Reminders for Tuesday, 9/2
Reminders for Tuesday, 9/2
Bring your summer reading book and any notes you took on Tuesday, Sept. 2. We will be starting activities with the books.
Reading Log ! is also due Tuesday.
Be studying for the CT Spelling List test on Wednesday. Your first vocabulary assignment is also due Wednesday. You may want to do Vocab Unit 1 cards or "flippies" (your choice) over the weekend so you can study for spelling Tuesday night.
SO FAR THIS YEAR.....
SO FAR THIS YEAR.....
So far this year you should have:
1. read Bud Not Buddy or A Paradise Called Texas
2. turned in signed Course Outline and signed Classroom Expectations sheets
3. taken home your Holt Literature and Language Art book and the Holt Handbook
4. filled out the top of your first Reading Log, including the due date - Tuesday Sept. 2
Remember to write a brief summary and record how many pages you read. If you don't have your reading log with you, write down the pages on a sticky note and add them to your reading log later.
5. put the Book Report Schedule in the Language Arts section of your binder with the due date of your first book report, an award winner, filled in - Sept. 29
6. put the C.T. Spelling List in the Spelling and Vocabulary section of your binder
You should have also written down that the test on this list will be next Wednesday, Sept. 3.
7. decided 7th grade is going to be the best year yet for you and that CT ROCKS! (especially Language Arts and Creative Arts!)
SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENT
SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENT
Welcome to 7th grade language arts! I am very excited to get to know you all this year.
Just in case you lost your handout with the summer reading information, I am including it here for you. We will start working with the novels Tuesday, September 2nd.
Summer Reading Requirement:
You are required to read one of the following novels this summer. However, I guarantee you will enjoy them both. I also hope you read more than just two books!
A Paradise Called Texas by Janice Jordan Shefelman
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
You have no formal assignment to complete with the books, but I recommend you keep a reading log, or use a system that works for you, to help you remember what the book is about. We will do assignments with the novels at the beginning of the school year.
Bonus activity: Keep a list of books you read over the summer. Include the author’s name and how many pages each book has. If you make a poster or do another creative activity with your list, you get to start off the year with extra points! Whoever reads the most books (verified by a parent or guardian) will win a book of their choice.
Mystery Writers of America have announced the 2008 Edgar Award Winners. Here are the juvenile and teen ones:
Best Juvenile: The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh
Best Young Adult: Rat Life by Tedd Arnold
The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall.
Return to the charming world of the Penderwick sisters as they return home to Gardam Street after their summer adventures. Mr. Penderwick's sister delivers a letter from his dead wife, telling him to start dating again, and horribly he does! Rosalind is terribly scared of having a stepmother and brings her sisters together to form the Save-Daddy plan. Meanwhile, Jane and Skye do one another's homework which leads to a web of deceit, Batty tries to warn everyone of a stranger lurking around the neighborhood, and Hound develops a fondness for a new cat next door. Just normal life around Gardam Street.
Birdsall certainly didn't suffer from the Sophomore Slump with this second novel. In fact, I enjoyed it even more than the first. The sisters are all unique and interesting characters facing normal life crises. It is the writing itself that charms, creating a book filed with the warmth, confusion, love and mess of real life. There is still that old-fashioned feel to the series, as if a book from your childhood has moved forward to modern day but maintained the same sense of safety and a rightness with the world. Refreshing yet reminiscent.
If you enjoyed the first book, make sure to check out the second. Another great read-aloud for classrooms and a must-purchase for libraries. Highly recommended for ages 10-14.
Stuck in the Mud by Jane Clarke, illustrated by Garry Parsons.
Early one morning, a hen notices that one of her chicks is stuck in the mud. She pushes and shoves, but can't get the chick out and then finds herself stuck too! One by one, more animals join them stuck all together in the mud. All push and strain to get unstuck, but all are trapped. All except one! The little chick who started the mess!
The art here is so funny and inviting. Done in a cartoon style that will make small children right at home, it is perfectly paired with the zany text that will have children even more at home. The text is pitch perfect, reading aloud so easily that it fairly skips along. This is the perfect book for a toddler story time where children will love to shout out the animal names and join in the straining to push and pull the animals out of the mud.
Highly recommended for ages 3-6. Have a muddy good time!
Forever Rose by Hilary McKay.
Return once again to the Casson family as they verge on disaster but always pull together as a family by the end of the story. Rose is being left alone more and more as her sister Caddy has left, Saffy is busy with friends and school, Indigo is into his music, her father is away living in London, and her mother is in her shed feeling ill. But maybe it's worse when one of Indigo's friends moves his drum set in and ruins her latest painting. Certainly it is worse when she finally realizes what she has agreed to do with her friends at the zoo! But it is far too late to back out by then.
McKay has such a deft hand with characters. They are constantly surprising but true to themselves. She is particularly wonderful at creating people with true flaws, but also making sure they are not only lovable but loved. While one doesn't wish to move in with the family, one would love to know them and be part of their world.
Once again, a Casson novel that triumphs. Highly recommended for readers ages 10-14, but only if they have read the rest of the series!
Clementine's Letter by Sara Pennypacker.
Every time a new Clementine book comes out, my toes wiggle with glee. I know that between those pages, I will find moments to laugh aloud, discover myself as a small child again, recognize my children, and simply sink into a wonderful book. They never disappoint.
This third Clementine book has her bonding with her third grade teacher until he is nominated to go on a trip to Egypt. Now Clementine has to cope with a new teacher who doesn't seem to have the same rules while desperately trying to keep her old teacher from winning the award and leaving. Clementine also has to try to do something extra nice for her mother because she is writing a story with her father. It's only fair to do things equally according to her friend Margaret.
Once again I was charmed not only by the effervescent Clementine who walks her own walk and sees the world through her own special lens, but by her parents who love her simply for being herself. Other adults are equally well drawn and complete as are the children around Clementine. Add to that Frazee's line art which constantly shows the field of chaos around Clementine as she moves through life, and you have such a believable and vibrant book that it is hard to put down. In fact, I recommend having all three at hand, because you are going to want to start the entire series once again just to spend some more time with them.
Highly recommended as a readaloud, or for parents of children who don't conform to what the world seems to expect, or for children themselves who have a good sense of humor and love to laugh. Hey, it's great for everyone. Enjoy!
RSS
