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.

Reading Diary A: Tejas Legends

Tejas Legends

When the Storm God Rides
This was the first story of the unit and it caught my attention right away. The first paragraph was very intriguing and I could picture the islands right away and how they were made. I also liked how many animals the island was made for. The story really does a good job of helping you picture what was going on.

The Plant that Grows in Trees
This was a very cute story. I like how it incorporated the thunder bird once again. The first paragraph explains the overall story about how mistletoe is found in trees because a bird once put it there. This opens the story to use your imagination on why the bird put the mistletoe in the tree. I liked how the bird and the mistletoe could talk, this really helped the story.

(Mistletoe in a Tree)

The Cloud That Was Lost
This story caught my attention by the title. Of course, I want to read about how a cloud was lost. I knew right away that this story would be full of imagination and I was curious how it would be incorporated into Native America. I really enjoyed how this story made the cloud come alive and have a personality. The cloud was sleepy. I bet they do get warn-out staying in the sky all day and night.

Grandmother River's Trick
I love how many fish were incorporated into this story. This story used great imagination and was fun to read. I am glad that Grandmother river was able to trick the garfish and that all of the other fish were safe and got to play around.

Tech Tip: Google Language

Here is the Google interface in espanol (spanish)

Commenting Review Week

I believe that the comments in this class are very useful. They are used to connect with other classmates and to provide feedback on the work done. The comments are very encouraging and do contain constructive criticism. Other students may see a mistake that you would have never noticed; they may even give a great idea if they have a different thinking style than you. The comments that are most useful are the ones that are honest. I think it helps when they mention a specific part of the story to back-up their feedback.

When I am leaving a short comment, I try to focus on the overall and big picture of the story. I try to state what I thought overall about the story and then the layout of the story and how easy it was to follow and read. When I am leaving a long comment, I try to focus more on specific details and how the author came up with their idea for their story. The easiest part of leaving comments is the encouraging part. Of course, everyone has wonderful stories. The hardest part is suggesting changes to their writing. I know I am not the best writer, so sometimes it is hard to critique others.

The comment portion of the class is huge. It is very useful and I think the way that the commenting is done now is great. There are many chances to comment on introduction, storytelling, projects, and even various assignments. Commenting makes the class seem more connected, instead of just doing work and getting a grade for it. 

Inspirational quote

I chose the above picture because I think it can be applied to this class. In writing, you will never fail. You will just find ways that work and that do not work. The comments can help you figure out what works and what does not. 

Writing Review Week

I really enjoyed going through all of my storytelling posts. It showed how much work I have put into this class. Seeing all of the imagination of my stories was fun to reread. It is hard to pick one certain story as my greatest success. I believe that they all have their strengths and weaknesses. The strategy that I use to come up with my story is just thinking about how I would want a story to end, or changing the characters to something more exciting.

By reading other classmate’s storytelling posts, I have learned various things. One of the things I have learned is to change who is telling the story. This seems to be successful and changes the perspective of the story. Another idea that I have gotten from other students, is to just keep the overall them but change the story completely. This shows imagination and creativity.

With writing all of my stories, I have found my weaker parts of my writing. I am not good at commas, at all. All of the feedback given on storytelling is helpful. Yes, I may not use it all but it is all helpful. Feedback is great to remember when you are writing a new story as well.

Writing stories is not the easiest task. Sometimes, it takes longer to come up with an idea or even to pick the original story to begin. The biggest challenge is making it your own. This requires creativity and patience.

Overall, I think that the storytelling is great. It is very helpful in improving your writing, learning something new from feedback, and even just using your imagination. I enjoy storytelling. 

Imagination

I chose the picture above, because I believe that storytelling is all about using your imagination. With storytelling, you can really do whatever you want. It depends on how you interpret the story to begin with and what changes you want to make to the story. It is all about making it your own.

Reading Review Week

The reading diaries are very useful. They are functional in the way that you can remember the units that you read, what stories you liked, what you liked about the unit, and even ideas about storytelling. I enjoyed going through my reading diaries to see what I have read over these 7 weeks, because I honestly forgot how much I have read.

I honesty, do not read books on a daily basis. However, I have enjoyed reading various units. I tend to enjoy the units that incorporate animals as the main characters. My favorite units that I have read are either Aesop (Winter) or Jatakas (Babbitt). I really enjoyed how each story had a theme/a lesson to learn. I also like how each story is different and they do not all tell one story. That is why I believe that Cupid and Psyche was my least favorite unit. Do not get me wrong, I still enjoyed reading that unit.

Overall, I think the best way to find out if you are going to like a unit, is to read all the information given about it. Then go to the unit itself, and read one or two stories to see if it sparks your interest. There are many different options given. Therefore, you should be able to find something. Another, useful way to find a reading, is to read other classmates reading diaries. 

The Geese and the Tortoise

I chose the picture above because it symbolizes a story that I have read in more than one unit. It is interesting how different cultures can tell the same story but in a slightly different way. Each time I have read the story, I enjoyed it. 

Famous Last Words Week 7

This week has been a pretty good week, except for the weather. Yes, I like when class is cancelled, but I would much rather it be sunny and warm. My dog is tired of being stuck inside because of the snow.

This week, I have really noticed writing stories has gotten a little easier. Each week, I learn something new about writing. This makes it interesting and keeps my eyes open for suggestions. Everyone’s comments are very helpful. They are helpful in the sense of encouragement and constructive criticism. I really do read the comments given to me and take in consideration what was said. Needless to say, I have learned a lot about comma use. However, I am still not perfect at commas. I try to do my writing in places where it is quite. This helps me think and lets me really use my imagination. Also, when it is quite, I am able to focus more and not get distracted.

I have noticed how well all of the projects in our class are going. Everyone has such a different perspective of writing and topic for their storybook or portfolio. I think they people are successful when you can tell if they have used their imagination. I am overly impressed with how unique every story I read is. I like how everyone takes on stories from a different point. Even changing the smallest detail can change an entire story.

I am looking forward to next week, since it is a review week. I am hoping to work ahead so I can focus more on my other classes. However, it is midterm season, so I have a lot of tests and assignments to do. Also, next week, I believe that it is supposed to warm up later in the week.  This needs to happen because yesterday (Sunday March 1^st) was the first day of spring. I am more than ready for spring weather. 

(Spring Flowers)

Storytelling Week 7: The water dance

There once was a group of animal friends who all lived out in the forest next to a lake and a river. The animals were a lion, tiger, wolf, jackal, tortoise, and elephant. They had all lived together their entire lives. They did everything together, eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, sleep, play, and relax.

The lake and river were on opposite sides of the property. The water was the animals’ favorite part of their habitat. All of the animals enjoyed bath time and loved to go for a swim when it was warm outside.  The animals would always play games in the water like colors and Marco polo. They were just like little kids. The river was their drinking water as well. It was pure, clean, and cold water.

One summer there was a frightful drought. The animals were very frightened because they did not want their lake and river to dry up. They relied on the water for drinking, bathing, and for fun. They were all so sad and did not want to play with each other.

(Drought)

As the summer went on, their river and lake started to become very low. The animals went on an adventure to try to find more water in surrounding areas. They would be gone for a day or two. However, they were very unsuccessfully in finding water.

There was only one month left of summer when the river and the lake dried up. The animals were devastated. How were they supposed to live with no water? They did not know what to do. They all sat around of a couple days doing nothing because they did not have any water.

One night, they all met up and had a meeting. They all brainstormed ideas on how to bring the water back. The lion had the best idea of doing a rain dance. They had all heard about them from friends in other areas and heard that they do work. However, they were skeptical because they did not think that dance could bring water back.

They all danced together; in a circle, in a line, with partners, individually, in every which way. They were determined to dance until they saw water. But after an hour, there was zero water. So, they all took a break to brainstorm some more. They decided to dance again and really believe that the dance was going to work. All of the animals danced and told themselves, the dance will bring back all of the water.

All of the animals danced for about two hours when all of the water appeared back in their lake and river. The animals were all so ecstatic; the dance actually brought back the water!

Author's Note:
The original story, The Dance for Water, was about a drought where the rivers dried up and the springs did not even give water. The animals did not know what to do, but looked to find drinking water. However, they were unsuccessful. One of the animals had the idea to go to the dry river to dance to bring the water back. Most of the animals danced until water was brought to the surface. However, the rabbit did not dance so the other animals believe that she should not have water. One night the rabbit got some water while the other animals were sleeping. They were very unhappy and planned to kill the rabbit. In the end, the rabbit got away free. 

In my story, I kept the original characters, but adding more to the beginning of the story to show the relevance of the water to the animals. I made it where all of the animals participated together in the dancing, and took out the part where they tried to kill one of the animals. I did not want any violence in my story.

Bibliography:
The Dance for Water
This story is part of the South African unit. Story source: South African Folk-Tales by James Honey (1910).

Essay: South African Folktales

South African Folktales

This week I read, South African Folktales. These stories are a lot different than the fables and tales that I have been reading in the past. However, the one connection that I can draw from all of the readings that I have done this year, except week 1, all have animals as their main characters. I think that this really makes the stories interesting and brings the animals to life. In this unit, I liked how many animals were brought into single stories. In all of the stories combined, I bet that there were 15 animals mentioned. This makes the readings more fun because you are not just reading about the same two animals.

In this unit, I was able to connect the stories to the background of Africa. In the past, I was relying on the notes provided to do this for me, but this week some of the connections were made a lot clearer. For example, The dance for water, was very easy to connect back to African culture. I believe that there is no extra background information needed for this unit. Most of the stories were very straight forward and were easy to understand. There was however, one story that I had to read more than once to understand. This does not mean that it needs notes, because it could just be how I read it the first time.

Overall, the readings for this unit are very easy and not boring. This unit is suitable for most people. The information given about this unit is very accurate and helpful in choosing a unit. I do believe that you can decide if you are going to like this unit or not by the information provided on the first page.

Another thing that I noticed in this unit that I enjoyed was the pictures. All of the pictures provided

for each story really did a good job of representing the story overall. They helped in picturing what

was going on. 

(African Animals)

Reading Diary B: South African Folktales

South African Folktales

The Dance for Water
This title is very catching. One I love water, so I was not sure if it was going to be about drinking water, rain water, or lake water. I was really hoping lake water. However, the first line of the story tells you about the setting of the story, a drought. The first paragraph was very powerful in letting the readers know how serious the drought was. I enjoyed the fact that the animals would dance to try to bring water. This is very related to the culture of Africa, which makes this story perfect for this unit. I also really enjoyed the picture provided for this story. It was very fitting for the drought and the animals as the main characters. (Pictured below)

Picture Information

Elephant and Tortoise

This story was very interesting. There were a lot of animals involved which made the story very entertaining. The dialogue helped the flow of the story. I was surprised that the tortoise was able to stand up to so many animals before the lion beat him up. The ending of the story took a complete different turn than I expected. It was kind of weird how the tortoise was able to kill the elephant after the elephant ate the tortoise.

When Lion Could Fly
The title of this story was very catching. I could not wait to read a story about a lion being able to fly. What a picture that put in my mind. This story was interesting because the lion thought that the frog took away his flying powers. Overall, this story was okay.

Reading Diary A: South African Stories

South African Folktales

The Monkey's Fiddle
I really enjoyed this story. It was about a great adventure starting with just the monkey. However, once the story went on and progressed there were more animals introduced. This made the story more interesting and dynamic. I like how the Wolf was trying to get the bow and arrow through the Jackal by lying. This adding some suspense into the story. I am glad that the monkey ended up with what he wanted in the end and all of the animals were scared he would keep playing music.

(Vervet Monkey)

The Lion, The Jackal, and The Man
By just reading the title you can tell that there are going to be three main characters. I believe that by having more than two characters, it makes a story more interesting and more tempting to keep reading to find out what is going to happen next. With all of the dialogue throughout the story, it really made it easy to picture what was happening. This was also good in making it seem more practical.

Tink-Tinkje
In this story I learned that tink-tinkje is a type of bird. I liked it because it was birds practically judging each other by what they are capable of and what they looked like. More than half of the story was dialogue which I thought made the story flow very well.

Jackal Fools Lion Again
In most of the first half of the unit, the Jackal is either the main character or a has a big role in the story. In this story it shows how much of a trickster he can be.

Famous Last Words: Week 6

I can say that this week has been ten times better than the last two weeks. Let’s start with Monday; yes I am glad that OU did not open until 10 because my 8am class was cancelled. However, I wish that they either would have closed all day or told us the night before. I live in OKC, so I have to leave early because of morning traffic. Therefore, I was just about to leave my house when I got the call about school. I really needed extra sleep.

I am glad that we are finally getting to comment on each other’s projects. I know that we have all been working hard and using our imaginations, which actually can be tough at times. Being able to see everyone’s progress is wonderful. I am still overly impressed with how talented my classmates are, everyone is so good at using their imagination and writing stories.

Since, we are in week 6, I am feeling a little more confident in my storytelling and writing abilities. Clearly, I am FAR from perfect and can still use a lot more practice.This week, I have done most of my assignments in my office room at my house. I mainly do my assignments after work and while I am eating dinner. I think that food really does fuel my brain and makes writing a little easier.

Overall, I am enjoying this class. I am working on my project for this week still and also on some of the project comments. I am hoping to get ahead in this class this weekend, so I can focus on my other classes. I am really looking forward to adding to my storybook each week. I like my topic that I picked, and I hope that I can make my stories interesting, so that you (my classmates) will enjoy reading them.

Snowflake Picture

Essay: Western African Folktales

This unit was a little different than the past couple of units that I have read. I enjoyed this unit however. I believe that the notes provided were really helpful. The notes left a good background for the stories. In the story, How the Tortoise got its shell, the notes were extremely helpful. I would have never know that chief Mauri was God, Fida was Friday, Mr. Klo was the tortoise, or Koklovi was the chicken. Therefore, the notes played a big role in being able to understand the story.

I believe that everything that we needed to know about this unit was provided. The story length was accurate, as well as the language was easy to read. (The notes helped on certain characters).  If you enjoy titles that make you want to keep reading to find out what the story is really about, then this is the unit for you. All of the stories do use a big imagination, which I believe is what makes them interesting.

My favorite story has to be either how wisdom became property of the human race or How the Tortoise got its shell. Both of the stories, I wanted to read right away after reading the title. The title kind of left a big door open. I was impressed with both stories and how they turned out.

My least favorite story in this unit was the leopard and the ram. I feel like the first paragraph makes you think the story is going to be completely different than it was. I think that this story could have had a more exciting story line that made readers want to keep reading.

Overall, I enjoyed this unit, but it was not my favorite unit of the semester. The untextbook for this unit was easy to follow and everything was very well organized. The notes were not too much throughout the unit, they were very helpful. 

Western African Folktales

Western Africa

Storytelling Week 6: How the tortoise got its shell

Cute Baby Tortoise Eating a Strawberry

Once upon a time, there was a very special king. He wanted to have the biggest party with the most elaborate food, drinks, and decorations. He wanted to invite anyone and everyone. The messengers would go out and invite everyone off the streets and even send out invitations to everyone that they knew. His servants and pets were in charge of the food, drink, and decorations.

The king owned a chicken and a tortoise. The chicken was short, skinny, but very fast. Since, the chicken was so fragile, the king only asked the chicken to go around town and to gather food. The king told the chicken that he was not allowed to get anything heavy. If he needed help carrying something, the chicken should ask the tortoise for help.

The tortoise was very tall and muscular. Since, the tortoise was able to handle more weight in what he was returning to the king. The king asked the tortoise to go all the way across town to get the most expensive wine in the kingdom. The king wanted gallons and gallons of it. It was very special and the king thought that everyone would be sure to talk about the party if they had the wine.

The tortoise was more than happy to travel all the way across the town to get the wine. However, on his way back from getting the wine, the chicken called for his help. The chicken needed helped carrying some of the food. The tortoise stopped to help the chicken on the way back to the king’s castle.

Since, the chicken did not have a lot in his hands; he hurried back to the castle. The tortoise, however, was stuck walking super slow because he had such a heavy load of wine and food. The tortoise then heard thunder. He picked up his pace; however, he did not make it back in time for the party. He was across the street when it started to rain really hard. The tortoise then took shelter under the wine and the food. The moon was shining bright and the tortoise was extra tired from traveling across the town. The tortoise fell asleep.

The next morning when he woke up he had a shell on his back! All of the wine and food magically turned into a shell and the tortoise was stuck walking on all fours. He walked across the street to the castle. However, the king did not realize who he was at first. The chicken recognized his voice and they let him back in and loved him even more than before. The king had to let the tortoise know, that even without the wine, the party was a success!

The End!

Author's Note:
In the original story, the tortoise does not make it back in time because he drank too much of the wine. He then gets locked out of the party because it began to rain. The tortoise gets buried by the palm trees and the wine and the tortoise dies. However, the earthenware pot and dust caked together to make his shell. Medicines were used to bring the tortoise back to life. 

I tried to keep the main story line, but changed up a few minor details. I kept the chicken and the tortoise, but changed the god to a king. I changed up the tortoise's journey for the wine and a little bit how he got his shell. I also, did not want him to die so I changed how the story ended.


Bibliography:
How the tortoise got its shell
This story is part of the West African Folktales unit. Story source: West African Folktales by William H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair, with drawings by Cecilia Sinclair (1917).

Reading Diary B: West African Folktales

West African Folktales

How the tortoise got its shell

I have been wanting to read this story since Laura told me about it in one of my comments. I was not really sure where this story was going to go, but I enjoyed reading it. If there were not brackets explaining who was the king, chicken, and tortoise, it would have been really confusing. I am glad that they brought the tortoise back to life. 

Tortoise

The leopard and the ram

This story was interesting that the leopard and the ram were friends. However, the first paragraph had me thinking that the story line was going to be different. I was not expected the story to be about how the leopard and the ram got their food. 

How mushrooms first grew

This story caught me by the title. Of course you know that the story is not true, so you want to know how much of imagination they have. It was very interesting and could be used for a storytelling post since you can change the story line to whatever you want and just stick with the title. 

I really enjoyed this unit. It was a little different than the other units that I have been reading. However, the stories all were interesting and the titles were very catching. 

Reading Diary A: West African Folktales

West African Folktales

How we got the name "Spider Tales"

This is the first story in this unit. I was hooked by just the title. It made me want to know what the story was going to be about and it give me the feeling that this was the background for the unit. By just the title I thought it was going to be about a real spider, however, the spider is a person! The story did a great job of explaining the three things. 

How wisdom became the property of the human race

I really enjoyed this story. Just like the first story I was hooked by the title. I was really curious where this story was going to go. I think that this story could be used for storytelling because you can really use your imagination. The author had a very unique way of explaining how wisdom escaped to humans. 

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Why white ants always harm man's property

This story was very interesting. The notes provided helped in understanding that the white ants are actually termites. This is a great story to tell why the white ants are such a pest. This could be retold in many ways for our storytelling post. 

Overall, all of the stories had very intriguing titles. They are made you want to read how and why so and so do something. I wanted to keep reading this unit and am excited about the second half of the unit. 

Essay: Bidpai

Bidpai
The geese and the tortoise
Picture information

The unit that I read this week was GREAT! All of the stories were very entertaining and easy to read and follow. This unit had similar stories to the unit that I read last week. I am starting to notice some overlap in stories, especially the one about the tortoise and the geese. I believe I have read that story three different times. Each time they have been somewhat different, but the same storyline. The wording and how the story was told varied unit to unit.

This unit would be a great read for pretty much anyone. The stories are not too long, and they all involve an animal as the main character. Therefore, if you love animals then this would be a wonderful unit for you to read. If you have noticed, most of the units that I have read have involved animals. Also, all of the stories have great story lines and themes. This makes storytelling easy and fun. You really get to use your imagination and let the animals tell the story. The themes are also fun to use. They let you really take your storytelling in any direction that you would like to.

The untextbook for this unit was very organized, just like all of the other units. The information provided for the unit is very helpful and accurate. The notes that were provided on a few of the stories were helpful. These notes provided background information for the story and even some extra information about other stories that were similar. The notes provided are always great and I really enjoy them. They help me understand the stories and their relation to the overall unit. I do not think that there are additional notes needed for this unit. It was very well written and easy to understand.  

I would suggest this unit to others and it does not need anything added to it.

Storytelling Week 5: The Lion and his Owner

(The Lion and his Owner)

Once upon a time there was a lion and an owner. The owner had gotten the lion when he was just a cub. He rescued him from being killed because the cub’s mom could not take care of him any longer. The owner fed him bottles, taught him how to eat on his own, a few simple tricks, bought him all the cool toys, and even made him his own sanctuary in his back yard. The owner would do anything and everything for the cub.

Once the cub got older, the two would do everything together. The owner would bring the lion on trips with him, walk him in the neighborhood, and even had parties for him. They were the best of friends.

The lion would help the owner around the house and in the yard. The lion would help him pick all the weeds, help pick up leaves and sticks, pick out pretty flowers, and would even water the yard and garden. The owner even let the lion come inside of his house. The lion would watch television with his owner and help him with basic chores around the house each week.

One day the lion and the owner were out in the backyard. They were prepping the yard to get it ready for spring and their annual spring cook out. They were both so happy and excited about the cookout. The weather was gorgeous and winter seemed to be long gone.

As the day went on, the two got a lot done. Planted new flowers, racked leaves, bought new outdoor furniture, and even some lawn ornaments. However, they noticed that is was starting to get super windy. Before they knew it, the nice hot shinning sun was covered by grey boring clouds. The temperature in the air turned from warm to chilly.

There was a cold front that blew in. That night they ended up getting snow! Therefore, the next morning the lion and the owner had to bring everything that was outside to the garage. This was to save the flowers and the furniture from weathering before their perfect party.

Just as the two were moving a piece of the heavy furniture, the lion noticed something. There was a bee coming near his owner. The lion was so grateful for his owner and knew that his owner was highly allergic to bees. So, the lion dropped the furniture to stop the bee from getting to his owner. However, the furniture landed right on the owner’s foot. He ended up breaking his foot, but the lion killed the bee before it got to his owner. 

"It is better to have a wise enemy than a foolish friend."

Author's Note:
The original story is about a gardener and a bear. The gardener was really nice to the bear and feed him food. The bear then fanned away the files while the gardener took a nap. There was one that would not go away, and the bear got very angry. The bear then threw a stone at the fly, but it hit the gardener as well. In the end, both the fly and the gardener die. The theme of the story was "
It is better to have a wise enemy than a foolish friend." 

I wanted to change the characters and add a different story line. Also, I did not want one of the main characters to die in the end after being so nice. 

Bibliography:
The Bear and The Gardener
This story is part of the Bidpai unit. Story source: The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai by Maude Barrows Dutton,  with illustrations by E. Boyd Smith, 1908.

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Reading Diary B: Tales of Bidpai

Tales of Bidpai

The second part of this unit started out with three separate stories about foxes. Three stories about Foxes The first story had a great lesson. "Because of my own greediness, I must now go supper less to bed" In this story, the fox would have had a great supper of a hen, but instead he heard something much louder. He decided to go for the thing that was much louder and ended up having to go to bed with nothing in his tummy.

Two tortoise stories
This page has two stories on it. The first story is The Tortoise and the Geese. I have read a story very similar to this one in past units. The poor tortoise does not listen and ends up killing himself. The geese were being very nice to him. This story ends more dramatically than I remember however, it says he was dashed to pieces. That sounds very painful.
The second story includes a tortoise and a scorpion. The tortoise was being a nice friend when the scorpion was trying to sting him without thinking. Between these two stories the tortoise is not having the best day.

The Lion and the Hare
This unit ended with a great story of The Lion and the Hare. I like how it incorporated Baghdad as the neighborhood of many wild animals.  Another sad ending for the lion, however.

Lion and Hare Picture

Reading Diary A: Tales of Bidpai

Tales of Bidpai

The Rustic and the Nightingale.
This story was very interesting. After reading the first paragraph, I was unsure what the story was going to be able. The first paragraph was very descriptive about the Rustic's garden. I am glad that the story involved a cute little, nightingale. The picture did a great job of helping the reader, me, picture the bird. I am glad that the bird made the Rustic realize that he was punishing the bird for something so little. I like how the story ended and the Rustic is a good man.

The Two Travelers
After reading the first paragraph of this story, I immediately thought about how many ideas and opportunities that this story could have for storytelling.

The Gardener and the Bear
I enjoyed this story. I can imagine the bear doing everything that he does in the story. I also, like how the story ends with, "It is better to have a wise enemy than a foolish friend." This is a great theme that could be used in many storytelling posts.

The Carpenter and the Ape
This story is a perfect example to not mess with other people's business. The poor monkey cut off part of his tail for doing something that he was not supposed to be doing. It always seems to be the monkeys that are messing up.

Bye bye to the Monkey's tail

Overall, this is a great unit. I cannot wait to read the rest of the unit.

Famous Last Words Week 4

Well I have to do my famous last words early this week because tomorrow morning I get my wisdom teeth out.  I am actually very nervous. I have never had a major procedure done, besides when I was a baby and five years old. This has already been a very eventful week. I have actually been sick all week. I did not go to class Monday and got to spend my day at the doctor on Tuesday. Therefore, all of my work this week has been done while lying in bed or on the couch. I think that I actually write better when I am sitting up. I am more than ready to feel better.

Besides that, I have enjoyed my reading this week. The Jataka Tales (Babbitt) were very easy to follow and to read. This made it helpful since I have had zero energy this week. I can only imagine how I am going to be this weekend with my wisdom teeth. I liked these stories because they were all about different animals. Some of the stories were very realistic as well.

My classes are going well so far. I got a little behind since I missed class on Monday, but I am trying my best to catch up fast. This is because I have two tests next week. They are both on Wednesday and they both cover a lot of information. I have already started studying for these tests. Highlighters, note cards, study guides, and notes are everywhere around me.

Since it is not Thursday, I have not had the chance to comment on my other classmates blogs. I know that everyone is doing a great job. I am very anxious to see how everyone’s storybooks or portfolios come out. Everyone has such a great imagination, so I know they will all be amazing. 

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Essay: Jataka Tales (Babbitt)

Jataka Tales (Babbitt)

I was very impressed with this unit. I really did enjoy the readings. I hope that I am able to read more units like this one throughout the semester. I liked how each story was easy to follow, the main character were animals, and that most of the stories had an overall theme.

My favorite story from this section was The Turtle who could not stop talking. I have actually read this story before, so it was very familiar to me. However, I am still trying to figure out where I read it. Another story that stood out to me was Beauty and Brownie. First off, the title was very catching because unlike the other stories you could not tell who was going to be the main character. This story was also very practical since it had to do with deer and hunters.

I believe that this unit and the unit I read in week 3, Aesop (Winter), were similar in the fact that they both had animals as the main characters. There can be many connections made between these two units. I also feel that some of the stories could even overlap some. The themes of the stories in both units are both very practical. However, in this unit you had to figure out the theme, while in week 3, there was a sentence stating the overall theme of the story. 

This unit is very well organized and written. I do not believe that they are additional notes needed because each story is easy to follow. I would suggest to add some color pictures in the stories, since they are all black. This would add some excitement to the reading. All of the background information provided for this unit was very helpful. Even though, there are not storytelling ideas for this unit, I believe that these stories are easy to add your own thoughts to.

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Storytelling Week 4: The Stupid Monkeys

Once upon a time there was a very hard working maid. She was the maid of a King who never gave her any vacations. She was in charge of all the cleaning, laundry, and even watering the plants. 

However, one day the queen requested that the king should give the maid a vacation. The king gave the maid a week vacation. The maid has never been on vacation before, she was overly excited. 

Before the maid took off on her vacation, she had to find someone to cover for her while she was gone. She remembered how smart the king's monkeys were, so she hired them for the week. Little did she know, they did not understand her directions very well. 

The monkeys went to do their first task, mop the kitchen. It took them thirty minutes to even remember where the mop bucket was. Once they found it, they poured in the soap and then added the water. They then started to mop just how the maid told them too, however, they forget to tell the king they were mopping. So the king slipped and fell on the wet kitchen floor. The king was very upset.

Soon after the monkeys finished mopping they had to start the laundry. They went up to the king's room and collected all of his clothes. They did remember they had to sort all the laundry out by whites or colors. However, one red sock got stuck in the white pile. The monkeys started the laundry, which they thought was going perfectly. Then it was time to put the while load into the dryer.Uh oh..all of the whites were PINK! The monkeys were so confused on how this happened, until they discovered the one red sock. 

The monkeys were so tired but had one more task to finish for the day. They were hoping they could finish this task perfectly with no mistakes. Their last task was to water the plants. They filled up the water can and started walking around the castle watering the plants and flowers. The monkeys remembered ten out of the thirteen plants that the maid told them about. Since they forgot to water those three plants, all three of them died. 

Overall, the monkeys thought they did a great job at doing the maids job. By the end of the week, the king had yelled at the monkeys everyday. The king also told the maid that she was never to hire the monkeys again. If she wanted to go on vacation, she had to find a new maid for the week she was going to be gone. 

(Crazy Monkey Picture)

Author's Note:
The original story is about when a king gave a holiday to all the people in his city. The king's gardner wanted to go to the city with all of his friends, but was unsure how he was going to go if he still had to water the trees in the king's garden. Then he realized that he could have the monkeys do it. The gardner asked the monkeys nicely if them would water the trees so he could go enjoy his holiday in the city. The gardner told the monkeys that, "Do not forget to water the trees when the sun goes down. See they have plenty of water, but not too much." The monkeys were happy to water the trees, but they were unsure how to tell if the trees had enough water. So the monkeys pulled up each tree to check the length of the roots to determine how much water each tree should get. However, this killed all of the trees once the gardener got back.

I chose to keep the monkeys as the main characters of the story. I wanted to keep the story-line mostly the same, however, I changed the gardener to a maid so that the monkeys could have more tasks to complete. I just came up with daily chores and made the monkeys make basic mistakes.

Bibliography:
The Stupid Monkeys
This story is part of the Jataka Tales unit. Story source: More Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt, illustrated by Ellsworth Young (1922).

Reading Diary B Jatakas (Babbitt)

Jataka Tales (Babbitt)

Once again, this unit had great stories. The stories all included crazy animal characters that make them very interesting to read.

The Stupid Monkeys These poor monkeys, they wanted to help the gardener, but had no idea anything about trees. I cannot believe that they killed all of the trees by looking at the length of their roots. But I will say, it is the gardeners fault for leaving the task to the monkeys. How are they supposed to know what to do.

The Woodpecker and the Lion I enjoyed reading this story. The woodpecker was very nice to the lion, even though he had worries. I thought it was nice of the woodpecker to help out the lion even though he was scared the lion was going to eat him. It was very smart of the woodpecker to put sticks in the lions mouth, so he could not eat him. I still think that the lion should have done something more for the woodpecker.

The Hawks and Their Friends this was a great story that incorporated many animals. I like how the father hawk had to keep repeating what was happening and all of the animals responded with, "I will come at once." I also think that this would be a great story to use in my storybook, the location is at a lake and it is easy to incorporate an adventure into it.

Beauty and Brownie

Picture of Beauty and Brownie

This story brought the other side of hunting, it was the animals perspective. Which to me, was really sad. Those poor deer have to watch out for their entire family and can't get caught in the traps. I wish that both of the deer would have listened to their father.

Lake stories from different animals: Styles Brainstorming

Topic:
My storybook will be about different animals adventures at the lake. After researching there seems to be a lot of great stories that include lakes, even stories with animals as the characters. I found two stories that I believe I would like to include: How Raven stole the lake and How the Turtle saved his own life. The untextbook has so many great stories, especially when you search "lake". There were also many results on sacred texts. The story does not have to have an animal to begin with, that is the fun with storytelling. Being able to change a human character into an animal.

(Turtles)

Bibliography:
How Raven Stole the Lake
This story is part of the Alaskan Legends unit. Story source:Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).

How the Turtle Saved his own life
This story is part of the Jataka Tales unit. Story source: Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt, illustrated by Ellsworth Young (1912).

Possible Styles: Wow, there are so many styles to chose from. This was the most difficult part for me. 
Adventure: This is of course one of the main topics, the adventure that the animals are on. A possible adventure would be to find a new house, to meet new friends, or even just an adventure to see what is going on around them. There are many ideas of adventures, I think I will stick to something basic like relocating their home or just an adventure to see the nature (lake).

Animal Storytellers: This is more than likely the style that I will chose. It is the most practical, that the animals tell the story about their adventures at the lake. There would be dialogue between the animals, so you know how the animals are feeling. I would want the main animal from each story be the storyteller. This animal would tell the story in first person. 

The lake as the storyteller: This would be an interesting point of view. It would be how the lake sees, feels, and even hears the animals adventures. I think that the lake would be talking in third person about each of the animals, or could even tell it in first person to tell its point of view. For example, the lake could tell a story about how it saw the transformation of a tadpole to a turtle, then that story could be continued with the turtles point of view on how he convinced the mean people to bring him back to the lake (reference from story above).

Reality show of the animals: The stories could be turned into drama between all of the animals at the lake. They could talk about their love life, friendship, and enemies that they have in their world. The lake could be the main setting of the show and the animals would be the stars of the show.