Congratulations to the students who earned the most Accelerated Reader points in each grade for October. Students must maintain an 85 average on their quizzes to be included. I have the top ten lists posted on the wall in the media center. All names on the list were placed in a drawing for five students to win coupons from Sonic for a free vanilla cone. Winners are Tess N, Dymond C, Gabriel H, Whitt V, and Sydney D. Coupons will be delivered soon.
I worked with Mrs. Waters’ classes to create book trailers from favorite books the students had read. A book trailer is a video advertisement for a book which employs techniques similar to those of movie trailers. We used a free program from Microsoft called Photo Story 3 to add pictures, title text, narration, motion, transitions, and music to the video. Once students completed the project, those who had returned permission forms were uploaded to my wiki.
The sixth graders came in this week for a lesson in the correct way to format formal papers in Microsoft Word. Students learned how to double space, indent, use spell check, and format font. In addition, they created title pages. For their title pages, students learned how to center text, create borders, and insert pictures from clip art and the web. They were reminded that pictures copied from the web must have a citation.
We will have a “Bonus Buck” drawing for every class that visits the book fair. Each of the chairs in the media center is numbered. I will draw a number and the student in the winning seat will win a free “Bonus Buck” to spend in the book fair.
Each of the 20 posters will be prizes in another drawing. Each student that visits the book fair will be given a slip of paper. They will need to put their name and homeroom teacher’s name on the paper and place it in the box in the media center. For every $1 they spend in the book fair, they will receive an additional slip of paper. At the end of the book fair I will draw 20 names from all the slips of paper for the winners of the posters.
Guess the correct number of words in the new book Catching Fireby Suzanne Collins and students can win a jar full of skittles. Each guess is $.25.
The WJMS Book Club met Thursday afternoon to discuss Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Life As We Knew It. The group has been blogging about the book since they received it last month and the general consensus has been they loved it. Since survival is a big part of the book, I challenged the kids to put together a survival kit that would fit in a shoebox. The rationale for the small size was that in the event of an emergency, you may only have time to grab one thing. I then divided the large group into smaller groups to talk about the discussion questions. Since the one item students didn’t like about the book was the ending, I also had students to participate in a poll to predict what happened to Miranda’s family. I showed the students the author’s blog, gave a summary of the companion novel The Dead and the Gone, and talked about the last book in the trilogy coming out in April called This World We Live In. The group was very surprised to learn I had received an email response from the author about her new book. I told the club we may receive an ARC (Advance Reader’s Copy) of her new book before it comes out so that we will be able to find out Miranda’s fate before everyone else. She closed her email with a special hello to the Bookworms. To close the meeting I revealed our next book club selection would be Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements and showed them the book trailer. They are all looking forward to receiving the next novel.
I brought in a paperweight to use as a prop. It was supposed to be merely a paperweight. A paperweight I used to tell fortunes at the Halloween Carnival. Simply a prop while Kyra fed me information via her walkie-talkie and my earphones. It was all just a lark until Charlie came for his fortune. But as I’m telling Charlie about going on a cruise to Hawaii it’s as if the paperweight was filling up with smoke. In the smoke I see Charlie at the top of a flight of steps. A foot snags his ankle and he pitches down the steps. It’s just a paperweight. I can’t tell Charlie he’s going to fall down a flight of steps. When I look back into the globe, it’s clear. No smoke, no visions. I rush Charlie out of the booth and close down for the night. On Monday Charlie comes to school with a cast on his right arm. He had fallen down a flight of stairs. It was just a coincidence. I couldn’t have predicted it. But after Eric convinces me to set up a fortune telling business, it happens again, and again. What sort of force is working through something that should be just a paperweight? www.nancykeane.com
While an assassin stealthily slips from room to room, slaughtering his family, a toddler escapes from his crib, “bottom-bumps” his way down the stairs, and wanders out into the nearby graveyard where a ghost, Mrs. Owens, sensing danger, decides to adopt him. The rest of the ghosts, all from different historical time periods, debate the wisdom of this idea. But when the mysterious visitor, Silas, who can enter into the world and return, agrees to be the boy’s guardian and provider, the ghostly assembly grants the child the freedom of the graveyard.
Congratulations to the students who earned the most Accelerated Reader points in each grade for September. Students must maintain an 85 average on their quizzes to be included. I have the top ten lists posted on the wall in the media center. All names on the list were placed in a drawing for five students to win coupons from Sonic for a free vanilla cone. Winners are Katherine P., Kristen K., Clay C., Brenden J., and Andrew W.
He’s a young boy with nothing to lose. Not even a name. He’s called Stop Thief, runt, fast. He’s just living day to day until he meets Uri. Uri is an orphan who takes the young boy under his wing and gives him a name and a made up history. He is now Misha and he steals to feed himself and his new friends. Life is certainly not easy in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. And certainly not if you are a Jew. Misha knows nothing of politics or war or oppression so he doesn’t know to be afraid of the Jackboots. He has nothing to lose and no way of knowing what life has to offer beyond his own point of reference. www.nancykeane.com
What if everyone automatically became “pretty” when they turned 16? Scott Westerfeld explores this concept in his book Uglies. Listen to the booktalk below.
He had always wanted to be a warrior. The Rangers, with their dark cloaks and shadowy ways, made him nervous. The villagers believe the Rangers practice magic that makes them invisible to ordinary people. And now fifteen year-old Will, always small for his age, has been chosen as a Ranger’s apprentice. What he doesn’t realize yet is that the Rangers are the protectors of the kingdom. Highly trained in the skills of battle and surveillance, they fight the battles before the battles reach the people. And as Will is about to learn, there is a large battle brewing. The exiled Morgarath, Lord of the Mountains of Rain and Night, is gathering his forces for an attack on the kingdom. This time, he will not be denied . . . .
During the summer of 1793, Mattie Cook lives above the family coffee shop with her widowed mother and grandfather. Mattie spends her days avoiding chores and making plans to turn the family business into the finest Philadelphia has ever seen. But then the fever breaks out.
Disease sweeps the streets, destroying everything in its path and turning Mattie’s world upside down. At her feverish mother’s insistence, Mattie flees the city with her grandfather. But she soon discovers that the sickness is everywhere, and Mattie must learn quickly how to survive in a city turned frantic with disease.
Congratulations to the students who earned the most Accelerated Reader points in each grade for August. Students must maintain an 85 average on their quizzes to be included. I have the top ten lists posted on the wall in the media center. All names on the list were placed in a drawing for five coupons for free appetizers from Applebees. Winners are Margaret P., Alex D., Whitney T., Scarlet S., and Leslie W.
Deviant. Rebellious. Abnormal. The Elders say Gemm 16884 is all these things, and that he is a threat to the utopian society in which he lives. The Elders give him one chance to save himself: He must undergo the mysterious and painful “cure,” or he and his twin sister, Gemma, will be automatically recycled. Gemm chooses “the cure” and finds himself in the year 1348, at the onset of the Black Death. He is now Johannes, sixteen, living in Strasbourg—a town beset by anti-Semitism. Johannes struggles to hold on to his faith and family, his love for Margarite, his passion for music, and his belief in the goodness of human beings. But can the will of one boy change the world?
For students who need a book to read for class but forgot their book at home, I have implemented the student book exchange this year. I have a collection of older paperback books located on the shelves beside the newspapers. Students may “borrow” from these shelves as needed without having to check them out through the circulation desk. If anyone has any old books at home collecting dust, please feel free to bring them for the book exchange.
I would also like to start a book exchange for faculty. I have tons of good books at home that I can donate to get it started. I have horror, mystery, westerns, romance, and true crime so think I have something for just about everyone. Please let me know if this is something you would like to see me begin at WJMS.
This week I worked with Mrs. Prince’s classes to make sure students know the basics of PowerPoint for creating presentations. I showed classes the options for backgrounds, slide design themes, formatting text boxes, inserting pictures and editing them, slide transitions, and custom animations.
Cole Matthews is an angry, violent young man. He loves seeing other kids afraid of him. When a classmate gets Cole angry, Cole beats the boy so severely that he is left with permanent brain damage. Cole knows he is facing jail this time. His parents have gotten him out of trouble before but this time he doubts if he’ll go free. It doesn’t matter. He is so tough he isn’t afraid of anything. Cole’s parole officer sees something that others can’t see. He sees a Cole who can be saved. He arranges for Cole to face an alternative justice system. It’s the Native American “Circle Justice”. Cole goes along with it just to stay out of jail. When the Circle sentences Cole to live by himself on a remote island in Alaska for one year, Cole laughs at the sentence. He agrees but he secretly plans his escape from the island. Will he be able to survive his year in exile? Will he escape? Can Cole be saved? www.nancykeane.com
Congratulations to the students who earned the most Accelerated Reader points in each grade for October. Students must maintain an 85 average on their quizzes to be included. I have the top ten lists posted on the wall in the media center. All names on the list were placed in a drawing for five students to win coupons from Sonic for a free vanilla cone. Winners are Tess N, Dymond C, Gabriel H, Whitt V, and Sydney D. Coupons will be delivered soon.
