* FES responses to their OES E-pals containing the directions for doing the READ Poster Book Reports.

                                                                                950 Central Avenue

                                                                                 Fultondale, AL 35068                                                                                                                                                Nov 28, 2007                    

Dear Wally,

    No, I have not won a trophy. I just like basketball for fun and exercise. Alabama is a beautiful. It is full of beautiful trees, homes, fast food restaurants and a lot of other neat things.  Right now the trees have all changed to beautiful fall colors. The tempter is about 50 to 49degres F. No, I do not watch Naruto. I don’t know why, but I don’t like it.

 Oh, yeah. We have also done another project. It’s called read posters.  I’m going to tell you the steps to make one. The first thing you do is you read a book (any kind of book). Then you need your own back ground. Next you need to write a summary about the story, but you write as if you are one of the characters. If your family can fit in too and there are enough characters, let them join. When you are writing, use the words use I, me, or my. The last thing you do is you dress up like your character and hang up your background behind you.  Then you have someone take your picture, download to the computer, add the word “READ” and print it out.  Cool, huh?

          We also wrote a book about poetry it is called Under the Sea.   It’s an anthology book. An anthology book is a book about writing of many authors. If you’re asking why we wrote this book? We wrote it because of the book Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’ Dell. It inspired us to write this book. There is something else too. We dedicated the book to all the students in your class.

Have you studied about the Great Depression? If you haven’t, I’ll give you some facts. Some facts are that the stock market crashed, lots of families went broke and some died from hunger because they had no money to buy food.  They also died from diseases. There was a dust bowl because the land dried up from a  drought. Herbert Hoover was the president at that time. The Depression started in 1929-1944. It lasted about 17 years!

Also my teacher, Mrs. Ramsay, went to Nicaragua for Thanksgiving and went climbing an active volcano.  She also went swimming in an extinct volcano that is full of warm water.  She also went to a nature reserve and saw two alligators and three crocodile. She also got to hold a baby sea turtle that had just hatched.

                                                          Sincerely,

Jerry

 

950 Central Ave

                                                                                                Fultondale, Al 35068

                                                                                                November 29, 2007

Dear Brandon,

            I have been wondering can you write down the website so I can learn more about your class. Do you like the heat in Arizona? I like meat, apples, and grapes; the same as you. Do you get a lot of raisins there? Do you ever get tired of the drought there?

            We did Read poster last month. Here are the steps. First, you read a book. Then, you get clothes to wear; you have to dress up like the main character. Next, you get a back- ground [not too dark]. Next, you go to school dressed up. Once you get there, you set the background behind you. Last you take the picture.  You print it out with the word “read” on the bottom.

            Our class did a under the sea book. First you pick a sea animal. Then you learn about the animal. Next you make a poem about the animal you have picked. Last you go on a website you find the animal in a picture. Then you go back and paste it into.

            Our teacher is teaching us about the Great Depression. She is teaching us this because if we learn from the past so we can prevent what might be coming. We are also watching movies on the Smart Board. The Great Depression had made stock markets crash and people lost money. People became very poor. The people had a Dust Bowl the plants had dried up and turned to dust. The dust blew five miles out to the Pacific. People gave up all hope of getting back on there feet. The people grew hungry and sad. The Great Depression was a sad part of these people lives. Our class is reading Bud, Not Buddy. We have learned a lot from her.

            Nicaragua is a big place. Mrs. Ramsay just went there. They are poor compared to us. Their food is very good. They also have lots of volcanoes and jewelry. They reuse stuff like bags and bottles. You can also climb volcanoes. A long time ago the volcanoes erupted and made 365 little islands. The only language they speak is Spanish.

                        In Newcomb, my team won; the girls lost. We had 6 players and the others team had 9. Our team won a big ole trophy. We also got ribbons for winning the tournament. We were the champions even though 1 team did not show up to play.

                                                                       

Your friend,

                                                                                    Marlon

 

950 Central Ave.

                                                                                                Fultondale, AL 35068

                                                                                                Dec.4, 2007

 

Dear Aaron,

 

            I hoped that you have had an awesome Thanksgiving.  I was just wondering what you ate?  I ate some steak and turkey with gravy.  As your question was, my favorite subject is also math.  We’ve already read the book, Frindle.  We are now reading, Bud not Buddy.  It’s about a kid named Bud, but his mother died and now Bud has to live at an orphanage. His dad took off before his mom died.  Have you done any projects yet?  We have done quite a few of projects.  Each paragraph explains another project that we have done in the past since you wrote.

            One of our big fun activities is we saw our teacher’s pictures from Managua in Nicaragua.  The picture that our class liked best was the swimming pig.  The pig was in the water because people throw food in the water.  Animals adapted to the water so they can swim and get the food and eat it. Mrs. Ramsay also took pictures of an alligator coming to the boat and trying to get a bite of somebody’s foot.  My favorite set of pictures is when Mrs. Ramsay and Mr. Ramsay both climbed an active volcano.

            We are doing a project right now.  We are reading a book called Mistakes that Worked.  It has a lot of items and foods that we use and eat like the chocolate chip cookie, coca-cola, and the yellow and white cheese.  They were all mistakes! It tells a biography about the person that made the thing and how and why it happened.  There are almost 50 stories in this little and tiny book.

            I’ve been to a place you might have been, Maine.  It was way cold up there.  I guess it’s really cold in June.  On the bright side, I got to ride on a dolphin. Man it was really hard, but it was really fun.  The worst part was that when I was done, it hit me with its tailfin.  I was just wondering, what was your favorite trip ever??? 

            Our last project that I liked best was a thing called the read poster.  The instructions are very simple.  First, choose a book and read it.  Then, make a costume of a character in a book.  Next, make a background or buy one.  Last, you bring your costume and background to school and let your teacher take a picture of you.  It might sound hard but it is worth it.  The book that I did was a Mysteries A Through Z.  I was the kid called Cody.  If you do it, please tell me about it.  Have a great day.

 

 

 

                                                                                                            Your Buddy,

                                                                                                            Shawn            

 

950 Central Ave.

                                                                        Fultondale, AL 35068

                                                                        Nov 28, 2007

 

Dear Theo,

 

             Hi, this is Tanya. I’m fine! The field trip we took was to Atlanta to the CNN and the Aquarium. In CNN, it was so cool there. There was this man who showed us around. They had about a 1,000 flags in there. Then they had Hotels for anybody who wants to stay there. They also had restaurants. They had everything up in there. It was so fun. I had so much fun there with my best friends. Have you ever gone to Atlanta, Georgia?

           

       Did I tell you about our project that we did? It’s called a Reading Poster. See this is what you do. You pick a book that you want to do the project on. Then you write a story of the plot. Then you need to tell the characters, and your friends who are in the book. Then, the next day you give your teacher the paper. Then you put on your costume. You are supposed to dress up like your character and I dressed up as a dog. I read Molly Moon. Then she will take your picture and print it out. Then you will get a 100.

           

            There is a time period called the Great Depression. We are studying about it as we read Bud, not Buddy. The Great Depression lasted from 1929-1945. People started having money and putting their money in the bank. Herbert Hoover was the elected president. Then people became poor and people’s money vanished from the bank. They tore houses down. They had a soup line. Then when people started getting their houses back and their money back and people started working. The new president started helping poor people out and that’s what it was like during the Great Depression.

 

We are also learning about Nicaragua. It’s in Central America. A giant earthquake hit the biggest city in Nicaragua. Over 6,000 people were killed. Then after that 20,000 were hurt. Thousands more were left homeless. People needed food, water, and medicines. Roberto had been in Nicaragua a month before the earthquake. While he was there, Roberto heard about a fourteen year old boy who had a terrible thing happen to him. He lost both of his legs in an accident. The boy parents had died. He needs artificial legs but no money to pay for them.

 

Write back to me soon!

                                                                                               

 

                                                                                               

                                                                                                Your E-pal,

                                                                                                            Tanya