Wednesday, May 27, 2009

The weather held out and we had a great 8th grade party. Thank you to all the parents who made it such a successful event.

Please remember that school is NOT over yet! You need to have Topic 1 and Topic 2 from the the Soundtrack project finished by tomorrow. Many of you had time in class today to finish Topic 3 AND the poster or CD cover! Persevere! The end is in sight!

I am missing many of my personal books that I have let kids check out. (over 60!) I purchased these with my own money and love that the kids have used them, but I need them back for next year! If you have a book at home, bring it back. If you were the last one to have checked it out and it doesn't surface, you may end up replacing the book! Calls will begin after we have locker clean out. Keep your eyes open for the following books:

Unbroken
City of Ember (6 copies)
Are You There God?
The View from Saturday
Stephen King On Writing
Sarah Plain and Tall
The View from Saturday
The Terrorist
Harris and Me
Frozen Summer
The Sky is the Limit (6 copies)
Guiness Book of World Records
Skull of Truth
Nightmare Lands

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Magician's Nephew
Northwest Passage
The Hobbit
Sea of Monsters
The End
Hatchet
Rumbelfish
Fight for Life
Sign of the Beaver
Penultimate Peril
My Brother Sam is Dead
The Austere Academy
Losing Christina
Woodsong
Vampire Plague
How to Eat Fried Worms
The House on the Cliff
Animal Farm
Cracker
River Between Us
The Siege
First Light
The Tapestry
Among the Hidden
Canyons
Zen and the Art of Faking It
The Dark is Rising
The Cage
Eagle
The Compound
Nightmare Chronicles
The Titan's Curse
Transall Saga

Tuesday, May 19

We enjoyed the annual talent show this morning before we came back to class. We listened as pairs shared their "Tom Sawyer in the 21st Century" short stories which were written last week. Yesterday we read chapters 10 and 11 in Tom Sawyer and we will now skip to Chapter 17 for tomorrow.

Reminder: We will have a field trip to Wilson's Creek National Park on Friday. Please send a lunch with your child!

Wednesday, May 13

Today we went over the Chapter 4 quiz taken yesterday, then we worked in pairs, or alone - if that was their choice - to complete a reflection of Chapter 6 of Tom Sawyer. This proved very interesting as they shared experiences of "faking" an illness or injury to get out of doing something! They also made a visual representation of Huck Finn based on the description from the book and discussed various superstitions they were aware of. When they were finished with their partner work, they received a Figurative Language sheet that is to be turned in on Friday. They are to look up the definitions of slang, dialect, jargon, colloquialism, and idiom and find examples of each of these in Tom Sawyer. They then have to explain what the example means. It is a challenge to keep everyone focused and persistent - everyone is looking at the end in sight.

Monday, May 11, 2009

I hope you all had a good Mother's Day and enjoyed the special gift each of the students created. I was proud of their work! Today we will be listening to Chapter 3 and 4 of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and writing a brief summary of the events in the chapter. We will have a guest speaker during intervention who will be talking with us about the importance of safety in cars and on bikes.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Today started out pretty interesting as we spent over an hour taking shelter from the storm! The kids did great with this and got right into the swing of things when we went back to classes. Grade checks are coming home today, so make sure you see them! Book Talk is on Tuesday, May 12 and several students have NOT finished their books! READ!!!!! Have a wonderful Mother's Day weekend!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Today was a creative day, but a secret day! All I can say is make sure all final copies are ready by tomorrow!!!!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

We began this week discussing the slang and dialect that Mark Twain uses in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer." We used the discussion as a springboard for an in-class writing bringing Tom Sawyer to the 21st century. Students worked in pairs, or alone - their choice - and rewrote the white washing the fence scene in modern terms. They had to come up with a modern punishment and modern "bribes" that Tom would take. Included was contemporary slang and dialect written into the dialogue. These have been a lot of fun to read.

We've continued to work on writing personal narratives and these will be coming home on Friday. Students may have final copies to work on tonight.