Today, we watched the short film (and read the book upon which it was based) The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. The story is about the importance of books, the cycle of life, and how important it is that everyone has a chance to tell their story. If you have 15 minutes to spare, check out the Academy Award Winning short film, linked above!
Category: Language Arts
Vincent Van Gogh
Today, we read a story based on the life of Vincent Van Gogh. We learned that most people did not appreciate his artistic talents, and thought he was too strange, too foolish, and too unique to be a famous artist. He only ever sold 1 painting during his entire life, and suffered from mental illness. But now, he is considered by many people to be one of the greatest artists of all time. His paintings are worth over $100 million. Here is a video of the ‘immersive’ exhibit in France. Maybe, one day we can see it in person!
Don’t Give Up: A Lesson from Fauja Singh
Today, we read a story about Fauja Singh, who set the world record for oldest person to ever run a marathon!
Fauja faced lots of challenges in his life. He was born with several physical disabilities, and did not learn to walk until he was 5 years old. When he moved to England from Punjab, he faced discrimination because of his Sikh cultural background. Some people said racist, hurtful things to him because he wore a turban (part of his religious regalia).
But he never gave up, and decided to show the world that you can achieve anything, no matter who doubts you!
In the Foreward of this book, Fauja wrote: “All my life, people set limitations on me. They said I would never walk. Then they said I would never farm. They certainly never thought I would set records with my running. No matter what people said, I always believed in myself…
I’m now 108 years old, which means I’m probably 100 years older than [the readers of this book]! Can you believe that?
My secret to a long and healthy life has been taking care of my mind, body, and soul…I’d love for you to take care of yourself, try your hardest, and always choose yes when you meet and challenge. And who knows? Maybe one day you can break my record…Nothing would make me happier!”
Extreme Writing: Day 3
Our topic(s):
- What is your favourite food? Why do you love it? Describe it using all of your senses (taste, sight, smell, etc.)!
- Have you ever been ‘hangry’ (hungry & angry)? What happened?
- Write a story about rats that makes them loveable!
Extreme Writing: Day 1
Our class is working on eliminating ‘writer’s block & brain freeze’ when writing! We will be doing an ‘Extreme Writing’ challenge each day before Language Arts. The goal is to increase our writing confidence and fluency by getting as many words down onto our page as possible in 5 minutes!
Here was our prompt for today:
- Describe everything you see in this image. Infer what is going on.
- Write a ‘story’ about the man in the pumpkin boat. Where is he going? Why a pumpkin?
- Write a story about growing the world’s largest pumpkin. What would you do with it? Make a huge pumpkin pie? A Jack-o-Lantern? Sell it?
Our goal for next time is to increase the number of words we can write in 5 minutes, and to find something we are proud of in every piece of writing!
Spooky October Reads: Ms. Ward’s Recommendations
If you enjoyed Coraline by Neil Gaiman, I suggest trying out these other spine-tingling reads (check our classroom & school libraries for a copy)!
Nightbooks by J. A. White is a nightmarish fairytale that takes inspiration from “Hansel & Gretel” and “1001 Nights”. When a young boy becomes trapped in a witch’s house, he must tell her a scary story every night to ‘earn his keep’. But will he be able to plan his escape before he runs out of stories? And who is the mysterious girl who is also a prisoner of the witch?
The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste spins Caribbean folklore into a spooky story about the mysterious creatures, called “jumbies”, that lurk in the darkness of an island paradise. Corrine isn’t afraid of anything, especially not the stories of “jumbies” used to scare younger children! But when a mysterious woman emerges from the forest, Corrine must face her fears in order to save her family and her home.
The Witch Boy series by Molly Knox Ostertag blends fantasy, friendship, and the unknown in this graphic novel. Aster’s community has always had one rule: boys learn shapeshifting, and girls learn witchcraft. But Aster, even though he is a boy, is fascinated by the magic of plants and spells and must keep it a secret. A not-too scary story about identity, friendship, and courage.
The Witches graphic novel by Penelope Bagieu (story by Roald Dahl) is a colourful adaptation of the classic novel (and soon upcoming movie starring Octavia Spencer and Anne Hathaway). A young boy and his grandmother work together to try to stop the efforts of a coven of witches from their evil goal… to turn all the children in the world into mice! A great mix of action, fairytales, and spooky fun!
Persuasive Writing: Should We Eat Insects?
Would you ever consider snacking on a beetle larvae? Would you ever order a cricket taco for dinner? Our class began exploring the pros and cons of entomophagy (the practice of eating insects). We learned there are many people who already consume insects (over 2 billion people around the world).
But should Canadians be more open to eating insects? We all have our own unique opinions on the subject. Students are continuing to create a persuasive paragraph either encouraging or discouraging entomophagy. We will begin editing our drafts this upcoming week, so please remember to bring your rough copy with you to school!
For more information, feel free to access the articles linked below:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mdQSG-eNYL4GGVTGSyVr2pi2wa1K47ggWUASxEVLGZ0/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TM0YY6top6CM5eYyKxhsGpcof1KzwAYUcUAFgbSsrEs/edit?usp=sharing