Huck Finn Audio Book link

Here is the link to the audio book for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  We have made a change to the reading routine in class.  You will have a choice of reading the audio version of the book on one of our laptop, or read silently in your Huck Finn book, or participate in a shared read aloud with Ms. Wood. 

Whatever your choice, on Friday we will finish reading chapters 11 and 12 in class, and we will complete a study guide for those two chapters.  Anyone who does not finish should take the book and study guide home for completion before next Tuesday's class.  You can hand the guide in at the end of today's class (Friday) or at the beginning of class Tuesday.  The activities in the booklets we made in class can be finished on your own time or during class time if you read ahead!

Welcome to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn!

Today marks our journey down the Mississippi River with Huck Finn.  Each day we'll read several chapters in class, and most days you'll have some pages to read on your own.  As you read, you'll look for interesting superstitions, colloquialisms, and tricks, which you can chart in your Huck Finn portfolios.  You'll also record questions, identify the characters, and keep a travel journal occasionally (dates on the handout) in the voice of our narrator, Huck.

You now have a book checked out to you for your outside-of-class reading, and you'll be responsible for turning it in at the end of this project.  Don't lose it unless you want to pay for it!  On this home page in the right hand column is a link to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ebook. If that's more convenient, you can read the assigned chapters online.

There you are!  Happy reading!

Finding Articles and Summarizing

Today (2/5)- 

Below is a copy of the activity we will be doing in class. Feel free to print this off if you are ill or miss a day. Once you have completed this assignment, you will do an alphabox summary of today's independent reading. Once this is completed and handed in, then silently read at your computer.

Directions:  Go to the class blog and look at your peers’ interesting facts if you do not have an idea for your research topic.  Look at the additional information found on their blog posts for articles. Use resource links found on the blog, such as NPR, National Geographic, and so forth. The library databases will also have a lot of information on your topic. Print two articles related to your research topic. Read each article carefully, selecting the nine most important words for each, using those words write a paragraph summarizing the information you found. Please staple this sheet on top of your two articles.

Research topic: ________________________________________________________________________

Article Title: ___________________________________________________________________________

9 most important words

Summary (4-5 complete sentences):

Research topic: ________________________________________________________________________

Article Title: ______________________________________________________________________

9 most important words

Summary (4-5 complete sentences):

Did You Know? You are more likely to get attacked by a cow than a shark!

Thursday(2/21)- Your task today is to look up 20 interesting facts (5 from each website listed below) and post them to your blog. The next step is to then take two of the twenty facts and find additional information on the subjects. The main purpose of this exercise is for you to become experienced with search engines and to begin thinking of a possible topic for the research paper. You are to take the two articles and post the URL (website address) to your blog for others to read. Please also include 2 pictures related to the articles and a brief description of each. Here is a step by step guide on how to accomplish these tasks as well as an example of the assignment:

1. Go to the following websites:
http://hookedonfacts.com/
http://www.interestingfacts.net/
http://www.nicefacts.com/
http://www.amusingfacts.com/

2. Write 5 interesting facts from each of the four websites (20 total)

3. Find two facts that you would like additional information on and find an article/website for each.

4. Include these two articles/websites on your blog with a brief summary/description

5. Create a link to the websites by copying and pasting the URL (website address) into your blog      

6. Add two images that relate to the two articles you have linked.

7. Title your blog entry: 20 interesting facts


Here is an example of the assignment:

1. In 1938, Time Magazine chose Adolf Hitler for man of the year.
2. Twelve people have walked on the moon.
3.  Kilts are not native to Scotland. They originated in France.
4. During a typical human life span, the human heart will beat approximately 2.5 billion times.
5. Many people who read the word yawn or yawning begin to feel the urge to yawn.
6. Cold weather makes fingernails grow faster.
7. Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors.
8. Walt Disney, the creator of Mickey Mouse, was afraid of mice.
9. Albert Einstein never wore any socks. 
10. More than 2,500 left handed people a year are killed from using products made for right handed people. (That is unfortunate since Ms. Wood is left handed)

Leonardo da Vinci's drawing of an armored car in the year 1487

The article depicts Leonardo da Vinci's inventions including the first armored car. The article gives 12 other interesting inventions such as the helicopter. I find it really fascinating that many know of his artwork but few know that he was also an inventor. I wonder what it would have been like for the citizens of Italy to be driving or even flying 500 years ago! I can only imagine what would have happened with our own technology if society would have progressed at a much faster rate!

The National Geographic website has a ton of interesting and exciting information about Albert Einstein. I was unaware that he was good friends with Edwin Hubble and actually helped with the Hubble Space Telescope. This telescope allowed Edwin Hubble to discover that the universe is much more massive than we had ever imagined. Hubble's work included the discovery of other galaxies and they are constantly expanding. I was even more surprised that Albert Einstein had thought of this five years earlier in 1919 and actually wrote his theory down on the back of an envelope!  

Reading Response #1

The story of Full metal Alchemist starts off by two brothers, Edward and Alphonse, trying to bring their dead mom back using alchemy. But, human transmutation is taboo, because of the law of equivalent exchange, and nothing can compare to a human soul. So when they tried doing so, Edward lost his left leg, and Alphonse lost his body, but Ed sacrificed his right arm to seal Al's soul in a suit of armor. He meets a girl named Winery, who is a auto-mail mechanic, and she makes an arm and a leg for Ed. After he turns 12, he starts his journey to become a state alchemist. And he meets Roy mustang, Riza Hawkeye, and rick Havoc, and Alex Louise Armstrong, aka Major Armstrong. And they are trying to find a magical stone called the philosiphers stone to get there bodyss back, but they keep running into 7 people named Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Pride, Wrath, Sloth, and Greed, the seven dealy sins of man.

Rose-" Are you going to join the Church of Leto?"
Ed-" Naw im sorry, but im not religous."
Rose-"Thats not a real answer! If you believe in God, you can live with hope and gratitude everyday. It's wonderful!"
Ed-"Do you really believe that if you pray to God the dead will come back to life?"
Rose-"i do...! Yes."
Ed-" Water: 35 liters. Carbon: 20 kg. Ammonia: 4 liters. Lime: 1.5 kg. Phosphorus: 800 g. Salt: 250 g. Saltpeter: 100 g. Fluorine: 7.5 g.Sulfur: 80 g. Iron 5 g. Silicon: 3 g. And 15 other base elements in small quantities..."
Rose-"....HUH!"
Ed-" Thats the total chemical makeup of the adverage adult body."
This passage explains all the things that went wrong when Ed and Al tried bringing their dead mother back.

I Love Books! How about you?

Thursday (February 14, 2013)

First off, Happy Valentine's Day!

Today, you will be blogging on the books that you have been reading. Please let Ms. James or Ms. Wood know if you do NOT have a blog yet or are unsure of how to make blog posts.The blog post is worth 40 points and needs to be finished by the end of class! The directions for the reading blog post are as follows:

1. A short summary of the book you are currently reading.

2. A passage or a quote  that is more than two or three words and an  explanation for what it means and why you chose it.

3. A picture that is NOT the cover of the book! It needs to be an image that is related to what is happening in the book or a symbolic representation of a character.

4. Please title your blog post with, "Reading Response #1"

Fifteen minutes before the bell rings we will begin generating possible ideas for the research topic. I want you to write down five things that you are interested in researching and freewrite about one of those things. Please use the sheet provided and hand it in at the end of class!

in my book im reading about Jimi Hendrix in the part i just read it told that Jimi's grandmother was desprate to get out of the south, because in her time the south was just coming from being an inslaved area and she decided to move to seattle. moving to seattle she met his grandfather....

"Clarice's sisters pressured Preston to marraige"