* FES students created the fractured fairy tale book jacket project and then included directions for this project by writing the directions into their E-pals letters to the OES students.
950 Central Ave.
Fultondale, AL 35068
January 14, 2007
Dear Mark,
Hello, it’s Steven again. I wish I could go to all of those places. People in Alabama need that rain. I got a PSP, 2 games for it, a memory stick, a board game, 3 movies, and a CD for Christmas. What did you get for Christmas?
We also did pod casts on the Great Depression. We did a pod cast or radio show about the Great Depression. My group was about someone who kidnapped the president’s daughters. What you do is: 1.write a script that is set in the Great Depression. 2. Practice with the people that you do it with. 3. Record it on your computer with a microphone. 4. Upload it to the Internet. Finally you have your pod cast. You can listen to it on my teacher’s website at www.ramsaysclass.com.
We also did fairy tale book jackets. The fairy tale book jackets are easy. The steps are: 1. Write a fractured fairy tale. [Fractured means changed a bit. Take a traditional tale and change one element of it] 2. Make a rough draft book cover by loose-leaf paper make a cover, teaser, and about the author. 3. Then get on Microsoft Word and make the book cover using the template. 4. You print and you have a book jacket. I did mine on the Three Little Pigs. It was called The Three Poor Pigs.
That’s what has been happening here. What has been going on there?
My grandfather died last year. Have
you lost any thing close to you like a family member?
What did you do over Christmas break?
I stayed at home almost the whole time.
My brother got out of school a week before me. That is not fair!!!!!!!
What do you think about that? I
think it’s bogus. What do you do
over the weekend? I usually go
riding four wheelers almost every weekend.
I go with my grandma, papa, uncle, his girlfriend, my mom, my step-dad,
my brother and me. We usually ride around Gardendale, which is the next city
over to the right of Fultondale. Also,
before I forget [not just joking ha ha ha] my teacher is a NBCT or a National
Board Certified Teacher. That means
she can teach any subject [like reading, math, social studies, art, science, or
health] and teach any where in the USA!!!! That is really cool isn’t it?
There are very few teachers who can do that.
Guess
what? We got some good news. We are
also representing the nation by our e-pal project.
How we are is there is a conference in San Antonio, Texas. We will
present some of our things we did for our e-pal project.
I might even be able to go to!!!!!!!!!
Your letters might be there too. I
hope to hear from you soon and if you are wondering what I got for Christmas
look in the first paragraph.
We also did choose your own adventure stories set during the Great Depression. What you do is go to Microsoft PowerPoint and make a story that you choose your adventure. Then make action buttons called hyper links. Then you do the slide with a partner and go through it together. You can see ours on the website. Write back soon.
Sincerely,
Steven
950 Central Ave.
Fultondale, AL 35068
January 16, 2008
Dear Tommy,
Hey, Tommy. How are you? I’m pretty good. I see you have questions for me.
Listen, I have seen snow before. I only saw it once. I think it is going to snow on Thursday or Friday. Through winter break, I think I’m going to Montgomery. I’m not sure where I’m going. Where are you going to go for winter break? I think the drought is really bad, I don’t know. We do have three hours to spend water. I celebrate Christmas not Hanukkah because my family likes to celebrate Christmas. I want to know what you got for Christmas. Does your family celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah?
I had a wonderful Christmas. Did you have a wonderful Christmas? What I got for Christmas was a Bratz doll and a Cabbage Patch kid. Her name is Sharon Amiya and her birthday is December 2nd. Also I got a bike, and some games, a diary and some other stuff. I can’t tell you the rest of it because there was a lot of it. So what did you get for Christmas? Did you get a lot of stuff for Christmas? I know you got a gift from my classmates and me. Did your class get it yet? How do your classmates like it? Do you like it? Did you see my poem yet? Do you like my poem? Happy New Year, Tommy. How do you like 2008?
We are planning a trip to San Antonio. I don’t really know about San Antonio because I never been there before, but I can tell you about the trip to San Antonio. Okay through the summer we are planning a trip. The problem is that on this trip we don’t all get to go. So, we have to put the names in a hat to draw out. If you have a class one, two, or three, you won’t get your name pulled. So, like I was saying, I hope that I get my name pulled from the hat. If I don’t, I won’t be mad at all. So the reason why we are planning a trip to San Antonio is because they chose us because we are going to tell them about all our E-pals.
Now I’m going to tell you about one of our projects and it’s called Book Jacket. Now the Book Jacket is not hard. All you need is to read a fairy tale story and make up different characters or a different story. I did Harry, Marry, Carey and the big bad man. The story is based off of the three little pigs. Next you tell about the author who wrote it. You tell it in third person which is where you act like someone else wrote it. Then we get on the Paint program and draw a picture. I drew three little pigs. You type it on a template that your teacher gives you and print it out.
This paragraph is going to be about the News Paper that the groups did it with their own groups. We made a Colonial Newspaper about life and times during the Revolutionary War. I was in a group name the Superstars. I had three girls and one boy in my group. Their names were Taranisha, Anna, Gabby, and Austin. We were a good group together. So we get a big sheet of paper and let your teacher put the lines on the paper. Next you write a map and color it then you write your part of the paper and write it on the paper. Make sure you have a paragraph, not just five or six sentences. Then it’s out of your Social Studies book but only the map is in the Social Studies book.
We are reading a book that is call A Winkle in Time. Have you every seen or done a project on it? We just started to read it. We are on chapter three because we had read it a little too late., We had just read the book Mistakes That Worked. A Winkle in Time is about three kids named Meg, Charles and Calvin. Charles can read people minds. Meg is having problems in school. The other one is good in school. He doesn’t show his feeling, but Meg does show her feeling all the time. It’s a very interesting book.
I am going to tell you about the spelling bee. Now I’m not in the spelling bee. I have two classmates and they are girls. One’s name is Areli and the other one is Gabby; they both are my friends. They didn’t win because they let one word mess them up, but it was all right because they still tried their best to win. I mean it’s not like it wrong to loose. I lost a lot of games before. People loose some games.
I’m going to tell you about the Mistakes That Worked party. First let me tell you about all the mistakes that we read about in the book. They were potato chips, Popsicles, sandwiches, doughnuts, fudge, coca cola, tea, chocolate chip cookies and all the good food. I mean I just can’t believe that all of that good stuff was a mistake. We had a day where we brought that food and had a Mistakes Buffet. It was so yummy!
Now this is my last paragraph. I am going to tell you about my Choose Your Own Adventure story. I was with my group you know the Superstars. We had to create a Choose Your Own Adventure story set during the Great Depression to go with our book, Bud, Not Buddy. My team named ours “The Orphan Train”. We had to do pictures and type the story on power point and choose a background. Then I said that was not hard. You can see examples on our class website. They are fun to read.
So now I got to say good-bye. Be careful up there. And yes, I know I will be careful.
Your e-pal,
Terri
950
Central Avenue
Fultondale, AL 35068
January17,
2008
Dear
Enrique,
Can
you believe Christmas went by so fast? I
was wishing it would never end, but everything does.
I was just wondering, what did you get for Christmas?
All I got was clothes, but the littlest present was the best; the
Nintendo DS. My favorite game is Mario
Party DS. The other game was Ramen
the Raving Rabbits 2.
One
of the fun activities that we did in class was the social studies newspaper. It is a newspaper from Colonial Times. The steps were to
first get a white or tan piece of cardstock.
Then you choose a chapter and make an article about what happened, when
it was done, and why it was committed. It
should only take a week or less. It
was fun, but it took a lot of effort and very little playing.
The
second and one of my favorite activities was the fractured fairy tales.
It was my favorite because you had to read a traditional fairy tale and
change one part of it. Then, you
write and type it into Mrs. Ramsay’s template. Last but not least, you print
it and put it on the wall or whatever you want.
I don’t know why, but chose The Three Little Pigs to change because it
is one of the easiest one for me.
Before
Christmas, we had an awesome party. The party was a Mistakes Buffet. We all
brought a food, snacks, or drinks that were actually a mistake. We read about
them in a book called Mistakes that Worked. The food was delicious. There
was tea, coke, fudge, cheese, chocolate chip cookies, rolls, chips, and the best
was the toy, slinky.
My class
and I also did Choose Your Own Adventure Stories. Each group made an adventure
story about the Great Depression. Then you make put them on slides in Power
Point, change the background and put hyperlinks. It took my team 4 days, but it
varies from team to team. It was one of the best.
You should check ours out on our class website.
They’re cool.
You should really try the pod casts.
The weird part is, you don’t need an I-pod. All you need is a microphone and a
computer. You just make a 3-minute
show about anything you want. Is it the best, maybe? So try it out.
Your E-pal,
Sam
950
Central Ave.
Fultondale, AL 35068
January 15, 2008
Dear
Nanci,
I don’t have an e-mail address yet. I’m really sorry about that. My
family doesn’t even have internet yet, but my mom is considering it! Hanna,
when you said that it snowed in Arizona, I was shocked. I thought that Arizona
was mostly hot weather, but looks can be deceiving! Here in Alabama it does not
snow but, last night, Mr. David Neil, the weather man on FOX6 news, said it was
going to snow one day this week! How exciting is that?! Yes, we’ve been in a
drought, but it rained a lot here last week!
In Mrs. Ramsay’s class, another project we did was pod-casts. It was
really awesome. It was also very difficult! From writing the script, to
performing it, it’s a lot of work! Now, to do the pod-casts, is your class
does this, first, if you are divided into groups, your group comes up with a
time, setting and theme. The time setting for my whole class was the Great
Depression because we were studying the Great Depression. The theme is easy.
Your group’s pod-cast can be a comedy, action, or drama! After you have chosen
your theme, you have to write the script; that takes a lot of brainstorming.
Next, you have to get the voices together; boy; was that though for my group!
Next you practice, practice, and practice really hard so when you record it, it
will sound good. Last but not least, you perform it while recording it on the
computer. Your teacher will help you with that. I am positive that your class
will have a spectacular time with this project.
Over the Christmas break we did a lot of things. My Girl Scout troop
(315) went caroling! It was a great time. We got light up noses, and we also
were given antlers. Mine had bells on it! To light our way, my troop leader gave
us candles in cups. After a few houses, Katherine’s cup caught on fire!! Then
“Santa Claus” had to put it out. How dangerous was that!?! After all that,
we all had a great time.
Another project my class did was Fractured Fairytale Book Jackets.
Everyone’s came out great. They looked awesome. To do this project, you first,
choose a fairytale that you enjoy reading, next, you take the fairytale, and
make it your own, for example, mine was called, Little Blue Riding Hood.
I took the Little Red Riding Hood story and made it my own. Start out
with a first draft cover and story. Next after you have revised and edited, you
make a final draft of the story and you also make the final cover on the
computer. You will only type about the About the Author, (You are typing about
you but from a reporters point of view, For example you would start off by
saying something like this, Margaret Allen of the book, Little Blue Riding
Hood, Is 10 years old, and she lives in Birmingham, Alabama.) Then you type
a persusive summary about the book and why people should buy your book. Then
your teacher takes your picture to put on the book jacket. You type it all on a
template in Microsoft Word. Have a wonderful time with the project.
Aren’t you glad we’re in the New Year? We can all start fresh and
new. You know, set new goals and have new dreams for the New Year. Say, what are
your New Year’s resolutions? Also, how is your family doing? Are you doing new
things in class?
The Tech Team is doing well. We are doing a lot of things now of days.
We’re doing things like helping the kindergarten teachers with their students
with the computer tech. We also take the laptops almost everywhere. We save
things on the pen drives for teachers, and we help the other classmates with the
projects we do here. Mostly, we try to help Mrs. Ramsay get technology things
done.
Well, that’s all I have to say. Hope you can write back soon! You know,
I’m glad you’re my friend! Write back really soon.
Your friend,
Meg
P. S. What do you think the groundhog will see? I hope he doesn’t see his shadow. The weather here is really cold! Oh, and by the way, Kara got so many presents that day, I couldn’t list them all!
950 Central Ave
Fultondale, AL 35068
January 16, 2008
Dear
Tony,
I
really liked your story. I was joking about the rabbit thing. That was my
sister’s old boyfriend; he dyed it pink and black then gave it a Mohawk. It
was scary.
Over Christmas break I got to see my cousin and we
watched wrestling DVDs and played Smackdown vs. Raw (2006, 2007, and
2008). It was fun. What did you do?
In class we did a project called the Fractured Fairy
Tale book jacket. You take a traditional fairytale and change one of the story
elements. The story I did was Cinderella except I changed it to Cenderfella; it
was funny. You can see some of them on the class website. Maybe you could try to make one too.
At Christmas, I got the Transformer movie. It
was awesome. I also got the new Harry Potter movie and the Spider-man
movie, and Pirates of the Caribbean 3. What did you get for Christmas? I
hope you got something good.
Another project we did in class is a podcast. It was
cool. You can find my group’s at our class website. My group’s was about
some missing motor oil. My name was Demetrie and somehow I got stuck to a chair
in the story. Each group had to
create a radio program like the ones from the Great Depression.
Yesterday, in my other class, we did a geo board. My
rubber bands were flying everywhere. It
was fun though.
Another project we did is a Choose Your Own Adventure
story. You and your group had to write it on one of eight cards. Then you edit
it type your story onto Power Point slides. Then you put hyperlinks on it. Next
you put the background that you want and you pick the font. That is how make it.
We did ours on the Great Depression. In ours, we did it where you are a guy
trying to decide if you want to stay with your grandma or go with your sister.
It was cool. You should check it out on the class website.
Your
friend,
Brent