I was like a kid in a candy store when my books arrived today - a friend sent me a gift of an Indigo book card for my birthday in February and just last week Indigo had an on-line sale and free shipping so I ordered some books that I have been curious about.
Two were this year's Canada Reads contenders. This year's winner was The Orenda by Joesph Boyden and the runner up Cockroach by Rowi Hage - both sound like they are heavy duty reads and difficult subjects but I am intrigued. The third of my four books was Random Passage by Bernice Morgan which follows the story of a family who flee from England to the wilds of Newfoundland. It is referred to as a classic, best selling, family drama (wonder why I am drawn to family drama??) and this one is the author's first novel.
My final choice and the one I think I will start my reading adventures with, is called A Train in Winter which tells the true story of the 230 French Resisters, all women, who were rounded up by the Gestapo in 1943 and sent to Auschwitz. Apparently this was the only train in the four years of German occupation to take women of the resistance to a death camp. Six of the women were still alive in 2010 and were able to tell their stories to biographer Caroline Moorehead. The back cover explains,
" A Train in Winter covers a harrowing part of history but is ultimately a portrait of ordinary people, of bravery and endurance, and of the particular qualities of female friendship."
Doesn't that sound fabulous?
Forget the on-line reading thing, for me there is nothing that can replace the feeling of a new book in my hands and I would like this to be what I pass on to your children (not my book choices) but my love of books, good writing, an enduring story and the wonder of the power of the written word.
And so to our day - sorry to hold you hostage but I was so excited and thought I would share.
Reminders
Please sign and return the Biennale permission slip for next Tuesday
Hoodie payment due now
Monday I-girls and I-boys presentations for all grade sixes and sevens
Our day
We started the day with our Literature circle novels
We had four on the go if you remember and we are at a variety of placements within the books - three student have completed their novels and are working on an activity called Alphabet summary which asks for words, names of characters, phrases that sum up the plot, quotations and themes of the story.
I have decided against questions about the books choosing instead an experimental activity in which the students take a quotation from the beginning, middle and end of the novels and discuss the
importance of the words in relation to the plot, characters and point of the story.
I am encouraged by the reading so far and was able to take an inventory of where everyone is in their respective novels and I was impressed this morning at our solid half hour of personal reading time. Everyone was reading which is a beautiful moment in my teaching day (like checking in your kids when they are sleeping !!)
Band class
Math switch
math 7 today was a continuation of the analysis of time zones around the world and how to use GMT to determine the time in various parts of the world. We used "calling great aunt Clara" as a starter for finding when the best time would be to call her if we were in BC and she was in Cairo, Egypt. Then we started 'traveling' to determine what time it was in Hawaii when we were 'leaving' London.
Virtually, of course.
I swear the change of weather caused a change in behaviour today - the students were chatty and challenging but I think they learned a couple of new things. Ask which region in the world celebrates new year first, how many time zones the lines of longitude are divided into, how much the globe rotates in an hour and what Greenwich Mean Time is.
Read to self - encouraging reading of the novels from this morning
Geography: Antarctica map
in a group activity (things were beginning to unravel as students became tried) we used the atlas and I encouraged the use of devices for research at each group table, the class I-pad and the map information itself. I honestly did not know a great deal of information about Antarctica so it was
interesting to find out have many different countries were represented at the scientific stations on that continent. They include Argentina, India, Japan, U.K., Russia and USA to name a few. Somerett fascinating science going on in this remote area of the world.
Art - had some time at the end of the day to work more on our personal flags that Laura introduced- some are coming along nicely and others are still finding name and cultural information to include but there are some amazing discoveries on our surname research.
I played some Bob Marley tunes to try to soothe the collective soul (only one student complained- there has to always be one) most seemed to enjoy the music some even singing along to Three Little Birds:
"Don't worry 'bout a thing, cos every little thing is gonna be okay"
How can you not like this little ditty????
Glad soccer was last night. I am going to do the dishes now and start my new book.
Have a good evening.
Mrs. J.
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