1960s Day!

Most recently, students in Emilie's, Linda's and Katrina's classes learned about the 1960s. To share this information, small groups presented projects that we made about different groups fighting for their rights in the 1960s. After researching, we made protest signs for our groups and found a song protesting this issue. We presented our projects to everyone and listened to the songs that we picked. Finally, we had some 1960s food and danced to 1960s music. It was a great learning experience! -Written by Sophie G.

April Independent Book Projects

Over the course of the year, our novel studies in language arts have often reflected our topics in social studies. In April, however, students were able to choose a research topic to partner with a work of historical fiction. In addition to reading and researching, each student wrote a paper to compare and contrast and created a project to present to their classes. 

City of Orphans by Avi; New York at the turn on the century

Gordon Korman's Titanic trilogy; the Titanic

 Cracker!: The Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata; the role of dogs in war

War Horse by Michael Murpurgo; the role of horses in WWI

Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan; Mexican immigration during the 1930s

The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon; Chicago 1968

Kira Kira, by Cynthia Kadohata; Japenese Americans in the 1950s

Gordon Korman's Titanic trilogy; the Titanic

Gordon Korman's Titanic trilogy; the Titanic

So Hard to Say, by Alex Sanchez; the consequences of bullying

Witness by Karen Hesse; the rise of the KKK

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko; Alcatraz

Timothy of the Cay, by Theodore Taylor; German U-boats

Weedflower, by Cynthia Kadohata; Japanese internment camps

The Cay, by Theodore Taylor; German U-boats

City of Orphans by Avi; food in the early 1900s

The Wednesday Wars, by Gary Schmidt; the Vietman War

Witness, by Karen Hesse; the rise of the KKK

A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle; the biography of L'Engle

Airborn, by Kenneth Oppel; zeppelins

The End of Baseball, by Peter Schilling Jr.; the desegregation of baseball

The Lions of Little Rock, by Kristin Levine; the Little Rock Nine

So Hard to Say, by Alex Sanchez; gay rights

War Horse, by Michael Morpurgo; the role of the United States in WWI

Lily's Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff; refugees of WWII

Cais read Glory Be, by Augusta Scattergood and researched segregation in the 1960s. 

Garrett read City of Orphans, by Avi and researched the slums in New York City in the early 1900s. 

Examples of Students' Wordles

TKAM and Best Bad Luck

You might hear your middle schooler tossing these "words" around. A few weeks ago, we started our latest novel units. Students chose between Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird or Kristin Levine's The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had.  They are all doing a wonderful job keeping up with the texts and assigned work; be sure to ask them about these novels at home!

A few videos

A few drama performances by the Haighas and Hattas, along with the Creative Writing Friday group's presentation. Enjoy!

A New Year!

Hello all! We're off and running on a new calendar year, but finishing up work as we near the end of our first semester. Conferences are on Friday, January 27th. Please check Quick Notes for your time!

The Haighs and Hattas are finishing up our study of the 1930s. This week, we examinded the FSA photographs of the Dust Bowl and discussed how photographs can be manipulated to elicit specific emotions (we also looked at a few modern examples). The last two days, the students have taken their own photos and will be editing them next week.

In language arts, we reviewed Out of the Dust and will spend some time next week on literature and poetry that was written in the 1930s. By the end of the month, we will start our next round of novels: To Kill a Mockingbird or The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had. Both books deal with the issues of racism and inequality, though are different in story line. Please talk with your student about which book would be the best choice for them!

And though we're already in 2012, here's a great 2011 review from the guys at Flocabulary. Enjoy and happy new year!