Last week we finished reading The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer Holm. It was a great book and what made it even better was the connections our class was able to make through the Global Read Aloud Project. Over the past six weeks, our class has interacted with other students around the world who have been reading the same book. Today we were able to watch a live Google Hangout between the author, Jennifer Holm and the organizer of the Global Read Aloud, Pernille Ripp. We were able to submit questions last week to hopefully be answered by Jennifer Holm. We were shocked and excited that she answered two of our questions live during the hangout!
The hangout was recorded and is embedded below. What a great global experience for our fifth graders!
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It was announced recently that Jennifer Holm, the author of The 14th Goldfish would be doing a Google Hangout on November 17. I am even more excited that there is a way that we can ask her some questions during the Hangout! Click below to add your questions to Jennifer Holm!
Ask Jennifer Holm a Question! This week, as a connection to our Global Read Aloud Project, we ran across a link to a video talking about a teenager coming up with a breakthrough in Cancer detection. It is a great connection to the book and offers great insight into the power of curiosity. This year I would love to be able to have students connect to their books by having them write book reviews that we can use to bless books and share our feelings about the books we have been reading. Last week I talked to students about how we are going to change book projects to book reviews. Today I sent home a note explaining the reviews with tentative due dates. The picture I have in my mind is that we will share these book reviews in a variety of ways, including recording our voices reviewing our books and sharing them through our class and student blogs. I am excited to see how this projects works out and more importantly, I am excited to see students engage in a love of reading! See the link below for the handout.
Independent Reading Project Yesterday we started reading The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger. Today we were reading a selection where characters talked about learning to dance the Twist by Chubby Checker. After asking the class, I was shocked to learn that no one had heard of the twist or realized what was going on in the book when they danced the Twist. So...I searched YouTube and found a recording of the Twist and had the students dance to it, just like the characters in the book were doing. While we danced, I took a picture of the screen and tweeted (yes, I utilize Twitter as a teaching resource!) the picture to the author, Tom Angleberger (@OrigamiYoda). Within a few minutes, he responded back and I was able to share, although it was short, with my students how easily we can connect with authors and experts. I think it is a great opportunity to show students how quickly and easily our voices can be shared in appropriate ways. Below is the short exchange between myself and the author of Origami Yoda! |
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