Mockingjay

I. CANNOT. WAIT.

The Top 100 Young Adult Books of All Time... ?

I've been enjoying this blog on Schoollibraryjournal.com. Elizabeth Bird is a children's librarian at the Children's Center at 42nd Street of the New York Public Library system. She's been compiling a list of, in her opinion, the best 100 young adult books of all time. It's been so fun to look at the list and compare it to my own favorites.

For 20 NU Points, comment with YOUR list of the Top 10 Young Adult books of all time.

Weekly Preview

Welcome back from Spring Break! I hope you all had a great time and are ready to give your all for the last quarter. It's going to fly, and summer will be here before we know it!

6th GOAL: You will be working on your "Stuff" posters this week. Using the Stuff book about consumption habits, you will all report on a different item. Read your facts and then include the important information on your poster. You will report out on Friday. I'll give you classtime Tuesday and Wednesday to work. You can use time in the library on Thursday to finish if you need it.

7th GOAL: After a quick mini-lesson about the United States Census, we are going to be introducing animation this week. You'll see lots of different examples and techniques. Then, we'll start learning how to use Stop Motion Pro so you'll be ready to make your own movies!

8th GOAL: It's the moment you've been waiting for! You'll be watching To Kill a Mockingbird in class this week!

7th Language Arts: You'll be working on spelling pp. 147, 148, & 149 (due Wednesday) in preparation for your maintenance test on Friday. On Tuesday, you'll take the Parts of Speech pretest, and then you'll start working on your study guide, your Parts of Speech booklet.

I Love Learning Something New

This week, at the Young Writer's Conference, I learned about two things I'd never heard of before. Author William Durbin spoke about his books and the research that had gone into them. His book, The Broken Blade, is about The Voyageurs of the North West Company Fur Trade. I knew very little about the Fur Trade, and I'd never heard of The Voyageurs before. I found some websites with some information about them.

Info at the Parks Canada website

Info from the National Parks Service website

Canada's First Peoples Website

The other new thing I learned about was the Winter War between Finland and Russia. William Durbin's newest book, The Winter War, is about this subject. I had seriously never heard of this before, and it's an amazing world event. Here is more information:

Fire and Ice: The Winter War between Finland and Russia

Uralica: The Website All About Finnish People

The New American website

For 20 NUPoints, check out one of these websites and comment with something new you learned about either The Voyageurs or The Winter War.

Weekly Preview

Here's what's coming up during the first week of March, campers!

6th GOAL: We'll be continuing the Great Ocean Rescue with the Laser Disc player. I loved the looks on all your faces when I showed you the actual laser disc. Classic!

7th GOAL: History Day, History Day, History Day! Exhibits: your projects are due Friday. Performances: your scripts were due today (no one was completely done... grr...), and you'll be spending next week practicing, memorizing, and gathering props & costumes.

8th GOAL: Images of Greatness! We're a little off track with Bio-Riddles because of the snow day this week. On Monday, we'll talk about Bio-Riddles. I'll give you next week to work on them along with your trifold display boards. Buckle down, folks!

7th Language Arts: On Monday, we'll begin spelling unit 21 (Words from Names & Places). Pretest corrections & book p. 129 will be due Wednesday with the posttest on Friday. On Tuesday, we'll go over introductions & conclusions for your Epidemics Research Papers. You'll have the rest of the week to get the whole thing (introduction, body, & conclusion) written, revised, typed, edited, & fixed. Final drafts are due next Friday, March 5.

The Secret School

Cast & Crew of The Secret School: FANTASTIC job on opening night. I'm so proud of you! I don't know how you overcame all the obstacles that were in your way during this rehearsal process. The snow days alone would have sunk a lesser troupe of actors. Let's make the final performance even more amazing than the first!

Click here for more publicity...

For 20 NUPoints, comment here by writing a review of The Secret School.

Just in Case You're Not Completely Sick of Looking at Snow...

This website has BEAUTIFUL and AMAZING pictures of snowflakes, up close and personal. Click here to see for yourself!

For 20 NUPoints, leave a comment with a link to something you think is BEAUTIFUL and AMAZING.

53 Hours Per Week? That's More than a Full-Time Job!

The Chicago Tribune recently ran an article on how many hours kids spend "consuming media." Click here to read the article. For 20 NUPoints, read the article and respond with your thoughts.

Adjustments in the Rehearsal Schedule

Please take note:

The original dress rehearsal scheduled for 9-12 on February 19th (this was supposed to be our day off after parent/teacher conferences, but now we have school) will now take place during the school day on February 19. Please be at school by 7:30 a.m. You will miss periods 1 & 2 and possibly part of period 3. We will also have rehearsal after school that day. It will be another dress rehearsal.

The Science of the Olympic Games

NBC Learning has produced several awesome videos about the science that goes into Olympic sports. Click here to go to the site. Click the "Original Video" tab, and then go to "Science of the Olympic Winter Games." They're just fun to watch, but if you'd like 20 NUPoints, comment here about something you learned from each video (20 points for the first video, 10 points for each subsequent video). I just watching the snowboarding video, and it was fascinating. I can't wait to watch the rest!