The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Today I was trying to brainstorm children's nursery rhyms that had also became children's songs. The first song to come to mind was the Itsy Bitsy Spider. The lyrics are as follows:

The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.
Down came the rain, and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain
And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.

As a child I remember singing this song and doing hand motions to the lyrics. I believe this song is a common poem remembered by children. However, i find it interesting that it was made famous even though more than likely most children have no clue what a water spout is.

Beatrix Potter

Beatrix Potter was born on July 28, 1966 to a socially wealthy household. Beatrix was well known for her childrens books which she wrote and illustrated. These books were tales about a boy named Peter Rabbit and many of his animal friends. Potter published a total of 23 childrens books which eventually became published in many different languages and were even turned into plays and animated films. Today there is even a film about the life of Beatrix Potter titled Mrs. Potter. I have watched this film and thought it did a wonderful job on describing her life.

Franklin's Secret Club

This week for my outside reading book I decided to read Fraklin's Secret Club by Paulette Boyrgeois and illustrated by Brenda Clark. In this Children's story, the character Franklin (a turtle) and two of his animal friends start a secret "club". He doesn't allow anyone other than his two friends to join at first because he claims there is no room. Franklin's lack of including everyone gets his other friends upset with him. In the end, they join the two clubs together so that everyone can be happy and all spend time together. The issue that was presented in this book is one that in my opinion commonly occurs between children. I remember when I was younger I constantly had to deal with getting left out. Currently, my little sister who is in elementary school deals with the same issues.

Casey at the bat

In class this past week we looked at the poem titled Casey at the Bat written by Earenest Lawrence Thayer. For the longest time this has been one of my favorite poems. I remember when I was in elementary school, our librarian read this poem to my class and I instantly fell in love with it. What I enjoy most about this poem is the ending because it is unexpected. Usually you expect the fairytale ending where everything turns out perfect in the end. However, in this poem that is definitely not the case. Instead, Casey is defeated, he strikes out and dissapoints the whole city of Mudville.

easter eggs

Since today is Easter, I thought I would publish a poem on my blog about the true meaning of this holiday. This poem was written by Ellen Robena Field and was intended to be a song for children. In the poem, Field describes how Christ has risen. She opens the poem describing the season of spring then moves into persuading the children to listen to the glorious music being played due to Christ's resurrection.

The world is filled with gladness;
The bells of Easter ring;
Each pure white lily's waking,
To welcome infant spring.

Oh, dear little children,
listen,And hear what the glad bells say!
The sweetest chime they ever rang -
"Our Lord is risen today!"

Birds are flying across the sky;
Their songs ring through the air;
They carol of the Father's love
He shows us everywhere.

Oh, dear little children,
listen,And hear what the birdlings say!
The sweetest song they ever sang -
"Our Lord is risen today!"

I love you As much...

Today I decided I would read another outside reading book. I pulled from my shelf a book titled "I Love You As Much....". When I opened it up, inside read a note from one of my Mom's best friends. Obviously she was given this book from a friend when she gave birth to her 3rd and last child. As I read this book I realized it really went along with our poetry unit we just started because the last word on each page rhymes with the last word on the previous page. I believe this is called end rhyme. In summary, the book basically just goes through a number of animals telling their young children how much they love them by comparing their love to something material. I believe this is a good book for a mother to receive and read to her younger children.

if only childrens literature could have the affect of the television on children

Today I attended the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo with my younger sister and two of her friends to see the ever so famous Disney channel star, Hannah Montanna. While I was there I stared thinking about how one television show changed the life of Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montanna) for a lifetime. So many children engage in television and it really does effect their life. Wouldn't it be great if books could be as important and intriguing to children as the television is? So much of the influence children have on their lives comes from the television. I think there should be authors that can make their books so attention grabbing that children will no longer want to sit on the couch and watch television, but instead cuddle up with a good book and read. Possibly a good start to getting chilren to read more would be to write more books based on the popular childrens television show series. Another option would be to advertise books on telelevision so children could see what types of books are actually out there.

excitement of poetry

So today i just thought i would discuss how excited I am about starting our poetry unit. Poetry is something i have had a passion for since 4th grade. I remember I would write poems on the playground because i thought it was so neat how i could express myself in just brief sentences and it could be considered literature. As a younger child I always enjoyed reading poetry that rhymed. I can't remember how many times I found myself reading poems from the collections titled "Where the Sidewalk Ends" before I would go to bed at night. As I have grown older, I have learned to enjoy reading most of the poetry written in the chicken soup for the soul books. I also find myself frequently browsing on the Internet for quotes and poems I can relate to. Poetry always seems to be something I can connect with and can brighten my day when I'm feeling down.

The Three Armadillies Tuff

This week for my outside reading book I decided to read a book given to my younger sister when an author came to talk to her and her class in elementary school. The name of the book is The Three Armadillies Tuff by Jackie Mims Hopkins. This book reminds me of my family in the way that there are 3 relatives who are very close and enjoy spending time together. Through this book the three armadillies face the challenge of surviving living past the hungry coyote and in the end come out with a new friend. I thought it was interesting how there were no male figures through out the whole book. This children's book was only comprised of females which in my opinion was very out of the ordinary from other children's book. This children's book also had very detailed illustrations that added a lot to the story.

Time is continuous
it tick tick ticks and never seems to quit
sometimes I wish I could stop time
or even rewind time to redo certain events in my life
Time seems to control the world around us
some think time goes by to quickly
others think time never passes
once we learn to use our time wisely we will understand how to accomplish and achieve more through time


This evening when writing my blogg I thought I would write a poem about something that has been stressing me out lately, time. In my life time is something I never have enough of. There are so many places I want to go and so many things I need to do that I never seem to have enough time to accomplish what I hope to. Also, at this point in my life I am wishing I could re-wind time in order to fix a few mistakes. Unfortunately, time is continuous and lost time is something you can never catch up on.

Madeline

As a child, Madeline was always a children's picture book I enjoyed. Madeline is set in Paris and the pictures illustrated throughout the book portray much of the famous European scenery. The author of this children's book, Ludwig Bemelmans uses a rhyme scheme throughout the story. The story begins with describing a house in Paris and the children who live there. The lifestyle of the children is discussed throughout almost half the book. The climax of the story arises when the mother figure of the book awakens during the night and has a feeling that something just is not right. The book continues with the character Madeline being rushed to the hospital due to appendicitis. Madeline eventually recovers from appendicitis and the book concludes with the other girls wanting to have their appendix out as well.

This children's book was eventually made into a movie in 2000 and was actually a hit appealing to a family audience. I really enjoy this book because it is one of those stories that you can just read for enjoyment and have a few laughs in the process.

if i were a childrens literature author...

I was thinking today about how I would change children's literature if I were to become a children's literature author one day. I thought back on all the books I read and was read to as a child such as the American Girls and Nancy Drew series. Then I thought about what i learned from these books.. after some thinking I couldn't remember anything I learned from these books that taught me something to carry with me through the rest of my life. So, I have decided if I were to become a children's author I would write books that could incorporate more life lessons and talk about situations many children deal with daily so they could actually benefit from these books instead of just reading them for entertainment.