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readearly · 4 years

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Sammy The Classroom Guinea Pig by Alix Berenzy is a wonderful story about a guinea pig who is needing attention from his friends after a weekend alone! The students all shuffle in on a Monday and begin class, but Sammy shrieks out with a loud “WHEEP!” This is the sound they make when they are getting someone's attention. The class rushes over to the cage to see what is the matter. The students wonder if he is hurt or sick, so they investigate and take Sammy out of the cage to examine him. They look under his fur, look in his ears, they know he's been eating and drinking, so nothing is pointing to what is the matter. Then the teacher puts him down on the table and he begins to waddle around making happy exploring sounds. He walks over to a student named Maria and she picks him up. He cuddles into her soft warm sweater and she figures out why he was so upset before… he missed all his friends over the weekend and wanted some attention! With lots of smiling faces and gentle hands comforting Sammy, he instantly becomes a content guinea pig again.

This story has many attributes to help support a classroom or student who could be focusing on a genre or theme of pets, pet care, or even specifically guinea pigs! The text reveals so much information about guinea pig behavior, their nutrition, what to look for, what they need, and the sounds they make. Throughout the story the print and illustrations serve many purposes to expose the reader to awareness of the classroom environment and a pet’s environment. The illustrations are rich in color and detail that children could feel inclined to want to care for a classroom pet in a loving way. Throughout this story, the punctuation and capitalization of certain words show the intensity of that moment. For example when Sammy wanted to get everyone in the classroom’s attention, he let out a big sound and the author made that word capitalized with an exclamation point. This can serve the purpose to show children when something big happens in a story, the text is extremely helpful to show that emotion. If my classroom does not have a guinea pig as a class pet, I would have my students notice if any of our other animals make a sound (fish, lizard, turtle, rabbit, etc..) and how would we care for them if they needed attention?

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ariel-seagull-wings · 3 years

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FICTIONAL CHARACTER ASK: RAPUNZEL

TAGGED BY: @giuliettaluce

@princesssarisa @amalthea9 @sunlit-music @mademoiselle-princesse @superkingofpriderock @lioness--hart @parxsisburnixg @astrangechoiceoffavourites @lieutenant-hel-odinsdottir

Favorite thing about them: Even tough since childhood she lived gaslighted as a prisoner of a person who confused abuse with love, Rapunzel still growed up to be an inteligent, strong willed, resourcefull and resilient woman, who despite her insecurities, never stoped longing and fighting for her right to be free and to be happy with her true love.

Least favorite thing about them:

The 1857 edition rewrite that putted in her mouth the line:

“Tell me, Dame Gothel, how it happens that you are so much heavier for me to draw up than the young king's son - he is with me in a moment”.

The fact that this rewrite is more well known than the 1812 edition version, where the Witch discorvers the Prince’s visits by noticing Rapunzel’s bodily changes happening due to pregnancy, is probably what leads to the misconception that “Fairy Tale Rapunzel is a stupid passive character”.

Three things i have in common with them:

I can be insecure of the outside world, like she was at the beggining of the story.

I am a very sensitive and prone to tears person.

I enjoy the singing of the birds.

Three things i don’t have in common with them:

I usually use my hair short.

I don’t know how to weave.

I don’t have her beautifull singing voice.

Favorite line:

When she presents the plan to run away with the Prince:

"I will willingly go away with you, but I do not know how to get down. Bring with you a skein of silk every time that you come, and I will weave a ladder with it, and when that is ready I will descend, and you will take me on your horse."

This confrontational dialogue exchange she has with the Witch in Into the Woods, after she starts developing PTSD:

“What's the matter”?

“Oh, nothing! You just locked me in a tower without company for fourteen years, then you blinded my Prince and banished me to a desert where I had little to eat, and again no company, and then bore twins! Because of the way you treated me, I'll never, never be happy”!

brOTP: In her main tale, the birds. Outside of her main tale: The Queen from Rumpelstilskin, The Princess from The Frog Prince, Queen Florina, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty of the Beast, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks, Jack of the Beanstalk, Hansel and Gretel, Hop o my Thumb and Puss in Boots.

OTP: The Prince.

nOTP: The Witch. Also, in Shrek 3 her pairing with Prince Charming is a match made in Hell.

Random Headcanon: The anime series Grimm’s Fairy Tale Classics gaved her the talent to play the harp, and i tought this was a nice touch to her character. Also, in my imagination, Rapunzel can imitate the singing of every bird that she listens, and she knows the healing power of the herbs, so she becomes a renowned healer queen.

Unpopular Opinion: I feel that the misconception that “Fairy Tale Rapunzel is a stupid, passive and weak character who just waits for good things to happen to her and her romance with the Prince is rushed and undeveloped, and telling her story nowadays is retrogressive” comes from most retellings made for pre schooler and elementary schooler audiences (wich usually are the versions that most people remember) that not only used the infamous line from the 1857 edition i just complained about and cut away her babies altogether, but even cut the element of Rapunzel coming with the escaping plan! When one comes to read the older italian variants (Petrosinella, Prunella, The Canary Prince) and the original Brothers Grimm tale, we learn that the Prince visits her several evenings, wich means they had a good time to develop the romance. Also in the original Brothers Grimm tale, Rapunzel is the one who comes with the plan to weave a silk ladder to escape with the Prince, meaning she is very strong willed, proactive and inteligent, and at the end, after surviving giving birth and raising two babies in a wasteland, wich also shows great strenght, when the Prince is reunited with her, she is the one who saves him by healing his blindness with her tears!

We also must considerate that this is a medieval renaissance tale collected to paper in the 19th century that portrays positively a relationship out of love between a prince and a peasant girl, while during those times arranged marriages restricted between members of one’s own class were the norm. In fact, Rapunzel’s relationship with the Prince is a rebellious, forbidden, vibrant and egalitarian love, not very diferent from Romeo and Juliet, another famous young couple separated by a tall window.

And, finally, there is the fact that the main heroine has premarital sex and a pregnancy and, instead of receiving a tragic sad ending like it would be expected from 19th century authors like the Grimms, she receives a happy ending! This is specially relevant when we remember that even to this day in our society women who have children out of wedlock are stigmatized.

The fairy tale is not perfect, after all the main villain is still an old single woman (Dame Gothel, the Witch). But there are some elements of it that are surprinsigly progressive, both for the medieval renaissance and 19th century standards and for the modern day standards.

Song i associate with them:

The main theme from Barbie as Rapunzel