Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Joseph's "The Cay" project, in process

First, I have to say that the kids LOVED this book.

Here is an overview of the story:

Amazon.com Review

This award-winning novel remains a powerful classic of prejudice, love, and survival. In 1942, 11-year-old Phillip Enright lives with his parents on the Dutch island of CuraƧao, but when the war moves too close for comfort, his mother decides to travel with him back to the safety of Virginia. When their boat is torpedoed, however, Phillip is blinded and finds himself adrift on a life raft with an old black man and a cat. They eventually land on a deserted island. Phillip is suspicious of "the large Negro," but soon grows to trust--and ultimately love--the patient and generous Timothy. Dedicated to "Dr. King's Dream," The Cay has a clear message that friendship is colorblind; it is also a terrific adventure story of a young, newly blinded man learning to survive on an uninhabited island. (Ages 12 and older) --Richard Farr



From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8–This is a classic novel about racism and a young man's realization that skin color does not matter. Phillip is an 11-year-old living in the West Indies at the start of World War II. He's excited at the idea of being in the war but is taken away by his mother who only wants to return to the safety of Virginia. Their ship is sunk by the Germans, and Phillip and his mother end up on separate life rafts. After being hit on the head with a beam from the sinking ship, Phillip awakens to find himself alone with Timothy, an old black ship hand, and Stew Cat, the ship's tomcat. The three survive on a raft for several days, during which time Phillip loses his eyesight due to the head injury. They eventually come ashore on a small unpopulated island. Phillip must learn to deal with his blindness and overcome his dislike for Timothy. Phillip's question, "Timothy, are you still black?," shows that Phillip has moved past the barrier of color. After Timothy's death, Phillip continues to live on the island and is eventually rescued and reunited with his parents. This audio version of Theodore Taylor's novel (Doubleday, 1987) is well done, with actor Michael Boatman doing a wonderful job of giving the characters individual voices. The West Indian dialect is smooth. At the end of the novel, there's an author Q&A featuring an interview with Taylor in which he talks about the inspirations for his characters and his travels. An excellent purchase for middle and high school libraries.–Lisa D. Williams, Chocowinity Middle School, NC

Joseph and Caroline have the assignment to design a memorial/monument to Timothy as their final project in this Moving Beyond the Page unit.
Joseph is planning on painting the hands and he still needs to do some sanding and filling in. He wanted to do the two hands together so we thought a cast of the hands would be the way to go. So this is our first casting attempt.

Isn't it moving? The firmly rooted large hand holding on to the weak, smaller hand?
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Ocean Paintings

The kids are still working on their ocean unit in Moving Beyond the Page. Today we looked at some work by Wyland and started our own paintings.
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Sunday, November 8, 2009

The Talent Portion

This is Caroline performing her Chinese song at the Talent competition at Chinese school today.
Sorry that it is rotated 90*. :p
(This is a video.)

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Toby

Here is our almost 11 year old Greyhound, Toby. I caught him laying his head between Joseph's sneakers.
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Texas Trees Foundation

This morning, our cub scout pack worked at the Texas Trees Foundation. As luck would have it, today was a transplanting day. That meant that there was a HUGE pile of dirt and shovels. The kids had a lot of fun and were BEAT when we left at noon.
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I didn't get a picture of her, but Caroline was FILTHY. She looked like somebody mistook her for a tree and transplanted her.

Homeschool day at the Heard Museum

Yesterday was homeschool day at the Heard Museum. Of course, since we have a big brother that works there, we don't really NEED a homeschool day, but it was such a beautiful day that we went anyway. We were so happy that we did because as we were walking from the remotest parking lot to the museum, we ran into Owen. Owen is a friend of Joseph's that we met last summer at Drama Camp. We have had a hard time hooking up with them this fall, but they are like two peas and went right together like they were best friends and see each other all the time.
Their main topic of conversation was Legos. EVERYTHING Legos.
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Every time I looked at them, they were head to head and talking about Legos.
(Libby was TRYING to interrupt them but they didn't acknowledge her presence)
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The conversation even continued while they were sitting on the a TRex tail.
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And the girls were there too. ;)
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We ran into Alex on our way out. He was working but very busy.

The creature formerly known as a Jellyfish

Did you know that the Jellyfish is now called the Sea Jelly? (and that the Starfish is a Sea Star?)
I guess someone who was very particular didn't like that non-fish had "fish" in their names.
Here is Joseph with the Sea Jelly that we made last week in Moving Beyond the Page.
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