The Winter Bloggers

 Here are the members of this week's blog team. They have brought you this version of the Kurtz Classroom Blog.                                          

Reading Book Groups in Mrs. Kurtz's Class

For Language Arts Mrs. Kurtz's class students are reading in different book groups. The students are in their Interdependence Unit, so the characters in the books go off on their own and try to survive. Each book that we are reading is written by Jean Craighead George. The books are Tree Castle Island, My Side of the Mountain, and The Missing Gator of Gumbo Limbo. The groups are sometimes too big so My Side of the Mountain and Tree Castle Island has to be split into two groups. Each student has to write a reflection at least one page long. Each group also gets assigned at least two chapters to four chapters every other day. About every other day the group meets. They talk about their book and get off topic and then read thier reflections. Then the next group comes up to the front. 
          

by:Meleah

                                                      

The Lost Hero By: Charlie

Our class reads a bit of a book every day after lunch. Right now we're reading The Lost Hero. Before that we read Operation: Redwood, which was about saving an old growth redwood forest. But the current book is a big change from an environmental story. The Lost Hero is the first book in a series continuing of the Percy Jackson novels. It starts with a boy named Jason waking up on a bus with no memories. With him are a boy named Leo, a girl named Piper, and a coach named Hedge. They tell him that the bus is headed for the Grand Canyon. While on the viewing port a guy locks them up there and turns into an evil cloud. Halfway through the battle Jason discovers a sword and spear disguised as a gold coin. Coach Hedge also gets captured. After defeating the storm spirit, Annabeth saves them.On the ride back they learn that Percy Jackson disappeared. After getting to Camp Half-Blood Jason, Leo, and Piper are sent on a quest to find Coach Hedge and Percy. They also try to find out why Olympus is closed.On the quest each discovers something. For example Jason learns that he can fly.
Opinion:
The book is very good. Except this book has very few jokes in it. Sometimes this makes it very boring.

 review by: Charlie

Class Surveys by Austin

This week I did two class surveys. I wanted to find out what sporting event most people liked, and I wondered what people's favorite junk food was. Both of these surveys suprised me, what do you think?*

What sporting event do you most look forward to?

Super Bowl: 6 votes

NCAA Football Championship: 2 votes

Stanley Cup: 1 vote

FIFA World Cup: 4 votes

Boxing World Championships: 1 vote

Winter Olympics: 3 votes

Summer Olympics: 11 votes

NCAA Mens or Womens March Madness:2 votes

X-games: 1 vote

What is your Favorite junk food?

Brownies: 2 votes

Cookies: 2 votes

Candy Corn: 1 vote

Cake: 3 votes

Hershey's Chocolate bar: 3 votes

McDonalds: 5 votes

Chips: 3 votes

Ice Cream: 2 votes

Cookie Dough: 2 votes

Milk Shake: 3 votes

Doughnuts: 2 votes

by Austin

*Both of these surveys have 31 votes

Questions for Mrs.Kurtz-by Kat

Mrs.Kurtz our teacher has been teaching since 1969. She's taught in 5 different states. She has also taught every grade, even college and high school, but  not Kindergarten. I asked her a few questions for the blog and this it what she said:.

Q: Why did you start teaching?
A: I started teaching because I always wanted to be a teacher.

Q: What was your first expression when you got the best teacher in Iowa award?
A: I was shocked because I never expected to get  an award for teaching.

My last question for Mrs.Kurtz was:
Q: What's one word to describe our class this year?
A: Intelligent and interesting.

by Kat

                                                            

Kurtz's Class Adopts a Tiger!

We have become part of World Wildlife Funds's efforts to save the Tiger. Through the symbolic adoption of this lovable creature, our class  joins the thousands of other people who have shown that they care about the future of the Earth's animals and habitats.  Here  is a photo of our virtual Tiger. thank you everyone for donating to our Save the Tiger Fund.  A big thank you to Michael Rash who got us interested in our adoption.

Interview of Carter by Ashwin

I interviewed Carter Leavesseur. He likes to skateboard, sleep, and have general laziness. His role model is Shaun White. His favorite color is purple. His favorite book is Maximum Ride series. He has 1 big brother whose name is Max. He plays the cello, drums, the guitar, and the piano. His favorite sport is baseball and his favorite subject is spelling. He is 12 years old and his favorite food is pasta. His favorite animal is the Florida panther. His favorite state is Iowa and loves sunflowers. His biggesst fear is clowns and loves winter. His favorite sports in winter is skateboarding. His favorite word is chalups. he likes to say ''I LIKE TURTLES''. His best friend is Mark and his favorite T.V show is Southpark. His favorite healthy food is grapefruit. And his favorite time of the day is noon.

                                                                                By Ashwin Kalyanakumar

Animal Survey by Sophie

I asked some people what their favorite animal was and here is what they said:
. a purple unicorn
. a polar bear
. a lion
. an elaphant
. a penguin
. " I like turtles"
If you will notice most of these animals are large and well known
 and none are small things like insects or bacteria. I would also like
to thank Holly, Baily, Crystal, Ashraf, Kat, and Jacquese for participating
in this survey.  

by Sophie



             

Getting Ready for Jump Rope for Heart