Welcome to Injoy, Inc! We have hosted a Wednesday Writers program in previous years, but now more than ever we feel that these tools can be beneficial to families and educators. The team at Injoy, Inc looks forward to sharing this crazy school year with you and providing tools that you can use with your children, students, or share with any young people in your life.
What makes these lessons so helpful is that you can utilize them for different grades, depending on the ages of your students. This week’s lesson is about the pangram, so we’ve included a quick snippet about pangrams, as well as a FREE download that you can use to mark the beginning of the year and track at the end.
A pangram is a sentence that uses all twenty-six letters of the alphabet. Handwriting and typing programs have often used this famous pangram: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Check out this free printout to document your child’s handwriting progress this year. Fill it out now and then at the end of the year to check for progress. Remember: all progress is taking you toward your goal–even small steps!
For older students:
Can you create your own pangram? You will want to use words that use the least used letters (You might remember from Scrabble that the highest points are for Q, Z–(and J, Q, and Z are the least used letters) so you might use words like quiz or jazz!). Or what about musjiks (a Russian peasant–and the quixotry.
Ready for Some Fun?
Pull out that game of scrabble and enough a few rounds for family game night! There’s no better time than now to enjoy some close family time – and this can count as credit hours for spelling, too ?.
Homework Time
If you want to take the lesson to the next level, come share your pangrams with us on Facebook! We’d love to see your creativity and even feature your child’s pangram as well.
One letter is all it takes to make the difference in a child’s day, year, and life. As we stand at the beginning of a new school year, the same old feelings of anxiety and even inadequacy can come flooding in, but this year is different. We all know why and we don’t even have to say its name, yet it can hold the same feelings over all of us. 2020 has been a year for the books, and as we are hitting the literal books, we wanted to provide you with a quick reminder as parents, teachers, educators, and impromptu principals.
One Letter Makes a Difference
We aren’t talking about the grade letter, though. We’re talking about that one little letter between grade and grace. A world of difference can be made in the life of a child when you remember that grace is going to be what needs to win this year over any grade. The first day of school is not about making the grade, but walking in grace!
Here are a few practical ways you can remember GRACE throughout your school day:
G = Generosity
Be generous to your students (and your teachers!). This year has been a hard one and when you research the effects of COVID on anxiety levels, you will find that few are being left spared. Adults and children alike are experiencing the effects of anxiety, and it may be even more widespread than the virus itself. Be GENEROUS with the people in your care this year. Generosity can show up in many different ways, but when you make it a priority, it will be easier to extend grace.
R = Respect
It’s all I’m askin’ for – at least, that’s what Aretha Franklin was pointing out. With so many differing opinions circulating this year, offering a little respect to the people in your life through the first few weeks of school and especially on the first day can make all of the difference. Offer respect to your classmates, your teachers, your students, your fellow educators, and you can “find out what it means to them” without the whole “sock it to me” part ?.
A = Affirmation
Offering affirmation to your students can make all of the difference. Pour love and kindness on your students through building them up with kind words and affirmation. We don’t know what the people in our circles are going home to, what battles they are facing, what fears they are experiencing, but kind words and affirmation can help wipe away the cares of this world and spread a little love.
C = Care
The definition of “care” is the provision of what is necessary for the health, welfare, maintenance, and protection of someone or something. It can also mean “serious attention or consideration applied to doing something correctly or to avoid damage or risk.”
Take moments to care for the people in your life as you get into the new school rhythm. Take time to feel concern or interest, and to even look after and provide for their needs as much as you are able.
E = Educate
This is what we are called to do as educators, but it goes so much further when you are dousing your education with grace. Don’t get so wrapped up in grades that you miss the chance to truly educate your charges. Education goes so much further than a grade, and when you are offering grace, education can truly sink in.
Whether you have started your first day of school already or you will be soon – may you find and give grace to those in your path. Whether you are continuing on in a public school or private school system, whether you are transferring to distance learning, home school, or a modification of these styles – may grace abound! May you find and offer generosity, respect, affirmation, care, and education to the people in your circles. If there is anything the team at Injoy, Inc. can do to make your job easier as an educator – reach out! We look forward to connecting with you and supporting you!
But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also.
The fables written by these students along with some of our other favorite fables are compiled in an ebook entitled Moore Fables. You can download a copy of the ebook here. Proceeds from donations for this ebook will purchase reading and writing supplies for students in Moore, OK. Thank you for your donation.
You can also donate to the fund by clicking this button:
Congratulations to Elizabeth V. for winning the Injoy, Inc. Fable Writing Contest.
Elizabeth impressed us with her writing style as she wrote a fable with an admirable moral.
[quote]Impatience can bring unwanted consequences.[/quote]
Elizabeth V., is a thirteen year old girl from the Midwest. She lives on a farm and has been home schooled for the past four years. She enjoys reading and drawing in her free time. She also loves to play board and card games and solve mysteries on her Nancy Drew computer games. She has a pet dog named Lady and a kitten named Butterscotch who is sometimes very ornery.
There once was a tawny, young, field mouse named Roe. He lived with his family in an oak tree stump that was located in a small, dense wood. Roe was a very impatient mouse who was always rushing to complete tasks that took a lot of time.
One day, in the beginning of summer, it was so hot that Roe decided he wanted to go swimming. “May I please go swimming in the pond near the old maple tree?” Roe asked his parents.
“Yes, you can go,” answered Roe’s father, in a pleasant voice. “But first you have to fix your bicycle. It will be a bumpy ride and your bike has a loose wheel. When you repair it entirely, and make sure it is secure, you may go.” Roe’s father knew that his son was eager to leave, so he had specifically told Roe not to hurry.
Soon after little Roe began to attend to his bike, he became sidetracked with thoughts of the clear, cool water in the swimming pond and wasn’t paying attention to some of the bolts that he still hadn’t tightened. “I’m sick of working on my bike,” Roe mumbled, irritated that repairing his bicycle was taking too much time. “I’ve done enough,” he thought.
To read the rest of Elizabeth’s prize winning fable, download the Moore Fables ebook here!
Rebecca is only eight years old, but Injoy, Inc. was delighted with the creativity of her fable, The Bee and The Hawk. We look forward to reading more of her stories!
You can read more fables that we enjoyed in the Moore Fables ebook. Download a copy here, and thank you for donating to the fund to purchase reading and writing supplies for students in Moore, OK.
Rebecca M is 8 years old. She enjoys crocheting, skating, playing with the family’s three dogs, running, jumping over things, gymnastics, and her favorite meal is corn dogs. She likes to watch snow come down, climbing trees, going to yard sales, all things animal, and most plants.
One day a bee sat on a log. Then the bee saw a hawk swooping down.
“Stop!” said the bee “I have a better way to settle this!”
“Okay” said the hawk. “Good.”
“Okay” said the bee “Now, if you can scare that horse, then you get to eat me, but if I win, then I get to eat you, fair?” asked the bee
“Fair,” said the hawk. The next day the bee said
“You go first.”
“Okay” said the hawk.” So the hawk flew next to the horse and flapped his massive wings. But the horse did not fear the hawk. Then the bee swooped and stung the horse. The horse ran and ran.
“So, shall I eat you fried or boiled?” asked the bee.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!” said the hawk as he flew away.
[quote]The moral of the story is: Just because you’re small doesn’t mean you can’t do great things.[/quote]
Jordan Pack is a tenth grade homeschooler from Boaz, Alabama. She loves animals, reading, sketching, listening to music, card games and writing stories with her two best friends. Jordan won 4th place in the Injoy, Inc. Fable Writing Contest. Congratulations Jordan!
Fourth Place Winner; The Turtle and The Raccoon
One morning old Turtle, was making his way along a beaten path. Stumbling on a rock, he fell, landing on his back. He wobbled back and forth, this way and that, but he couldn’t get back on his feet. As Turtle lay there, along came Duck on his way to the pond at the end of the path.
“Please,” Turtle begged Duck, “Help me flip back over.”
But Duck passed by him, not wanting to waste time for he was in a hurry to meet someone.
[box_dark]Do you wonder what happens to turtle? Will he ever flip back over? And how? [/box_dark]
To read the rest of this fable and other favorite fables, go here and download the ebook, and make a donation to the fund to purchase reading and writing supplies for students in Moore, OK.
[quote]Moral: Always help someone, no matter how well you get along, and never judge a book by its cover![/quote]
As fourth place winner, Jordan’s fable is included in the Moore Fables ebook, and she wins a $20 Mardel gift card.
Now you can purchase a copy of the ebook with our favorite fables from the Injoy, Inc. Fable Writing Contest!
You’ll read a delightful fable from a talented eight-year-old writer, a clever story about an Australian Shepherd who learns a painful lesson from a bee, and all of our prize winning entries!
All of the proceeds from donations to download this student-written e-book will go to purchase reading and writing supplies for students in Moore, OK.
Download the ebook by clicking the add to cart button.
You can make a donation to the fund to purchase reading and writing supplies for students in Moore, OK by clicking the donate button:
Meet Anna A., 5th Place Winner in the Injoy, Inc. Fable Writing Contest. Anna is thirteen, and lives on the east coast. She likes reading, horses, and the color blue. If she were writing a story about her life she would be a horse because she is willing and able to do any kind of work.
Anna captured our attention with this fun fable about two unlikely characters who learn about the golden rule.
In the process of writing The Giraffe and the Alligator, Anna thought about how many people were not treating others the way they should. As 5th Place Winner, Anna won a copy of Shatterpoint Entertainment’s Jericho DVD. Congratulations Anna!
Fifth Place Winner: The Giraffe and the Alligator
by: Anna A.
The Giraffe was snacking on his ice cream when his mom called to him. As the Giraffe turned his head a breeze came and blew his ice cream out of the cone. The Alligator noticed the ice cream falling and devoured it as soon as it touched the ground.
When the Giraffe looked back, all he found was the Alligator sitting there licking her chops.
Find out what happens next!
To donate and download the Moore Fables ebook (A project by kids for kids in Moore, OK), where you can read The Giraffe and the Alligator and moore of our favorites in the contest, go here.
Chyna E. is a fourteen year old student who lives in southeast Mo. where she enjoys watching nature, writing, and drawing. She wrote this fable because she enjoys stories where tension between two people prevent them from having fun with each other. But she always likes it best at the end when friendship (or sometimes even love) wins over distrust.
Chyna puts a unique spin on Aesop’s fable about a donkey and a war horse using the moral:
[quote]“Be not hasty to envy the condition of others.”[/quote]
We really admired her well-written fable. Here’s part of it for you to admire, too!
It was once known that the cat and the mule were great friends. But in time, they grew discontent, for each thought that the others situation was much better than his own.
“The cat gets to sit in the house and drink warm milk all day,” the mule would often think while doing his daily chores, “While I must pull a heavy plow, and sleep in the cold barn!”
Likewise, the cat was equally upset.
“The mule has much company in the barn, and can eat as much hay as he pleases,” she would fret, “While I am alone all day, apart from the mice I must chase to receive any dinner at all!”
Because of their jealousy; bitterness and distrust grew between the two friends until they could scarcely be called friends at all.
In an effort to save their friendship they went to the farmer to request a switch.
Find out what happens when you read the rest of Chyna’s fable by downloading Moore Fables, and donating to the fund to purchase reading and writing supplies for students in Moore, OK.
As third place winner, Chyna’s fable is featured in Moore Fables, and she also wins a copy of the Five in a Row Nature Bundle and a $20 Mardel Gift Card.
Has anyone asked you what genre you like to write?
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