Reading Notes, More English Fairy Tales

I really enjoyed the first unit of English Fairy Tales I read this week, so for some extra credit I decided to read more of them. I read the story "Tattercoat." This story reminded me of a variation of Cinderella. In this story, a mother died in childbirth. The child was raised by her grandfather who resented her for causing the death of his favorite child. So instead of "Cinderella" being raised by her stepmother, "Tattercoat" was raised by her grandfather. In both stories, the girls end up with the princes. The next story I really liked was "Scrapefoot." This storheiy is a variation on Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The only difference between the two is that instead of Goldilocks there is a Fox that sneaks into the bears home, sits in their chairs, sleeps in their beds and drinks their milk.

(Scrapefoot, John D. Batten)

Bibliography: More English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs Link

Story: The Three Little Pigs

(The First Little Pig, L. Leslie Brooke)

There once lived a momma pig and three little kids
who lived very happily oh yes they did
Until one day when the kids were grown
The momma said you must go and live on your own

The littlest pig built a house out of straw
And one day a wolf knocked with his paw
He said, "Little pig, little pig, let me come in"
The pig responded, "Not by the hair of my chiny chin chin"
The wolf answered, "Then I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in"
The wolf blew the house down and then with a jig
Ate the poor, scared littlest pig

The second pig built his house out of wood
The wolf passed by and knew the pig would be good
So he knocked and said "Little pig, little pig, let me come in"
The pig responded,  "Not by the hair of my chiny chin chin"
The wolf answered, "Then I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in"
He took a deep breath, as the little pig fled

(The Third Little Pig, L. Leslie Brooke)

But when the house fell down, the wolf devoured the pig dead

The last little pig had a house made of brick
One day, a wolf knocked on the door with a lick
He said, "Little pig, little pig, let me come in"
The pig responded, "Not by the hair on my chiny chin chin"
The wolf answered, "Then I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in"
As hard as he tried, the house would not move
So the wolf thought of a plan no one would disapprove

He climbed to the roof and down the chimney stack
Only to realize he was now under attack
The last little pig had started a fire
And hung a pot of water over it with a wire
In fell the wolf when he climbed down the vent
No longer could the wolf give the pig any torment
The pig now lived in perfect content


Authors Note: The original story of "The Three Little Pigs" has basically the same plot as my story. I just made it into a rhyming poem. In the original story after the wolf threatens to blow down the third little pig's house, he tries to trick the pig by invites him to a turnip farm for dinner. The pig is smarter though and went to the turnip farm before the wolf said he was going to show up. The wolf next invites the pig to an apple farm to trick him out of the house. Again the pig went early and was up in the tree when the wolf showed up. The pig threw an apple far away and when the wolf chased it snuck back to his brick home. Finally the wolf invited the pig to the fair but once again the pig was smarter and went early. When the wolf showed up to the fair, the pig hid in a butter churner and rolled down the hill back home. The wolf then showed up to the pig's house, and snuck onto the roof and down the chimney. The pig had a pot of boiling water in the fire and the wolf fell in, so the pig cooked the wolf, ate him and lived happily ever after.

Bibliography: The Three Little Pigs by Joseph Jacobs link to reading

Reading Notes, English Fairy Tales, Part B

The second part of this collection was full of unfamiliar stories. There was a particular gruesome one called "Mr. Fox" in which a woman named Lady Mary married Mr. Fox. One day she went to her husbands castle and explored. She found a room full of young ladies skeletons, and watched as Mr. Fox cut off the hand of a young lady to get her diamond ring. Lady Mary then confronted her husband, and her brother and friends drew their swords and cut up Mr. Fox. The next story, "Johnny-cake" was a variation of the Gingerbread Man, although I definitely think the Gingerbread Man was cuter. This would be the story I would choose if I were to rewrite one. With this, I would make a sequel. Instead of Johnny-cake being eaten by a fox, I would have him outrun the fox, and write a sequel about his next adventure on the run.

(Johnny-Cake, John D. Batten)

Bibliography: English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs link to reading

Reading Notes, English Fairy Tales, Part A

This week is the beginning of the British/Celtic unit! I used the random story picker and it chose English Fairy Tales. The first story I read was "Tom Tit Tot." This story had the exact same plot as Rumplestiltskin by the Grimm Brothers. I also read "The Three Little Pigs." I think that if I were to chose a story from this first part to rewrite,I would choose this one! It was my favorite story to hear as a little kid. As this story is so well known, I think that it would be cool to write it in a rhyming poem!

Bibliography: English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs link to reading

Week 10 Review

(Blogspot)

While reading through the announcements this week, I noticed that everyday there is some kind of cat meme to motivate you! I love these especially because I lot of the time I just keep doing my homework and forget what I'm doing it for. Seeing those makes me smile, and reminds me that I'm doing all this work to be able to have a job that I love! The picture to the left is my favorite meme from this past week!

Tech Tip: Weather Widget

Hi everybody!
I added a weather widget to my blog! Scroll down to check it out! If you want to know how here is the link!

Reading Notes, Nursery Rhymes, Part A

This week I decided to read nursery rhymes for extra reading. This collection had a lot of different sections of nursery rhymes such as proverbs, songs, tales, riddles, games, paradoxes, and charms and lullabies. The songs consisted of a lot of well known nursery rhymes like "Three Blind Mice," "Little Bo Peep," and "London Bridge." I think a good idea for a story would be to take one of these and expand it and write a sequel. I could also write a story about "This Little Piggy," or "Hickory Dickory Dock."

(Three Blind Mice)

Bibliography: The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Lang and illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke link to reading

link to Three Blind Mice video

Reading Notes, The Great Plains, Part A

(The Eagle, Wikipedia)

This week I choose to read Native American Stories from the Great Plains Unit. I realized after reading all the stories in part A that I really didn't like any of them. I don't know if I am just not interested in Native American myths or if the writing was just not interesting to read. There was one story that I didn't completely dislike and that was "The Eagle's Revenge." In this story a hunter, who had killed a deer walked outside and saw an eagle eating that same deer. So he shot the eagle. The chief of the tribe called for a dance, and during that dance a stranger appeared. The tribe told seven stories of great deeds and at the end of each story the stranger yelled, "hi." Each time hi was uttered one of the men leading the dance fell dead. After the stranger vanished, the tribe learned that the stranger was the brother of the eagle who was killed. With this story I could rewrite it into a poem.

Bibliography: Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Berry Judson link to reading

Tech Tip: Twitter Follow

I already had a twitter but for this assignment I chose to follow some twitter accounts run by the University of Oklahoma. The first one I followed was the University of Oklahoma Class of 2018 account. I followed this one because this is my class, and they announce a lot of cool events, like free food on campus and also they keep you updated with emergency situations on campus. The second account I followed was the University of Oklahoma Football account. This is because I love football, but I don't always have time to sit down and watch a four hour game and this account posts play-by-play updates on the games.

Review

I was studying for a big midterm this week so I missed a lot of assignments and just skimmed the announcements. While reading them, I came across a meme that resonated with me (pictured below). It is from Thursday, October 20th's announcement (link to announcement). This picture spoke to me because it is basically saying like "don't bite off more than you can chew." So don't commit to more stuff than you can handle. I have a problem with this as I am in 18 hours this semester, I have sorority commitments,  I have a job, and I am shadowing in a hospital. So its just a little reminder for me for next semester to not commit to as much stuff! 

Reading Notes, Robin Hood, Part A

(Robin Hood, Louis Rhead)

For some extra credit this week I choose to read something from the British/Celtic Unit. The story I decided to read was Robin Hood. I really liked how in this story was set up like a poem, so there were stanzas, and every other line rhymed. This entire story reminded me a lot of the cartoon Disney Robin Hood. An idea I have to turn this into a story is to retell it based in current times. So make it like a modern day Robin Hood. I could also tell it like a newspaper reporting the thefts that Robin Hood make. I cant wait to read more stories from this unit!

Bibliography: The English and Scottish Popular Ballads by Francis James Child link to reading

Reading Notes, Tejas Legends, Part A

(The Pink Cloud)

This week I chose to read stories from a tribe that lives in the state I was born: Texas. The stories in this collection personified inanimate objects which I thought was really cute. My favorite story to read was called The Cloud That Was Lost. At night clouds rest on top of mountains, but one cloud chasing its tail, sailed off from the others. When night fell he found himself over a broad, flat land and growing sleepily stretching himself over the land. The flowers on the land looked up, saw the pretty colors of the cloud, and wanting to be colorful too, drank until the cloud was gone. That's how the wild phlox flowers got their soft pretty color. An idea I had for the story this week was to tell the story from the flowers point of view, or even change the ending so that the cloud does not disappear. 

Bibliography: When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends retold by Florence Stratton link to reading

Reading Notes, Turkish Fairy Tales

I never had the opportunity to read a story from the Middle East so for extra reading this week I decided to explore it a little bit. I chose to read Turkish Fairy Tales. I thought that these stories were very hard to read, and understand so an idea I had to write a story is to translate it into a way so that I and other readers are able to better understand it. My favorite story in this compilation is The Fish-Peri. Peri means fairy in Turkish, and this story is about someone who finds a fish and takes him home. He digs the fish a well and gives it a home, and in return the fairy fish cleans its owners house.

(The Fish-Peri)

Bibliography: Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos link to reading

Week 8 Growth Mindset

(Image from Cheezburger)

Reading the chart and comparing my mindset in this class and in my life to earlier this semester I noticed a lot of changes! For example at the beginning of the semester, I focused on grades now I know to focus on learning and the grade I deserve will come. A couple of my strengths in this class are being open to any and all feedback, being always ready to learn more and focusing on my own progress. Some of my weaknesses are I tend to do the minimum in the class to get the grade I need, and doing things at the last minute. One of the things I tend to be really good at overall in my life is being ready for things to change, and being willing to try new things. I think this is because I moved a lot growing up so I had to get used to doing these things. My weaknesses in life I think include playing it safe and comparing myself to others. To grow and improve myself I need to change the way I think so that I can start planning ahead in the class and start thinking of myself as an individual to stop comparing myself to others!

Week 8 Reflection

(Reading)

After reading back through the reading notes I have written this semester I have realized a couple of things. The first of which is the stories I have chosen I have not only enjoyed, but they have been very varied in their written styles and their topics which is a good thing. I have been able to experience many different authors and topics because of the stories I have chosen to read, and even though they are different it has not made me dislike any of them. The reading I have enjoyed the most has definitely been from week 1 and was Cupid and Psyche. This was because I really enjoy Greek mythology stories and it allowed me to read the original story that Beauty and the Beast was based on. My reading schedule and reading place have both been good and have allowed me enough time, and a quiet place to read each week. Each week after my morning classes I go to the library and complete my reading and reading notes. My reading notes started out making it easy for me to transition into writing stories but as the weeks went on I noticed I began to write more of a summary than ideas for my story that week. So that's something I need to work on for the second half of the semester.

Reading Notes, Nigeria, Part B

I noticed that in this collection of stories, they all are organized the same. They are all basically why an animal does something. That's not necessarily a bad thing it just gets boring to read after a while. So my favorite story in this second part was The Election of the King Bird. In this story there was a wealthy powerful King. This king, although wealthy did not own any slaves and instead called upon animals to do the work he needed. To do this efficiently he crowed head chiefs of each species. Elephant for land, Hippo for water and when it became time to crown the air chief, he didn't know which bird species to choose. So he held a contest. The birds competed against one another, until finally all agreed that the fishing eagle should be the king of the skies.

(African Fish Eagle, Arturo de Frias Marques)

Reading Notes, Nigeria, Part A

Last week I chose to read Asian folklore's so this week I chose African folklore's. My favorite story in this part was Why the Bat Flies by Night. A bat and a bush rat were really good friends and always ate together but the bat was jealous of the rat. When asked how the soup they ate (that the bat cooked) was so good, the bat said that he boiled himself in the water and the sweetness of his flesh added to the soup. The bat jumped in a pot of warm water to show the bush rat. The rat then went home and told his wife he knew how to make the best soup. And so he boiled water and jumped in it and died. The wife grew angry at the bat and reported him to the king, who gave orders that the bat should be a prisoner. The bat escaped and to keep from being captured had to change his habits so that he slept during the day, and hunted during the night. I think it would be cool to retell this story as like a front page headline in a newspaper.

(Why the Bat Flies by Night, Christie Allen)

Bibliography: "Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria" by Elphinstone Dayrell link to reading