The BFG

We've been reading one of my very favorite books, The BFG by Roald Dahl. I can't say that I love the movie (the book is ALWAYS better in my opinion) but the kids really enjoy seeing the characters come to life. Here's the whole movie on YouTube...

Scholastic Book Club Ordering

This week, I will be sending home book orders - our first of the year. The children have varied abilities in reading so I like to provide book orders for all levels. You'll see that there are several different flyers.You can order using the order form on the flyers or you can order from the Scholastic website. http://clubs.scholastic.com/   Our "Class Activation Code" is DL6GB - you'll need this if you order online.

Orders for this round will be due by October 14th. The books usually take just under 2 weeks to arrive.

Synesthesia

I came across a video today that made me instantly think of my students so I had to share! If you follow our blog, you may remember that we read a great book called The Name of This Book is Secret. For more about that, click here. Synesthesia was an important topic in the book and the children often wondered if it was "a real thing." Though we discovered that it was indeed real, we didn't learn much more about it - other than what we learned from the book.

Daniel Tammet, who appears in the video below, has linguistic, numerical and visual synesthesia and is further described as a high-functioning autistic savant. He describes how much richer words and numbers can be to synesthetes. The video actually meant for an adult audience so some of it may be difficult for children to follow but I found it very interesting to hear him describe how he views the world. Check it out and let me know what you think by leaving a comment...

Kids - I miss you all and I hope you are enjoying your vacation so far! Hugs, :)Ms. G

The Name of This Book is Secret...

We just finished reading another terrific chapter book, The Name of this Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch. We loved it. I can't believe I didn't look for it sooner but I just discovered the website that goes with the books!



There are three more books in the series and I'm sure that if your child hasn't already asked you to buy them, you'll be getting those requests very soon. :) You can buy used copies on Barnes & Noble for as little as $1.99 or on Amazon for as little as $0.96!

The kids did some writing about the book so I thought I'd include some of their reviews here for you to read...

Luke's Review:

     The book was exiting and funny! These kids named Cass and Max-Ernest found this box that had different smells and then got into a mystery. After that they went to this house to try to solve this mystery.

More reviews coming soon!


If you little reader loves this series, the Lemony Snicket books are another great series to get into. You may be familiar with The Series of Unfortunate Events from the movie of the same name. Here's the website to peak some interest. Enjoy!

Book Club Ordering - Online!

I will be sending home another book order tomorrow and thought it would make things easier if I included the link on our blog in case you'd like to order online. http://clubs.scholastic.com/parentordering/login.jsp For every order that is placed online, we will receive $3 to spend on books for the classroom! Our Class Activation Code is: DL6GB - you will need this when you place your order.

Here's a virtual tour of some of the books available in the Holiday Books brochure: 

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Today in class we read the book, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett. It’s a book that teachers love to read because it can lead to some pretty creative writing. In the book version, a man tells his grandchildren a bedtime story about a town called Chewandswallow where they have no grocery stores because food falls from the sky in place of rain, snow and various storm systems.

A movie (with the same name) opened today. I haven’t seen it, of course, so I can’t tell you if it’s any good or not but you can tell from the trailer and write ups about the movie that it’s quite different from the book. If you go see the movie with your child, consider having a conversation about what’s different and why they are so different.

After reading the book today, I showed the kids the website for the movie. It’s pretty fun and is very interactive. One thing that I emphasized with them is that Sony Pictures Animation has partnered with Feeding America to provide meals for Americans in need. While playing the game Food Catcher, every time you ‘catch’ a golden apple, one meal will be donated. It’s an easy way to help others and helped get us thinking about how lucky we are to have food to eat every day. After playing the game, they can print out a certificate that they can also color. Check it out!