so the first week back to school after winter break has been awesome for me! i got to bring home two very important & amazing papers to share with everyone!
the first one is a grade i'm super duper proud of. i looooove to read, but reading comprehension is not my strong suit. i'm such a speed reader that i forget to focus on what the story is about & just think about how many more pages i have left to read. i'm one of the top readers in my class & i always put pressure on myself to stay at the top so mommy & mrs. garcia are always reminding me to slow down, quizzing me on chapters i just read & helping in any way they can. i also try to make a personal connection to the book i'm reading to help me focus. i have to take at least 2 reading comprehension quizzes a week for my librarian but that doesn't count against my grade, but i still have a rough time when we have daily grades & tests in social studies. anyway the first day back from vacation in my graded papers folder i had a reading comprehension paper & i got a 100 on it!!! mrs. garcia was so proud of me she wrote "WOW!!! Fantastic!" with a smiley face on it, i couldn't wait to get home to show mommy!!!
the other paper i got to bring home was a congratulations letter from the director of fine arts saying that a piece of my artwork has been selected to be entered into the lamar cisd district art show. it will be judged for possible entry into the 2014 houston livestock show & rodeo school art competition... ahhhh, so exciting!!! see in art class for the last few months all of 3rd grade has been working on a type of art called "amate." "amate paper paintings were originally made in mexico by the otomi indians. these paintings are decorative and the paper is usually made from the bark of the wild fig tree. beginning in the 1950's, amate paper paintings has become the primary source of income for many communities in mexico including the xalitlas." we brought paper sacks from home to use as our background & we used bright oil pastels to draw with. the theme for our amate was rodeo art & i drew a farm that had a barn with sheep, chickens, a pig, horses & long horns. out of over 100 3rd grade students, 3 of us are cordially invited to attend the lcisd student art exhibit january 15-17, 2014 from 9am-5pm. blue ribbons are given for first place, red for second place & white for third place. best of show, gold medal & spirit merit winners will advance to the houston livestock show & rodeo art competition & will be on display in the hayloft gallery at the reliant center. everyone is so excited & so proud of my talent, hard work & accomplishment! we can't post a photo of my artwork because it's already been sent to in, but no worries we'll take lots of pictures at the exhibit.
That is a terrific accomplishment and I am as proud of you as a grandparent can be and then some. I agree with your mom and your teacher though – SLOW DOWN. I never read for total books read that I can remember. I read for enjoyment, for travel, for adventure, for mystery, for drama, for humor. In school if we were talking about General Custer, Geronimo, Osceola (Seminole war chief), David Morgan, Francis Scott, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Moby Dick, Jim Thorpe, Babe Ruth, I would check out a book (or two) on them and read it. I traveled to the moon more than once, flew with Mary Poppins, hunted buffalo, with Sitting Bull, got shot and killed with Custer (I was rooting for the Indians even though it meant my death), lived on Mars, went to Alaska with Jack London. And this was just in elementary school. I experienced the stories in the books I read. Some of that was probably escapism but mostly it was enjoying a well told story and I learned many, many things through reading. But I would have missed all that if I was reading for just number of books read. It is much more important to absorb them than to skim them. When we moved to Texas I was 12 years old and could ride a bike to the local library. I would come home with the basket full of Science Fiction books and lie down on the sofa and sometimes read over two books in one day. I did not do it for speed; I did it because I enjoyed each book and could not but it down until finished. Then the next day I might be outside all day with my pellet gun hunting, or out with my younger brother doing something, then the next day maybe read again. So as proud of you as I am for reading all those books, I am suggesting slowing down so you do really read all those books and know what you read.
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Dino Pop