The view from Saturday

How has Mrs. Olinski chosen her sixth-grade Academic Bowl team? She had a number of answers. But were any of them true? How had she really chosen Noah and Nadia and Ethan and Julian? And why did they make such a good team? It was a surprise to a lot of people when Mrs. Olinski's team won the sixth-grade Academic Bowl contest at Epiphany Middle School. It was an even bigger surprise when they beat the seventh grade and the eighth grade, too. And when they went on to even greater victories, everyone began to ask: How did it happen?

This is a tale about a team, a class, a school, a series of contests and, set in the midst of this, four jewel-like short stories -- one for each of the team members -- that ask questions and demonstrate surprising answers. 
A thoroughly enjoyable read, that leaves you thinking way after you have closed the book. I read this as part of a Newberry medal reading challenge. It's the 1997 medal winner, it's  not the first Newberry medal book I have read. I read the 2002 winner   A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park (Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin) , 2001 honour book Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick Press), 2000 honour book 26 Fairmount Avenue by Tomie dePaola (Putnam), 1994 medal winner The Giver by Lois Lowry (Houghton), 1992 medal winner: Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Atheneum), 1968 medal winner: From the mixed up files of Mrs Basil E. Franweiler also by E.L. Konigsburg. I also have read 1957 honor book:Old Yeller by Fred Gipson, 1948 honour book Li Lun, Lad of Courage by Carolyn Treffinger (Abingdon), 1945 honour book The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes (Harcourt), 1933 medal winner Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis (Winston),

Pax

Just fincished this novel, suitable for 11 year old children or older. It is about a boy, Peter, who is forced  to leave his pet fox at the side of the road after he goes to live with his grandfather. This book is told in alternative voices. The boy and the fox. Both the fox and Peter go searching for one another. This book is timeless. I can't work out whether it is told in the past or in a future apocalyptic world. Very descriptive and emotive story.

Reread a class favourite

I first read this book with a third grade class more than 20 years ago. My class had the opportunity to participate in a video conference with author Paul Jennings and so I thought it was time to read 'Unmentionable' to a new generation of third and fourth graders. They loved the gross, clever, comic collection of stories that always had a twist to the storyline at the end. Many of my students have borrowed other books in his collection of short stories. It makes me want to read some more of his more familiar stories.

Recent reads

This year I have read with my class Nanberry by Jackie French I had to censor it for my stage 2 class as I didn't feel I needed to get into life for females in the early Australian colonies. They fell in love with the character Nanberry and wanted to find out about how life was for him before British Invasion and the early colonisation. 

I have shared with them one of my childhood favourites The twenty seventh annual African hippopotamus race I remember having had this read aloud to me and then rediscovering it again on my own again in my middle primary years. My class has loved this book as much as myself.

A title I have read but haven't had a chance to share yet, is the classic originally told in German Emil and the detectives. An engaging and quick read, a little boy travelling on the train to his family in Berlin has some money stolen from him... This book tells of his adventures to get his money back and to catch the thief.

Gallipoli... Kerry Greenwood

With this book I examined context, I used a teaching unit from PETAA to support this teaching, one of the initial tasks I did was to predict whose point of view is this story written... The children were considering the Australian soldiers or the Turkish soldiers. One of the things they noticed on the front cover were the two soldiers, and they were wearing slouch hats... Australian soldiers wore slouch hats. We compared this to the uniform of the Ottoman Empire to confirm this. I am also trying to get my students to use two pieces of evidence to support their thoughts so I had them examine the words on the cover and they then made the link between Cannankale and Gallipoli and confirmed it must be a story from the ANZACs... I loved this story and the children made lots of connections to what we have learnt in class, we examined maps and the children could visualise where Eygpt was, Lemnos, Lone Pine all settings names in this story. When they heard Simpson and his donkey Duffy mentioned they all shared a connection to prior learning. We deeply analysed the historical and cultural contexts for this story and will continue this learning until our Anzac Day service.

More ANZAC stories! and writing with a purpose

Last term I read quite a few ANZAC titles, the children really enjoyed the contrast in Anzac Biscuits by Phil Cummings.

 A mother and child make biscuits whilst the father is away fighting war. Each page has a link with the next- the flowers on Mum's apron is a contrast to the flowers in the field where dad is, the thick mud dad is walking through is compared with the sticky treacle on the little child's fingers. The children enjoyed seeing the contrast between the two scenes. I was at a conference this week and I had the lovely Kate make no bake Anzac balls with the kids and look at procedure writing. You can find the recipe here... http://www.mumsinthemix.com.au/healthy-bake-anzac-biscuits/

We then read Gary Crew's Memorial.

Another book the children can examine the visual literacy, these two amazing talented duo really know how to write books well.  After analysing this book, I had my class write arguments for and against whether the tree should be removed.

Anzac Ted... Everyone should have this title on their bookshelf.

It has such a lovely message, all of my students could make a connection to this title. After examining the Anzac spirit in these titles, I had my class write an imaginative text, I was really surprised by their efforts. Someone wrote a story as the unknown solider, another used the structure of Anzac biscuits to compare life at war and home, and a student tried to retell life as an Anzac through letter writing back and forth from home. 

The Red Poppy

I have just finished using the book The Red Poppy by David Hill in my Stage 2 classroom. We will be reading a few stories based on war as it is the centenary on Anzac at Gallipoli.

I started the unit with children filling in a before and after web (from Sheena Cameron's orange comprehension book) about what they already knew about Anzacs and Gallipoli, this was to activate prior knowledge. We read the book and before reading it again, I had my class sit eye to eye, knee to knee (EEKK) and recall something that happened in the book. Hmm... Some kids said they couldn't remember a thing, whilst others recalled many details. I planned for my class do a stretch to sketch (from Linda Hoyt's 3 R book). We folded a blank A4 page into four sections and the children had to visualise the story and think what would they draw in the first box, second box etc. After the second reading, they again sat EEKK and discussed what they would draw before going back to their desks and working independently... I was impressed. They shared their drawings and retold their story to a new partner.

On a different day, we broke into a character hot seat discussion. This allowed my students to have a good background to the book so we could discuss the theme and key ideas.

It was an AMAZING  book with a friendship developing between two enemy soldiers. The children loved the realistic illustrations and the compassion between the two soldiers. I think it will stay in their memories for a long time.