What's Your Next Reach?

                 

    May 13, 2013







How's this for a movie trailer?    (Read in your deepest voice)
In a world, where there are so many books, some too easy, and some too hard; One Reader seeks one that is Just Right. 
Eventually this reader's quest leads him to the book that will challenge his vocabulary, his fluency, and stretch his ability to understand :
 A NEXT REACH BOOK. 

YOU are the main character in this drama! I've asked you to think about what book should be your "Next Reach", and you've chosen something to work on.
This month, you'll report on what you've chosen to read as your Next Reach book. Please wait until after you have started it to write your comment.
In your comment, tell us:
1. Why is this book a "Reach" for you?
2. How is this book helping you become a better reader?

Comments must be completed by June 14.


                                   

Share a Poem

            April is the favorite month of poets and their readers -- it's National Poetry Month! 

Here is an opportunity to share a poem about the things you love about April: the weather, vacation trips to interesting places, the final rounds of the NCAA Basketball championships, or baseball! 


There are many places to find poetry; websites, books (of course), and even your own head! You might be a poet; let everybody know it! (see how easy that was?)

Here's the catch: you may not repeat a poem that has already been posted by someone else. So, the sooner you act, the better! If you write your own poem, you won't have to worry about someone else posting it.

                                     

Free Food!

 Do you know what's growing in the picture above? Believe it or not, it's rice! Most of us have never         seen it growing in fields, or rice paddies.

How often do you think about rice? Probably not often!

Rice is a highly produced crop throughout the world, second only to corn. Since corn is mostly grown for purposes other than human consumption, rice is the most important grain for human consumption.

There are more than 40,000 varieties of rice that grow on every continent except on Antarctica. Asia, where about 90% of rice is grown, has more than 200 million rice farms.

There is enough rice grown in Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Missouri to rank the USA as the twentieth largest rice producer in the world and the second largest exporter of rice. About half of all the rice grown in the USA is exported.

This month you will be reading a lot about rice in preparation for our Curriculum Fair in April. So rather than have a reading assignment here this month, I am giving you a different challenge. You will have an opportunity to practice your skills in vocabulary, math or geography, as well as providing food for people living in poverty.

Rice is the most important food crop of the developing world and the staple food of more than half of the world's population. Worldwide, more than 3.5 billion people depend on rice for more than 20% of their daily calories. Even though so much of it is produced, it still costs more than many people can afford. For this reason, I'd like to introduce you to a website called Freerice. 

Freerice was founded in October 2007 by John Breen, as a way to help his son prepare to take the SAT tests for college admission, and also to help erradicate world hunger.  In March 2009 Mr. Breen donated the site to the UN World Food Programme. In making the donation, Mr. Breen expressed his hopes that Freerice will be able to grow over the coming years, helping to feed and educate as many people as possible throughout the world. When you play, you can actually see the amount of rice you are donating.

So, this month, spend some time playing the games on Freerice.com. Try different subjects and different levels. Play for at least 30 minutes, and then report on what you played and how much rice you earned. This is information from the site:

About Freerice.com

Freerice is a non-profit website that is owned by and supports the United Nations World Food Programme.

Freerice has two goals:

• Provide education to everyone for free.
• Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

This is made possible by the generosity of the sponsors who advertise on the site.

Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your education can improve your life. It is a great investment in yourself.

Perhaps even greater is the investment your donated rice makes in hungry human beings, enabling them to function and be productive. Somewhere in the world, a person is eating rice that you helped provide.

Responsible Owners & Happy Pets Have Something to Celebrate!

Did you know that February is Responsible Pet Owners Month? That's something I just learned when I googled February holidays! Since many of us are, or would like to be, pet owners, I thought this would be a good topic for this month. 

Being a responsible pet owner means understanding the type of animal you are caring for, knowing how to take care of its physical and emotional needs, and following through on the promises you made when you begged your parents to get it for you! It also means being aware of  how your pet affects your environment and the other people who live in it. Pets cannot be responsible for themselves. There is a lot to learn!

So this assignment is going to be easy. Do an internet search for "Responsible Pet Owners Month". You will find many websites with articles about all aspects of responsible pet ownership. Read and report on one of those articles. Share something helpful that you learned. Be sure to include the name of the website (and a link if you want). When you sign your name, include the name (and species) of your pets!

One Great and Powerful Book!

       The other day I went to see "The Hobbit". I had been looking forward to seeing this movie for more than a year! I remembered reading the book (more than once) and listening to an audiobook version (more than once!) and loving it. Several years ago, there was an animated movie, but it was TERRIBLE! I was hoping that with Peter Jackson as director, this one would be as great as the book.
        I should have known better. Movies are NEVER as good as the book! (Harry Potter fans might disagree.) What I saw in my head was much funnier, scarier, and more exciting than what I saw on the screen. Oh, well, if seeing the movie inspires someone to read the book, I guess that is a good thing.
        It's not that I don't like movies. I love many movies. One of my favorites of all time is "The Wizard of OZ". You may not believe this, but there was a time when people didn't own movies. They had to see them in the theatre or on TV. The "Wizard of Oz" was (and still may be) shown on TV every year around Halloween. I watched it every year for about 25 years and knew every word and every song by heart. I still do... don't get me started...
          The movie is based on a book titled "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum. It was written in 1900, and is the first in a series of 14 books about the land of Oz. I am ashamed to admit that I have not read a single one of these books.      
           SOoooooooo... I went to see "The Hobbit" last week and saw previews for "OZ - The Great and Powerful"!! Oh oh - another version of my favorite movie! How could it possibly be any good? Well, for one thing, the special effects are going to be a lot better than the ones from 1939. This one seems to be told from the Wizard's perspective, rather than from Dorothy's. That could be interesting.
            I decided that it would be a good idea to read at least the first of the Oz books before this movie opens. I would like to know if the director used anything from the book that was not included in the original movie, and if the characters are anything like Mr. Baum meant them to be.
         There have been many versions of the Oz stories, many parodies, and many stories based on the characters in the land of Oz. Take a look at Wikipedia and you'll see a long list!  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Oz_books

       This month, I'd like you to take a trip to the land of Oz by reading at least one chapter of any of the Oz books, or another version of The Wizard of Oz, or an article about the books or L. Frank Baum. Please share something that you learned with us. Be sure to include titles, websites, and/or links to what you found.
        So, have Courage, follow the yellow brick road to the library or the internet, use your Brain and Heart to write a great post by January 31st!

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!!!!

Winter doesn't officially begin until December 21, but some of that white stuff has already   fallen!
This month you'll be looking for a story, poem, article, or book with "SNOW" in the title, or in which snow plays an important part. (You cannot use the poem from the back of Reading Log #1.)

The word "Snow" appears in the titles of books of every genre. You can probably remember some picture books from your childhood, like Ezra Jack Keats' Snowy Day or maybe you had a copy of the wordless The Snowman.



A quick look at the library catalogue revealed these examples:
Snow Bound by Harry Mazer (Survival/Adventure)
Snow Walker by Catherine Fisher (Fantasy)
A Perfect Snow by Nora Martin (YA Fiction)
The Snow Pony by Alison Lester (YA Fiction)
Phantoms in the Snow by Kathleen Duble (WWII - Historical Fiction)
and don't forget Wolf Storm (on the Great Stone Face List), which is about a blizzard and avalanche!!

Here's a tune to listen to while you search:
http://htftp.domainbg.com/borkozin/music%20for%20the%20soul/20%20-%20Let%20It%20Snow.mp3

The Moral of the Story: According to Aesop

  

   

      

Aesop is a legendary man from Ancient Greece. It is really not known whether he actually lived or not. The popular story says that he was a slave who was ridiculed for being ugly. He got revenge on those who laughed at him by creating stories in which he taught them a lesson. The characters in these stories were portrayed by animals who have human characteristics. Each of them ends with a moral lesson. Whether he actually lived or not, Aesop is considered the greatest fabulist (one who writes fables) of all time. The large collection of stories called "Aesop's Fables" has been rewritten by many authors and have been reprinted countless times.

      We will be reading several folktales together in class, but will not have time for all of the fables. Your assignment for this month is to read at least three of Aesop's fables and write about one of them. You need to write a summary of the fable, tell the moral, and then give an example of how this moral can be applied in real life. It may be a true example from your life, or just one that you can imagine. You have until the end of November to do this. 

      Moral: Don't put off until tomorrow that which you can do today!