Melody

=Book Log=
 * # || =Book Title= || =Author= || =E, JR, C= || =Date Completed= ||
 * ==1== || Charlie Bumpers vrs teacher of the year || B. Harley || Easy || August 9, 2015 ||
 * ==2== || The one and only Ivan || Katherine Applegate || Easy || September 9, 2015 ||
 * ==3== || Rumplestiltskin the true story || L. Shurtliff || Just Right || August 21,2015 ||
 * ==4== || Fly away || P. MacLachlan || Easy || September 14, 2015 ||
 * ==5== || Kizzy Ann Stamps || J. Watts || Just Right || October 15, 2015 ||
 * ==**6**== || Artimes Fowl || Eoin Colfer || Challenging || November 3, 2015 ||
 * ==**7**== || Fortunately, The Milk || Neil Gaiman || Easy || November 5, 2015 ||
 * ==**8**== || Kalvin and Hobbes || Bill Watterson || Just Right || Abandoned ||
 * ==**9**== || Wings of Fire: The Dragonets Prophecy || Tiu. Sutherland || Just Right || December 28, 2015 ||
 * ==10== || Kalvin and Hobbes || Bill Waterson || Just Right || January 4, 2016 ||
 * ==**11**== || The Twits || Roahld Dahl || Easy || January 16, 2016 ||
 * ==12== || Pheineas L. MacGuire Gets cooking || Frances O'Roark Dowel || Just Right || January 16, 2016 ||
 * ==13== || The illuminate adventures of Flora and Ulysses || Kate Dicamello || Challenging/Just Right || January 24 ,2016 ||
 * ==**14**== || Smile || Raina Telgiemer || Just Right || February 5, 2016 ||
 * ==**15**== || Sisters || Raina Telgiemer || Just Right || February 8, 2016 ||
 * ==**16**== || The case of the loose toothed shark || N. Krulik || Easy || February 3, 2016 ||
 * ==**17**== || The School for Good and Evil || C. Chaniam || Just Right || March 4, 2016 ||
 * ==18== || Kelsey Green Reading Queen || Claudia Mills || Easy || March 26, 2016 ||
 * ==**19**== || Go For the Goal || Fred Bowen || Easy || April 3, 2016 ||
 * ==**20**== || Counting By Sevens || Holly Goldberg Sloan || Just Right || April 24, 2016 ||
 * ==21== || Percy Jackson:The Lighting Thief || Rick Roirden || Just Right || May 12, 2016 ||
 * =22= || Diary of a Wimpy Kid || Jeff Kinny || Easy || May 24, 2016 ||
 * ==23== || Diary of a Wimpy kid: Rodrick Rules || Jeff Kinny || Easy || May 26, 2016 ||

Mrs. Palmieri recommends...
September 19, 2016 Dear Mrs.P
 * ==#== || ==Book Title== || ==Author== ||
 * ==1== || Just Ella || Margaret Peterson Haddix ||
 * ==2== ||  ||   ||
 * ==3== ||  ||   ||
 * ==4== ||  ||   ||

I miss you so much there really isn't any school without you. I am doing better than I thought I would be doing. you know how everyone thinks that lockers are fun and everything well to bring it strait forward it is horrible I really dislike lockers, so at the end of the year when kids get excited about lockers you can just say that they aren't as awesome as they think. I am wondering about that note I gave you did you get it? Please answer back if you see this please. It would be nice to talk to someone about middle school. Also I really wanted to thank you for how awesome you were as my 5th grade teacher. Also typing about 5th grade is idk spelled fifth grade or fith grade? Please write me back.

From the new 6th grader Melody Vakili <3

January 26, 2016 Dear Mrs.P,

I just finished the book Flora and Ulysses and it is actually a bit challenging. The story is about Flora the cynic and a squirrel that was sucked into a vacuum cleaner and now the squirrel is a super hero. There are a few main characters such as William Spiver who has a very sad past, tootie who is the next door neighbor and is now taking care of William Spiver. Floras mom( Phillies Buckman), and Floras dad( George Buckman). Surprisingly in the middle of the story there is a old lady who is named Dr. something I can't remember. The most important characters Flora Bell Buckman and Ulysses (Buckman?). Over all this book is about a girl named Flora who is into the comic collection Incandesto. Flora is a cynic and cynics are people who only think about themselves until Ulysses gets sucked into the vacuum Ulysses 9000. Ulysses changes Floras life. Like in the book Flora wants to stay a cynic and when she tries to stay cynic she say to herself she said do not hope instead observe I think that is what she said. I actually recommend this book to you, you don't have to read it in the class out loud but you can read it at home.You will like the book even though it has short chapters like Hiding out at Pancake Palace its still a good quick read

Tell me or write to me if you get the chance to read the book

Your hard trying student, Melody Vakili

January 25, 2016

Hi Melody, I'm sorry that you are not enjoying __Just Ella__. If I remember correctly the beginning was a little boring. What I liked about this story as it was a new twist on the Cinderella fairy tale. What happens after the poor village girl gets whisked to the palace to marry the prince? In the case of Ella, she finds out that she doesn't really like who the prince is. Maybe keep reading and it will get better.

I wish I had more time to read at home, but it was funny over this weekend I found myself thinking about __Hiding Out at Pancake Palace__. I was thinking about what would happen next and I'm getting really excited to finish it! This is what happens when I get hooked into a book! I wasn't sure I loved this book at first. At first, I thought Cecilia seemed strange (alright, she IS strange) and I wasn't sure if I would like her as a character. I have found that if you don't like the characters in a book, it can make it very hard to want to keep reading the book.

This happened to me last year when I read aloud my class the MCBA, __The Lost Treasure of Tuckernuck__. Did you read that one last year? The female main character of that book was Laurie, and she was quite unlikable! She was snobby, kind of nasty, and altogether kind of tough to tolerate. It took a little while but class and I really go into the story and soon I better "understood" why Laurie acted the way she did. We liked the book so much, we decided to immediately read the sequel, __The Magician's Bird__. Reading that was easy because we already knew and understood the characters. Do you find that you like to read sequels or books in a series because she kind of already know a lot about the characters?


 * Feel free to tell me about a character in the book that you just read/or are currently reading**


 * Back to Cecilia- so at the beginning she seemed strange, but now I find myself feeling sorry for her. She is lonely and kind of an outcast. I'm sure it's not easy to be her- and it definitely feels like she really wishes she had friends. On page 125 it says, "It wasn't like Cecilia wanted to be friends with Natalie. All she wanted was to wave and have them wave back." It's such a simple thing- you don't realize how much it might mean to someone just to be friendly towards them.**


 * What are your thoughts on our read aloud?**


 * Your friend,**
 * Mrs. P**

January 13, 2016 Dear Coach, I took the book that you recommended for me and started reading it sadly it wasn't as amusing as I thought (no offense) but I am at the part when Ella is talking to Mary the 8 or 9 year old and this is the second time and Mary said that her mom is taking care of him. Also I read about when Jed his son takes over for him and it seems as though Ella likes Jed more than the prince because she barely gets to talk to the prince without being supervised by somebody. Also there is another important person and her name is madame Bisette. Madame Bisette is basically the person who tells what to do and were to go. The title of the book says to me that this book is about a girl named Ella and she was a villager and somehow became a princess and does not like it.

Your student Melody Vakili.

January 3, 2015

Hello Team 7-

Welcome back from vacation!

I found myself thinking about our new read aloud during this break. I always get excited when I'm reading a new book out loud to my students that I also haven't read.

Several of you were talking to me about your book talks before we left for vacation. I know specifically people were wondering about how to figure out a book's "theme" or "author's message". This sometimes feels like it will be hard, but might not be as tricky as you think. Think about what the author is trying to teach you, the reader, through the story; what big life lesson do they want you to know. One of the themes in __Silverwing__ is teamwork, or believing in yourself.

What do we think might be the message in __Hiding Out at Pancake Palace__? Let's think about what we know so far. Elvis is cutting off and coloring his hair- something he is famous for and he has to hide away from the world because of this embarrassing thing. I wonder if the message might be something about "being true to oneself" like don't be pretend to be something else, be who you want to be. I'm also wondering if Elvis really wants to be this famous star- or is this something his dad really wants? Again, since I'm reading this with you guys I'm just guessing (speculating)

I don't think we know as much about Cecilia yet- but I predict she and Evis (Aaron) are going to help each other in some way. She wants to find out if the trees sing- he likes to sing.

Guess we will read more and find out!

Your friend, Mrs. P

December 23, 2015

Dear Couch, in the book "Wings of Fire: The Dragonets Prophecy", there is a dragon named Peril. Peril set up a trick and she would help Clay, Tsunami, and Starflight. Peril leads them across the festival we're the dragons where eating to a cave were "only she knows" so that they can hide until the day is done then they can escape the Sky kingdom and be free. But right when they are crossing the rockwall to get to the cave Queen Scarlet caught them red handed. The most surprising thing was that Queen Scarlet said "Peril you may be dismissed". ** If I were Clay I would be FURIOUS at Peril because she betrayed her own friend and I would honestly think that Peril likes Clay because she always hangs out with him and she ** **isn't allowed to so it makes sense that she likes Clay.** The next day the dragonets have to fight other dragons and the other dragons are full grown dragons. First Tsunami fights a dragon that is also a Sea wing and that dragon is very vicious and strikes at Tsunami right when they say go but some how Tsunami manages to stay alive and kill the other Sea wing!? Then Clay fights Peril who is the Queens champion and somehow if you are born in a blood red egg you have powers that i don't know yet.** A question I have about this book is if Peril has FEELINGS FOR CLAY because she spends a lot of time with Clay and she is not allowed to. Also I predict that Clay will win the fight with Peril because Clay can actually fight back with Peril and she is not used to that because she is way too hot to be touched by other dragons but Clay can touch her because this is one of the powers that he has because he was born in a egg that was the color blood red. **

-Melody : -)

December 15, 2015

Dear Mrs. Palmieri,

I am sorry that I did not update my book log. But now I an reading a new book called "Wings of Fire: The Dragonets Prophecy". It is a really good book. In the begging there are 5 dragonets and they are trying to get out of this cave they have been locked in their whole lives from when they were eggs to now. And throughout the book they have been eavesdropping on their "masters" that they are going to stay in the cave for 20 more years! The "Dragonets of the Prophecy are "Clay the mudwing, Tsunami the seawing, Sunny the sunwing, Starflight the Night wing, and the rainwing Glory." The dragonets make a plan that Clay goes threw the river to threw the mountain and he hopefully will get out of all of the caves. In one of the caves something starts to sting his scales. He keeps going but the stinging just gets worst and when he gets to the next cave it hurts him so much that he has to get out of the water and try to see in the dark whats on his scales and suddenly he blacks out still with the horrible pain that got worse by the second he heard Tsunami's voice. He could not believe himself because Tsunami was trapped in chains and somehow she escaped just to find him. As they followed the river they found a opening and saw the real world. While they were looking for the cave they saw someone that was being chased by a dragon, they saw a actual scavenger ( human sadly) the dragon opened her mouth and ripped off his head and they heard a "snap". There was blood everywere it was the grossest thing I could imagine.

December 6, 2015

Hi Melody-

As Christmas approaches, I often like to reread some favorite holiday themed books from my own childhood. When I was your age and a little younger, I loved to read __The Little House on the Prairie__ series. These wonderful stories are from the childhood of the author, Laura Ingalls Wilder, as she grew up in the late 1800s in places like Wisconsin, Kansas, and eventually the Dakota Territory (today South Dakota). This time of year can be so busy and crazy and I always enjoy seeing how simple this pioneer family made their holidays. Sometimes we get so caught up in "buy, buy, buy" or " I want" that I really like reading these descriptions of the simple food and presents that they had and the happy holiday they created as a result. Here is a quote from fifth book in the series called, By the Shores of Silver Lake. Chapter 19 "Christmas Eve"-

"It had snowed all day and soft, large flakes were still falling. The winds were quiet so that snow lay deep on the ground, and Pa took the shovel with him when he went do the evening chores. "Well, it's a white Christmas," he said  "Yes, and we're all here and all well, so it's a merry one," said Ma  The surveyors' house was full of secret. Mary had knitted new, warm socks for Pa's Christmas present. Laura had made him a necktie from a piece of silk that she found in Ma's scrap bag. Together in the attic, she and Carrie had made an apron for Ma from on of the calico curtains that had hung in the shanty. In the scrap bag they found a piece of fine, white muslin; Laura had cut a small square from it, and secretly Mary had hemmed the square with her fine stitches and made a handkerchief for Ma. They put it in the apron pocket. Then they wrapped the apron in tissue paper and hidden it under the quilt blocks in Mary's box."

Descriptions like these really help me imagine what it would have been like to make gifts like Laura and her sisters did. Life was very different then. ***But when you read the descriptions of the family making and eating their meals and celebrating, it makes you as teh reader feel like maybe life isn't that different after all.**


 * When I want to read these books, I usually pull out my little paperback set of all the books that I bought in book order when I was a student teacher. I was recently excited to discover __A Little House Christmas Treasury: Festive Holiday Stories__ was published. This is one book that contains all of the holiday stories from the author's different books. Perfect!**


 * I hope you have a wonderful holiday with your family.**


 * Your friend,**
 * Mrs. P**


 * October 27, 2015**


 * Dear Mrs.Palmieri**


 * I am reading a new book called Calvin and Hobbes it's kind of a weird book because it's about a 6 year old. That 6 year old is Kalvin and Hobbes is a stuffed animal I think 'cause Calvin is a day dreamer and he get's in trouble a lot at school. Because Calvin is a day dreamer and he imagines stuff a lot it could be that Hobbes is a stuffed tiger that does not talk. Calvin has a six year old mind but he watches a lot of horror movies and romance movies and that is considered watching rated movies that his parents don't know about. One time in the book Calvin flooded the house and he got grounded and couldn't watch TV and that's a good thing. The character I like the best is Calvin because he nows words that I never new existed it was like being in a whole new world of words! When I was just reading this book (AKA the first page) it was a comic book and I was like I don't want to read no comic book but I stuck to the book and now I love it. I think it's the best book I have ever read. **


 * October 14,**


 * I am going to talk to you about Artimes Fowl. Right now I am almost done with the book, I think its very sad that Butler almost dies and the troll is going to eat Juliet which she is in the mesmer still. Before Butler dies Holly is inside the very big house she is trying to get permission to get out of the house, and under ground Root is trying to get holly to talk to her but she is dying. I don't really like when people die but thankfully Butler comes back to life. This book makes me think about TinkerBell and action combined . How come I didn't think about that? I wonder if Holly is going to get out of Artemis's house? Also if Artemis is going to get killed in the end because in the ground, yes root is the commander but this time there is another person that is being the commander and he is bringing in the trolls.**


 * Your student,**


 * melody**


 * October 10, 2015**


 * Dear Melody,**


 * Happy Leif Ericson Day! Hope you are having a wonderful weekend. I have not read Kizzy Ann Stamps but am interested to hear what you have to say about it. You're right- how sad and scary it must be to her. I agree with you that I would want to stick up for myself, but I would imagine that it would be very hard to do. It's one of the things that I have found being a Social Studies teacher: kids often look back and think they would do something a certain way, but I think it's easy for us to say that being outsiders when we aren't really living through what the characters are. I would hope if I had been a teacher back then, I would have protected and loved every student no matter what anyone said.**


 * At home, I'm still reading Elvis and the Underdogs. I've had a harder time getting in to this book and found it a little boring. I actually haven't even got to the part where Elvis the dog is introduced. I HATE to abandon books, so I'm hoping if I pick this up now that I might be ready to give it another shot.** We could compare the main character, Benji, to Shade from Silverwing. Benji is small and sickly and his mother kind of smothers him like Ariel does to Shade. I wonder if Benji will kind of break away from his mom and have an adventure like Shade?

Talk to you soon, Mrs. P

PS- Let's work on finding some more challenging books for you to read.**

October 2, 2015 Dear Mrs Palmieri,

Kizzy Ann Stamps is about a girl named Kizzy Ann and she is going to a integrate school. In the book Kizzy Ann Stamps they are just passing notes aroundShe is a black kid and she thinks that everyone is going to bully her. She has a dog named shag. Shag is a collie and he is Kizzy Ann's companion. He walks her to school everyday. Kizzy Ann has a big brother he plays football but he is angry because there's a white kids teem and it is the national football teem that has always lost every game that they have went against and his teem has won every game they have played. The white teem has always been in the newspaper but there teem has not been in the newspaper at all and it is very frustrating for him. He takes it out on everyone else especially Kizzy Ann. After she gets very depressed. Meanwhile at school she is having her own problems. There is a girl that is very mean to her and she is whispering about her and she doesn't like it. I feel bad for her she has not done anything wrong. If I were Kizzy Ann then I would stick up for myself. What is very sad is that when the teacher found out that there was going to be a black kid in her class then she quit her job, and I feel bad for Kizzy Ann when she found that out. She has a big scar running down her face from her left eye to her lip. She got that scar when she was helping Mr. Fegans cut his cornstalks with a very sharp knife and his son was running with the knife and he tripped and blood went streaming down her face. The thing is when black people talked back to there boss they were wiped 7 times if they are 7 years old if they are 12 years old which Kizzy is she gets whipped 12 times. That has happened to her in the public city and it must have been embarrassing for her. The next day she felt so bad that when she was walking to school she threw up 3 times also threw up 1 at school. That must have been even worse.

Your best student Melody [ :

September 10, 2015 Dear Melody,

I am so excited to be sharing __Silverwing__ with you this year as a read aloud. This is definitely one of my all time favorite books, which is probably why I can’t imagine starting a school year without sharing it with my class. *The genre of this book is definitely fantasy since I don’t believe that bats and owls have wars or detailed adventures together. I also consider this to be a genre of my own invention- called Animal Adventure. I love the character Shade; he’s one of my all time favorites. *If I could talk to Shade, I would ask him if he thinks it was worth it to break the law and see the sun, especially after what happens to his colony as a result. What do you think of __Silverwing__ so far?

Your friend in reading.