Hello
my Grrreat Readers and Welcome Back to School!
Yes, I said welcome back to school! I know that is
still August, but what you don´t know
is that here, in the US, the school
starts in August.
The teachers officially
start the 13th, but the truth is that we have to go earlier than the
13th in order to prepare the beginning of the coming year. However, kids
start the 19th.
One curiosity that I would
like to share with you is the meaning of apples in the US.
Students have been giving apples to teachers for
hundreds of years.Apples started to represent
teachers and education.
There
are several different religious and nonreligious stories to explain this
tradition.
Religious Story
The biblical book of Genesis tells
the story of Adam and Eve. In the story, Eve eats an apple from the tree of
knowledge. As a result of this reference, the apple has become a symbol of
knowledge, and children give teachers apples to thank them for knowledge.
Nonreligious Stories
From 1700 to 1900, children gave
teachers apples because they came from poor farming families that were unable
to pay for school. Children also gave teachers apples because teachers didn't
earn very much money and families wanted to provide them with extra food.
Present-day Explanations
Not everyone agrees with the
Bible-based theory about apple-giving coming from the Genesis story. And
certainly, school costs have gone down and teacher's salaries have gone up over
the years. These days, children continue to give teachers apples simply as
a tradition.
So if you want, in
September, when you start your academic year, you can give to your English
teacher an apple. She or he will appreciate your gift!
The book of this month is
MISS NELSON IS MISSING by James Marshall.
I always read this book to
my students the first day of school. I like this book because we can learn an
important lesson about it and because during the reading, the book will provide
you some laughs and a lot of entertainment
SYNOPSIS:
The students in Miss
Nelson's class have difficulty following the rules and being respectful. One
day, Miss Nelson thinks an ingenious plan and disappears, making it necessary
for substitute “Viola Swamp” to take over. Soon the children are inundated with
homework and have their story time taken away. Eventually, Miss Nelson comes
back to a much improved class that appreciates her for the wonderful teacher
she is.
Activities:
1.Character Comparison
Use a Venn diagram to
compare and contrast the story's two main characters, Miss Nelson and Miss
Viola Swamp.
2. Matching game
Cut and glue the words
that describe the characters.
