I am back. I get busy and just don't get to writing this blog but here I am. It was a good week. My classes and I love projects. They take us out of the mundane. War and Peace newspapers are an old favorite of mine. Not sure where the idea came from initially. I used to do lots with newspapers so perhaps that was the beginning, and sharing the history of the Second War World seemed to be a bit of an obsession of mine. I love picture books and have quite a collection of those on this theme. And again anyone who has taught six and seventh grade boys knows you are always going to have a few with a fascination about war!
One the nice thing about having a brand new class is you can repeat projects when you feel like it. My class two years ago had done newspapers but because I kept ten of my students last year we didn't do that project, though we all learned lots about World War One as we read Charlie Wilcox.
Well we have had a great couple of weeks as I shared some of my favorite books and they responded and researched and created. I have to admit I kind of wondered how this would all turn out but as I see bits and pieces of the projects they are looking rather amazing. They are passionate about their work. One thing that is helpful is the fact that I had kept some of my past students' projects so that they had an idea what their work could look like.

But of course I do have a few other subjects I need to teach and I realized that my students hadn't really "gotten into" a basket of more books I had on War and Peace so that I did one of my favorite activities for both children and adults-quick book shares. I stuck two of a variety of books I had, mainly picture books on each group's tables. Students had to share the books quickly and write quick responses and then after about seven minutes pass them on to the next group. I think we were able to do six switches in the seven groups. Then students decided their favorite books. This worked out really well with lots of great conversation and enjoyment.
I don't have a complete book list for you but I have attached a copy of the assignment and I promise some pictures of the finished newspapers.
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