Sample Project Topics

Topic: Lake stories from different animals

Comments: I love summer and anything to do with the lake. I thought it would be interesting to include animals and their adventures at the lake.

Possible Stories: There is an entire unit of Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes. I believe that this has many great stories that even include animals. I feel like it will be really easy to find stories related on the Sacred Texts Archive.

Sample Story Comments: I read a story about a tiny frog and his journey with his grandmother.

Bibliography Information:

Sample Story: The Tiny Frog

This story is part of the Mississippi Valley / Great Lakes unit. Story source: Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1914).

Pretty Lake Picture

Topic: The Christmas Summer

Comments: I love Christmas and summer. So why not change up the Christmas season to make it into summer. This could include stories of both Christmas and summer. I would just change them  to make it a Christmas summer. It sounds fun to me.

Possible Stories: There are nursery rhymes available. You could even include some bible stories because of Jesus. It is somewhat of a broad topic but can be taken in many ways.

Sample Story Comments:  I read the nursery rhyme Christmas. It was short and sweet. It left a lot of room for imagination and even made it where you could change the season to summer.

Bibliography: 

From the book: The Real Mother Goose

Author: Illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright

Release Date: January 5, 2004

Topic: The Dog’s Life

Comments: My dog is my best friend. It would be great to have a story on the dog’s perspective of things. Since dogs are all over the place, it would be interesting to tell stories about where they live and who they live with (humans). It could be turned into the dogs gossiping together.

Possible Stories: There are so many stories about dogs and even animals. Since we are storytelling, we can change any animal into a dog. The untextbook is full of stories that can be useful. I can also search the Sacred texts achieve for dogs.

Sample Story Comments:  I read Puss in Boots. Clearly, you would change the cat to a dog. But it is a dog that lives in a palace. This was interesting because so many stories are in a kingdom. You could change the king to yourself.

Bibliography:

This story is part of the Lang's European Fairy Tales I unit. Story source: The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1889). 

Topic: The Children on their summer vacation

Comments: Once again, incorporating summer. Kids visit zoos, lakes, and even other states over summer vacation. This would be a story of many adventures that include tales told by the children. 

Possible Stories:In the untextbook unit of Native America, there are many units about tales. They are either retold for children or are children's fairy tales. There are so many stories. 

Sample Story Comments:The Little Boy and Girl in the Clouds This story was about two very curious kids, what kids are not curious. Curiosity can make for a very interesting story and even make a great plot twist. 

Bibliography:

This story is part of the American Indian Fairy Tales unit. Story source: American Indian Fairy Tales by W.T. Larned, with illustrations by John Rae (1921). 

I really had a hard time with this assignment, It was hard to pick a topic. So many of past storybooks have great ideas. I am trying to be as creative as I can. I am hoping that as the semester goes on that I get better at this. 

Famous Last Words for Week 2

Week 2 was way different from week 1. I feel like I have learned a lot more about all the different stories and even storybooks from past students. I am overly impressed with how well my classmates are at storytelling. Everyone has such a great big imagination and are able to change up stories to make them their own. The stories were successful if I could not tell you what was going to happen. The stories I read were all good at making one part of the plot a twist. I enjoy reading the stories that have happily ever after endings. I am also impressed with the comments being left by other classmates. One they are encouraging because other people like what I have written. Also, they are very helpful. I enjoy the constructive criticism; it really helps with my writing.

Week 2 for me was a little more difficult because I am still not the best at writing stories. I am still trying to figure out what style and strategies work best for me. I feel that I still do my best work when I am alone with zero distractions. This week however, I did enjoy reading Cupid and Psyche. I honestly had no idea what the story was going to be about. I learned about who Psyche was and got to read their twisted love story. Of course, I loved the happy ending.

My other classes are starting to pick up more than they were in the first week. I had my first quiz this week, which I got a 100 on! Since I am in all health and exercise science classes, I do not see many connections between the stories I am reading. Maybe as the semester goes on there will be stories about the health of a person, or even someone exercising. You never know what can come up! This class is full of everything, which I truly enjoy. 

Pencil Picture

Essay of Cupid and Psyche

This week I read Cupid and Psyche. I actually really enjoyed this unit. It was fascinating and very unpredictable. For example, I did not see Psyche’s sisters asking her to kill her husband, Cupid. Yes, there were parts that were hard to understand. However, I believe that was just the language it was in. The notes provided for each section were really helpful. I especially enjoyed the links to learn more about what was in the section. For example, the section of The Sleep of the Dead, had a link to Wikipedia about the famous Greek mythological character Pandora. I have never heard of Pandora until this section. Therefore, I enjoyed learning something new and learning about Pandora. 

If you are unsure if you want to read this unit, I would read the notes provided for a couple of the sections to see if you enjoy what is going on. There are a lot of Greek God’s mentioned throughout. This could be connected to other units that have the same Greek God’s. However, since this is the first unit of the semester, I am not sure what exact sections can relate or connect to this unit. 

Overall, I thought that this unit was very interesting. I was surprised with how the story went. The best part of the unit was that, I could not predict it. Of course, I had a favorite story. In all of my blog posts this week, I feel like I mentioned the section of Psyche's Husband Revealed. I really enjoyed this section; it kept me wanting to keep reading and reading to find out what was going to happen next. I was ready to know what her husband really looked like. It also was very descriptive and I could imagine them both in my mind perfectly. I also, loved The Wedding Feast. I love reading about happy endings, and of course they lived happily ever after. 

(Photo Information)

Storytelling Week 2: Psyche's Husband Revealed

Psyche is a princess who is married to Cupid. However, she has no idea what her husband even looks like. Over the years she has just imagined what she wanted him to look like; handsome, beautiful locks of hair, and even rosy cheeks.

One day, her sisters wanted to know what he looked like. They were very confused however, Psyche could not describe him. Psyche would just make up how he looked, and her sisters caught on. They were then very worried that she did not even know what her husband looked like. Her sisters then wanted her to be safe and asked her to try to kill him. They thought he was a BEAST.

That night Psyche was so worried because she did not want to kill him. She sat in her room just thinking over and over on what to do. Then it all came to her! She thought to herself, what if I just met him and he ends up being the most gorgeous prince in the kingdom. So she pondered all night how to make a date night to meet her husband. Psyche came up with going to dinner and a movie night. That way she could get to know her husband and see what he looked like.

Cupid, her husband, agreed to the date night. Psyche was so nervous since it was their first date. She made sure she looked perfect. It was time to meet Cupid. Psyche had butterflies in her stomach and her palms were even sweaty. She was standing at the door when Cupid walked in. She was blown away. He was not a beast at all. He was gorgeous. Cupid was tall and handsome. He had long blonde hair that was glowing and blowing in the wind. He had the prettiest baby blue eyes and even had a tan that was golden brown. She could not believe that she was actually married to a guy that she had only seen in dreams.

After the date, Psyche fell head over heels for her husband. Cupid did the same. She wanted to show him off to the entire world. Therefore, she set up a family meeting, so her sisters could meet him. Psyche had to prove to her sisters that he was a prince and not a beast. They both fell in love after they shared their first kiss together. They flew off into the world together and lived happily ever after.

(Cupid and Psyche madly in love)

Author's Note:
I decided to change up the story a little bit. I kept the fact that her sisters wanted to kill her husband, however, I left out how they wanted her to. (In his sleep) Also, I wanted the storyline to be different. I changed how Psyche and her husband met. The way he looked in the story compared to my version was also different. In the end of the story, Cupid soared into the air by himself. I thought that it would be more romantic if they flew off together.

Psyche's Husband Revealed

This story is part of the Cupid and Psyche unit. Story source:Apuleius's Golden Ass, as translated into English by Tony Kline (2013).

Classical Greece-Reading Diary B: Cupid and Psyche

Cupid and Psyche Table of Contents

I laughed in the section of Fears and Doubts. "First he’s a young man with a new growth of beard, now he’s middle-aged with a streak of grey in his hair. Who can change so suddenly from one age to another? The answer, my sister, is that she’s making the whole thing up or has no idea what her husband looks like." Clearly her sisters caught her in a lie. In this story I also enjoyed reading about how Psyche is pregnant and that fact that she is having a little baby boy (Cupid). I am glad that her sisters are looking out for her. That is what normal sisters would do. They would be concerned for their other sister's safety. They would give her an option, which they did in this story. However, this story took an unexpected turn that I did not see coming. They told her to kill her husband!

Husband (Cupid) Revealed

I really enjoyed reading about how Psyche feel in love with her husband. This section was probably my favorite one out of sections 9-21. Psyche's Husband Revealed

I learned a new word in these sections, loquacious. It means to be talkative or tending to talk a great deal.

I of course loved the section of cupid and psyche getting married and living happily ever after. This happened in The Wedding Feast. I loved the fact that almost all the characters introduced throughout the stories, made an appearance at the wedding. For example, Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury.  It was also nice to know that they ended up having a daughter named Pleasure because in an earlier story it stated something about having a baby cupid. Therefore, I thought that they were having a baby boy. 

Overall, I enjoyed this story and was glad I got to read the entire unit. I would suggest it to other students.

Classical Greece-Reading Diary A: Cupid and Psyche

Cupid and Psyche Table of Contents

I chose to read Cupid and Psyche. I actually talked about reading this in one of my previous blog posts. I was not really sure what the unit would be about. Overall, I was pleased with the story. I really enjoyed how easy it was to picture what was going on; the story was very descriptive throughout.

The very first section,The Captive Woman  , I was surprised that the story was beginning with a girl being kidnapped. Right then and there, I realized that this unit could take many turns. In the second section, Her Dream, I was very interesting that the women’s kidnapping took place in her dreams as well. It was sad however, that it had to happen on her wedding day.

My favorite section was The Magical Palace. “At the very centre of the grove beside the flowing stream was a regal palace, not made by human hands, but built by divine art.” I enjoyed the description of the palace. It seems beautiful. Psyche was overwhelmed and taken back with the palace. She could not quite take in the fact that all of the things around her were hers. I would have been the same way. She was very blessed.

I also enjoyed the notes throughout the stories. They were really helpful in understanding what was going on the entire time.The one note that stood out the most to me was in The Jealousy of Psyches Sisters. I enjoyed learning about the four chief winds. “Zephyr was the west wind, Eurus the east wind, Notus was the south wind, and Boreas was the north wind”. Overall, there were some sections that were hard to understand but the notes helped tremendously. 

(Cupid and Psyche)