Because of Winn-Dixie Quiz

Because of Winn-Dixie Quiz

Who was Winn-Dixie and how did he get his name?
a. He was a dog named after the local grocery store.
b. He was the owner of the grocery store, and was named after his father.
c. He worked at Gertrude’s Pets, and had to change his name because he had previously been arrested.

What did Otis name Gertrude, and then bring to the party at the end of the book?
a. his jar of pickles
b. his guitar
c. the parrot from the pet store

What was Opal’s father’s occupation?
a. He was a preacher.
b. He worked at the post office.
c. He worked at the pet store.

What was Winn-Dixie’s fear in the book?
a. He was afraid of mice.
b. He was afraid of thunderstorms.
c. He was afraid of the preacher.

Why had Otis been previously arrested?
a. He wouldn’t stop playing his guitar in the streets, after being asked to stop by the police.
b. He didn’t pay his bills.
c. He stole food from a store.

What was the name of the candy that had a secret ingredient in it?
a. a Littmus Lozenge
b. a Sorrow Drop
c. a Strawberry Swirl

What was in Gloria Dump’s backyard?
a. the oldest tree in Naomi
b. a tree with bottles hanging from it
c. a shed where she sat to read

Why couldn’t Gloria Dump read?
a. Her eye sight was bad.
b. She never learned to read in school.
c. She had gone blind after a car accident.

What duties did Opal have at the pet store?
a. She would sweep, clean up, and help arrange shelves.
b. She walked the dogs.
c. She ordered supplies for the store.

What happened when Otis played guitar for the animals in the pet store?
a. The animals wrecked their cages.
b. Otis was asked to stop playing his guitar.
c. The animals seemed to listen to the music.

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

This story shows how a young girl, India Opal Buloni, grows as she must learn some of the hardest lessons in life. Opal faces a daily struggle to understand more about her mother, who left when she was only three years old. She and her father have just moved to a new town. In the small town of Naomi, Florida, one trip to the local Winn-Dixie grocery store and the following summer’s adventures change Opal and help her through her struggles. Through the new people she meets, Opal learns about friendship, forgiveness, love, and life. The author really speaks to young reader through her book because they deal with some of he same struggles as Opal and the learn many of the same lessons.
My favorite part of the book was chapter 9. I think its funny how everyone thought a witch lived there and she would eat the dog; making the woman out to be a cruel, evil person. However, the lady turned out to be a nice sweet lady. My favorite line is, “Why don’t you go on and tell me everything about yourself, so as I can see you with my heart” (page 66). This made me smile because I grew up in a small town and everyone had their thoughts of each other, but no one really knew the truth. Kind of like don’t judge a book by its cover!

Poetry Activity

On Easter weekend I went to the river with my family.  My sister Danielle, my sister-in-law LaSae, my little brother's girlfriend Mary, and I were all sitting by the water under the trees.  We were sitting there laughing together because I was reading poems to them out of A Child's Anthology of Poetry.  We decided that our favorite poem was "Sick" by Shel Silverstein.  Then LaSae said, "I wish I could write poetry."  I told her, "Well in my Reading 302 class I wrote a poem and it goes like this:  There once was a cow named Tim, Who likes to play with Kim.  They ran about, And gave a shout, And she fell in love with him!"  Everyone thought it was funny, so we started a game.  LaSae said, "Oh how the trees sway," and I said, "Down by the bay."  Danielle said, "Look at the bees," and Mary said, "High up in the trees!"  And we continued with this for about an hour, it was one of the most fun we have had at the river in a long time!!!

The moral of this story: I think this would be a fun activity for my classroom one day.  One part of poetry is poems that rhyme, and I think this would be a good way to work on rhyming.  The class can sit in a circle and we can go one by one around the room and say lines that rhyme!

Ella Enchanted

I am so glad I read the book Ella Enchanted before I watched the movie. i loved the book, absolutely loved it. Once I started it, I couldn't put it down; the second half of the book was like a lifetime movie! I thought for sure that the movie would be great. But it wasn't. The entire story was turned around. The plot was not the same at all, I think the only thing that was the same was the names of the people. There was a lot of things different in the movie, but here are the things that really got to me.
The book that Mandy gave to Ella in the movie was ridiculous. She turned her boyfriend into a book? Come on, for real. I didn't like how in the movie it made Mandy look like a clumsy fairy, and that she couldn't do anything right. I liked the novel so much better because Mandy was a good fairy who only did small magic; howeer, the movie turned her into a fairy that couldn't get anything right.
I also didn't like how the spell was broken. Ella was going to kill Char? Wrong! I liked the novel better because when she broke the curse it was because of true love, not because she was commanded to kill him.
I really did not like the movie at all!

Activity

There are many activities you can do with this book.
One activity can be a simple naming activity. You can point to a picture of an animal and the student has to tell you what the animal is. For example, if you are doing a farm animal unit, you can turn to the page that has the poem, “Quack!” Said the Billy Goat by Charles Causley. It has a picture of different animals that can be found on a farm. You could also use this poem for a matching game. Above each farm animal there is a bubble with the sounds that animals make, but the sounds don’t match up with the right animals. So you could have the students match the sounds with the right animals.
Another activity you can do is have the children write their own poems. They can go through the book and look at the different poems, then write their own.
You can also use this book for an informational text. For example, there is a poem, Sparrow by Kaye Starbird that talks about many different birds. You can read the poem and discuss each bird and then make a little quiz over it. This is a great book and the possibilities for activities are endless!

Eric Carle's Animals Animals

This book is a must have for any one! This book is a collection of poems about animals and they are illustrated by Eric Carle. If you know any thing about Eric Carle, you know his illustrations are amazing! You can use this book for so many different things. An English lesson, a science lesson, a social studies lesson, even math lesson. Some of the poems are just funny and others are very informative.
My favorite one is the one by Mary Ann Hoberman called Giraffes. I love this poem and I love this illustration!
Another one I like is by Lucy W. Rhu called Enigma Sartorial, it’s about penguins. “Dressed in his dinner clothes Permanently. You never can tell when you see him about, If he’s just coming in Or just going out!” I love penguins and that is so funny!
This book can be used while teaching an insect unit. There are poems about insects in general, called Every Insect, and then there are poems about ants, crickets, bees, etc. One of the illustrations for the Every Insect poem has a picture of an insect with the parts broken apart and labeled, very informative.
The collection of poems covers animals from all areas. Zoo animals, farm animals, birds, insects, wildlife, reptiles…everything!
I will definitely use this book in my classroom one day, and I recommend it to everyone!

Questions for Peter Pan

Questions for Peter Pan

What are Wendy’s brothers’ names?

How was Peter trying to put his shadow back on?

How did Wendy get Peter’s shadow back on?

What saved Wendy’s life when Tinker told the lost boys to shoot her?

What bird gave Peter their nest in order to save his life?

What animal ate Hook’s hand?

How did they know when this animal was around?

What did the lost boys call Wendy besides her name?

How did the lost boys get into their underground house?

What did they build for Wendy to live in?

What does Peter do to save Tiger Lily?

What happens to the lost boys when Wendy and her brothers go home?

After Wendy grows up, who goes back to help Peter with spring cleaning?

What was your favorite part of the book?

Peter Pan

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie is by far one of my favorite books! Peter Pan and the lost boys live in Neverland. One night Peter brings back Wendy and her two brothers, Michael and John, back to Neverland so Wendy can be their mother. Their adventures are endless, everything from the mermaid lagoon to fighting off pirates!
There are so many parts of the books that I just loved. One of my favorites was in chapter 8 when Peter is imitating Captain Hook’s voice to free Tiger Lily. Smee is so funny because he knows that Hook wouldn’t want him to untie her and let her go, but he does it anyways! Another part was in chapter 7 when Wendy gives the lost boys quizzes about their mothers and fathers. I found it funny how Slightly answered every single question because he wanted to come out on top, but every one of his answers were ridiculous. Another one is in chapter 10, on page 92 when it discusses the rule that they have established. “There was a fixed rule that they must never hit back at meals, but should refer the matter of dispute to Wendy b raising the right arm politely and saying, “I complain of so-and-so;” but what usually happened was that they forgot to do this or did it too much.” Then, on the next page you read how every single one of them, one after another, say they complain of…. They complain of…. They complain of….
I think why I like this book so much is because it is so funny! I laughed and laughed when I was reading it. Also I like it because I’ve felt like Peter Pan and the lost boys. There was times when I was little that I didn’t want to grow up! Oh wait, I still don’t want to grow up! I really liked this book and will one day use it in my classroom!

Poetry

I have experienced first hand how people connect to different books. You can always seem to find a connection in just about any book you read. Whether it’s feeling like a doll like Ella, not knowing who you are like Alice, or not wanting to grow up like Peter Pan, you can find a way to connect to a book. One type of text that I haven’t really thought about before until here recently is poetry. Growing up I hated poetry, my teachers made us write poems and I hated it, hated it, hated it. This semester one of my professors made us bring our favorite poem to class and I was like, “I don’t like poetry, I don’t have a favorite poem.” Then I went looking through some of my old stuff and I had a box of stuff from my “first love.” He passed away when I was fifteen and at his funeral there was this poem read. After the funeral they typed it up and passed it around as an email and I had printed it out. While I was reading through the yellowed papers I realized, duh, I love this poem. I don’t know the name of it, nor the author, but this is what it was:
If tears could build a stairway,
And memories a bridge,
I’d walk right up to heaven,
To bring you home again…
No farewell words were spoken,
No time to say goodbye,
You were gone before I knew it,
And only God knows why…
Our hearts still ache in sadness,
And secret tears still flow…
What it meant to lose you,
No one will ever know…
Because without your smile or laugh,
Life is too hard to carry on…
-unknown
This experience has made me realize that you can connect to poetry just like you can connect to a novel. I hope that as a future teacher, I can instill in my students a love for poetry, not a hatred that I had towards it. And now I will always remember this poem, this poem that described how I felt the day we buried Clayton Lee Koehne and the poem that describes how I still feel today.

Identity

In the book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, identity is a major theme identified through out the book. I really didn’t like this book because Alice was extremely ditsy, and I really don’t like ditsy people! But I could relate to this book when it comes to identity.
When I was younger, before my freshman year of high school, I was known as Eric Rother’s baby sister. I was never Tawnya, I was never the 4-H member, I was never the all A student, or the girl who did every sport, I was Eric Rother’s baby sister. Then I started high school and I was no longer Eric Rother’s baby sister, I was Danielle’s little sister. All my life I was known to people by my older brother and sister, it was so confusing to me. When some one would ask me, “Who are you,” I automatically replied, “Oh I’m Eric’s baby sister and Danielle’s little sister.”
Now I’m in college and identity is still an issue for me. Am I Tawnya, the secretary at St. Joseph Hospital, am I Tawnya, the girl who studies to much, am I Tawnya, the future teacher or the future principal?
While reading this book, it really made me think, if someone asked me today who am I, what would I reply?
Having this first hand experience of connecting to literature will surely help me in my classroom one day. Someone can connect to a text in many different ways. For me, it was being confused about who I am, just like Alice was.

Activity!

As a future teacher, I am constantly thinking of things I can do in my classroom. With the book, In the Small, Small Pond by Denise Fleming, I can teach a lesson about verbs. After the children read the book, they will go through each page and discuss each verb. They will use the illustrations as reinforcement for the meaning of the words. Then they will be given a blank sheet of paper where they will illustrate each word. They will write the word, for example waddle, and the definition of it on the top of the page, then they will illustrate the word.

I can also use this book to teach about animals. The pictures of the different animals are very vivid, which makes them great reinforcement! We will go through the book and talk about each animal talked about. We will look at the pictures of them, discuss what they look like, what they do, and where they live (in the water, out of the water, both). Then they will draw their own picture of the animals that are found in this book.