If the meat looks brown, stir

in the rice.
Harding Senior After you stir in the rice,
High sprinkle with soy sauce and
salt.
June But the very important thing
Is to put the green onion in
Editor’s Note to students at the same time
and parents: This year with the tomatoes, last.
students wrote poetry, When it all smells good, it
paragraphs, stories and is ready to eat!
songs. Here is a just a little
of some of their best work. ELL 3A
As a teacher, I feel very
proud and happy to work Journal
with these talented and
hard-working students, and I 2
will miss them next year! If 008
you want to email me or call,
please do! What’s In a Name
By Falis Sheikhdon
-- Ms. Smith,
maiware@yahoo.com If I ever changed my
phone: 651- name, I would change it to
528-0422 Faduma because that is the
name of a Prophet’s
The Poetry of a Wok daughter. It is a special
By Bee Lee name to me and to everyone
who knows about Islam. It’s
a good name for a daughter.
There are a lot of girls
named Faduma. It’s an
important name to all
Muslim people because of
how the prophet’s daughter
acts in our religion. She
controlled herself to keep
from doing anything bad.
The way to cook fried rice is She used to do what our
this: religion asked for. She
First put the oil into the wok. follows the better way.
When the oil starts to heat,
add the meat.
The way you love
somebody
By Yolanda Orellana Lopez

You will give everything to

him.
You will love him the same
way he loves you.
You will feel like you can
love him forever.
You will feel like you have
butterflies in your stomach.
You will feel like you are in
the clouds.
But when you find your first
love,
You will give everything.
Essay Excerpts
My favorite place to play
when I was younger was . . .
.....
Mouapao Thao:. . . . .
. . . . I liked to go to fish at
Mekong Lake in Laos near
our house. Many people
gathered around just to find
the best place to fish. They
also bet on who would have
the best looking Paa Nin fish.
One day, I went with my
uncle and cousin to fish in
the morning at 6 a.m., and
my uncle got a Paa Nin fish.
The second reason I
liked to play in Lake Mekong
was the huge swimming
place. I was really good at
swimming. I would do the
floating and frog jump. My
friends would ask me to help
them all the time. And I
showed them how to jump
when I climbed up on a rock.
Bee Lee: . . . in the sunny
area in front of our tiny
bamboo house in Thailand. I
would play jump ropes, hide
and seek, and play volleyball
with all my friends.
Mai Soua Moua: . . . around
Phalen Lake in the summer.
There were a lot of flowers
everywhere and all of them
were pretty. Some flowers
were yellow, white, blue or
red. I liked to pick red
flowers because red flowers
mean love.
* Lee: . . .. in a large corn
field in Thailand. It was
thick with dead corn stalks
and dry leaves. I liked to cut
the corn stalks to build
things, such as houses,
bridges and toy guns. I cut
several stalks, arranged
them in rows, and tied them
together. Once, I cut about
20 stalks to build a small
house. I covered it with
corn leaves and grass. It
looked like a real house.
* Vue: . . . . on the
mountain in Thailand. My
friends and I went caveup
with our sling-shots and shot
birds, squirrels and rabbits.
When we saw the birds, we
crawled like a lion. If we
walked, the birds would hear
the noise and fly away.
Second of all, the mountain
was perfect for hide and
seek. We could hide in the
caves, a forest, or bush. I
liked to hide in the caves. A
person who was looking
could not find us because it
was dark and scary.

Yesenia Campos: . . . . . in
Miami because there are
different people in Miami like
white, black, native, Indian,
.
Hispanic, etc.
* Some students preferred
to not use their real or full
Zang Yang: . . . . in Japan
names.
because Japan manufactures
More Essay Excerpts
faster, beautiful cars, the
girls are prettier and cuter
If I could live anywhere, I
than in any other country,
would like to live. . . . .
and Tokyo is the best city.
Mai Xee Lee: . . . . in
PaKeng Her: . . . . in Laos
Thailand to eat delicious
because Laos was my
food: papaya salad, fried
grandparents home where
chicken and sweet rice.
they were born, and because
there are a lot for great
Fatah Sheikhdon: . . . in
places to grow foods such as
Somalia. Somalia has a lot
rice and vegetables.
of delicious foods. The rice
Lor Vang: . . . in the
in Somalia is cooked with
mountains because there are
chicken soup, salt and
lots of animals. I would like
tomato. Somali people eat
to have birds and monkeys
goat, beef and camel meats.
around my house. I love
My favorite is goat meat. It
hunting and I could go and
is so soft when cooked.
hunt deer. In mountains I
could feel and breathe the
cool air.

Toua Xiong: . . . . I would

like to live in Thailand
because I like to see people
walking to the market, and
to climb the high mountains.
The lakes are important to
me because me and my
friends like to go swimming
in the lakes.
I like Hmong New Year
because it has special things
to do. The Hmong New Year
has seven days. Before New
Year, my mother likes to sew
clothes for us. She

Learning to Respect
By Hser Nay Blu

If I could write
anything about something or
someone, I would write
likes to make Hmong clothes
about my mother. One thing
with beautiful flowers. My
she told me is very
friends and I like to wear
important to my life. To
Hmong clothes for the New
respect others is best for
Year. We also play games
me. My mother told me to
and eat special foods then. I
respect others -- people
like Hmong New Year
that are older than me, and
because I have time to
even people that are
spend with my family and
younger. I have asked my
friends.
mother why. She told me
that if you respect other
people that are different
from you, they will respect
you, too. She said whatever
you do, good or bad, it will
come back to you. I’m going
to remember what my
mother taught me. I will use
this lesson in my life forever.

Hmong New Year

By Chue Lee
A Special Cousin behind her mother and
By Nou Yang kicked her mother. Her
mother was bleeding and
My cousin is like my started crying.
sister and loves me like a Then suddenly, the
sister. She always helped daughter felt her body
my family with everything changed and transformed
when we got here to the into a mad dog.
United States. She helped
us buy things we needed The Woman with the Long
such as food, clothes and Ears
other things. She always
took us with her to the park. A folk story as retold by
She is very good at Yesenia Campos, Maryama
volleyball and always Nebi, Yolanda Orellana
teaches us how to play. She Lopez and Falis Sheikdhon
is always helpful to and Fatah Sheikdhon
everyone. I will remember
her in my mind forever, even Once upon a time, a man
when we are old. married a beautiful woman.
They had a son together.
After awhile, the husband
A Thai folk story married another woman. He
As retold by M. V.* divided his animals into two
different groups for each of
She is the only child. his wives. He built a big
Her mom and dad gave her house for his new wife. The
everything. Since the house was next to the house
daughter has everything, of his first wife.
she has no sense of what is When the first wife saw
right, wrong or fair. the beautiful young wife and
Once, while her the new house, she got
mother was praying at the jealous. She got so jealous
Buddhist place of worship, that she was almost crazy.
the daughter came to her Jealousy took over her. The
mom. She asked her next night, she left the
mother for money. Her house with her baby. Her
mother asked her to be husband was with the new
patient until after she wife so he didn’t know that
finished praying. the first wife had left with
The daughter was their child.
angry because her mother In the morning, everyone
asked her to wait. She found out that the older wife
walked around to stand
had gone. They went to find
her, but they couldn’t.
The older wife tried to
find where her family lived,
but she got lost. She finally
got to the Nugal Valley. The
Nugal Valley was known as a
lonely place where a woman
named Woman with Long
Ears hunted for people.
While the first wife was
walking, she sensed that
someone was running after
her. But the running she
heard was different than the
running she knew. The
running created all kinds of
dust and wind. She knew
that the person running after
her was Woman With Long
Ears. She kept running
faster and faster and
Woman With Long Ears kept
running after her, too.
The mother and her son
were both fat. Woman With
Long Ears loved fat people.
She was very hungry for
them. Woman With Long
Ears was used to running
fast, and no one she chased
ever got away from her.
Woman With Long Ears was
running faster and faster,
but the mother was running,
too.
While they were running,
they came to some deep
holes in the ground. When
the mother saw those deep
holes that she couldn’t’
cross, she said, “God, save
me.” Then she jumped
across safely with her son.
Woman with Long Ears
stopped and didn’t want to
take the risk of jumping over
these holes. When she
couldn’t jump, she said,
“Oh, deep holes. They
can stop a man that is flying.
Oh, look at the woman’s
body. Oh, look at the
whiteness of her skin. Oh,
look at her body shake.
Look at her sweet baby. Oh,
deep holes. Oh, they can
stop a flying man.”
“Stop there!”
And the woman and her
son ran a lot, because they
wanted to get away from
Woman With Long Ears, so
the woman and her son
didn’t get killed because they
escaped.
Note: All students obtained parental permission to use their
names in print.