October 10, 2009 06:50 PM
I am SO happy to finally be reading Kate DiCamillo's new book, The Magician's Elephant after 9 calls to bookshops and 1 phone call to Walker books where they had no appreciation of my enthusiasm for Kate's talents as a children's author... The book was slated for release on 1 October and delayed until 8 October, why I ask you? Anyway, 5 chapters in and it's DiCamillo perfection. New releases next week: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney and the sequel to Skeleton Creek, Ghost in the Machine by Patrick Carman. Oh and joy, Joy, BLISS! Michael Morpurgo has a new book coming out in 2 weeks, Running Wild. Truly happy.
This week my Grade 5 students are starting to analyze the hilarious Mercy Watson series by Kate DiCamillo. I don't know why this series hasn't taken off in Australia, my kids adore it. Anyway, we'll simplify the key elements and write our own in pairs. This of course is preparation for the National Novel Writing Month in November. We're also starting to get to know Kodu, the new video game for kids where they program video games using visual icons and then share them online. I'm hoping that this will support the students developing complexity in their storylines, improve sequencing and understanding narrative more deeply. I've had a play - it's hard for an inexperienced gamer like myself!
September 30, 2009 09:12 PM
In Grade 4 and 5 at The Hermitage in Geelong, my teacher Mrs Tomkinson used to take all 11 of us children to identify, pick and press native Australian wildflowers in the Grampians, Victoria. I have always remembered those adventures into the bush with great fondness. So these holidays I took my new toys (the Joby gorillapod, the best tripod ever and a Nikon shutter release cable) and my Nikon D80 into the Grampians. As fate would have it I was blessed to meet Liz Fenton, THE wildflower expert in the Grampians on my first day who shared the best spots to find them. She also very kindly pointed out the names of the wildflowers and stopped me from wasting time photographing weeds (well some of them looked very pretty). For the past two days whenever I close my eyes, all I see are flowers... pure and absolute bliss. Supreme thanks to Queen Kate of Dunkeld who was friend, hostess, chauffeur and creative director extraordinaire.
