W10. B1.

I am currently enrolled in a Entomology class here on campus and one of the things we were asked to do was to write a poem and perform it for our classmates (which consists of at least 200 hundred people). This was my poem. Juvenile Hormones are in certain bugs which keep them from molting and become adult bugs.

Poem: Juvenile Hormone

I don’t want to grow up.
I love juvenile hormones.
I will be forever happy as an immature.

I hate molting and wish I could stay small.
I’ll live with this newspaper and forever be tiny.
This juvenile hormone will keep me where I belong.

Oh no! What are you doing?
How can you do this?
I said I wanted to stay small!!!

Oh you tiny little bug, its time you grow up.

W9. B4.

The test was on Friday so I have taken a break from blogging over the weekend but needed to do one more blog for this week. I didn't really know what to blog about today so I decided I would look up some reviews on "The Hobbit" since we are starting it tomorrow.

The Hobbit is most likely the best book written by Tolkien. It has adventure that exceeds that of LOTR and is the the story of how Bilbo (Frodos cousin) comes across the ring and uses its magic in his adventures. The story starts with Bilbo having to accommodate for 13 dwarfs and a wizard Gandalf the gray. He is asked to join a quest and at first is resilient but in the end decides to go. He faces many mishaps and dangers and one of the largest battles middle earth has ever seen.In conclusion the Hobbit is a highly recommended book ever though it is smaller than the LOTR it has more adventure.

review submitted by: Fintan

I have read all of Tolkiens books, and even though the hobbit is the shortest, it is definitely the best. The story starts with Bilbo, being dragged along with a bunch of dwarfs and a wizard, Gandalf. Throughout the beginning, Bilbo is ignored by the dwarfs, and they tend to call him a 'burglar.'The story continues, and Bilbo gets more popular when he finds the One ring, the centre of the LOTR trilogy. I highly recommend this book to people of all ages. It is Tolkiens best work and is surely a fantasy classic!

review submitted by: Dan

from the website: http://www.sffworld.com/book/2291.html

W9. B3.

Tuck Everlasting has always been one of my favorite books. I can remember my mom always talking about what a great book it is and now I understand why it is such an excellent book. Natalie Babbitt does a great job letting you into the world of the Fosters and into the never ending world of the Tucks. Tuck Everlasting teaches Winnie a lot of life lessons and perhaps the reader could take something from it also. I am not a big fan of Natalie Babbitt books but Tuck Everlasting is a great book. As I read this book I could see myself in three years teaching this book chapter by chapter to my students and hopefully will instill the love of this book that my mother instilled in me so many years ago.

W9. B2.

Last night I had read Rossetti Sing Song and had got through them painfully and didn’t find them very fun to read at all, especially after reading Stevenson who is so upbeat and playful. Sing-Song seemed dark and sad, nothing I want to read to my children. As a child my mom read Stevenson’s verse to me all the time. I made sure when I got the books for this class I found the big book version of his poems, the one just like I had when I was a child. Rossetti I had never even heard of.

Today when we started discussing them I was not very excited. I had read over the handout but not studied it in depth and once we started discussing it I was thoroughly surprised. These verses weren’t near as bad as I had made them out to be. Once I understood the context that these verses were written in it made them seem much more acceptable and fun to read.

Still not as fun as Stevenson though.

W9. B1.

Creative writing:
For one of my other classes we had to re-write The Little Red Hen when a different setting and different characters. I choose the beach. It is as follows:

The Little Red Sand Crab

Once upon a time, there was a little red sand crab that lived at the beach. She was friends with noisy seagull, a sleepy best friend and a lazy lifeguard.
One day the little red sand crab decided to build a sand sculpture. The little red sand crab said, “Who will help me sketch a sand sculpture?”

“Not I” said the noisy seagull and he flew away.
“Not I” said the sleepy best friend and she closed her eyes.
“Not I” said the lazy lifeguard and went back to his post.

“Then I will sketch it myself” said the little red sand crab. And she did.
When the sand sculpture had been sketched she knew it was time to start collecting supplies. “Who will help me choose and gather supplies?”

“Not I” said the noisy seagull.
“Not I” said the sleepy best friend.
“Not I” said the lazy lifeguard.

“Then I will gather supplies myself.” And she did.
“Now”, said the little red sand crab, “it is time to dig a hole down to where the sand is dark and bring buckets of water from the ocean. Who will help me?”

“Not I” said the noisy seagull.
“Not I” said the sleepy best friend.
“Not I” said the lazy lifeguard.

“Then I will dig the hole and bring the buckets of water myself,” said the little red sand crab. And she did.
The little red sand crab worked hard at digging her hole deep and even harder at carrying up the buckets of water to her work area.
When she was finally done with that, the little red sand crab asked, “Who will help me scoop wet sand into the center so we can begin working?”

"Not I” said the seagull, best friend and lifeguard all at once.

“Then I will do it myself,” said the little red sand crab. And she did.
When the wet sand was in position and she was ready to start building she asked, “Who will help me build a castle and moat for the sand sculpture?”

“Not I” said the noisy seagull.
“Not I” said the sleepy best friend.
“Not I” said the lazy lifeguard.

“Then I will build it myself,” said the little red sand crab. And she did.
It just so happened that this day there was a sand sculpture contest going on and the grand prize winner won $1,000! The little red sand crab thought this was a great idea. What did she have to lose?
Soon her sand sculpture was finished and she said, “Who will help me enter this into the sand sculpture contest?

“I will” said the noisy seagull.
“I will” said the sleepy best friend.
“I will” said the lazy lifeguard.

“Oh no you won’t,” said the little red sand crab. “You wouldn’t help me sketch the design, choose and gather supplies, dig a hole, bring buckets of water from the ocean, scoop wet sand into the hole, or help me build my castle and moat. Now I will enter the contest all myself!”
And that’s just what she did.

W8. B4.

As a child I always loved reading mystery books. The Hardy Boys were one of my favorites because my last name is Hardy but the best mystery books which I could never put down were the classic Nancy Drew books. Caroyln Keene is an excellent author and when I was a young child I always wanted to be a detective and a mystery book writer because of Nancy Drew. But did you know? That Caroyln Keene is just a pen name? I had no idea. It is a common pen name which is used by the company who produces the Nancy Drew books. neat huh?

W8. B3.

Today I was reading "A Childs Garden of Verses" and I came across one of my all time favorite poems. Growing up our house was next too two lakes and on pretty days my mom and I would walk to the lakes each with a book and would sit around the lake and read and some days we would take Austin, my puppy with us. My most vivid memory of going to the lakes with my mom is me sitting on her lap and her quoting this poem to me. I know that one day I will quote this poem to my daughter and perhaps even read it to her from this book. The poem is, "The Swing" and it goes like this:

The Swing

How would you like to go up in a swing,
up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do believe it is the pleasantest thing
ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
till I can see so wide,
Rivers and tress and castle and all
over the countryside-

Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown-
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!

W8. B2.

Today I wanted to Blog about children’s poetry. So as I was thinking of something to write about I decided I would look up children's poetry. I came across Poetry Month which just so happens to be April. Considering it is almost April I found that relevant to what we have been studying. As I looked online for more information on Poetry Month I found a whole page full of ideas of how to incorporate poetry into your teaching. Also I feel teachers feel restricted to use only poetry with language arts or English but you can incorporate poetry into all aspects of your classroom. There are some excellent books that help teach children about math and at the same time are rhymes and riddles which incorporate poetry such as Math for All Seasons by Greg Tang.

W8. B1.

Over Spring Break I finished all my outside readings but I wanted to Blog on Twice upon a Time: Sleeping Beauty before any of the others. This book is so cute. It is a chapter book where each chapter switches back and forth between Sleeping Beauty and the Prince and we get to see both sides of the story. Sleeping Beauty is your typical princess and her story doesn’t vary much. The prince on the other hand does. It was quite funny to hear the prince’s side of the story. His mother has “ogre blood” and twice a month tries to eat him. It is definitely a different take on Sleeping Beauty and it was one I thoroughly enjoyed.

W7. B4. Mother Goose

M ature
O de
T une
H olding
E gg
R hyme

G uardian
O ffspring
O bscure
S upportive
E nergetic

I chose to do an acrostic poem with Mother Goose today for my Blog. Today in class we discussed the beginning of mother goose and how she came about. In doing this acrostic poem I went to a thesaurus and tried to find words that in my mind described Mother Goose herself and the rhymes that went along with it. I was having difficulty choosing an “O” word but I came across obscure and then read the synonyms for it and they included “unclear, unbelievable” etc. and after today’s class apparently many mother goose rhymes may have been clear two hundred years ago but today they are vague and unclear at certain times depending on the rhyme your reading.

W7. B3. Children's Books

Children’s Books

I love Scholastic book orders. They will more than likely be the reason why I go broke some day. Today was got our February order in and I was in heaven. Since last Thursday, the day we lost my grandpa I haven’t exactly been in the best of moods and the weather wasn’t helping, plus being behind in school, etc. but the day we get our book orders, I feel nothing could go wrong. I know, I know- pretty lame but I can’t help it! I love children’s books. Today when I got home from class I made an excel spreadsheet with the title, author, illustrator and synopsis of each book so I could find each book easily and know what each one was about. I bought picture books, early readers, all the way to chapter books children wouldn’t read till 5th grade. The more children’s books I read and learn about the more excited I get about teaching little kids. I can hardly wait! I can start subbing next semester and I know my knowledge of children’s literature will be of great help.

W7. B2. Littlest Knight

The Littlest Knight: by Carol Moore

I started reading this book because my boyfriend’s last name is "Knight" so now I am always attracted to things regarding Knights- because I consider him my "knight." When I began reading this short picture book I was very critical about how the pictures weren’t that good, but as I read on I really began to enjoy the book. There were a number of life lessons and biblical references. The little knight loves the princess but no one thinks he will be able to defeat the dragon which many knights have tried to kill- (David and Goliath) Of course; he does with the help of the bees. Also the bees mean a lot to me because my grandpa was a bee keeper and loved bees and so this story was really neat for me to come across with his recent death and the little knights kindness to the bee's is what saves him.

Also another life lesson that is taught through this story was do not always take things for what they look like. Two examples, the little knight: no one thought he could do it because he was little and of course he did. Secondly, the dragon: everyone believes him to be an evil dragon just wanted to kill but in reality he was under a spell and was a gentle dragon. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will probably read it again and perhaps go find it to buy!

W7. B1. Goblin

I had never even heard of The Princess and the Goblin until this class. I must admit though I liked it. I probably would not read it again for fun but it did keep me turning the pages. I wanted to keep reading because I was just waiting for something to happen to Irene when she was with her grandmother. The whole first half of the book I felt like she was the evil character that had something to do with the goblins. The mystery of whether the grandmother was good or evil is what kept me reading. I felt the grandmother was creepy for much of the book. Once I resolved in my head that the grandmother is looking out for her and no harm will come to her while she is with her or under her care I liked the grandmother more.
Something I didn’t like was how it just ended. Yes, everything was solved and the goblins were no longer a problem to the princess, the miners and everyone else but I just felt like all of sudden it’s done and everyone is happy and everything is solved.
Lastly, I am in shock there is a movie made after this book. Granted I realize it is a “Puffin Classic” but I have never heard of it, nor had my family or my friends. Odd how some movies like Cinderella, Snow White, Enchanted make it so big yet a book that is claimed a “classic” no one has ever heard of.

W6. B4. Funeral

Just wanted to post so that if you graded the week of February 25th-March 2nd I was out of town at my grandfathers funeral and that was why I was missing my last post. Here is a picture of his funeral program.