Letters March 2004

More views of Japan
I enjoyed the article "Snapshots from Japan" by Peter Barnes, which appeared in the October 2003 issue of Teaching K-8. When I was student teaching, I found two websites about Japan that I'd like to share with your readers. The site "A History of Kimono" at http://web.mit.edu/jpnet/kimono shows kimonos for men, women and children with a brief explanation. The second web page, Kids Web Japan at web-japan.org/kidsweb/index.html is kid-friendly and allows students to learn about Japan on their own.
Heather Young
via e-mail

Wonderful one-dollar words
I had planned for my 10 students to play our current events game one afternoon before art class. Those plans changed when I read Linda Lindroth's "How To..." column in the January 2004 issue and realized we had to play "$1.00 words" instead.

My students were able to find three $1.00 words in 30 minutes: printer (our tiny school has only six printers), pharisees (after all, we are a religious school) and Milwaukee (we're just 40 miles northwest of there).
Thanks for lots of fun!
Richard P. Janke, Principal
Zum Kripplein Christi
Lutheran Elementary
Iron Ridge, WI

It's in the bag
I found Nanette L. Avery's article "The Bilingual Bag" (May 2003) interesting because it introduced knowledge of a culture and heritage other than the students' own.

The article explains how to include members of a student's family in the practice of reading for pleasure. Books are sent home in English and in Spanish. This shows the importance of the extended family, which is a positive aspect of Hispanic culture. As the student and his or her family member read the same book in two languages, the importance of family and pride in Hispanic heritage is reinforced.

These were great suggestions for connecting the cultural and linguistic aspects of students' lives. I hope you'll publish more articles like this.
Sonya M. Weimer
Becker, MN

Read the fine print
With regard to SmileyCentral ("How To...Send Safe and Snazzy E-mail," February 2004), readers should check SmileyCentral's "End User's Agreement" before downloading emoticons from www.smileycentral.com By downloading the smileys, users are also downloading an application that communicates with SmileyCentral's servers. No personal information is transmitted and the application is not "spyware," but it's always a good idea to read user agreements before you download software.
E. Hay
via e-mail

March, 2004, Vol.34, No.6