As we end 2011, let’s take a look at the top ten book checkouts for the year!
1. Shonen Jump magazine
2. Naruto (various volumes) by Masashi Kishimoto
3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg Hefley’s Journal by Jeff Kinney
4. Dragon Ball Z by Akira Toriyama
5. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
6. No Way Out (Bluford series) by Peggy Kern
7. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
8. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth by Jeff Kinney
9. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
10. Lost and Found (Bluford series) by Anne Schraff
This winter, Student Council began the Give a “Hug” Drive in which they are collecting warm clothing for the less fortunate here in Palm Beach County. You can donate sweaters, jackets, gloves or any warm clothing items during the months of December and January. Please bring your items to Ms. Wright’s room or the Media Center.
Top 10 Book Checkouts for 2011 »« Literary and Historical Characters Haunt RMS on Halloween!
Literary and Historical Characters Haunt RMS on Halloween!
All donations go to provide books and technology to the RMS Media Center!
Literary and Historical Characters Haunt RMS on Halloween! »« SSYRA Titles 2011-2012
The Sunshine State Young Reader Award (SSYRA) novels have been chosen for 2011-2012. These fifteen titles are the books we will be using for Battle of the Books so start reading them today!
 Angleberger, Tom. The Strange Case of Origami Yoda Amulet Books, ©2010.In a series of “case files”, Tommy tries to figure out whether the origami Yoda finger puppet that Dwight dispenses advice through really has mystical powers. After all, Dwight is a loser, but his Yoda finger puppet’s words of wisdom seem to really help people. Will Tommy end up trusting Yoda’s advice on the most important question of his life? |
 Baggott, Julianna. The Prince of Fenway Park HarperCollins, ©2009.Just like the Boston Red Socks, Oscar Egg believes he is cursed. After all, his biological parents put him up for adoption, his new parents got divorced and now his mother is dumping him on his dad who Oscar believes is probably a gangster. As the story unfolds, Oscar discovers that his father is living an even stranger life than he imagined and that he himself is involved in the Curse of Fenway Park! |
 Breathed, Berkeley. Flawed Dogs: The Novel: The Shocking Raid on Westminster Philomel Books, ©2009.Framed by a jealous poodle named Cassius, separated from the girl who loves him and cast out on the street, Sam manages to live through a series of traumatic experiences. Eventually, along with his friends from the National Last-Ditch Dog Depository, he plans a raid on the Westminster Dog Show to revenge himself on his rival. What will happen when the “flawed dogs” take on Westminster? |
 Draper, Sharon M. Out of My Mind Atheneum Books for Young Readers, ©2010.How would you feel if you were trapped inside your head, not able to communicate with anyone? Meet Melody, a very clever 5th grader who has cerebral palsy and cannot speak or control her movements. New technology finally enables her to “talk”, but will her family and school friends be able to look past her disability to see Melody for who she really is? |
 Falls, Kat. Dark Life Scholastic Press, ©2010.Set in a future where sea levels have risen and the remaining land is given over to packed high rise cities. Food is produced by those who live on and farm the ocean floor. Ty, who was born and raised deep undersea, meets Gemma, a “topsider” looking for her brother. Together they end up in an adventure that includes pirates, strange talents and government conspiracies! |
 Hegamin, Tonya & Nelson, Marilyn Pemba’s Song: a Ghost Story Scholastic Press, ©2008.Upset at having to leave her friends and move from her Brooklyn neighborhood to an old house in the small town of Colchester, Connecticut, Pemba starts to experience visions of a slave girl named Phyllis. Why is Phyllis appearing to Pemba and what is it she wants? Will Pemba be able to help Phyllis and come to terms with her new life? |
 Hiaasen, Carl. Scat Knopf Books for Young Readers, ©2009.Nick and Marta dislike their biology teacher Mrs. Starch but when she disappears after a school trip to the Black Vine Swamp, they don’t buy the principal’s excuse and decide to investigate. Very quickly they become involved in a complicated mystery involving oil prospectors, an eco-avenger, a stuffed rat and an endangered Florida panther! |
 Logsted, Greg. Alibi Junior High Aladdin, ©2009.Cody has spent all of his life moving from place to place with his father, an undercover agent for the CIA. Cody knows how to pick locks and handle weapons, but when his dad sends him to stay with his aunt he finds that fitting in at junior high may be the most difficult thing he’s ever had to do! |
 Paterson, Katherine. The Day of the Pelican Clarion Books, ©2009.Meli’s family is Albanian. For years they have lived in the Yugoslavian city of Kosovo. Then in the spring of 1998, ethnic tensions come to a head and Meli’s family is forced to flee Serbian persecution. After a perilous journey, they find their way to the United States, where the events of September 11th cause them to face prejudice again. |
 Paulsen, Gary. Woods Runner Wendy Lamb Books, ©2010.As the Revolutionary War begins, Samuel is living in Pennsylvania. The War seems far away, but one day while he is out hunting in the woods near his house his parents are taken prisoner by the British. Using his hunting skills, Samuel tracks his parents to the British headquarters in New York. Will he be able to get them out alive and will they ever be able to get home? |
 Prellar, James. Bystander Feiwel & Friends, ©2009.New in town, Eric just wants to fit in at school. Griffin seems to be a popular kid and appears to want to be his friend. It doesn’t take long for Eric to realize that Griffin is a bully, but when Eric decides he has to step up and speak out against him he quickly becomes Griffin’s next victim. |
 Sanderson, Brandon, Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians Scholastic Press, ©2007.If you had to chose a talent, you probably wouldn’t chose being able to break things, but since he was little Alcatraz Smedry keeps disintegrating things around him! Having been through a series of foster homes, he discovers on his 13th birthday that reality is not what he has been brought up to believe and his talent will come in really useful as he works with his new found grandfather and cousins to save the world from the cult of evil librarians! |
 Slade, Arthur G. Jolted: Newton Starker’s Rules for Survival Wendy Lamb Books, ©2009.Jolted: Newton Starker’s rules for survival Wendy Lamb Books 2009 Every member of Newton’s mother’s family has over the centuries been killed by lightening. Newton himself spends his days living in a protective dome, afraid to go outside. When his mother is killed by a lightning strike, Newton decides he must do something, so he enrolls in the Jerry Potts Academy of Higher Learning and Survival. Will a highly intelligent pig, some good friends, and some unorthodox teaching methods be enough for Newton to conquer his fear? |
 Taylor, Greg. Killer Pizza Feiwel & Friends, ©2009.When Toby gets a summer job at the new pizza parlor in town he’s thrilled, after all he really loves to cook and this will give him some great hands-on experience. Little does he realize that Killer Pizza is just a front for a secret monster hunting organization and he and his coworkers are the latest recruits! |
 Woodson, Jacqueline. Peace, Locomotion Putnam Juvenile, ©2009.Since the death of their mother and father, Lonnie and his sister Lili have been living with separate foster families. As he doesn’t get to see his sister as much as he would like, Lonnie writes her letters that talk about his friends and teachers at school, and his life with his foster family; especially his foster brother Jenkins who returns injured from the Iraq war. |
The 2010-2011 school year Reading Counts program was a huge success! This year forty-five RMS students read 20 books or more! They were rewarded with a party in the Media Center which included food, fun, prizes and Wii video gaming.
Forty-two students received a $20 gift card to Barnes and Noble.
The top three readers in the school received iPod Touches!!
SSYRA Titles 2011-2012 »« So That We Won’t Forget… A Collaborative Holocaust Project
The impact the Holocaust continues to have on the world was illustrated these past few weeks as the eighth grade language arts students of RMS completed an in depth study of the victims of the Holocaust.
The LA classes met in the Media Center for two consecutive weeks to learn about the Holocaust. Mrs. Smykla explained the activities at each station, the rotation process and the scoring rubric to the students when Mrs. Gardner, Ms. Welch and Mrs. Jones-Oliver brought in each class.
Station 1- Internet Photo Essay: The students viewed a photo tour of Auschwitz and answered questions on a worksheet.
Station 2- Research & Flip Video Recording: Each group of students researched a different topic. After answering the research questions, the group reported their information on camera.
Station 3- “The Hangman”: The students watched the video (an animated telling of “The Hangman.”) The students analyzed the poem and answered questions on a worksheet.
Station 4- Art & Poem: Each group read a different short biography of a young Holocaust victim. They wrote a poem from their person’s point-of-view and drew a picture to illustrate it.
After instructions were given, the groups divided up and were assigned a station as a starting point. The stations rotated every 20 minutes. All stations were visited the first and second days and any unfinished work from each station was completed the third and fourth days. Students also completed designing their butterflies, each representing a child from the camp at Theresienstadt and hung them up in the Media Center.
Culminating activities:
1. Two Holocaust survivors told their stories to the students.
2. Cutting down of the butterflies- Students came to the Media Center to find out what happened to their child. If their child did not survive the Holocaust, the student had to cut down their butterfly.
As less than 100 of the 15,000 children at Theresienstadt survived so only a few butterflies were left hanging at the end of the ceremony. The ceremony was powerful since the students had time to get attached to their butterflies. All the butterflies will be sent to the Holocaust Museum in Houston.
3. Each teacher got a DVD that includes all of the students’ filmed research on the 49 topics to show in class.
4. The students’ art and poetry is displayed in the Media Center.
Stations are modified from a project found in Collaborative Library Research Projects by John D. Volkman (p.35-52)
What better way to get kids excited about reading than to provide them with a first-hand experience of getting to meet an author?! Thanks to the wonderful April Is for Authors event that took place on April 30, 2011 at Palm Beach Gardens High School, we were able to get three authors to come and speak with our students.
On Wednesday, April 27, 2011, Mary Monroe, author of Miracle at Monty Middle, Krazy White Girl and Tagger, came in to speak with the students in the Reading department. She was able to really connect with the kids who often think reading is “boring.” After hearing her presentation, the students were lined up in the Media Center asking for her books!
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| Mr. Oyer with Ms. Turner & Mr. Oliver, Environmental Science Dept. |
The next day, Harvey Oyer, author of The Adventures of Charlie Pierce: An American Jungle and The Adventures of Charlie Pierce: The Last Egret, presented two large group sessions to the Environmental Science magnet students.
These students learned more about the local history of the region in the hour that Mr. Oyer spoke than they had in their whole lives of living here in Palm Beach County, Florida!
Mr. Oyer’s visit coincided with the Environmental Science depart’s Earth Week event and accentuated the program’s message of conservation.
Katie Alender, author of Bad Girls Don’t Die and From Bad to Cursed, visited with the Language Arts students on Friday. Mrs. Alender explained the process of becoming a published author in two separate large group sessions. She delivered a Keynote presentation followed by a Question and Answer forum. Only the bell-ringing stopped the questions! And even then, many students stayed after to speak with Katie.
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| Katie Alender speaks with the students at RMS |
Following the large group sessions, seven students from the Battle of the Books club had lunch with Mrs. Alender in a special “Lunch with the Author.” All of these girls had read the book and were so excited about speaking with the author directly regarding the novel. What an amazing opportunity!
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| Lunch with the Author! |
After lunch, Mrs. Alender conducted two more sessions, Writer’s Workshops! The students attending these sessions were handpicked by their Language Arts teachers because they have an interest in becoming writers. During each session, Mrs. Alender facilitated a writing exercise where the students actually produced a finished product! These students were ecstatic at receiving hands-on training with a published author!
Having just one author visit with our students would have been an awesome experience, but having three in one week was truly an amazing occurrence! This was only possible because The April Is for Authors event paid for the travel and lodging of these authors. Please support this event next year so we can continue to offer these once-in-a-lifetime experiences for our students!
So That We Won’t Forget… A Collaborative Holocaust Project »« Battle of the Books Champs….Again!!!
Roosevelt Middle School BOB participants have done it again! This year, The Dementors consisting of Apoorva, Gayathri, Misha and Autumn, a group of seventh grade girls, were the big winners! The Dementors beat out 48 other middle school teams in an online battle, including 7 teams from Roosevelt Middle School, to continue on the live Grand Championship at The Education Network!
The Dementors arrive at T.E.N.
The Dementors faced off against The Pickleface Organization from Boca Raton Middle School on April 29, 2011 during a live filming of the competition. After the winner was announced, Roosevelt’s team, The Dementors, won the trophy defeating their opponent 105 to 70!
The Dementors win the 2010-2011 Battle of the Books!
This is the second year in a row that a team from Roosevelt Middle School has won this prestigious award and the third year in a row that RMS has represented a team in the final battle!
Battle of the Books is a club sponsored by Mrs. Smykla and Mrs. Gardner. If you are interested in participating in next year’s group, please see Mrs. Smykla in the Media Center!
Katie Alender, author of Bad Girls Don’t Die and Bad to Cursed, will be coming to speak to the students at our school Friday, April 29, 2011!
Katie will be in town as a participant in the April is for Authors event being held at Palm Beach Gardens High School on Saturday, April 30, 2011.
Battle of the Books Champs….Again!!! »« Top Library Book Checkouts for 2010
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