Curl up with any of these fabulous books:

Do you like fantasy adventure stories with dragons and quests? Josh, Mason, Greyson, and Savannah have some suggestions. Or fantasy adventure without dragons? Priya has a book for you.

Do you like to be creeped out by horror stories? Read Ben’s post.

How about novels set in a not-so-bright future: Danny and Riley have some hot titles.

A Survivor fan? See what Solana recommends.

How do you feel about a book that is made into a movie? Read Lizzie’s opinion.

Are you a Wimpy Kid fan? John and Tyrone have reviews.

Bet there are a few Twilight fans out there: read expert opinions from Tyler and Tat (coming soon).

Do you enjoy a trip down memory lane to the books of your childhood? Rosa chats about a famous meal.

How about the “Teen Drama” genre: Payton has a book for you.

If you like books that make you feel sad, check out Jaiden and Rebekah’s posts.

Remember Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? How about these Dahl classics, reviewed by Eric.

Our avid readers will continue to give updates on the best of kids’ books…come back for more!

Image: Just Like Daddy from Roger Smith

We celebrated Halloween in style–and with a lot of great energy! Thanks to Sue, Celine, and Susan for spending the afternoon with us and joining in the fun. We are grateful for all the goodies families sent in for us to munch on, and thank Mr. Laurie, too, for helping us throughout the week. He’ll be back at the end of November. See you then!

This is a classroom of readers.

Many students pop open a book first thing everyday and get ten or fifteen minutes of reading done before the school day starts. I often over-hear students talking to each other about the books they are reading.

To add a special something to our regular silent reading time, we will be taking over the library once again. Blankets, pillows, and really great books will be the perfect combination for a relaxed reading experience.

Huzzahnians, you job this week is to recommend a really good read.  It can be any genre, and can even be a book you might recommend to a younger reader. Think like someone who is browsing the stacks: what can you tell them that will make them reach for this really good book?

Call your post DEAR Reader, then include the title and author of your book as a size 3 heading. Tell your readers what makes this book so good. Is it the plot, the characters, the setting? Is it the writer’s way with words?  Please include a thumbnail image of the book cover–because you are writing about the book as a reviewer would, using the image is considered “fair use” so attribution is not necessary.

Your posts will be a help to anyone who has ever thought…hmmm, I can’t find anything to read.

…your brain’s attention.

As we Huzzahnians have discussed (and expert researchers have told us), vision trumps all other senses. We attach meaning and recall better if there is an image connected to a message. Is this why advertising is so successful?

We are going to get busy with images this week: finding the right ones for the messages in our posts, and as important, giving credit where credit is due. This means finding images we have been given permission to use and giving attribution to the artist or photographer.

We’ll do this in class and write a “how to” page so you can do the same thing from home. We will use a few sites such as Flickr and tools to learn the technical details.

And we will respond to Miss Wyatt’s challenge to add images: choose one of the following activities:

1. A place to start:

Go to one of your previous posts and add an image to make the post have eyeball appeal. Give credit! Then write a new short post with a link to the improved one inviting us to notice the difference.

(From Miss W:)

2. Visit one of the image sites

…and choose a great image. Write a post about that image and remember to include the attribution. This means you have told readers where you got the image from.  Look at the URL for the image – this does not mean Google search images but the original site where the image was put on the web.

3. Choose five images

…which, put together, tell a story without any writing from you. Remember to choose a great title for this post. Remember also to give attribution for the images. ”

Looking forward to SEEING the results!

Image: (227/365) Look by Sarah G

Looking  for some common interests?

Blogs let us write about events and topics about which we are passionate. Reading the thoughts and hearing about the experiences of people who share your interests is rewarding, inspiring, and fun. If you have an interest in any of these topics, you may want to connect with these bloggers:

Want to learn about a holiday celebration? Read Priya’s post. Like reading about special pets? Savannah’s post is worth reading and commenting on. Want to be transported back to the summer? Travel back with Easton here.

And there’s more!

• Animals: Sierra, Rosa, Tyler, Katie, and Jaiden
• Sailing: Josh
• Cheerleading: Solana and Payton
• Books: Eric
• Hockey: Riley, Ben, Easton, and Danny
• Gaming: John
• History: Greyson
• Lego: Matteo

Our blogs are barely 2 weeks old, and already there is so much to read! I didn’t mention every student blog, but there is a treasure trove here. Huzzahnians, now that you now how to link, why not put in a link to something you’ve read on a blog, either from our class or from somewhere else in the blogosphere in your next post?

Friends and visitors, drop by and join in the conversation!

Image: Ready for take off by vyxle

A bit of Friday fun…

Thanks to the school leadership club, today was a bit different. Staff and students turned up at school in their pyjamas, with stuffies and blankets in tow. We still managed to get a lot of learning in, despite appearances. Math, Social Studies and Language Arts still happened (as well as PE and Music). In the afternoon we invaded the library and had a Read-In under tables and counters, and between the stacks. Thanks to Mrs. Auchterlonie for welcoming us.

It was a great way to kick off a long weekend.

We are very fortunate to have many adults working with our class this year. Some are close to home, and some far away. Ms. Fender is a student teacher living…somewhere else! We will solve the mystery of her whereabouts with her help, because she has made a video for us to help guess where she lives.

Here are seven random things about her–notice these facts don’t identify her personally. However, her picture connected to her name does, and she has given permission to share it on our blog.

1. I love reading but never get time to read what I want!

2. I have 4 children involved in performance orientated arts.

3. I wish I could live on a farm or acreage.

4. I love animals but don’t have any pets.

5. I am an artist but don’t paint.

6. I am allergic to wheat, yeast, soy, and dairy.

7. I love technology and love learning how to learn about it.

In class, we’ll view Ms. Fender’s video and then do some educated guessing about where she comes from.  Huzzahnians, what clues helped you? At what point did you have enough information to make a reasonable prediction?