To improve your reading, you can try the form of readers' theatre, a formatted script for readers to read aloud. It's so interesting!
Cast of Characters: Narrator, Kayla, Ms. Lee, Zack
Narrator: On a sunny day in southern Texas, Ms. Lee's students gathered in the school playground.
Ms. Lee: Tomorrow is the day of the sidewalk (人行道) chalk-art festival. The principal has allowed us to practise our wet-chalk drawing on the playground sidewalk, which will be our studio, Remember, whenever you want to draw on a sidewalk, always ask an adult in charge for permission before you draw. Now let's review the steps of wet-chalk drawing. What do we do first?
Narrator: As the students told her the steps in order, Ms. Lee wrote them on a large pad of paper. When she finished writing, she pulled the paper off the pad and displayed the directions so everyone could read them. Then the students chose and soaked (浸湿) their pieces of chalk. Meanwhile, Kayla and Zack planned their drawing.
Kayla: Let's draw a jungle feast. Parrots can be eating all kinds of fruit.
Zack: I'll draw a model train carrying food to the birds.
Narrator: The students removed their pieces of chalk from the water and drew. As Zack drew a sweeping curve of train track, his hand knocked over the jar of water. He and Kayla watched water streak across their drawing.
Zack: Our drawing is ruined (毁坏)！
Kayla: Don't be so worried! Quick, mix the water and the chalk together! Now lets use more chalk and smear (涂抹) it around.
Narrator: Kayla and Zack worked quickly. The smeared colours looked glorious, like rich, thick frosting on a cake.
Ms. Lee: That looks great! That's a special method you're using, kids. Are you two interested in taking part in the chalk-art festival tomorrow? The timetable for the festival says that drawing starts at 9:00 a. m.
Kayla and Zack: Sure!
Kayla: Tomorrow we'11 pour water over our drawing on purpose.
Zack: Then we'll know just what to do!
Athletics vs. Gardening
The students of Southside School were asked to give their opinions about whether the school should run an athletic program or start a vegetable garden.
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I know lots of kids say they're not interested in competitions, but that's because they've never won anything. If they got better training and started winning things, they'd soon change their minds. People always say kids don't get enough exercise. Just because you do gardening outdoors doesn't make it exercise, so I don't see how it matters. Athletics is much better for fitness and lots of kids can have a go at the same time. I don't think there would be enough jobs for everyone in a garden. In fact, I think a garden is a really bad idea. I don't know why we're even considering it. Liz, Grade 8 |
| Gardening is a great way to get exercise without worrying about whether you're any good at it, or whether you're going to win. And you really do gel exercise when you garden. There's digging, weeding and watering Even picking things can be hard work – pumpkins aren't light you know! There are lots of kids around here who don't have gardens so they can't grow things even they want to. If you really want to do more sport, you can join a club. And think about it: What helps you to be good at sport? You need to eat lots of fruit and vegetables. If we learn to cook all the things we grow, the garden will keep us all fit and healthy and then we'll be better at sport. Sam, Grade 8 |
Do you like reading? Today let me share something about reading in China. With rapid development of technology and the Internet, new methods and ecological (生态的) ideas provide more possibilities for the Chinese to read. The newly national reading report shows that 80 percent of Chinese adults read books, newspapers or magazines in 2018, a year-on-year increase.
Prevailing(盛行的) digital(数字的) reading
The growth of digital reading has made reading more popular among the Chinese. According to a survey, about 76 percent said they had accessed(访问) content through digital channels. Chen Chengpei, an office worker in Xiamen City loves reading on his mobile phone app in his spare time. He thinks it's so easy to kill the spare minutes. Mobile phone reading has become the main channel for him to get information. He has downloaded seven news apps, through which he reads for one or two hours a day.
Listening to audiobooks has become a new growth point in terms of reading habits. Zhang Jin from Beijing likes reading 40 minutes on his mobile while going to work on the bus in the morning, and listening to audiobooks on the way home. According to Ximalaya, 16. 9 percent of its total users listen to its audiobooks. To attract more users, the mobile app allows users to vote for the book they hope to listen to most. The audio app tries to meet their needs.
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Li Yang, a student in Beijing, used to be worried by piles of books as her house is too small. The problem was solved when she started to sell the used books on an online second-hand bookstore Deja Vu. "By selling them, most of my books which used to gather dust in the corner can come to life again." she said.
According to a survey by giant Alibaba in 2018, the market for the second-hand book was booming last year as more Chinese tend to trade or exchange their used books online.
The rise of online second-hand book platforms and sharing ideas also contributed to the booming book recycling.
Users are able to sell their books by scanning the barcode(扫条形码)of books and then wait for the courier(快递员) to collect them. The collected books will be cleaned, disinfected (消毒) and packed before selling to other readers at a lower price.
According to Deja Vu, its total users hit 1.4 million in 2018, with 2 million used books being sold. It has a daily business of 20,000 books. "When I see my books being read by others, I can feel a pleasure of sharing, which is really amazing." LiYang said.
An athletic program is hatch better than gardening. How are we ever going to win anything at the Inter-School Athletics without proper training? At the moment, we only do athletics for one tam and the teachers train us. We need experts(专家)to teach us things like throwing and high jump.
I think a vegetable garden is a great idea. We already do hours of sport, including athletics. And not everyone likes sport.