A Virginia Colonist' Despair/Colonial House

Loving and kind father and mother:

My most humble duty remembered to you, hoping in God of your good health. This is to let you understand that I, your child, am in a most heavy case because of the nature of the country, which causes much sickness. When we are sick there is nothing to comfort us. Since I came out of the ship, I never ate anything but peas and loblollie (that is, water gruel). As for deer or venison, I never saw any since I came into this land. There is indeed some fowl. But we are not allowed to go and get it. We must work hard both early and late for a mess of water gruel and a mouthful of bread and beef.

We live in fear of the enemy every hour; we are but 32 to fight against 3,000 if they should come. And the nearest help that we have is 10 miles from us. When the rogues overcame this place the last time they slew 80 persons.

I have nothing to comfort me. I have nothing at all—no, not a shirt to my back but two rags, nor no clothes but one poor suit, nor but one pair of shoes, one pair of stockings, and one cap. My cloak was stolen by one of my own fellows. And to his dying hour, he would not tell me what he did with it. Some of my fellows saw him take butter and beef out of a ship, which my cloak, I doubt not, paid for.

I am not a quarter as strong as I was in England, and all is for want of victuals. I tell you that I have eaten more in one day in your home than I have here in a week. You have given more than my day's allowance to a beggar at the door.

If you love me you will redeem me suddenly, for which I do entreat and beg, And if you cannot get the merchants to redeem me for some little money, then for God's sake get a gathering or ask some good folks to lay out some little sum of money in meal and cheese and butter and beef. The answer of this letter will be life or death to me.

Your loving son,
Richard Frethorne
Virginia
3rd April, 1623

http://www.sitesalive.com/hl/tg/private/hltgReasons.htm

After watching some of the Colonial House episodes, how does the letter above compare to what you saw on the video? Was the colony in the video realistic?

Imagine you have been selected to participate in Colonial House 2. Write a letter home talking about your living conditions. Are you a freeman, indentured servant, or even the Governor? What kinds of things do you do day by day? Are you having trouble keeping the rules? Is the life you are experiencing similar to the writer of the letter?

Story Postcards

My students have been doing some creative writing. I decided that they should share their stories with their parents and so I gave them this opportunity. The students drew a scene from their story using paint and then I printed the pictures out using card stock.

I then had the students write the first paragraph of their story on the back of the card along with their mailing address so they could be mailed home. When parents receive the card they will have the opportunity to ask the student what the paragraph is about and then the students can share their story.

Retelling To Build a Fire by Jack London

To Build a Fire is a short story by Jack London. London liked to show the conflict between man and nature. Read the story and think about what point London is trying to make.

After you have read the story, I want you to choose a new way to retell the story. Pick a digital tool we have used before and freshen up the tale. Make sure the plot remains, we don't want to write a new story.

Samorost 1: A Point and Click, Critical Thinking, Trial and Error Adventure Game!

Samorost 1 is a crazy cool game. The idea is to get the character, Samorost, to explore the space ship that he finds flying towards his planet. To play this game you simply point and click until you find out how to progress. You will have to collaborate on this one, don't be selfish we you figure out the puzzles!

Now for your assignment: I want you to write Samorost's story. Why is scared when he sees the spaceship? Why does he decide to explore it? What does he find along the way? You will need to take notes as you travel with Samorost. You will be posting Samorost's story to the class ning.

I will leave you this picture as a clue for the first puzzle. Can you see what has changed?

Journey to the Center of the Earth: Redux 2009

My students just finished reading an excerpt from Jules Verne's classic story Journey to the Center of the Earth. Last year my students wrote stories describing what happened when they went to the center of the Earth. This year, I created a short story starter for my students to use for inspiration. Zac, Rosa, and Saul lend their voices to begin our stories.



The stories will be posted on the A Novel Approach to Reading blog when they are finished.

Here is a link where I explain how you can get the novel on audio for free.

Blogging Tiger Winner for Writing

Just Dessert
by Nathan

Once there was a little girl named July. She was picky and spoiled.Her and her mom went to a store to get a pumpkin to make a pie. When they got to the store July said there`s a ton of pumpkins to pick from! after 30 minutes they had picked a pumpkin and went home. were making the pie. as July`s mom lowered the knife and the pumpkin started to glow but when she lowered the knife lowered the knife more the pumpkin just kept getting brighter but as the knife punchered the pumpkin it stopped glowing.
The next day they woke up to glass breaking, it was their neighbors. They had went to the same store as July and her mom. They were screaming.
July had found out that they were pranks the store had put out.

Congratulations, Nathan for winning the Blogging Tiger Award for Writing. This story was based on The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg

Blog Action Day 08- Raising Poverty Awareness

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

We are preparing for this day in both Math and Social Sciences. Will you join us?

Would You Like to Write With Us?

Chris Van Allsburg's excellent children's book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick has been a source of writing inspiration for my students for years. I honestly have never had more success getting my students to write than using this book as a story starter.

So, my question to you is, "Will you join us?" I want you to write a story based on one of Van Allsburg's pictures from The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. There are two rules to this assignment:

1. You must use the line that goes with the picture somewhere in your story.
2. The story must have something to do with the picture.

If you don't have a copy this link will take you to Google Book Search of the story.

Write your story on your blog, or use Google docs, or some other on-line publishing and send me the link so my class can read it and so I can link to it. If you can't publish it on-line, email it to me at wmchamberlain@gmail.com and I will post it here on the blog. You can even record audio or video of you reading your story!

There is no reward except for the joy of writing and sharing with others and perhaps the coveted Blogging Tiger Award for Writing to place on your blog or website.

Kelsey's Character Sketch

Since Kelsey is moving to a new school I decided to record her reading her character sketch. Although we will miss her, we will still have her on our blog. Can you figure out who she is writing about?

Blogging Tiger Award for Journey to the Center

Congratulations, Colby on winning the Blogging Tiger Award for Writing for your Journey to the Center of the Earth post. Don't forget to add the name of the story under your Blogging Tiger badge on your site.

Also congratulations to to Kyle and Johnathan for winning the Commenting Tiger Award for their entry on Simple Machines Visited. I really liked your tree house idea. It would keep dangerous animals away from you at night, (and tree houses are the hotness!)

If you want to win a Blogging Tiger Award, then work hard. The winners have won because of outstanding ideas and hard work. They deserve to be recognized for their excellence. If you work hard, you may find your post winning an award.

Journey to the Center of the Earth Redux

In the original story, Jules Verne writes about a hole in Finland that leads to a new world under the earth's crust. Imagine you find a cave in your back yard that leads to the center of the earth. What would you discover? Post your story on the blog, one will be given the Blogging Tiger award for writing.

Amazing Stories about the San Francisco Earthquake

Wow! You all did a great job on your San Francisco Earthquake stories. Kiley's story had wonderfully interesting details. Tercy Ann's story was very realistic. Alex's story was very emotional. I think you should read and comment on them.

The Blogging Tiger award for this assignment goes to Colby's story. I am very impressed by both the detail and the flow of the story. I think it is the best thing written by anyone this year! What do you think?