Music Thursday #6

Great songs...

 Smashing Pumpkins - Snail

 Alabama Shakes - Almost Alright

 In the Valley Below - Peaches

Found Poems

Both, my Honors students and regular students did Found Poems based on their novels. My Honors students are almost finished reading Where the Red Fern Grows and have been doing a great job analyzing Rawls' writing. We have discussed character, setting, and different conflicts throughout. I had the students do Found Poems based on chapters 8 & 9 when Billy decides to cut down the big Sycamore tree because of his promise to his dogs. 

Here are some examples of what they did:

My regular students did a similar activity with the novel Watsons go to Birmingham. They were able to choose a chapter from 1-6 and write their poem based on the events from that specific chapter.

Here are some examples:

Kindness #6 - Life in Jellybeans

 The Time You Have (in jellybeans)

My principal actually shared this one with the staff and I showed it to my students today. It has a great message, in my opinion, about living life to the fullest.

Carpe Diem

My students had good responses to this one. One student said we should, "try to do something special everyday in our lives." I really thought that was a great comment. I wish we all made that a requirement.

Music Tuesday #5

Good tunes for a cold, wintry Tuesday.

 Death Cab for Cutie - Black Sun

 Ray Lamontagne - How Come

Kindness #5 - Ultimate Sportsmanship

 Ultimate Sportsmanship

The students had a great discussion based on this video. 

Newberry Award 2015

I just want to congratulate Kwame Alexander for winning 2015 Newberry Award for his fantastic book - The Crossover. Written in verse, it is the story of two brothers and their love of basketball. If you need a book for reluctant readers, this is a definite go-to book.

Congratulations to all the other winners and Honor books that won awards from the ALA. There are some great reads on this list. Here are just a few others: