A gift.

The Holiday season is almost over.

And many people have received gifts of all kinds.

Gifts like sweaters and fruit cake.
Gifts like mittens and cookies.

Gifts like Target gift cards and Arch Cards.

Gifts like purses and shoes.
Gifts like hugs and kisses.
Gifts like snow men and snow angels.

Gifts like iPods and lottery tickets.

Those are just a few.
There are endless possibilities of gifts.
What is the most memorable gift that you ever received? Ever…

Example by Mr. Loreto
Surprise….

The most memorable present I ever received was from my friends Cheri and Alan. I am a hard person to shop for I admit. I tend to not tell people what I like. And if I do, it is because I already got it for myself. So material gifts do not mean as much to me as when people do something for me.

Which brings me to Alan and Cheri. They are my two oldest friends. I’ve known Alan since 5th grade and Cheri since 7th grade. We may not hang out all the time anymore, but I know no matter what, I can still call them and they are cool. They have become family. So back when I was graduating college, I was bummed that none of my family except for my parents could see me graduate.

I told Cheri about it.

I told Alan about it.

I invited both of them, but they both said they could not go. They were busy. I was bummed, but I told them I understood.

Then, I get a call the night before my graduation from Cheri.

“Dave, um, how long does it take to get to Champagne?”

Cheri and Alan were lost. They were driving down to see me graduate. They were trying to surprise me, but they got lost. I didn’t care. It was the best present ever. I got to go out and have fun with my two oldest and dearest friends before I graduated college. It was great!

I want to go see a movie…..

What is the last movie you saw? Did you like it? Did it make you laugh? Did it make you cry? Did it make you sing? Did it make you dance?

Write a recommendation for the movie to someone you know in your journal. A friend. A parent. A sibling. A neighbor.

If you want, you can always send it in an email to the person you are writing to.

Example by Mr. Loreto, “G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA to Jeremy, my 4 year old nephew.”

Dear Jeremy,
I just saw an amazing movie. It is called “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.” It has all the things you like in a movie: fast cars, fast airplanes, ninjas, and good guys and bad guys. It might be a little scary though. That’s ok, you can ask your Daddy to take you. He will make sure you are safe if it gets too loud when things blow up. The best part is towards the end when the G.I. Joes go and fly the Cobra planes. Well, I don’t want to tell you too much about it. See it and we can talk all about it.

Love,
Uncle David

Creative Writing

An Introduction

http://www.vimeo.com/8195797

The movie of your life

You are a star without a movie, but what if that changed and someone wanted to make a movie out of your life, who would be in your movie?

Name a list of people that are a part of your life that would also star with you in that movie.

In your journal, write the names of the people

that would star in the movie with you and

their roles in your life, think of at least ten

people.

Give specific details about each person

explaining why they are important.

And finally, give a title to your movie.

Example

The movie of my life.

by Mr. Loreto

starring

Mr. Loreto as David  Loreto

My mother as Mom

My father as Dad

Jeannette as my sister

Emil as my brother

Nanay and Tatay as my grandparents

Vince as my favorite cousin who had all the Transformer toys

Bob as my guitar playing pre school teacher, he is so cool

Mrs. Noble as my first grade teacher and the woman who taught me “a little dab will do ya”

Torian as my first best friend

Matt as the kid I ate my lunch with my first day of school

Mrs. Landwehr as my fourth grade teacher who thought I was smart

Mr. Kissamis as my middle school teacher and coach who made me want to write

Dr. Yates as my high school teacher who made me want to read

The title of my movie would be “Remix” because I am always trying to re-invent myself and do things better.

If I could change the world…

What are three things you would change in the world?
Think about three things in the world that you believe should be different. In your journal, list the three things that need to be changed in the world. Explain why you would make this change and how you would change it.

Example by Mr. Loreto

If I could change three things in the world, I would change tv, lunch and siestas.

The first thing I would change is tv. I would make it so that every channel was like that Comcast On Demand. You know, the feature on your cable that let’s you choose what to watch. Instead of it being only some things for free, I’d make it all for free. That way, I could have the Fresh Prince of Bel Air playing all day!

The second thing I’d do is I’d make everyone eat lunch. A lot of people don’t eat lunch and I think that is why they are not happy. After you eat, you are usually in a better mood than you were before when you were hungry.

And the best thing to do after a nice good lunch, is to sleep. So I’d make it an option of kids to have either recess or to take a siesta after lunch. It works for pre school kids and they are usually so happy and full of energy. I want to be like that!