Thursday, December 8, 2016

Week 15 Review


I love this quote! It is so happy and the painting behind it literally uses every color in the pack. I think it is good motivation for everyone during dead week and finals week. I loved being able to read the class announcements everyday. (Also always secretly hoped that my storybook would make it as storybook of the week, it never did! Haha :) )



Image: Inspirational poster from Wednesday December 7th class announcements. 

Growth Mindset



At the end of this semester, I think I really branched out. My stories slowly became more fun and more like me. I loved writing them. I think my advice to students who are about to take this class is to not be afraid. None of the students in this class will judge you! If anything, they'll be jealous because you're story is so creative and out-of-the-box!

Image: Flowers from The Odyssey Online.

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Class Improvements

I love love love the story planning. I think that was one of my favorite changes in this class. After writing a story planning post, I was able to think about the story for another week. In my mind, this created more original ideas and helped develop a more in-depth story.
I also agree that changing review weeks to planning weeks would be very beneficial.
Audio recordings could be fun! I like how you have them in Indian Epics, it could be a fun add on.
I also love the thematic readings. I love to read fairytales (obvious by my choice of stories this semester) so I think it would be neat to see an overall theme throughout various stories. All great ideas!

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Story Telling: Snow-White and Rose-Red


Some may not know, but Snow-White actually had a beautiful twin sister. Don’t ask them if they’re identical though, because they are completely opposite. Snow-White was pale as can be with hair darker than the midnight sky. Her sister, named Rose-Red, was naturally tan with bright blonde hair. Her name is Rose-Red because of her cherry colored lips. Snow-White represented everything in the fall and winter, Rose-Red represented everything in the spring and summer.

Although the two girls were very different, they were inseparable. They lived with their mother, and the three of them welcomed everyone into their home with open arms. Every morning in the spring and summer, the mother would wake up to a fresh bouquet of flowers sitting on their kitchen table. Rose-Red would wake up early in the morning and go find the prettiest flowers in the forest next to their house. In the warmer months, the three ladies would clean, paint and restore their home. They helped neighbors with household chores and knew everyone in the town.

During the winter months, Snow-White would help her mother bring meals to the neighbors. They would bake and cook, and then share it with the entire town. At the end of the day, she would light a fire in the fireplace, and their mother would read the two girls a story. Normally they would read long chapter books that would end on a cliffhanger. Snow-White owned a lamb that stayed in the house during the winter months. Once the fire was going and the family was all inside, the lamb would cuddle up to Snow-White to listen to the story. Rose-Red owned a small bird who also stayed inside during the colder months.

On one particular night, the family was reading a story when someone loudly knocked on the door. The whole house rattled and boomed, so the girls were frightened. Rose-Red and Snow-White hid behind their mother, who called out, “Who is there?”

A voice shouted back, “Please let me in! I am freezing from this horrible winter. I won’t make it through the night out here!”

The mother quickly opened the door. When she opened it, she let out a small gasp. A seven-foot tall bear was standing in front of her. This bear was different than others though, he could speak.

“I swear I would not be bothering you if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. I am very nice and just trying to get out of the cold!”

The mother invited him in so fast that all of the snow fell off of his fur.

“Please,” the mother said, “sit by the fire to warm up.”

The bear agreed and the mother started reading her story out loud again. He stayed with them throughout the entire winter. Snow-White and the bear had grown especially close during this time. Soon enough, winter was over and the sun was shining again.  The bear and Snow-White were about to head out to go for a walk, but when the opened the door, all of the plants were back to green.

“Oh no. It is time for me to go,” explained the bear.

“Why? You can stay with us. We love having you here,” Snow-White countered back.

“You don’t understand. I must go. I’ll be back in the winter, I promise.”

Snow-White sadly watched as the bear walked away. She went back into the house and told her sister and mother what had happened. None of them knew why he had to leave, but they were excited for winter to come again so he could return.

One day, Snow-White and Rose-Red were walking to town to get something for their mother. “HELP!” they heard a loud scream in the distance. The girls both looked at each other, knowing they had to go help the person. When they found who was screaming, they saw their bear friend.
“Bear, what are you doing?” questioned Snow-White.

“Please look away, I will explain in a minute.” Bear answered.

The girls turned around and walked a few steps back. After a painful five minutes, a boy their age appeared. His voice sounded just like the bears. “Hi, sorry about that.”

The girls were confused.

“Do we know you?” asked Rose-Red.

The boy explained that his name actually was Bear, and that the man who was just screaming was an evil dwarf who had casted a spell on him. The only way the spell would be broken is if the dwarf was killed. The girls were shocked and cold towards Bear, but they soon learned about how rude the dwarf was. He had caused havoc all over the town, turning various people into animals in the forest.

Many years later, Snow-White and Bear married. Rose-Red was introduced to his brother, who she married. The mother watched as her daughters grew into wonderful mothers and wives, teaching everyone around them to treat everyone with kindness.

Image: Forest from Wikimedia Commons
Bibliography: Household Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, link to online reading

Reading Notes: The Dead Mother

I want to talk more about the mother and how she helps her husband raise their son alone. Their son will become a well loved and kind man in the village. His mother's legacy will help him through dark times.

Image: Village (bibury) from Wikipedia.

Bibliography: Russian Folktales, the Dead Mother by W. R. S. Ralston. Link to online reading.

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Story Planning: Little Red Cap


At the beginning, I want to describe how close Little Red Cap is with her entire family. From there, I want to describe the dynamic between Little Red Cap and her grandmother. In my version, Little Red Cap will have lost her father at a young age. His mother is the grandma that she is close to. Having her nearby will help Little Red Cap cope with his loss and also make their relationship stronger.

After that, I will talk about how Little Red Cap and her mother planned little surprises for her grandma. Each week Little Red Cap would visit her grandmother so she would have a visitor. On this particular week, it was Little Red Cap’s grandmother’s birthday. She will be bringing her birthday gifts and cake to help her grandma celebrate. On her way there, she notices a strange creature ahead of her, but thinks nothing of it. Everyone knows this part of the story, the wolf pretends to be the grandma. In some stories, the grandma dies. In this one, she will not. She will hide in the closet and the wolf will not realize she is home. The wolf will be under the sheets when Little Rep Cap gets to the house.  While Little Red Cap is walking around her grandmother’s house and talking to the wolf, the grandma is coming up with a plan to get the wolf out of her house.  She sneakily crawls into the kitchen and motions to her granddaughter to stay quiet. Together, they grab various pans and hit the wolf so hard in the face that he is knocked out. Next, they call the town’s police to help get rid of the wolf in her house. It is a happy ending and everyone lives! It is a subtle, but necessary change to this story!

Bibliography: Brothers Grimm: Little Red Riding Cap by Brothers Grimm. Link to online reading. 

Image: Forest from Pixabay

Reading Notes: The Three Goslings

I am going to describe the personalities of the goslings and how they ended up here. It will be interesting to give them more of a background and show how they are all different from each other.

Bibliography: Italian Popular Tales, The Three Goslings, by Thomas Crane, link to online reading.

Image: Goslings from Pixabay.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Story: King Arthur: The Drawing of the Sword

There once was a King who solely ruled England. He never married, which means he never had kids. One day, when the King fell ill, the kingdom panicked. Who would be their new King? Who would rule once the King passed? They had dreaded the day, but never planned anything. Little did they know, the King had a plan of his own.  He had an incredibly special sword that had been passed down from past generations of the monarchy. He would meticulously place the sword in a stone that a witch would enchant. The trick was, whoever could pull the sword out of the stone would be the next King of England.

His plan was brilliant; he had the witch cast a spell on the sword. Whoever could pull out the sword would rightfully be the next king. Only two people in the world knew of this plan. When the King finally passed, the witch placed the stone in a field that many Knights would pass.

Young Arthur had learned of this sword from his brother, Ector. Ector was a Knight, and was a tad older than Arthur. One day, the Knight’s were having a ceremony for the late King. The ceremony was more of a battle between the knights, but Ector had forgotten his sword.  He sent Arthur to fetch it. Arthur ran back home as fast as he could, but the door was locked. How on earth could he grab Ector’s sword if the door was locked? Suddenly, he remembered the sword in the stone. It was simple, he would grab that, give it to Ector, and all would be fine! He ran over to the sword and it came out easily. He ran to Ector, but Ector immediately knew something was wrong. That wasn’t his sword. That was the sword that would make Arthur a king. Ector did not say a word to Arthur; instead he grabbed the sword and walked away in silence. Arthur followed behind asking his brother why he was mad.  
Arthur followed Ector all the way into the castle, where the head of the Knights was standing. “I have the sword,” Ector said.

“You were not the one to remove it,” said the head Knight. Ector handed the sword to Arthur, and the knights all knew. Arthur was the chosen King for England.  Although Ector was extremely jealous, he was proud of his younger brother’s kind heart. He knew he would make an excellent king.


Arthur went on to be one of the most beloved and influential kings. He worked closely with Ector and the Knights, but never lost sight of who he was. Arthur married and had many children. These children created an empire of a monarchy for all of England. He had lots of children to make sure no one would ever have to pull a sword out of a stone ever again.  King Arthur went down in history, some think he was the chosen one, some think he has super human strength.

Author's Note: I tried to keep this as similar to the story as possible, but in a more modern sense. No one really knows how the sword got into the stone, so I created the witch to make it more magical. I also made Ector and Arthur brothers instead of half-brothers for the sake of clarity. 

Bibliography: King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang, link to the online reading.

Image: Excalibur sword from Flickr

Reading Notes: The Drawing of the Sword

I am going to talk about King Arthur getting the sword out. I want to talk about how the sword got there, what the town thought of it, and how he was the chosen one. You never really hear about the aftermath of him getting the sword out, except he became King. I would also like to talk about how he made the kingdom a better place.

Bibliography: King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang, link to the online reading.

Image: Knights of the Round Table from WikiCommons.

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Story: Alice Down the Rabbit-Hole


Alice and her sister sat outside of their house while their mother made lunch. It was a hot summer day and the girls were bored out of their mind. “Let’s play house!” Alice’s sister suggested. “But house is boring,” Alice insisted, “let’s play it but with a twist.” The sisters created a game that was a combination of hide and seek and house.  Alice’s sister, Jamie, had to find Alice in order to play the game.  What Jamie did not realize was there was a secret door on the side of their house. Alice was looking high and low for a good hiding spot. She wanted Jamie to be looking for her for hours! She put her back against the wall and suddenly the wall started shifting. The ground around her moved in a circle, and was flipped to the other side of the wall.

“Where am I?” Alice shouted.  Jamie could hear her shouting; she just did not know where it was coming from. “Alice, where are you?” Jamie shouted back. But Alice did not hear her. A little rabbit had come up to Alice and started talking about a million words per minute. “Whoa whoa whoa. Slow down! What are you in such a rush for?” Alice questioned. “Don’t you see?” The rabbit answered, “YOU are LATE.” The rabbit grabbed Alice’s hand and they quickly ran down the hallway.


The rabbit showed her a world that Alice had never been in. Her room had turned into a garden full of mysterious looking mushrooms and trees. Where her dining room should have been, was a large garden tea party. She recognized her house, but everything just seemed a bit different. “Is this my house?” Alice asked the rabbit. He snickered. “Well, of course. Where else do you think you should be at this time?” The rabbit answered. They walked into the garden party. It quickly turned out to be the weirdest thing Alice had ever seen in her life.  There was an animal wearing a hat yelling out some strange phases. The second Alice walked in, the whole room looked at her. “LATE.” “Where have YOU been?” “Nice of you to join us, finally.” They all shouted. “Excuse me?” Alice replied. “I don’t even know who you are!” The bickering went back and forth for a bit. 

Alice felt so attacked by these people that she quickly turned around and ran away. But the way she walked in was not there anymore, instead she ran into a rather large creature who only spoke in riddles. “Please, I just need to find my way out of here.” Alice pleaded with the creature. “Well, I suppose you COULD go that way. But if you went the other way it would also get you home. Definitely don’t go straight, nobody ever knows what is going on over there.” He rambled on and on without giving any information. Alice sat down and cried. She was never going to get back home and she would be stuck here forever. Alice walked over to a very large mushroom and decided to take a nap under it. When she woke up, everything was a dream. Jamie was asleep beside her and their mother was still making lunch. Everything was not as it seemed!

Author's Note: I kept this very true to the original story. The only difference is I added her sister, Jamie, and a game they were playing. I also did not have Alice fall down a hole, but instead she found a secret door inside her house! This was fun in my imagination because it was just like a house that had turned into a forest. 

Bibliography: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, link to online reading.

Image: Garden from Wiki Commons. 

Monday, October 31, 2016

Reading Notes: Down the Rabbit-Hole


This week I am going to talk about Alice falling down the rabbit hole. Instead of falling down the rabbit hole, I am going to make it a secret door in her house. It will be full of things already inside of her house, but in a dimension she has never been in. Everything looks the same, but it is filled with crazy things from Alice in Wonderland.

Bibliography: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, link to online reading.

image: Secret garden door from Flickr.