a windy day. Many familiar farm animals wear the hat as it blows from one place to another finally landing in a tree. The tree hat makes nest for a bird and a squirrel before the farmer finds it .
Young children will have fun with an upside down hat pretending to be the different animals that wear the hat in the story. They will talk about other things that are blown by the wind and may create stories about kites, seeds, sailboats, and butterflies.

Rabbits’ Habits is a book about good habits. Children participate in the story as they chose the rabbit with a good habit in each little adventure. The three rabbits all play with toys on the floor, but only one rabbit knows where the ball belongs after the game. When the rabbits play with friends in the park, plant a garden, or get ready for school, children quickly pick the rabbit with the best habit. This tale ends with a picnic where all the rabbits have good habits. They eat lots of veggies and other healthy foods. Pages 30 and 31 have more helpful habits for rabbits and kids. The book serves as a good introduction to a unit on good healthy habits. Children can dictate or write about their best habits.


This author has a great web site:
http://www.janebelkmoncure.com/mcrhome.htm

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RAFT

(R)=Death (A)=The Living (F)=Poem (T)=Afterlife

Death

Standing in darkness

Shadows are real.

Staring down an endless void

Coldness is what I feel.

Shadows like dreams

In the still of night.

Trembling in fear,

horror and fright

A thick fog surrounds me

As evil terror grows near.

From a far off distance

the shadow becomes clear.

A crackling of thunder

and flashes of light

wet mist falls

covering my face

and most of the night.

Strong winds blow

Dreadful weather rains down.

The world I knew

is no where to be found.

I stand in this realm

in uncertainty and shame

Voices from beyond

keep calling my name.

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Writing is a PROCESS.....

1. Prewriting- brainstorm/maps
2. drafting- rough draft / outline
3. revising- additions/ deletions
4. editing- convention/ check for errors
5. publishing- finished work


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I Won The Lottery!

One day I went to Diamond Shamrock and bought a lottery ticket. To my surprise I had the winning lottery numbers. I laid out my plans to decide how to spend all of the eighty million dollars I had just won.

The first thing I had to do was to get away and take a vacation. I decided to go and visit Disneyland in California. We rode the roller coaster and watched the shows. While in California we spent three days having lots of fun. Our next destination was to visit New York. We went to see the Empire State Building and Ground Zero. We walked all over the city taking pictures and finally ended up in Rockefeller Center. New York was a beautiful city.

The next thing I had to do was spend the money. I paid off all of my bills. I went to Savannah Heights and purchased five acres of land. We contacted Tilson Homes and designed our dream house, which had five bedrooms and two and a half baths. The outside was all done in red brick and had a metal roof. The backyard had a beautiful spacious garden.

The last thing I had left to do was share the wealth. I purchased a brand new home for my mother and a new Hummer to match. My sister needed a trustworthy vehicle so I bought her a bright red Ford F-250 with Ranchhand bumpers. I bought my father in law twelve cows to add to his ranch. my family then took a fourteen day luxury cruise to relax.

The day I won the lottery I had lots of fun. I took much needed vacations. I had the opportunity to build my dream home and share the wealth with my family. Winning the lottery was lots of fun and brought joy to me and my family.

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Chapter 2

The chapter on culture was very interesting. We will have kids from all different cultures and backgrounds in our classrooms. The best way to try and understand the cultures of the children is to get to know your students. When my daughters started school, I helped them both do their all about me posters. the activity was wonderful. It paints a picture for the teacher of how many likeness and differences she has in her classroom. The teacher can better prepare to meet the needs of all of her students. One of the best ways I have seen a teacher meets the needs of her students is by having books available in the classroom which represent different cultures. The students can look at their cultures and also share with their classmates. Teacher's can also have culture day, where an individual from each of the students families comes and talks to the class about their family culture. They can bring in items or books with illustrate different cultures. The students could learn a lot about themselves and their classmates.

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The best way to get a child interested and involved in reading is to use pre/during/post strategies. When selecting a book a teacher can create a game or project. they can even bring in props related to the story. This will help get the child excited about the text they are about to read. During the presentation of the reading material the teacher could ask their students questions related to the reading and hold up the props as she reads, to give the child a visual representation, which will maintain the child's interest. After the book has been presented the teacher could ask her students questions. A good example would be, if this story continued what do you think would happen next? The children could then work together discussing the material they just read, reinforcing the material and making new connections. As teachers if we are enthusiastic and excited about reading, we can help students maintain the same positive attitudes about learning.