Summer Reading : : 2

Recently Finished:

• The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis (solo)
  
• A Walk in Wolf Wood by Mary Stewart-- from my childhood, a favorite fantasy book! (with fourth grader)
  
• The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller (solo)
  
• Teaching with Intention by Debbie Miller (solo)
• Planting a Rainbow Garden by Lois Ehlert (first grader solo and together)
  
• Muncha, Muncha, Muncha by Candace Fleming and G. Brian Karas (first grader solo and together)
• Henry and Mudge by Cynthia Rylant and Suçie Stevenson (first grader solo)

It is probably impossible to record every book that my children are reading because they pick up books sometimes when I'm not around-- especially the first grader. But, I will try to give a representation of some of what he is reading. And, the fourth grader reads magazines like American Girl Magazine and Highlights a lot during the day. . . reading? For sure.

What should I read next? On my list:

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Franweiler by E. L. Konigsburg
Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It by Kelly Gallagher

Blog Highlight

I also spend a lot of time reading professional blogs and websites. Librarians and teachers may be taking over the blogosphere (only to be out-done by crafters and politicos). Here is a link to Donalyn Miller's blog, author of The Book Whisperer, that I recently read and loved. Her post about understanding and meeting the needs of gifted readers was particularly helpful to me in understanding my own daughter this summer.

My daughter told me, looking me straight in the face, that she hates reading. There could not have been a sharper way to wound this librarian's heart! Miller's article, however, was just what I needed to remind me that that my daughter needed some encouragement to find some high-interest books of her choice. After spending the last 9 weeks of school drilling and killing for the MCT2 tests and a year dissecting a reading textbook, she had experienced what I think may be readicide (from Kelly Gallagher).

Given that my daughter has devoured the Harry Potter series three times, I've encouraged her to look at different fantasy series. Miller recommends fantasy as a genre that gifted readers often find enticing. I think it may be working! We'll see if she is eager to pick-up and continue reading Inkheart when she gets back from camp tomorrow.

Now, back to my next Amazon.com order. . .

Computers and Quilts

We tied up all loose ends end and put the binding on our exploration into the underground railroad, quilts, and Black History. Yesterday, Mrs. T. and I used the computer lab to teach searching and computer navigation skills by using a website about the Gee's Bend quilters from Alabama. We learned about archives and archival sources by clicking through photographs of the Gee's Bend community taken by Arthur Rothstein in the 1930's and 1940's. Their lives were very different from ours!

Then, we pretended to be curators of our own museum through an interactive portion of the website that allows the user to create a virtual exhibit. Finally, we designed our own symmetrical and asymmetrical quilt blocks with another interactive feature on the website.

All over St. Therese, "learning quilts" adorn the hallways. Have you seen them?

MLK and Inauguration Websites

A great resource for learning about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is:

http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/resources/index.php

I was looking for a full text of the "Dream" speech and discovered that and so much more.

Here is another Dr. King website:

http://www.thekingcenter.org/

With the presidential inauguration approaching on January 20, 2009, I found this wonderful online resource from the Library of Congress for learning about past inaugurations. Check out this site for lots of information!

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/features/inaug/inaug.html

Book Fair Safari Home Page

Our Fall Book Fair is coming up October 14th through 17th! We are going on a Book Fair Safari!

Check out the website for the book fair to preview books, create your own wish list, volunteer to help, and much, much more!

http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/homepage/sainttherese

All third through 6th grade students will be given a penny for every Reading Counts point they have earned through Friday, October 10th. For example, if a student has earned 35 Reading Counts points, the student will be given 35 cents off of anything that is bought at the book fair. 35 cents is enough to get a free pencil!

Olympics Book Challege!

The Olympics started today! If you are looking for more information, the official websites are:

http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/beijing/index_uk.asp

and

http://en.beijing2008.cn/

The online knitting community is sponsoring an Olympic event of starting a new project during the Olympics and trying to finish it before the Olympics conclude in 17 days. This gave me the idea to start a book today and try to finish it before the Olympics conclude on August 24th, 2008. Or, you could also keep track of how many books you read in the next few weeks. Challenge your mind like an athlete challenges his or her body! The book I'm starting was recommended to me at the poolside this summer by a fourth grader. It is a children's book titled The Secret Order of the Gumm Street Girls by Elise Primavera.

Happy Reading! Julie Owen