Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Week 10 Reading Diary: Tejas Legends

This week I chose to read the Tejas Legends unit by Florence Stratton. All of the stories seemed to incorporate nature one way or another, which was really nice. In the story When the Storm God Rides, the author did a great job at describing what the thunder bird Hurakan looked like. I think I would have been scared too if I ever encountered a bird like that! Throughout the story I wondered though why they were afraid of the storm god and the thunder bird if they were just looking for feathers? I could maybe elaborate on this in my storytelling. They also gave the reader good imagery of the God coming in anger to the Texas coast with lightening and thunder coming from all around him! I thought it was a creative way to explain where the islands around Texas came from. Why the Woodpecker Pecks immediately got my attention when it said that woodpeckers used to be Indians… It automatically made me curious as to what happened! This story reminded me of Adam and Eve since the Indians were told not to eat from the mescal plant but of course they were tempted and gave in. I also noticed a common theme of birds in the stories in this unit. This was a creative way to explain the story behind woodpeckers, why the peck at trees, and where they came from! I enjoyed reading The Cloud That Was Lost because it was such a cute story! It could be told at bedtime to children. I could use this in my storytelling to elaborate more since it’s so short. Grandmother River’s Trick like the rest of the stories in this unit had great imagery throughout! I had a vivid mental image of the cloud ringing out her wet hair to send rain down to the river to make it over flow. I thought it was a clever story about how the garfish were tricked out of the river. I also liked that the river had a personality!
(Image of Tejas Indian Legends book.
 Source: UnTextbook)

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