Digital Photography 101

I am taking a photography class at the local rec center with my friend Kelli. I feel like we have already learned so much that I did not know! We are figuring out how to go beyond just the automatic settings. Our first assignment focuses on aperture, which is basically how open the lens is. The lower the f-stop, the more open and more light and the higher the f-stop the more closed the lens is. I think.....
Still learning. Anyhow, our first assignment was to take 3 single-theme aperture shots and three storytelling aperture shots. The former means you use a lower f-stop and focus on one object while blurring the rest of the shot. The later refers to a picture with an object in fore-ground, mid-ground and background with everything in focus. You do this with a higher f-stop.
Our teacher suggested we try out our new skills on inanimate objects and work our way up to live subjects. I am having a lot of fun and enjoying the book we are reading, "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson.
Let me know what you think. The first three shots are the single-theme shots and the last three are the storytelling shots.