Famous Last Words Week 11

I cannot believe that I am almost done with this class for the semester. The entire class went very fast. I have learned a lot about retelling a story, and writing in general. I love how much creativity and imagination we get to use in this class. It makes it a lot more laid back and an enjoyable class.

The class never fails to impress me with their writing abilities. I love being able to read other classmate’s storytelling and projects each week. There is a lot of creativity and different writing styles in our class.

When I am writing, I focus more on being detail oriented and adding twists. This was my weak point at the beginning of the year, but I believe that I am improving a little bit each week. I try my hardest to do my writing when I am not rushed. I try to do this so that I make fewer mistakes and have time to go through it thoroughly.

My other classes are definitely keeping me busy the last few weeks of the semester. I am in capstone, so I have to test all of our participants for our study. It is actually a lot of fun because it is hands on and we get to test what we wanted. However, it does take up a lot of my time. Also, my capstone project is done in a group. Which is not a bad thing, but every group assignment always has its downfalls. I believe that this semester has gone faster than any other semester in my college career.

Today is Easter Sunday. I hope everyone got to spend time with family. My family does an Easter egg coloring contest. This year my boyfriend won and I got second. There is not a prize for second, but first place gets a trophy and twenty dollars. It is a lot of fun. 

Easter Eggs

Essay: Nursery Rhymes

This week I read the unit about Nursery Rhymes. This week’s reading really had a lot of surprises. Not bad ones, good ones of course. I thought that I would know most of them and know most of the lines. However, I was way wrong. There were many new nursery rhymes that I have never even heard of. This was a great way to learn new ones. Also, I learned new and different versions of previous nursery rhymes that I thought I knew. I was also reminded of many that I did not know the entire nursery rhyme.

This reading was very fun and entertaining. It is easy to read and of course easy to understand. I would suggest this reading to anyone who wants a reminder of their childhood or even just an easy kid related read. There are many nursery rhymes in each section. Laura did a great job of separating them by songs, riddles, games, and etc. This made it fun to be able to read all the riddles in one section and the same goes for all of the other sections. In the section itself, the stories were very well organized and it was easy to tell when one story begin and ended.

I really enjoyed this unit overall. The format of this unit was wonderful and very easy to follow. Everything stated about the unit is helpful. I like how you did mention that there would be ones that we have not read before. I knew this before reading the unit. However, I was still surprised on how many I have never heard of.

This unit was one of my favorites so far. I learned so much more than I thought I could from nursery rhymes and I even learned some to pass on to others.

Great unit!

(PhotoCredit)

Reading Diary B: Nursery Rhymes

Nursery Rhymes

Jingles
I loved reading all of the jingles. It is hard to pick my favorite one. It is crazy how I am able to read them and think of a certain part of my childhood that they remind me of. There of course were some that I did not know the entire jingle. For example, I did not know all the lines for Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

Love and Matrimony
Of course, all of these ones were good to read. Jack and Jill is a classic that most kids should know. Most of the stories however, I was unfamiliar with but still enjoyed.

Natural History, Part 2
Ba ba black seep is another classic. I loved getting to read this. I also loved the story of Higgley Piggley. I honestly think that I just like the sound of the title. It is fun to say and catches your attention.

Ba Ba Black Sheep

Relics
Rain Rain Go Away was a different version than I have ever known. I feel that there have been many versions made over the years.

Every page of this unit was full of a great read. I learned so many new nursery rhymes. It was fun to be able to read ones that I thought I knew and did not know the entire thing. I also really enjoyed reading the ones that I have never heard of. This was a great unit and it is too hard to pick my favorite ones, because they were all great.

Reading Diary A: Nursery Rhymes

Nursery Rhymes

I was very excited to read the nursery rhymes. I loved all the nursery rhymes from when I was little, so I was hoping those would be included. I also knew that I would not know all of them. Therefore, I was ready to read something new.

Tales
The first section of nursery rhymes were all new to me. I actually did not recognize any of them. I may have read a few of them when I was little, but did not remember them. They were all still enjoyable to read. I really enjoyed Little Jack Horner. This rhyme was short and sweet. It incorporated many different aspects for only being four lines long.


Songs, Part 1
I was excited to be able to read Little Bo-Peep. I loved this song when I was a kid. It was good to be able to read it again and remember every line of it. It is crazy how much we remember from when we were little. Today, I pictured Bo-Peep from Toy Story while reading this rhyme/song.

Riddles
What a classic Riddle, Humpty Dumpty. I love the picture used in the untextbook to symbolize this riddle. I honestly did not remember the end of the riddle. So it was a nice refresher to read the entire riddle and not just the first two lines. (Those are the only two lines I can ever remember from that riddle).

Charms and Lullabies
Rock-a-bye Baby has to one of the most well-known lullabies. I have known that entire lullaby since I was a kid, every single word.

Games
I loved reading this section. I learned so many games from this. I had no idea that Hickory Dickory Dock was a game. I also just thought it was a nursery rhyme. My mom used to always play This Little Piggy with my toes. She would always change up what the pigs were doing and make them into something like me. I loved this reminder of my childhood.

This Little Piggy Picture

Famous Last Words: Week 9

I am glad that we had spring break to finish the end of week 9. I was overwhelmed with classes and tests the week before spring break. This class has really helped my writing skills and my ability to proofread others work. We definitely have a lot of practice doing it. I still have to be somewhere quite to be able to write and to come up with ideas. However, I have not tried many different writing styles. I tend to stay in my comfort zone and do not experiment too much.

I wish that I would have used the week of spring break to get ahead. However, I did not. I did not go anywhere over spring break. I enjoyed having a break from school though. My best friend had her baby over break, so I was able to spend a lot of time with her and her newborn. Also, I got to go shopping and play with my dogs. It was a nice, calm, and relaxing week. 

Now that spring break is over it is time to finish out this semester strong. We are on the downhill slide until graduation. I hope that I can keep my motivation with it being so close until graduation. I still have a lot of tests and assignments in my classes. I even have a test this week. Clearly I have not studied for it yet since I did not do anything over spring break for school. My capstone class probably has the most work left. We get to start our experiments and testing people this week. This class is a lot of work, but it is cool getting able to conduct our own experiment. I am excited that we are half way through this semester. I am hoping I am able to finish this class early so I can focus on my other classes more. I hope that it stays warm and sunny like it is today. I feel like I am in such a better mood when it is nice outside. 

Pretty spring picture

Essay: Tejas Legends

This week I read the unit Tejas Legends. I was very impressed with this unit. Each story was unique and interesting to read. The titles of the stories caught my attention and I believe that this helped me keep reading. I read the entire unit in one day, instead of breaking it up. This unit I was really able to see the connection between the stories and the Native American culture with an emphasis on Texas. All of the stories did a good job of incorporating some part of Native America. This could have been the animals involved, where the setting was located, and even things that are unique to their culture. Most of the stories had a positive overall theme. This was the part that I really enjoyed. The stories focused on the nature. Therefore, the main characters of each story were normally an animal and a plant. I enjoyed how they drew relationships between the animals and plants. 

Texas Picture

This unit is a good unit for most people. The language that the stories are told in is easy to understand and follow. There is imagination in each story. Plants and animals are able to talk and have personalities. None of the stories were confusing to me. Each story has some notes from Laura. These notes help explain what the story is going to be about and even provide a little more background information. The notes are extremely helpful and add wonderful information. I would suggest this reading to anyone.

All of the information given about this story provided on untextbook is accurate. I do not believe that anything needs to be added to this unit. It is a great unit full of wonderful stories and a lot of background information about Native America. This unit is in my top 3 or 4 of the semester.  

Reading Diary B: Tejas Legends

Tejas Legends

How Sickness Entered the World
This title caught my attention. It made me wonder what the story was about how people got sick. I really enjoyed how the Indians and the snake were incorporated into the story. This really brought out the native american culture of the story. I like how the story was mainly about revenge and that is how sickness entered the world. The sickness even hatched. Every wigwam got some kind of sickness. I think that this story can take many different directions. Therefore, it is a great start of a storytelling. I believe that you can add what kind of sickness each wigwam got and elaborate on that.

The Pecan Tree's Best Friend
I enjoyed reading this story. I believe that orioles love pecan trees in real life. This story was full of some imagination and elaboration. However, parts of the story can be very practical. I love how the tree and the oriole were so close. Another great story, which can be used for a storytelling.

oriole

In this unit, there are many great stories. This unit did a great job of really incorporating Native American culture. All of the stories have great plots to start a storytelling. Most of the titles were able to catch my attention to where I wanted to read to find out what the title was talking about. Overall, this was a great unit and was a wonderful read.