Elizabeth DiSalvatore - Myth-Folklore

I am continuing to read Nigerian Folk Tales in order to obtain a better understanding of them for my story writing next week!  These stories come from  Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria  by Elphinstone Dayrell. I have thoroughly enjoyed this Nigerian Unit! These include many animal tales, which are always some of my favorite. I love that these stories tell what animals have a certain behavior, like why hippos live in water or why worms live underground . The tale of the worms is a story about ants vs. worms, where the ants lost and were scared of all living things so they retreated under ground. Sometime tales will have several titles because they tell of many animal behaviors. One story told of why elephants have small eyes, why worms are bling, and is also referred to as The Elephant and the Tortoise.  Perhaps my favorite story to read an animal behavior that was explained was Why a Hawk Kills Chickens.    This story was full of personality, attri...

For this week's tech tip I decided to test out my typing skills! I began by taking a test on Key Hero  to test my accuracy and speed. The first time I took the test, I typed at a speed of about 53 words per minute with 90% accuracy. The second test I tried was Typing Test . On this test I typed about 63 words per minute, with a total of 4 errors, which placed my adjusted speed to 59 words per minute. These stats placed me in the category of "fluent typer". I liked this test better, because it allowed you to continue typing if you made a mistake, then adjusted your words per minute speed at the end. This is more like typing in everyday life, because if you make a mistake, you aren't forced to correct it before moving on like in test 1. While I feel as though my typing skills are pretty decent, I am a believer that there is always room for improvement. When I was younger I had a spongebob typing game, and I thought it was such a fun game. I believe that playing tha...

Source: Pixabay   This week I read tons of Nigerian Folk Tales . Most of these stories came from Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria by Elphinstone Dayrell. I found these stories to be very engaging, for most of them provided and explanation of why something is the way it is today, like thunder and lighting for example. I would like to write my own folk tale to explain something, using the models of several Nigerian folk tales. To learn more about African folk tales, I did some research and found a page called Gateway Africa . African folk tales usually have a moral point to them or are used to educate, entertain, or explain an animal behavior. Culture and religion is very intertwined in African culture. Stories reflect a cultural identity and storytelling is used to restore pride in a community. Different ethnic groups have different ceremonies for storytelling, which creates a filling of belonging. Folktales have been a way to help explain the environment to children. In an...

I have loved the stories from this unit! These stories come from  Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria  by Elphinstone Dayrell. These folk stories are interesting because the tend to tell a story of why something is the way it is today. The first one I read,  The Lightning and the Thunder   was an a story about a mother sheep (thunder) and her son (lightning). This story explained why there is thunder and lightning and why it all occurs in the sky. This story might be one that I choose to rewrite with other characters. I enjoyed  The Affair of the Hippopotamus and the Tortoise .  This story explained why the hippo lives in water. I would enjoy writing a story that explains why something is the way it is today. A lot of these stories involve a Hippopotamus, so when I write my story this week, I believe that I will use Hippos. I am not sure what reason I am going to try to explain via folktale, but I do know that hippos will be involved. Another st...