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!