Room 227’s Blog

Another excellent Edublogs.org weblog

A Well-deserved week off!

Hi Everyone,

It’s nice to read all of your comments.  I’m sorry I haven’t checked out all of your blogs yet.  I will try to comment as much as I can!  Time is hard to find these days.  I’m sure you’d agree!

I’m glad that you are enjoying middle school!  Using calculators in math, having your own blogs, lockers…what fun!  I’ve heard nothing but positive comments from your teachers about you!  Way to go!

Thanks Tim and Matt for offering to come in near the end of the year as guest speakers.  I welcome any of you to come in! We’ll talk more about this closer to May.

I’m off to Bhutan for Monday.  I’m currently taking a break from packing.  Ugh. It’s a chore.  And I”ll probably forget something, too!  I guess that’s what lists are for. Where are you off to?

Have a great rest of your October.  Make sure one of your teachers turns off the lights closer to Halloween and tells ghost stories as well as reads a few ‘Scary Poems for Rotten Kids’.  That’s the best way to spend a Friday afternoon.

Love, Miss B.

Keep in Touch

Hi Guys,

Thanks for continuing to visit here.  Do you have a different blog … maybe of your own?

Have your fears from Gr.5 come true now that you’re in Gr.6?  What is your new math program like compared to last year’s Investigations we started on the last term?

I’m hoping a few of you would like to be ‘guest speakers’ towards the end of this year for my Gr.5s this year..you know–to answer questions they have.  What do you think?

Have a great week.  October break is just around the corner!

Miss B.

Hey 6th Graders…Check out Room 227’s New Blog

Hello everyone!

It’s nice to see you continuing to post on our ‘old’ blog.  As far as visiting the ES library, I think it’s ok if you pop in from time to time, but maybe not make a habit of it, seeing that you’ve got your own great library!

I wanted to invite you to view our new blog for this year’s group of students.  All students in the class have their own blog site.  If you want to check out what students are doing in class and their thoughts on various things, check out our class blog at:     http://inside.isb.ac.th/rm227 You can also be linked with all Gr.5 blogs at the top of the page.

Thanks for visiting!

Miss B.

Hello Lovely Middle Schoolers!

I hope the start to your new year is going smoothly and you’re not struggling too much with the lockers!

It has been so nice to be visited by some of you! Keep comin’! I’d love to see each of you at some point.

This blog will still exist and I will write on it from time to time, and I hope you will too.

Have a terrific day!

Love,

Miss B.

I hope summer is treating you well!

Hi Gr.6s!!

Woah…I can’t believe you’re Gr.6 now! My oh my. I bet you’re all very excited, perhaps with a bit of nervousness mixed in. I am still in Canada for 1 more week and then I will fly back to Bangkok with mixed emotions. It’s always hard to say goodbye to loved ones. It doesn’t seem to be getting any easier.

The weather in Canada (Ontario) has been quite cool this year, which is unusual for July. Normally it’s in the high 20’s to low 30’s. We seem to be hovering around 20-25 degrees Celcius the whole month!! I’m wearing my hoodies and jeans more often than I care to!

I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying your July. I hope to see you in the next little while . Don’t forget to pop by sometime!

Take care…oh…and by the way–I bought the entire series of And Then It Happened for the elementary library just for your info.

xoMiss B.

Historical Fiction Podcast Series

Our historical fiction podcasts are finally posted! On the main page of our blog, you will find all 6 of our podcasts that teach others about reading strategies one can use while reading historical fiction!

They can also be found on itunes under the title “Students Teaching Students”. How cool is that!

Enjoy,
Miss R. Bulsza

Authors Mike & Laura Wade Write to Us!

I was introduced to the And Then It Happened series of books (particularly geared towards boys, but everyone loves them!) by my librarian, Mrs. Hibbert at the school I worked at in Ontario, Canada.  Students fell in love with the books and our school was very lucky to have Mike Wade visit our school!  After moving to Thailand, I took the few books I had of the series and read them aloud to my Gr.5 class at International School Bangkok.  They, too, have fallen in love with the books.  There are obviously no boundaries when it comes to laughing and enjoying learning about the crazy adventures of Gordon, Paulo and the main character, whose name has yet to be revealed.
The Gr.5 students wrote a letter to authors Mike & Laura Wade telling a little bit about life in Thailand and asked several questions.  Below are the questions the students asked, and Mike and Laura’s reply. What an exciting opportunity to engage with authors we have come to enjoy.  Write on!
(FYI:  It also turns out that Laura Wade worked with my dad in my home town in the 1990s!  What a small world.)
Dear Grade 5 class in Room 227!
Thanks very much for your email.  Life in Thailand sounds very interesting and quite a bit different from life here in Canada.  I wouldn’t mind the weather, though!  No snow I’m guessing.
So, to answer your questions, here goes!
Question:  In the And Then It Happened Series, who is “I”?
Answer:    The main character “I” doesn’t actually have a name.  Mike wrote the first short story, which became Chapter 2, Opening Day, in Book 1.  When I read it, I noticed that he had given names to the other two boys, but not to the narrator.  He just kept saying “I” and “me”.  I thought this was kind of neat and decided that we should write the whole book (and series) and never give the narrator a name.  It’s different, and it drives some readers crazy.  Sometimes we have to be creative and word our sentences in just the right manner in order to avoid having to give the narrator a name.  For example, when the teacher calls on him, or when he is getting in trouble by the police, the principal or his parents, they can never call him by name.  Maybe in the very last story of the very last book we will reveal his name (or HER name!!)
Question:   Whatever happened to the butcher booger-man?
Answer:     I’m so glad you asked about the butcher, because it gave me a great idea.  I think we should do a return of the boogerman.  He could come back as another character, like a supply teacher maybe, and the kids could figure out who he is eventually and run him out of town again.  But as far as I know, the boogerman has moved to another town and is dishing out his “daily specials” at another butcher shop!
Question:  Are the characters based on real people?
Answer: None of the characters are based on real people, except for Uncle Ivan.  The way he is described in The Naked Parrot is fashioned almost completely after Mike himself, right down to the dirty truck.
Question:   Are you planning on writing more books in the series?
Answer: We are currently working on Book 9 and we want to take the series to at least 10 books.  I would also like to write a Book 0 (or a prequel) and call it And Then It Happened:  When We Were Little.  It would be about how the boys met in Kindergarten and what they were like at 4 or 5 years of age.  I think it could be fun.  Also, we have thought of writing another one called And Then It Happened:  All Grown Up.  Wouldn’t you love to see how Gordon turns out?  We have thought up some good occupations for him, like maybe a psychiatrist or a school principal, possibly even a criminal lawyer.
Question:   What/Who are your inspirations?
Answer:    I don’t think anyone really inspired us initially.  Mike has a great sense of humour, and I wanted to write books for boys because as a school librarian and I realized about 12 years ago that there weren’t that many series for boys (there are lots more today).  That’s what got us started, and now, our main inspiration comes from students who read our books and tell us that they laugh out loud when reading them.  That is the best inspiration there is.
Question:   Would you ever want to visit Thailand as a guest author to talk to students at ISB?
Answer:    We would love to visit Thailand for an author visit, and what a great vacation we could have.  The farthest Mike has travelled so far is to Surrey, BC.  (We live in Ontario).
Question:   What is your favorite story in the series?
Answer:   I think my favourite story is Attack of the Scarecrow (in book 3) and Mike’s is Summer Camp in Book 1.  He still laughs at the story of the bear and the rabbit every time!!
Question:   Who were your favorite authors as a child?
Answer:    Mike’s favourite author was Farley Mowat (Lost in the Barrens) and mine was not actually a single author, but a series of authors who wrote the Trixie Belden books under a pseudonym.
Question:    What is your favorite food?
Answer:        I think my favourite food is shrimp (roasted with garlic and butter) and Mike’s is lobster.
Question:  Do you like Thai food?
Answer: We love Thai food, or at least what they call Thai food here in Canada.  I imagine it’s a bit different in Thailand.  There used to be this great Thai restaurant right around the corner from us and we always went there on special occasions.
Question:   Do you have any pets?
Answer:    We have a spaniel/poodle mixed dog named Chloe.  She is all black and weighs 18 pounds.  We’ve had her for 15 years and she is 18 years old.  Still going strong but slowing down.  We used to have a cat named Felix, but she died in September at the age of 16.  She was a beautiful grey tabby.
Question:   How long have you both worked together?
Answer:    We started writing together in 1997.  Wow, that’s 12 years.
Question:  How long does it take you to write a book?
Answer:      How long does it take to write a book?  Too long!!  It shouldn’t take us so long, but because of Mike’s busy schedule (he will be visiting almost 300 schools this school year), we are very slow writers.  If we counted it in actual hours, it wouldn’t be that long, but since we have to spread it out, it takes about a year from start to finished product.
Answer:
Question:   Do you have any children?
Answer:    We don’t have any children.
Question: Have you written other books besides And Then It Happened?
Answer:   We have written nothing else besides And Then It Happened.
Question:    If you really have/had a pet turkey, did you roast it?
Answer:    We didn’t really have a pet turkey, but Mike is a hunter, so roasting a pet turkey is not out of the question.  For the record, I am a vegetarian and would never eat a pet turkey :)
I think that about covers it.  We would like to send you all a Fart Chart (from a story I don’t believe you’ve read yet, but it’s on our website so maybe you have).  We will autograph them, too.  I’m not sure if I have your address, so can you please send it to us and we’ll get the Fart Charts in the mail.  We’d love to see some photos, too.
Thanks for writing, and have a great summer, everyone!
Mike and Laura Wade

Social Issue Reading Reflection: Walk Two Moons

The book “Walk Two Moons” it is mainly about a girl named Sal who’s mom disappeared. Also, a girl named Phoebe’s mom disappeared. Phoebe’s mom comes back to Phoebe though but Sal’s mom does not. One night when Gram was in the hospital from a snake bite, Gramps sent Sal off in a car to drive around and do stuff while he stayed at the hospital with his wife. At around midnight, Sal was at a cliff driving around it until the cops caught her. She was listening to a story about a bus wreck that had gone over the cliff. Then the cops told her that her mom had been in that bus accident and had not lived. There was only one surviver and that was someone she knew. Then they told her that the surviver had been holding her mom’s hand and had been the last one with her.

Some of my thinking on this book is One of the ideas I thought of is when Sal keeps thinking of her mother and imagining she will come back. My thinking on that is that Sal must not be giving up on her mom.I think she is still hoping her mother will come back some day and Sal will finally become happy.

Another one of my thinking is that when Gram got bitten by the snake and she was hurt really badly and had to go to the doctor, that must make Sal really sad because her mother is gone and missing and now her Grandmother has just been bitten by a snake and has found out she has to go to the hospital to try to live. That must be the worst part in Sal’s life because as far as she knows 2 of her closer family members a re about to die.

One more of my thinkings was when Phoebe kept receiving messeges at her doorstep by a stranger and the messeges include random things like Never judge a man ntil you’ve walked two moons in his moccasins. I would be a little bit freaked out because if someone is leaving mysterious messeges at your door and you don’t know who is leaving them, that would be kind of scary.

I think the social issue of this book is loss, and death. I think these are the only ones because Sal’s mom was a HUGE loss to Sal and for most of the time she was a death because of the bus crash she was in. Also, Phoebe’s mom was a loss to Phoebe and a little to Sal because she wasn’t with Phoebe anymore and so Phoebe always had something missing to her. That part would be her mom. However Phoebe had her mother come back. So those are the social issues in the book that stuck out to me.

I think Walk Two Moons was an interesting book to read.

Hatchet by Daniela

Hatchet is a story about a boy named Brian who survied a plane crash. He  ends up all alone in a island in need of food, water, and shelter. All he has for protection is a hatchet. Brian has to be brave to survive by himself. I liked how the author narrated the plane crash. It created a movie in my mind, it was like i was there when it happened. Also, I liked how the author described how Brian faced hard problems, for example when he tells the times Brian was starving. I think the ending could have been better. It  was expected that he will  get rescued at the end of the book.  I think the social issue in the book is survival and loneliness. The story makes me think it is  hard to live alone with no one to look after you, especially if you are a child. I recommend this book to everyone because I enjoyed reading it.

While No One Was Watching By Daniela

While No One Was Watching is a story of 3 kids who have to be taken care of by their aunt while their dad goes away for the summer. But when their aunt disappered one night the 3 kids have to take care of each other. They are alone; they need money and food. This was a  story filled with suspense. One of the things I liked is that each chapter was from a different character’s point of view but they told the same story. I also liked how the author describes how worried and scared the kids were. I think the social issue in this book is loneliness and survival. People should read this book because it shows that this can happen in the world. Sometimes it does not matter how old you are you can still feel lonely. Also when you are lonely and have to survive you may end up doing things that you would never do and are dangerous. For example stealing.I enjoyed reading this book.