Realia is the word for today 1/11/13
Realia: objects or activities used to relate classroom teaching to the real life especially of peoples studied
Read more at http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/#igdcQAiX8WqAMqrW.99
Joe stared inside the old cardboard box he held in his
hands. Strange pointed rocks covered the
bottom. His grandmother called them realia
from an ancient world long gone from this world.
Whatever
they are, he thought, their smooth surface made them perfect for skipping across
the creek. After all, they're rocks.
He
picked one from the box and whipped it toward the water. It jumped three times.
Beside,
he thought, Grandmother in heaven. She doesn't need them anymore to remember
Granddaddy by. She's up there with him,
no longer with me. He whipped another
one, it skipped five times.
Not
here with me, he thought again, throw the next rock hard, "Ahhh" he
yelled at it. "Stupid things anyway." He mumbled.
Another
one flew across the water.
And
another one.
The
last one in the box.
He picked it up.
"Joe,"
a woman called behind him. He turned to
stare at her, his grandparents' neighbor. "the woman from child service is
here."
He
stared down at the last rock, red like the Alabama red clay beneath his feet.
He whipped it across the water, "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11, 12." he
counted it's skips "and gone like them."
