Ms. Nancy Online

For those of you who signed up for The Nutcracker, remember to be at the front of Cerritos Performing Arts Center by 11:05 and gather around the Julian sign. They will not seat us until we are all there, so everybody is depending on you to get there on time. Please review with your student the following so they can better appreciate the performance. Content is taken from the curriculum guide prepared by the Friends of Arts Education at the Cerritos Center.

The story…It is Christmas Eve. Maria and her brother Fritz are anticipating with excitement and impatience the celebration that will take place in their beautiful home in Frankfurt. They are wondering if all their guests will come despite the snow storm. Maria is especially concerned about their godfather, Papa Drosselmeyer. The godfather arrives late and brings with him extraordinary presents among which is an unusual nutcracker that turns out to be a young, handsome prince. Thanks to Nutcracker, Maria is freed of undesirable guests, the mice, and travels to a world of magic and enchantment with her prince. They are greeted by the Sugar Plum Fairy, and entertained by acrobats and dancers from all over the world! Was it just a dream? What do you think?

The story of the story…The history of the Nutcracker tale is as rich as the story itself. Nearly two centuries ago, in 1815, the German writer E.T.A. Hoffman published a story called The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, telling how a little girl’s love brought to life her cherished Nutcracker, an enchanted Christmas gift from her mysterious godfather. In 1847, the French writer Alexandre Dumas published a retelling of Hoffman’s story. From this adaption, the Russian composers Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky and choreographer Lev Ivanov created their ballet, The Nutcracker, which was first performed in St. Petersburg in 1892. Why has The Nutcracker remained so popular throughout the world? As the story explains, “if you love something very much, it is always alive.”

Writing application: Do you have a toy or an object that you love so much you wish it would come to life? If so, describe how you imagine that experience. What conversations would you have with that come-alive object? What in your world would surprise your come-alive object? What would you do on your first day together? (Many of my students (particularly boys) have loved The Indian in the Cupboard books which follow this pattern. ) Non-writers can draw a picture of the object and dictate a story.

Since many of you are starting out with astronomy studies this year, I thought I would mention star parties. When I taught in Alaska, star parties were a popular part of the astronomy curriculum. Since in the winter it was dusky by 3:00 and pitch black by 4:30, you didn’t have to stay up late to have a star party. We also lived where there were fewer artificial lights to compete with the heavenly lights. The downside was the cold. We’d stage the star party near a warm house holding popcorn and steaming hot chocolate inside, so you could look for a while and then run inside and get warm.

All of that aside, there is a star party happening tonight at UCI, and you could have one in your backyard if you want to get up at midnight. Tonight there is going to be a total lunar eclipse. There is no better way to talk about an event like this than when it is happening and the kids get to see it. Worried about school tomorrow? If you do school at midnight, they can sleep in tomorrow! You can read all about it here: http://www.ocregister.com/news/moon-says-earth-1822563-color-comes. Also featured in this article is the meteor shower coming on Saturday. If your student does experience either one of these events, make sure you have him write about it the next day! And if all of this just sounds too “out there” for you, schedule a time to visit the Griffith Observatory this year. It has just reopened after a massive refurbishment program.

Another fun resource online is the NASA site: http://www.nasa.gov/. Look at both the “for kids” and “for teachers” pages for ideas for your astronomy study. I’ve also told many of my families about the book “Next Stop Neptune: Experiencing the Solar System.” Near the beginning of the book, the author, Alvin Jenkins, plots out a scaled solar system for you if the sun was the size of a basketball. “At this scale, the solar system is almost a mile and a half across, and all of its planets could be held in the palm of your hand.” One year the Brea co-op did a walk where parents had mapped out the relative distances of the planets from the sun. Those kids had a graphic picture in their heads that came from the ground up.

So…don’t call me early in the morning. I’ll be star partying tonight!

I’m sorry to say that I tried to sign all of you up as users on my email address, but the system just wouldn’t let me. I thought that would be an easier way for your children to start writing and having a forum for their thoughts, but it seems like you will have to do it on your own. It really only takes minutes if time is the hesitation. I know you are all busy; you are doing one of the most important and difficult jobs in the world. You have my greatest respect. Another issue I wonder about is fear…of predators, of doing a new trick on the computer, of having your child’s writing displayed for all the world to see. All are legitimate. Please let me know if I can help you with any of those.

Speaking of fear, another good piece was posted by Stone that invites response. Thinking about it today, I would have to say that my greatest fear is that something would happen to my children or my husband. As many of you know, the summer before last we were awakened at 3:00 in the morning by one of my son’s friends, saying he thought Joseph might have been in an accident. I found myself in a surprisingly calm place throughout, as I proceeded to call the local hospitals and the police to get information. When we found Joey, he was a mess, but he was alive! I was overwhelmed with thankfulness, and at the same time, devastated by the loss felt by the parents of the child that didn’t survive that night. That loss doesn’t go away. My walks often take me by their house and I ache for them and how their lives were changed by that moment. The earth was shaken for a lot of people that night. One thing I know: fear doesn’t accomplish anything. When my boys leave for the evening, I have to put my trust in the same Hand that got Joey through that night.

On a lighter note, Tosh wrote about his dream. It’s another good writing idea. I’m sure your kids have lots of dreams, both the sleeping and waking kind. Get them to write about them! Their audience is waiting!

For our youngest writers a good Thanksgiving project would be to create an A to Z book featuring “Things I’m Thankful For.” Depending on your child’s skill level, each page could have one word and a picture or more extensive writings for more advanced writers. Students may need help coming up with thankful associations for some of the more obscure letters. If you do this project, please be sure to share it. Having a collection of created books would be a great addition to the spring Project Fair.

Frequently over the last few days I realized how long it has been since I have updated this site and yet resisted the discipline of writing. Perhaps the most frequent admonishment in how-to books on writing is to establish the discipline of writing. If your children keep a journal at your request (or mine), know that the struggle is a real one, much like exercising when you don’t feel like it. And yet, if you “just do it,” it becomes a habit that you don’t think about. So I urge you to parent your child (and yourself) in establishing the good habit of daily writing. For homeschoolers this can be the activity the kids do as you are getting everybody organized for the day or it can be a wind-up activity that reflects on all that was accomplished. Either way, it is an established fact that good writers practice the craft. If you need inspiration on the subject, try “Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott or any of the Ralph Fletcher books. I think the Resource Center has the Fletcher books; the former is available at a number of libraries.

Many of you have done interesting activities this summer or taken trips to new and different places. Or maybe you did the same vacation that you do every year that you remember and there is something extremely special about that for you. My family used to go to Clear Lake every year when I was a kid and I loved the excitement of coming around the bend in the road and seeing the lake after hours and hours and hours of hot driving. My brother and I had a little boat (a little bigger than a bathtub) with the tiniest motor, but we were allowed to drive around the slough on our own. We went fishing for blue gill with kernels of corn (not messy like worms), and brought home frogs we gigged for my mom to fry at night. We even waterskiied in the slough behind our little boat (both of us were lightweights). Anyway, did you get a little picture of my childhood summer vacations? Think about what you did this summer and see if you can describe it. I’m waiting to hear from you!