Medusa tried to trick Percy.....

We are learning about Greek myths. Medusa turned people into stone. Her face is like the sun: If you look at the sun, you might get blind. If you look at Medusa, you would be turned into stone. It could never really happen, so the story is a "myth".

In "The Lightning Thief," she pretended to be a waitress. There were statues in her store. The statues looked like people. Some of their faces looked scared.

The food smelled really good. Percy, Annabeth and Grover were really hungry. Grover said, "I smell monster." No one gives food for free! Percy should have said, "Something's strange about this woman!"

They heard a hissing noise. She said, "That's the deep fryer!"

Then she asked them to pose for a picture. She started to take off her covering from her face. Annabeth put on her Yankee cap and disappeared.


Annabeth gave Percy a gazing ball so that he could see Medusa's reflection. Annabeth said, "You're going to have to cut her head off."

Percy cut off her head. Percy used his sword-- called "Riptide." Her blood was green. It was gross. Annabeth covered the head because if anyone looked at it, they would still be turned into a statue.

Medusa's head will be next!

We are constructing our minotaur head right now. The teachers that work in our classroom have been helping us mold the chicken wire to make a really cool minotaur complete with huge horns.

Next we'll have medusa!

We are huge "Lightning Thief" fans......

I will write this blog with my students from P226M at 15th Street.  We are a special education school belonging to district 75.  Many of the students, like Percy Jackson, have dyslexia (or serious reading difficulties) as well as ADHD.

By reading "The Lightning Thief," we have discovered a great love of reading.  We're really into it and we're only about 1/3rd through the book!  

I usually read the book out-loud to the students.  Some of them could read it with assistance, but it is very hard for most of them to get through a whole chapter.  

We read small parts of the book out-loud when we act it out.  So far, we have acted out the part of the story when Percy fights Mrs. Dodds, and we have acted out two myths associated with the story (the story of Athena and Arachne and Perseus and Medusa).  

My students are engaged- we play "Lightning Thief" bingo with pictures having to do with the chapter.  The students have to listen for the vocabulary words or character names mentioned in the chapter, and then they put a button on the picture.  The focus, is of course, paying attention, but they also have the visual cues through the pictures having to do with the story.

We are busy making a minotaur out of chicken wire- we're sculpting it with the help of the para-professionals in the room.  Then, we'll cover it with paper mache and then paint it.

We've made posters having to do with the various gods and goddesses.....

Banners with symbols of the gods for "capture the flag," 

Can I go on?  I can!

Next time, I will try to have my students add to the blog...........