Charlotte's Web

Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White is truly a flawless piece of children's literature. I enjoyed tapping back into my childhood and reliving the morals of love, friendship, and devotion that the story has to offer.
The story tells of a young child named Fern and her adoration for a baby pig. The tale begins when Mr. Arable, Fern's father, realizes that his sow has given birth to a litter of piglets. However, he soon discovers that one of the piglets is just a runt and decides to kill it. Fern earnestly discourages her father from killing the baby pig and decides that she will take care of the little pig. She later names the little pig Wilbur. To Fern's dismay,however, her baby pig is soon sold to the Zuckerman's when Mr. Arable claims that Wilber is too big to keep as a pet. It isn't long before Wilbur begins to make friends with Mr. Zuckerman's barn of animals which include sheep, cows, geese, and even a pesky mouse. However, the most important and desirable friend that Wilbur encounters resides at the very top corner of the barn. It isn't until the sheep in the barn tell Wilbur that he will be slaughtered in the winter, that Wilbur's new friend, Charlotte the spider, displays her undying devotion to Wilbur. Charlotte constantly attempts to remind Zuckerman that Wilbur is no ordinary pig. She spends her time spinning webs with hidden messages that tell of Wilbur's virtues. The messages include "SOME PIG", "HUMBLE", and "RADIANT". To the barnyard animal's astonishment, the Zuckerman farm becomes famous overnight. People from all over the county come to catch a glimpse of Wilbur and the web. This inspires Zuckerman to enter Wilbur in the county fair where the pig wins a ribbon. Sadly, due to the short life span of spiders, Charlotte's life ends at the county fair. Wilbur repays Charlotte by taking her sac of eggs back to Zuckerman's farm at the closing of the book.
There are two important themes within the story that instantly transforms the tale into a classic: Friendship and maturity. First of all, the theme of friendship is found throughout the entire story. Fern's love for Wilbur and the barnyard's attempt to save Wilbur from his terrible fate are prime examples of this particular theme. Secondly, Fern's maturity into adolescence aids in pointing out that the act of growing up is inevitable. Ferns practically matures before the reader's very eyes. At the start of the tale Fern is a young girl who is only interested in her baby pig, dolls, and Zuckerman's barn animals. Towards the closing of the tale, however, Fern interests have changed. Even though it is aparent that Fern still adores Wilbur she is now interested in boys instead of her dolls. The combination of these two themes make E.B. White's Charlotte's Web a wonderful piece for all audiences.

Charlotte's Web Activities

After reading Charlotte's Web in the classroom, there are a variety of activities that could be utilized within the classroom.

Charlotte's Memorial: As a classroom, discuss the wonderful things that Charlotte underwent within her life time. ( For example, Charlotte was a wonderful friend who never ceased to believe in Wilbur.) After describing the selfless acts that Charlotte performed within the novel, it is time to prepare for a memorial for the lovely spider. As a classroom, decide how to honor the spider's life. Some ideas would be singing Charlotte a song and making Charlotte cards. As an educator it is vital to not go allow any religous ideas to surface while discussing ways to honor the spider.

Weaving a Web: For this activity, you will need the following materials: Straws, craft sticks, yarn, scissors, plastic bugs, and pipe cleaners. Cross the straws or craft sticks until you have six spokes. Then use the yarn to weave in and out and around the sticks. Lastly, make a spider out of pipe cleaners to place on your web. If you wish to be a little more creative, place little plastic bug within the web. You may even wish to put the messages that Charlotte constucted on her web in the story.

E.B. White

E.B. White has produced a number of classic pieces that are essential to the genre of children's literature.
E. B White was born in Mount Vernon, New York to Jessie ( Hart) White in July of 1899. His writing career did not begin until after graduating from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1921. He worked initially as an editor for the Cornell Daily Sun and then became a member of the Quill and Dagger society and a writer for The Seattle Times and the Seattle Post Intelligencer. White even worked as an ad man before returning to New York City in 1924. It was just one year later that White published his first article in The New Yorker, and it was at the magazine that White's writing career began to take speed.

It wasn't until the 1930's that White turned over to children's literature in honor of his niece, Janice Hart White. Stuart Little was published in 1945, and Charlotte's Web followed in 1952. White's last children's story, Trumpet of the Swan, was not published until 1970. White's classic stories won many awards. Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award while The Trumprt of the Swan was awarded with the Sequoyah Award and the William Allen White Award.

Another one of White's major contributions with literature derives mainly from grammatical handbook entitled, The Elements of Style. The particular handbook was published in 1959 and contained the dos and don'ts for writers. The work is still utilized and still remains a required reading in some composition and English classes.

Roald Dahl

It is always crucial that we as future educators have a keen understanding of the authors that we will portray in our classroom. It is a prime opportunity to briefly discuss the life of Roald Dahl, the author of the two previous books that I have analyzed: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach.

Roald Dahl was born in Liandaff, Wales on September 13th, 1916. His love for stories and books during his childhood was inspired by his mother who Dahl viewed as his "rock" and his source of security. His mother told him fantasy stories as a young boy, and as an older boy Dahl enjoyed adventure stories. Dahl's father, Harald, also played a role in Dahl's love for writing. Dahl's father was an avid writer and wrote in a diary his accounts of the war of 1914-1918.
Most of Dahl's plot lines for his stories derive mainly from his school days. Dahl attended St. Peter's prep school in Weston-Super-Mare. His many visits to the sweet shops and candy stores account for the story line of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, while Dahl's Head Mistress at his boarding school resembles the evil principal of an elementary school in Dahl's novel, Matilda.
As an adult, Dahl joined the Public School's Exploring Society's expedition to Newfoundland. Later, he worked for Shell as a salesman. When he was just 23 he enlisted in the Royal Air Force when war broke out where he served as a pilot.
However. it wasn't until 1942 that Dahl took an interest in writing. C.S Forester requested that Dahl make an account of his experiences at war. The draft was published in the Saturday Evening Post and a check worth nine hundred dollars was mailed to Dahl upon its arrival to Forrester. It was at this point in Dahl's life that discovered his niche for writing. Little did Dahl know that he would become one of the most beloved children's writer in history.
Throughout his writing career, Dahl created some of the most adored children's books in history. James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, and The Witches are just a few of Dahl's inspiring works. Even after his death in 1990, Dahl stories are still just as popular as they were when they were first published. Roald Dahl represents a legacy whose works will be cherished forever.

Peach Party

Peach Party

There is not a lot of fun activities and games that can be done with elementary students that deal with the story of James and the Giant Peach. However, the story may be utlized during Open House towards the end of the school year.

Most schools have an evening dedicated to an open house. This allows for the parents of students to enter each of their child's classrooms and gage their child's progress with each teacher. It is customary that each teacher have a theme to accompany his/her classroom. The tale of James and his peach serves as an excellent lesson to be studied just before Open House.

The theme of the classroom will be "Peach Party". The Party wil include station with an array of peach goodies. A bowl of plentiful peaches for the children and the parents to snack, peach scented candles, a peach themed table cloth and napkins, and peach candy will be just a few of the items enjoyed during the peach party. (It might also be a good idea to play the film, James and the Giant Peach, during the party.) Folders will be topped on the desk of each student that will include their worksheets, tests, and homeworks that deal with this particular unit.

James and the Giant Peach Analysis

Roald Dahl is famous for his portrayl of fantasy through nonsense and humor. However, I found the author's references to his other stories and his religious implications most fascinating.

The nonsense and humor element is most apparant in the novel. Talking insects, magical green jumping beans, and an enormous peach are not exactly realistic. I would imagine that Roald Dahl knew the mind and the sense of humor of a young child and knew that his combinations mentioned previously in the tale would undoubtedly call for laughter from a child.

There is a main reference to Dahl's other famous tale, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, found at the start of the story. Just as the insects formulate a plan for the centipede to bite the stem attached to the peach tree to allow the giant peach to be free of its enormous tree, the first place the peach rolls is by a large chocolate factory containing a long river of chocolate. This was a trait common to the Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

The reader is forced to analyze Dahl's text and discover that the clever author is apparantly attempting to combine the ideas from the two tales to appeal to the child's taste buds. This is obviously a ploy to capture his young audiences. A young child's mouth will salvate when they read of a juicy sweet peach rolling through a river of rich chocolate. (Chocolate covered peaches anyone?) The reader must also wonder if Dahl is partial to the ideas in the tale of Wonka and his chocolate factory.

Finally, Dahl's religious references simply cannot be ignored. James's journey with his insect friends across the Atlantic Ocean in the peach and his travels in the clouds deal with underlying religious ideas. The giant peach can be viewed as a ship that perhaps is linked with Noah's ark. Even though there are not animals within the ship organized in pairs, there are nonetheless still animals with James on his journey. James may be perceived as Noah, the builder of the greatest ship in history. Afterall, James is responsible for their giant "ship" in the first place. Remember, it was he who spilled the magic beans under the peach tree, and therefore constructed the floating device. Next, James's experience's above the clouds truly confuses the reader. Why is Dahl so adament about not crediting God for creating the weather conditions. Instead, Dahl claims in his tale that the cloudmen, men made of clouds who reside in the sky, create the weather for Earth with huge devices in the sky. I believe that Dahl is confident that his young readers have not fully grasped the concept of Christ and religion, and therefore chooses to create fun images instead of such powerful supernatural beings.

Below there is the official Roald Dahl website that includes an interesting biography of the author's life, information on his published stories, and fun games.

http://www.roalddahl.com/

James and the Giant Peach

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl is one of my favorite children's stories, and I simply could not wait to express my adoration of the tale in my journal. As a child I only experienced the story through the film made in 1996, so it was enjoyable to relive the tale by reading the story book.

James and the Giant Peach features a young boy named James Henry Trotter. James is orphaned as a young child and is forced to live with his terrible aunts named Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker. In the story, James happens upon an old wise man who gives him green jumping beans that are consumed with magic. Little does James know that these particular beans will change his life forever. On his way home from the encounter with the wise man, James spills the jumping beans onto the soil underneath a peach tree. James awakes to discover a giant peach in his backyard. It is not until later in the story that James actually travels inside the peach and discovers talking insects which include an intellectual green grasshopper, helpful ladybug, bossy centipede, grumpy earthworm, generous spider, and even a glow worm that lights up the entire giant peach. The tale is about James's journey with his new friends within the giant peach. James's travels includes sailing on the Atlantic Ocean, Cloudmen, and the excitement of New York City.

Overall, I enjoyed the tale immensely, and I am so glad that I had that opportunity to get in touch with the child within myself. The story is a perfect example of a fantasy that never loses its appeal to young readers. The story would be ideal to utilize in the classroom.

Saint Patricks Day

As a future educator, I plan to respect all American holidays. Since Saint Patricks Day will be celebrated in the next couple of days, it is a perfect opportunity to brainstorm on potential lessons and activities.

Saint Patricks Day in the Classroom:

History of Saint Patrick's Day: Every American child should gain a basic understanding of each American holiday. As an instructor I would begin the day with a brief history of the particular holiday. The students would learn that Saint Patricks Day is centered around the Irish patron Saint, Saint Patrick. The saint is credited for bringing Christianity to the Irish for twenty nine years. His death is celebrated on March 17th.

History of the Shamrock: Prior to beginning any activity dealing with the shamrock symbol, the origin of the symbol must be explained. It has been said that Saint Patrick utilized the three leafed shamrock during his sermons to the Irish. Each leaf of the shamrock represented three different items: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The idea was that all three items constitute a final product like the shamrock. The shamrock was eventually worn on feast days around the necks of Saint Patrick's followers. It must be noted that the color green is associated with the holiday because the color is unique to the shamrock, Ireland, and even spring.

Handprint Rainbow Activity: The activity is mainly targeted around young elementary aged children. Each student in the classroom will dip their hand in a different paint color to form a giant rainbow in honor of Saint Patrick's Day.This particular activity would be conducted as follows:

Materials: Red Paint, Orange Paint, Yellow Paint, Green Paint, Blue Paint, Purple Paint, Large sheet of blue construction paper ( to illustrate the sky) , 6 trays (for dipping), and lots of paper towels and wipies for messy palms ( A parent volunteer aids in limiting chaos.)

Procedure: Each child in the classroom will be selected one at a time to dip their palm in a particular tray of colored paint. After they dip, the child will simply place their palm on the light blue construction paper. After each student has received their turn, the result of the activity should be a beautiful rainbow. The final product will represent a perfect selection for a March Buletin Board.

I Will Not Go to Bed

The following poem tells of a young child who wishes to defy her mother and father and not go to bed. Everyone at some point in their existence has wished to disobey authority. The poem parodies this fact with elements of nonsense and humor, a trait common to the children's poem. ( My inspiration for the poem undoubedly derived from Sword's collection of poems. ) I composed this poem in honor of our poetry unit in the classroom.

I Will Not Go to Bed

I will not go to bed

Upon your most urgent request

You might be the boss

But I certainly know best

I would rather eat an asparagus

As large as my head

You might be my parents

But I WILL NOT go to bed

I would rather swim in a tank

Of carnivorous sharks

Or sit in my room

All alone in the dark

I would rather Aunt Norma

Pinch my cheeks until they are pink

Or have an enormous python

In the kitchen sink

I would rather do my homework

Twelve days in a row

Or even wear my hair

In a ridiculous bow

I will not go to bed

So instead I will play

Enough barbies and dressup

To last for two days

But before I begin

To play princess or jacks

I must take a break

And simply relax

For I am getting tired

Yes, a nap just might do

I will continue my protest tomorrow

If it is all the same to you

So, please remember tomorrow

My most urgent plea

I will not go to bed

You just wait and see

Top Ten Most Controversial Children's Books

Top Ten Controversial Children's Books

(The following list was researched by J.S. Moore.)

1. His Dark Materials Trilogy

By: Phillip Pullman

Even though the book had won numerous awards, the book is a source of friction for most Christians. Phillip Pullman is a noted atheist, and he seems to bring this anti-God perspective into his tales.

2. The Higher Power of the Lucky

By: Susan Patron

Even though the story had won the Newberry Metal, the book is banned in some children's libraries for using vulgar and innappropriate terms.

3. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

By: Mark Twain

The tale is undoubtedly a classic, but it gains most of its critisim through the many racial terms used throughout the story.

4. Heather Has Two Mommies

By: Leslea Newman

This story has received a large amount of critism through its support of homosexuality.

5. The Catcher in the Rye

By: J.D. Salinger

Although the story is considered a classic, the story was immortalized when the murderer of Beatle John Lennon was found after the incident carrying a copy of the famous tale.

6. To Kill a Mockingbird

By: Harper Lee

Even though the story is often utlized in the classroom, the story has gained much conflict over the racial and derogatory language.

7. Daddy's Roommate

By: Michael Willhoite

It is obvious even by glancing at the title of the tale that homosexuality is supported.

8. Bridge to Teribithia

By: Katherine Paterson

Although the story became the winner of the Newberry Metal and was eventually made into a major motion picture, the story has gained its friction by containing satanic views and secular humanism.

9. Harry Potter Boxset Books

By: J.K. Rowling

Even though the story is an instant favorite with young children, the series made the number seven spot on the list of the top 100 frequently challenged books.

10. Forever

By: Judy Blume

Blume earns controversy with her story when she includes thoughts of sex and teenage sexual relationships.

The Princess and the Goblin

Our discussion this week in class has been centered around The Princess and the Goblin by George Macdonald. After finishing the story, it is obvious that Macdonald associates his characters with the sterotypical fairytale characters and its motifs.
Macdonald represents the typical fairytale princess in his tale. Princess Irene, the main character in the tale, is similar to our favorite fairytale females. Unlike the central female figures in Ella Enchanted and Ever After, Princess Irene is generally willingly obedient, honest, moral, and she even shares a special relationship with God. The result is a weakened central female character for Macdonald's tale. Not only does our author create a rather dull central character who is only valiant in the presence of her great grandmother. As a result, this dissapoints Macdonald's children readers. Children (particulary little girls) are dissatisfied to discover that their female figure is not filled with spunk and gumption. Obedience and constant moral behavior is most often percieved as boring and predictabel in most literature.
Instead, Macdonald stays true to the predictable fairy tale and grants the notable qualities to Curdie, the main male character. Curdie is adventurous, courageous, knowledgable and is always looking to save his princess. It is evident that Curdie's character is much more admirable and therefore is a much more enjoyable and suspenseful read for young children when comparing Irene's character.
The most obvious fairytale motif that Macdonald incorporates into his tale is the spinning wheel that belongs to Irene's grandmother. Readers become surprised, however, to discover that the predictable Macdonald performs the impossible. Macdonald reverses the fairy tale. Instead of the spinning wheel belonging to a wicked witch found in the typical fairy tale, the wheel surprisingly belongs to the opposite, the character who represents God.

Celebrating Birthdays in the Classroom

Birthdays should always be honored in the classroom, especially at the elementary level. Every child deserved to be treated on their special day. We must remember as educators that we are creating a child's original memories of the school place, and we must always strive for these memories to be pleasant. Cheerful first memories will undoubedly promote a positive future image of the classroom.



How to celebrate:

Birthday Calendar: For each month of the school year, a calendar will be posted. If a child's birthday occurs on one of the days within the particular month, there will be birthday cake lamenated cut-out placed on the calendar. This will be the initial indication of the child's birthday. The child will be given a "birthday king or queen crown" to wear for the remainder of their special day. (Different crowns will be distributed to boys and girls.)

"Favorite Things" Poster: This particular idea was utilized in my
elementary classroom in second grade and was extremely effective. A lamenated poster board will be hung on the wall on a child's birthday. At the start of the day the birthday boy or girl will have the opportunity to fill out the birthday favorite things with a dry erase marker. (The poster will include favorite color, favorite toy, favorite holiday, favorite movie, favorite sweet, favorite animal etc.) The poster will hang througout the day, and at the end of the school day the student will have the opportunity to share their favorite things. On this day of the week, (if time permits) the child may bring an item of their choice off of their favorite things poster such as their favorite sweet or their favorite movie. When the day is over, the instructor will simply erase the markings with an eraser and prepare for the next birthday. (Several identical posters should be constructed in the case of multiple birthdays occuring on the same day.)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Activites

The story, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, should be utilized in the elementary school classroom. Its creative plot line offers many opportunites for fun activities.

The first activity (located in the upper left picture) allows students to create their own image of the steam boat that Mr. Wonka takes his visitors on down the chocolate river. As a class, the teacher and his/her students could work as a team to build the boat. The model above depicts the boat made of salt dough and craft sticks. Food coloring may even be added to the salt dough. This particular activity would instill team working skills and patience in the classroom.

The second activity allows students to create their own golden ticket. Each student would decide what phrases would be located on their golden ticket. This activity would ingrain creativity and vocabulary skills. The student's golden tickets would be a wonderful means of decorating the classroom. Other activites include creating a new wonka candy bar and a new candy machine for Wonka's factory.

Other activites and more can be found at the website below.

http://www.mce.k12tn.net/chocolate/charlie/charlie_and_the_chocolate_factor.htm