How many have YOU read?

Hello 5KP (Don’t scroll down)

Read any good books lately?

I have a task for you to complete by Monday April 26th. Ideally, it would be great if you could do it on your blog, but it is not essential, your reader’s notebook would also be appropriate.

So, below is a list of the top 100 Children’s novels as taken from this site.

I would like you to copy the list into a word document, and then highlight it in the following way:

RED = books you have read (be honest, not movies watched, not ‘want to read’ or ‘half-read’ but actually finished)

BLUE = books you have been meaning to read

GREEN = 3 books you must read before the end of the school year (you have 55 sleeps to go)

(Your three ‘green books‘ are probably going to start off being ‘blue books‘ and you then have to choose which three blue to turn green…Get It?)

Then, paste the revised list back into your blog for others to see and do the following:

Choose 5 of the books that you have already read and do a review of them on your blog, approximately 200 words per book review and add a cover photo of the book to your post.

Now, before you scroll down and see the list, which is ordered from 100 down to the number 1 book, make a prediction… What do YOU think is the number one children’s book? Please include that at the start of your blog post…

Like this… I predict that the Number One Children’s Novel will be: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson

100. The Egypt Game – Snyder (1967)
99. The Indian in the Cupboard – Banks (1980)
98. Children of Green Knowe – Boston (1954)
97. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane – DiCamillo (2006)
96. The Witches – Dahl (1983)
95. Pippi Longstocking – Lindgren (1950)
94. Swallows and Amazons – Ransome (1930)
93. Caddie Woodlawn – Brink (1935)
92. Ella Enchanted – Levine (1997)
91. Sideways Stories from Wayside School – Sachar (1978)
90. Sarah, Plain and Tall – MacLachlan (1985)
89. Ramona and Her Father – Cleary (1977)
88. The High King – Alexander (1968)
87. The View from Saturday – Konigsburg (1996)
86. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – Rowling (1999)
85. On the Banks of Plum Creek – Wilder (1937)
84. The Little White Horse – Goudge (1946)
83. The Thief – Turner (1997)
82. The Book of Three – Alexander (1964)
81. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon – Lin (2009)
80. The Graveyard Book – Gaiman (2008)
79. All-of-a-Kind-Family – Taylor (1951)
78. Johnny Tremain – Forbes (1943)
77. The City of Ember – DuPrau (2003)
76. Out of the Dust – Hesse (1997)
75. Love That Dog – Creech (2001)
74. The Borrowers – Norton (1953)
73. My Side of the Mountain – George (1959)
72. My Father’s Dragon – Gannett (1948)
71. The Bad Beginning – Snicket (1999)
70. Betsy-Tacy – Lovelae (1940)
69. The Mysterious Benedict Society – Stewart ( 2007)
68. Walk Two Moons – Creech (1994)
67. Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher – Coville (1991)
66. Henry Huggins – Cleary (1950)
65. Ballet Shoes – Stratfeild (1936)
64. A Long Way from Chicago – Peck (1998)
63. Gone-Away Lake – Enright (1957)
62. The Secret of the Old Clock – Keene (1959)
61. Stargirl – Spinelli (2000)
60. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle – Avi (1990)
59. Inkheart – Funke (2003)
58. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase – Aiken (1962)
57. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 – Cleary (1981)
56. Number the Stars – Lowry (1989)
55. The Great Gilly Hopkins – Paterson (1978)
54. The BFG – Dahl (1982)
53. Wind in the Willows – Grahame (1908)
52. The Invention of Hugo Cabret — Selznik (2007)
51. The Saturdays – Enright (1941)
50. Island of the Blue Dolphins – O’Dell (1960)
49. Frindle – Clements (1996)
48. The Penderwicks – Birdsall (2005)
47. Bud, Not Buddy – Curtis (1999)
46. Where the Red Fern Grows – Rawls (1961)
45. The Golden Compass – Pullman (1995)
44. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing – Blume (1972)
43. Ramona the Pest – Cleary (1968)
42. Little House on the Prairie – Wilder (1935)
41. The Witch of Blackbird Pond – Speare (1958)
40. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – Baum (1900)
39. When You Reach Me – Stead (2009)
38. HP and the Order of the Phoenix – Rowling (2003)
37. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry – Taylor (1976)
36. Are You there, God? It’s Me, Margaret – Blume (1970)
35. HP and the Goblet of Fire – Rowling (2000)
34. The Watson’s Go to Birmingham – Curtis (1995)
33. James and the Giant Peach – Dahl (1961)
32. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH – O’Brian (1971)
31. Half Magic – Eager (1954)
30. Winnie-the-Pooh – Milne (1926)
29. The Dark Is Rising – Cooper (1973)
28. A Little Princess – Burnett (1905)
27. Alice I and II – Carroll (1865/72)
26. Hatchet – Paulsen (1989)
25. Little Women – Alcott (1868/9)
24. HP and the Deathly Hallows – Rowling (2007)
23. Little House in the Big Woods – Wilder (1932)
22. The Tale of Despereaux – DiCamillo (2003)
21. The Lightening Thief – Riordan (2005)
20. Tuck Everlasting – Babbitt (1975)
19. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Dahl (1964)
18. Matilda – Dahl (1988)
17. Maniac Magee – Spinelli (1990)
16. Harriet the Spy – Fitzhugh (1964)
15. Because of Winn-Dixie – DiCamillo (2000)
14. HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban – Rowling (1999)
13. Bridge to Terabithia – Paterson (1977)
12. The Hobbit – Tolkien (1938)
11. The Westing Game – Raskin (1978)
10. The Phantom Tollbooth – Juster (1961)
9. Anne of Green Gables – Montgomery (1908)
8. The Secret Garden – Burnett (1911)
7. The Giver -Lowry (1993)
6. Holes – Sachar (1998)
5. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – Koningsburg (1967)
4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – Lewis (1950)
3. Harry Potter #1 – Rowling (1997)
2. A Wrinkle in Time – L’Engle (1962)
1. Charlotte’s Web – White (1952)

Did you predict right? Was you book on the list? What number? Don’t forget to include that information in your blog post titled: Top 100 Children’s Novels

Homework in 5KP

On most days of the school year I hear the following comments; often within the same five minutes…”yeah, we have no homework!””man, there is so much homework” “I have too much homework” “we hardly have any homework” “I am never going to get all my homework done”” I wish we had more homework” “my mom says I have too much homework”…you get the picture?

Here is a snapshot of homework in 5KP…

Students may or may not have homework for P.E., Music, Art and Chinese: that is out of my control.

I expect that each child should be reading for around 30 minutes every night. This of course depends on the rest of their schedule for that evening and as many of the students love to read, this is often not a problem. It would be ideal if on a couple of nights a week they are able to read aloud to another person in the house, preferably a parent and that the parent then asks them some questions such as what do you think will happen next? Why did that happen? What does this mean? When parents engage like this with their child it helps the child on many levels, I think the most important one is that the child knows their parent is taking the time to show some interest in their son/daughters reading development but it also reinforces some of the skills they need for school, especially for tests such as the D.R.A. that they recently completed and that they will take again in 6 months time.

During most math units there will be a study link 4 nights a week. There should always be math revision over the lesson and some students have work from class to finish off at home. Many students were disappointed with their unit two math test result, however the class average was the same as unit 1, 83%: half the class improved on their score, three students earned the same score and more students scored over 90% than last time. I hope they spent some time going over their test with you last night as we spent a full period going over their responses yesterday.

Every week the students have two spelling units to complete between Monday and Friday. This levels out to one page of spelling/grammar/word study per night and as I showed the students in class yesterday, there are some great sites to enhance the spelling program such as spellingcity.com which is included in my blogroll. The emphasis in our spelling program is not on weekly drills and spelling tests but rather on fostering an interest in language and its origins and trying to add to our own vocabulary through discovering new words and learning to understand their meaning.

For language arts class your child may be writing or reviewing the unit we are doing in class. Often they will have drafting work to complete. I encourage the students to try and focus on a couple of ways to improve each time they draft, for example one night could be spent working on sentence fluency and word choice and another night might be about adding better verbs to their writing.

In Social Studies and Science there will be times during the quarter where there is little or no homework and at other times the students will be working on a project that will take over your spare time as well as your living room! The trick at these times is to work on balance and time management and of course not leave things to the last minute.

Technology homework is always an option. There are nights when I will set writing or researching tasks for the students to complete on their blog. I am well aware that access to a computer and a working network are not always possible and I ask that the students complete their work on paper if this is the case. I don’t want to set too much homework in tech for this reason however when a child comes home and says that have no homework, this is the first place I would send them. There is always something new being posted on my blog, the 5th grade teachers’ and students’ blogs or out there on the world wide web. They can spend that time, reading, writing or commenting on blogs.

I want the students to have time to play, to rest and to spend time with their family as well as developing a solid work ethic when it comes to school work. It would be great if at this young age they were able to find the happy balance that I am still looking for in my own life!

Happy Holiday Reading

Hi 5KP, thanks for the blog posts you have been adding. Don’t forget to take some pictures over your break and I can teach you how to add those to your blog.

For those of you looking for a good book to read, Mr. Howitt just sent me an exciting link. Go here to find out what book you would like to read next. You can join up if you want and create an account but you don’t have to, I just kept putting in the names of books I liked.

This would be a great way of getting a list together to put on your Destiny reference page in our school catalog.

Reading Buddies

Every Friday afternoon for half an hour we get to share experiences with my daughter Hannah’s grade 2 class as we pair up for Reading Buddies. As you can see from these photos we have a lot of fun relaxing and reading with 2JS. The idea is that the 2nd graders choose some books that they would like to either have the 5th grade read to them or that they would like to read aloud to the5th graders. It is a great opportunity for the two grade levels to get together and share some quality time and I appreciate the 2nd graders taking the time to meet with us, thanks Mrs. Speece.

Many students are told for a long time before they get to 5th grade that they are a ‘good reader’. In 5th grade we try to give the students some clearer guidelines about exactly what being a ‘good reader’ looks like. Take a moment to read about ‘What is a critical reader in Grade 5?’