Welcome to Family Reading Night

Welcome family and friends to our Annual Family Reading Night.

Please feel free to look around, talk to teachers, and eat pizza. In addition, please have your student and any children under 18 pick a book to take home off the table in the back.

We also have some reading and writing info on the front table next to the sign in sheet.

Thank you for being here! You are the best!

Downtown Learning Center Staff

What is the Message of This Poem?

Read over this poem and use the poetry plan to figure out what the author's message is. What is the author trying to say? Think especially about the last couple of lines.

Halloween

Mac Hammond

The butcher knife goes in, first, at the top
And carves out the round stemmed lid,
The hole of which allows the hand to go
In to pull the gooey mess inside, out -
The walls scooped clean with a spoon.
A grim design decided on, that afternoon,
The eyes are the first to go,
Isosceles or trapezoid, the square nose,
The down-turned mouth with three
Hideous teeth and, sometimes,
Round ears. At dusk it's
Lighted, the room behind it dark.
Outside, looking in, it looks like a
Pumpkin, it looks like ripeness
Is all. Kids come, beckoned by
Fingers of shadows on leaf-strewn lawns
To trick or treat. Standing at the open
Door, the sculptor, a warlock, drops
Penny candies into their bags, knowing
The message of winter: only the children,
Pretending to be ghosts, are real.

The poem is from this site: http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/108.html

Here is a link to the poetry plan

Fun Stuff to do Around Town

Just in case you haven't heard about some of the fun stuff going on around town, here is a link to a bunch of Halloween events. Click on a day on the calendar to see what the events on that day are all about.

Culture Shock's "13 Nights of Halloween" Calendar

2010-2011 School Year

We're back at it again this year, blogging our way to better writing. Students are doing a great job of logging into their blogs every day, coming up with things to write about, and practicing their editing skills. I'm so impressed with how well they do at this, even if they've never blogged before in their life. What great students I have! How did I get so lucky??

One of the things that I've noticed about student blogs is that each one is very different. Everyone has their own idea of how to create their daily paragraph. Each student has their own voice that comes through in their writing and makes it their own. Writers talk about it all the time: finding your voice. On their blogs, students are able to find their own voice, while still learning basic writing and editing skills.

I think learning how to express yourself in writing is one of the things that makes education so crucial. By writing down our experiences and thoughts on things, we not only leave our mark in the world, but we learn to think through our own experiences and elaborate on our opinions. Writing makes us better thinkers, and the world can always use better thinkers!

Some Books You Just Might LOVE!

It's important to find books that you will enjoy reading. If you don't enjoy it, you probably won't do it, so read something interesting! Something that makes you want to keep turning pages.

Here are a few selections of authors, books, and links that might lead you to books you will love.

Fantasy

Authors:

Joe Abercrombie

Brandon Sanderson

J.R.R. Tolkein (Lord of the Rings)

Robert Jordan

Lists:

Here is one person's top ten list of fantasy authors.

And here is a top 25 fantasy list

Vampire

Yes, I'm making this it's own section because it has gotten so big lately

Authors:

Stephanie Meyer (Twilight)

Kristin Cast

Mari Mancusi (Blood Coven Series)

Anne Rice (not new, but classic vampire stuff)

Here is a list of Vampire books and series for young adults. It's on the Monster Librarian site which also has a lot of other good lists.

Romance

Young Adult:

Meg Cabot

Rachel Hawthorne

Catherine Clark

Loiuse Rennison

Jodie Lynn Anderson

Sarah Dessen

Adult:

Nora Roberts

Jayne Anne Krentz

Catherine Anderson

Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Susan Anderson

Karen Robards

Elizabeth Lowell

Historical Romance:

Amanda Quick

Diana Gabaldon (time travel/historical)

Julie Garwood

Christina Dodd

Teresa Medeiros

Here is a site with a good list of favorites for all styles of adult romance.

Chick Lit

I know this sounds a lot like romance, but it really focuses on women's issues in general. Its fun stuff to read. A lot of the heroines enjoy fashion or shopping or other girly stuff!

Here is a link that will give you more info on chick literature than I ever could.

And here are some of my favorite chick lit authors:

Jane Green

Jennifer Weiner

Sophie Kinsella

Mystery

Sue Grafton

Mary Higgins Clark

Agatha Christie (old, but classic mystery)

Patricia Cornwall

Carl Hiaasen (humor/mystery)

John Grisham

Janet Evanovich (humor, not scary, but a great read!)

Tom Clancy (military thriller/mystery)

And here is a list of some other types and styles of mysteries.

Enjoy your reading!!

More Anne Frank/Holocaust Resources

This is the link I showed you in class yesterday:

http://www.annefrankguide.net/en-GB/bronnenbank.asp

Here are a few more places to find good information:

The 8 Stages of Genocide

Info about Concentration Camps

Holocaust Survivor Stories

Interview with Anne's Father:

Field Trip to the Capitol

Shandi did a great job of getting right up close and taking some great pictures for us!

Love is...

...when your sister sends over a care package of soup and salad when you're sick.

...your parents bringing you medicine when you aren't feeling well

...friends calling up just to say hi

...a little niece's eyes lighting up and yelling your name when you come in a room.

New Literature Unit: Diary of Anne Frank

We will be starting a new literature book this week. We are going to be reading The Diary of a Young Girl about Anne Frank. During this unit we will be studying some background information about the Holocaust as well.

Here are some good online resources for finding out more about the Holocaust and Anne Frank:

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Anne Frank Educational Trust

Holocausthistory.net

List of other resources from Anne Frank Educational Trust

There are lots of other online resources out there, but these are a few good ones from trustworthy sources.