Ideas for New Series Titles

For "You Be the Author" week, students could choose a pen name, create an original book title within a chosen genre, or come up with a new book for an existing series. Here are some of the series ideas (publishers take note!):

• Ivy & Bean: The Day with the Chameleon
• Harry Potter and the Fire Ghost of the Black Lake
• Dog Man and the Return of Flat Petey
• The S'mores Camp Fire Touch
• The Bad Guys Fix Social Distancing
• David Farted in Class
• Elephant and Piggie: We Are Going on a Unicorn Adventure
• Pete the Cat Meets the Pigeon
• Fly Guy and Buzz vs. the Scary Slimy Skeleton
• Wayside School has Summer School
• Dork Diaries: Tales of a Not So Fun Vacation
• The Bad Guys in The Happily Not Ever After
• Captain Underpants and the Case of the Missing Toilet Paper
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Big Decision
• Dog Man: The Legend of the Legendary Bone
• Max and the Midknights Storm the Castle
• Super Potato and the Terrifying Toxic T. Rex
• Albus Severus and the Silent Oaks

Maykerspace Projects

A couple of weeks ago, I assigned kids to learn or teach someone how to do or create something. Here are some of the activities they chose: 

Gardening!

Legos!

More Legos!

Home repair! (I am making a note to hire I. as a contractor in 10 years.)

Clay sculpture!

Paper sculpture!

Origami!

Other paper folding!

Cross-stitch!

Baking!

Paint dripping!

Drawing!

Weaving!

Dancing!

Making musical instruments!

Making slime!

Making masks!

Making snakes!

What a Character!

For one assignment, students could choose a character, a setting, or a genre to describe in words or pictures. Here are some of the characters they sent in ... if you know who they are, add a comment!

Telling Fibs

Fibonacci, a mathematician who lived during the 1200s, developed a number sequence named after him. Each number is added to the previous number to get the next number: 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 and so on.

Author Greg Pincus invented the “Fib” form of poetry, in which each consecutive line has the same number of syllables that appear in the Fibonacci sequence. During Poetry Week, students could choose to write a Fib. Here are some of their creations:

Jump!

image from mocomi.com

Left

and right!

Get the ball!

Being a goalie

is so very fun! Block it! Yay! 

- P.S., Rm 115


Please,
Mom,
Why not?
Oh, forgot
you do not like dogs ...
then maybe we can get a frog.
- L.J., Rm 116


I
love
sleeping
because my
bed is so cozy
that I fall asleep so quickly.
- C.L., Rm 116

Down!

Set!

Hike ball!

The ball is snapped up.

Give it to the running back now.

Boom, pow, trucking left and right, me taking hits all night.

I hear them cheering in the stands, "Run Bubba," "Go boy Go," "Get 'em get 'em, all the way!"

- J.S., Rm 117

Jump,

slide,

spin, catch,

dance - Woo hoo!

Baseball is so great.

That is why I appreciate.

- K.J., Rm 117

I

love

to sleep

and also

do some crafts for fun

and also be creative too.

- L.R., Rm 117

I

Love

To dance

With music

Dancing’s really fun

Twirl, twist, and turn - dance to the beat

Leap and kick with your feet, sing along to the cool beat.

- E.S., Rm 118

I

love

to read

and eat food,

play games with my friends,

and hang out with my family. 

- M.S., Rm 119

Bark!
Grrrr!
Lucy...
She's bitey.
She's also lovey.
My dog Lucy is amazing.
- J.C., Rm 120

What Does That Mean?

One option for the Reading Around the House assignment was to find a new word and share its definition. Below is the list of some of the words that kids found ... do you know them all?

If you would like to learn even more words, check out freerice.com or vocabulary.com.

• abdicate

  

  image from thegreatcoursesplus.com

• barber 
• blend
• brainstorm
• compatible
• conundrum
• dynamic
• emigrate
• escalator
• geology
• gobbled
• hyperthermia
• inconspicuous
• infuriating
• interior 
• investigate
• journey 
• jury
• malignant
• naive
• nibbled
• Paleozoic
• recently 
• righteous
• savory
• segregation
• turmeric