Summer Break Week #5

Welcome to week #5 of summer break! We're still watching loads of soccer (football) at our house. England has one more match, but they didn't qualify for the next round. :( Meanwhile, Team USA did well in their first two matches, winning the first and a draw in the second. Now, they need to tie or beat Germany to advance to the next round. GO USA!

Last week, I told you that I re-read The Giver. I found out that the author, Lois Lowry, wrote three more books that take place in the same world as The Giver. Since my last blog, I read two of those books, Gathering Blue and Messenger.

(Picture from: http://aspiritedmind.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/gathering-blue.jpg)

Gathering Blue is about a young girl, Kira, who is orphaned when her mother becomes ill and dies. Kira wants to continue living where she and her mother did, but the other ladies of the village say she shouldn't be allowed because she has a lame leg. When one of the ladies takes her to the Council of Elders for judgement, Kira learns that her sewing and embroidery gifts are needed to repair a robe for an important ceremony. She goes to live and work at the Council building, but things are not what they seem. 

(Picture from: http://covers4.booksamillion.com/covers2/ebook/ImageType-100/0874-1/%7BCE0E11D8-35E8-4559-892E-47AAB277187E%7DImg100.jpg)

Messenger is about Matty, Kira's young friend who now lives in another village. In the new village, he goes to school and delivers messages to neighboring villages. Unfortunately, the forest and the people of the village are changing and soon they will be cut off from the rest of the world. Matty must travel to his former home and persuade Kira to move to his village, like she promised years ago.

What I like about these books is that they don't end perfectly, not all of the characters' problems are solved by the end of the book. I'm sure several of you won't be happy with the ending of The Giver when we read it next year, but that's okay. Some books are suppose to make us think, imagine "what if," and make up our own ending for the characters.

The big news at our house is the arrival of our Magic Bands from Disney World. 

You wear your band during your entire stay at Disney World. It is your tickets into the park, meal plan, room key, and connects to your ride or character photos. Three weeks from today, we will be at Disney World and I will get to meet Anna and Elsa from Frozen. (Happy dance!) In addition to visiting Disney World, we're going to visit the new Harry Potter area at Universal Studios. It's going to be a busy, but fun two weeks.

Is your family planning a fun summer trip? Are you visiting any cool places in Kentucky or the surrounding states? Are you staying close to home and discovering fun places in Central Kentucky? Let me know. I want to hear about your summer. 

Summer Break Week #4

Last week, I heard from Ty, Sarah, and Bobby.

• Ty shared about the book he is reading this summer. Check out his comments on last week's blog. It may be something you would like to read.
• Sarah reported that their new house still isn't finished. :( I hope that it is ready for them soon, so they can enjoy it before school begins again.
• Bobby sounds like he has been REALLY busy. He went to the State High School Baseball Tournament with his cousin and grandparents. He went to his cousin's 8th grade graduation at The Lexington School. Then, he saw X-Men. Bobby also helped with Savanna's tea party for her teachers. He has gone shopping with his mom. Finally, he has been hanging out with his friends playing basketball, Nintendo 3DS, iPad games, playing tennis, and going to the pool. Oh my goodness, I'm tired just from reading about Bobby's summer.

If anyone else wants to send me an update on how your summer is going, just email me at andi.gutteridge@koreacademy.org or comment below.

Last week, I reread the novel The Giver. 

(Picture from: http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1342493368l/3636.jpg)

The story is about Jonas, a twelve year old boy, who lives in a perfect community with the perfect family. It is one of my favorite books and my language arts class will be reading it after Christmas. Also, it will be released as movie in August and the Lexington Children's Theater will be performing it next year.

This weekend, Mr. Gutteridge smoked a brisket and we had some friends over to watch England play Italy in the World Cup. England didn't win, but luckily it is only group play. This means that the 32 teams are divided into 8 groups and you have to play each team in your group first. The top two teams from each group move on to the second stage. From this point, it becomes a single elimination tournament (like the Final Four). I have two teams that I'm following England and Team USA. It would be great if they both advance to the second stage.

(Picture from: http://www.worldcupbrazil.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/englandlogo.png)

(Picture from: http://www.mlssoccer.com/sites/league/files/USAcrest(FORMATTED).jpg)

I hope to hear from more of you next week. Have fun!

Summer Break Week #3

Can you believe that we are starting our THIRD week of summer break? August 13th and the first day of school will be here before we know it.

Last week, we didn't visit anywhere fun. Mr. Gutteridge had to work Saturday. Blech! But I did read another book that I will be adding to the class library. It is called The Cheat. It is about six 8th grade students who are involved in or friends with someone involved in cheating on the geography midterm. Each chapter is told from the point of view of a different character. What are you reading this summer? Type the title in the comments sections. I'm always looking for interesting books to read and could use a few suggestions.

(Picture from: modbookclub2.terracetimes.com/files/2012/01/estherhtecheat.jpg)

As you know, I spend most of my time away from school planning lessons. But that isn't the only thing I do everyday. This summer, I have been trying to walk 2 miles every morning with Mr. Gutteridge and exercising every evening.  How are you staying active this summer? The pool, basketball, biking? Let me know in the comments.

Summer Break Week #2

I hope that everyone had a great first week of summer break. Mine wasn't very exciting. As the students know, when I have down time, I lesson plan. So, I started planning our first reading/writing unit. Those in my language arts class will be reading The Lightning Thief, the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. We will also learn to write a persuasive letter during our first 9 weeks.

Since I have read The Lightning Thief several times, I read a new book that will be going into our library when school starts. It is called The Bully Book.

(Picture from http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1354115971l/15721864.jpg)

The story is about a sixth grade boy who has been assigned to be the class "grunt" by the class bully and his lieutenants. This book made me angry because the main character didn't do anything to make these boys mad at him, but they still picked on him. And then, their classmates went along with it because they didn't want to be the next "grunt." I could identify with everything Eric went through in the story. If you have ever been bullied, I'm sure that you would, too. It was a good book that I highly recommend.

On Saturday, Mr. Gutteridge, Michael, and I went to see X-Men: Days of Future Past.

(Picture from: http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/xmen-days.png)

In a way, this movie was about bullying, too. In 1972, a scientist builds robots to defeat people with mutant powers because he is afraid of them and what they may do. The X-Men send Wolverine back in time to stop the robots from being used. Of course, I liked this movie since comic book and Disney movies are my favorites. But I would recommend that you see this with a parent or adult family member since it is rated PG-13.

On Sunday, Mr. Gutteridge and I went to High Bridge Park in Jessamine County to take pictures of the steam train as it came across the train trestle. High Bridge is just what it sounds like... a high bridge. It is the highest train bridge over navigable water, meaning that boats travel under it. It was designed by the man who designed the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. It was completed in 1876. If you can figure out how old the bridge is, post the answer in the comments.

Of course, Mr. G's pictures turned out better than mine, but I did get a couple with my phone.

The train was running late and I got bored, so I decided to look for a geocache hidden in the park. I didn't find it, but I did find this instead:

Pretty cool, huh? 

I would love to hear about the interesting things you are doing this summer. Write about them in the comments or send me an email at andi.gutteridge@koeacademy.org and I will share it with the class. Have a great week!