Wow, the closer it gets to time to go back to school, the more out of it I seem to get. I completely forgot to blog yesterday and today I kept having to ask what day it was! So it is Wednesday, which means I am going to share with you what I am reading right now.....I am actually reading two books. The first one I downloaded on my Kindle app last week...I thought I had read it before but it turns out if I did, I don't remember any of it....Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. Since I will be teaching about the Holocaust this year in 5th grade, I was looking for some books that I could read aloud during this unit.
I love the main character AnnMarie. I think she will be a great example to use for strong, brave characters during character study as well. I am hoping that this story will help my students connect with the events of WWII, and the Holocaust due to the fact that the main character is close to their age and the story is told from her perspective.
The second book I am reading is Save ME by Lisa Scottoline. It was recommended by a friend and it a pretty good book. It is not holding my attention like I thought it would, but it may be that my days have been so busy, the only time i have to read is when I craw into bed, which I have not been doing until abut 12:30am every night...gotta get back in the school schedule/routine soon!!
As a Mom this is a hard read because the plot involves the main character's daughter being bullied, and the main character, Rose, volunteering at school to keep an eye on her daughters bully. When an explosion happens one day in the cafeteria, Rose is torn between saving the girls who bullied her daughter, or rushing to find/save her daughter. She helps the girls out of the burning cafeteria, then leaves them to go find her own daughter. She is initially called a hero for saving the children, but as details later come out, Amanda, one of Rose's daughter;'s bullies went back into the building after Rose left her to go get her own daughter Melly. Amanda was injured is in a coma. Rose is then accused of abandoning Amanda, in retaliation for the bullying of her daughter. Rose is taunted by hate emails from others int he community and everyone rallies behind Amanda's Mom as she threatens legal action. It is really starting to get good and I am only about 1/2 way through.
I am hoping to finish both of these books up by this weekend so that I can start another one (or two) before I leave for vacation next week.
Okay......now the exciting news! I am going to be hosting a regular guest blog segment here on this blog with some awesome Carolina Girl bloggers. Lacie from Polka Dots and Pencils, Amanda from Teaching Maddeness, Bridget from Little Lovely Leaders, Joanna from Fifth is Fabulous and Elizabeth from Fun in Room 4B. I "met" each of these lovely ladies as a result of creating this blog, and in the process found out we are all teachers in South Carolina (well, I already knew Lacie...she and I taught together our very first year, teaching). I love their blogs and was trying to come up with a "hook" for a guest blogger segment...and I couldn't resist creating a cute button in PicMonkey!!
Lacie will be kicking things off tomorrow....come on back and check it out!!
I actually literally JUST did a unit plan for a course of mine to get certified to teach in 4th and 5th grade on World War II! It's a novel unit where we had to choose a historical fiction novel and then plan activities that tied social studies and language arts together. This is the one event/war that I think intrigues me the most. I hope you are enjoying Number the Stars!
ReplyDeleteSara
Miss V's Busy Bees
OMGreatness! I read SAVE ME last summer and was blown away! It was an amazing book. Since then I have read almost all of Lisa Scottoline's books - they are all great, but this one was the best!
ReplyDelete✿Lynn
Inside this Book