HAVE A WONDERFUL SUMMER and A GREAT 8th GRADE YEAR!



Miss Clark & Mrs. Hogsett

June 8, 2007

Titanic Research paper due: Monday, June 11th.

June 7, 2007


Bring: WHITE T-SHIRT to class.

June 6, 2007

Begin: ROUGH DRAFT of research paper.

*This is the fun part, when you see it ALL come together!


Miss Clark & Mrs. Hogsett

June 5, 2007

Notecards due tomorrow. This is for review only; we need to make sure you are on track and have collected enough information to begin your DRAFT paper.




Miss Clark & Mrs. Hogsett

June 4, 2007

I can't believe that this is the very last week of homework posting to the Polar Bear Language Arts website.

*Titanic research notecards due: Wednesday, June 6th.

Please bring white t-shirt to class on Friday, June 8th. Mark this in your planner so that you do not forget.


Miss Clark & Mrs. Hogsett

Summer Reading List....for when you get bored two weeks after school is out.

Original URL: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/summer/reading/6099.html

Summer Reading List -- Middle

Provided by
Penguin Putnam		Dorling Kindersley

Anne Frank and Me
by Cherie Bennett
ISBN: 0399233296
Book Description: After suffering a concussion while on a class trip to a Holocaust exhibit, Nicole finds herself living the life of a Jewish teenager in Paris during the Nazi occupation.

The Blue Sword
by Robin McKinley
ISBN: 0688009387
Book Description: Harry, bored with her sheltered life in the remote orange-growing colony of Daria, discovers magic in herself when she is kidnapped by a native king with mysterious powers.

Callahan Cousins: Summer Begins
by Elizabeth Doyle Carey
ISBN: 0316736902
Book Description: Celebrate family ties, loyalty, and the wisdom of children. Follow four preteen girls who are having the adventure of a lifetime while spending the summer with their grandmother on Gull Island. Take a look at Callahan Cousins: Summer Begins Activities.

Camp Confidential: Jenna's Dilemma
by Melissa J. Morgan
ISBN: 0448437384
Book Description: Jenna is determined to make camp fun this year, in spite of her parents' separation and the company of her twin brother and older sister. Find teaching activities to extend the book.

Camp Confidential: Natalie's Secret
by Melissa J. Morgan
ISBN: 0448437376
Book Description: Natalie Goode goes from life in the city to Camp Lakeview, where the secret she's been keeping might get in the way of new friendships.

Dancing in Cadillac Light
by Kimberly Willis Holt
ISBN: 0399234020
Book Description: In 1968, 11-year-old Jaynell's life in the town of Moon, TX, is enlivened when her eccentric Grandpap comes to live with her family.

A Diamond in the Dust
by Carla Joinson
ISBN: 0803725116
Book Description: Despite her mother's objections and the love of an older classmate, 16-year-old Katy is determined to find a better life for herself beyond her family's poverty and sorrow in the Illinois coal mining town where they live.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid
by Jeff Kinney
Book Description: Inspire middle-school students with this fun, online reading experience. New daily entries, full of the fictitious Greg Heffley's life mishaps and musings, will carry you through the year.

Empress of Elsewhere
by Theresa Nelson
ISBN: 0789424983
Book Description: There are many mysteries behind the grandiose exterior of Grandmother Monroe's mansion, to which Jimmy and his younger sister, Mary Al, have been cajoled to baby-sit a capuchin monkey that keeps escaping – which is more than J.D. can do.

Fire Bringer
by David Clement-Davies
ISBN: 0525464921
Book Description: Enjoy the retelling of the Paiute legend about the Coyote helping an Indian boy bring fire to his tribe.

Getting Near to Baby
by Audrey Couloumbis
ISBN: 039923389X
Book Description: Although 13-year-old Willa Jo and her Aunt Patty seem to be constantly at odds, staying with her and Uncle Hob helps Willa Jo and her younger sister come to terms with the death of their family's baby.

A Girl Named Disaster
by Nancy Farmer
ISBN: 0531095398
Book Description: After the death of her mother, Nhamo is left a virtual slave in her small African village. Upon learning that before her 12th birthday she must marry a cruel man with three other wives, Nhamo desperately decides to run away.

The Hermit Thrush Sings
by Susan Butler
ISBN: 0789424894
Book Description: After a natural disaster has all but destroyed the earth, the orphaned and "defective" Leora, while searching for her sister, defies the oppressive laws of the land and joins a band of rebels trying to overthrow the government.

Hope Was Here
by Joan Bauer
ISBN: 0399231420
Book Description: When 16-year-old Hope and the aunt who has raised her move from Brooklyn to Mulhoney, WI, to work as waitress and cook in the Welcome Stairways diner, they become involved with the diner owner's political campaign to oust the town's corrupt mayor.

Jake's Orphan
by Peggy Brooke
ISBN: 0789426285
Book Description: When taken from an orphanage to work on a farm in North Dakota in 1926, 12-year-old Tree searches for a home not only for himself but also for his irrepressible younger brother.

I Am Morgan Le Fay
by Nancy Springer
ISBN: 0399234519
Book Description: In a war-torn England where her half-brother Arthur will eventually become king, the young Morgan le Fay comes to realize that she has magic powers and links to the faerie world.

The Islander
by Cynthia Rylant
ISBN: 0789424908
Book Description: Living with his grandfather on an island off British Columbia, orphaned ten-year-old Daniel feels deep loneliness until the night he meets a mermaid whose identity he tries to learn.

Island of the Aunts
by Eva Ibbotson
ISBN: 0525464840
Book Description: As they get older, several sisters decide that they must kidnap children and bring them to their secluded island home to help with the work of caring for an assortment of unusual sea creatures.

Letters from Rifka
by Karen Hesse
ISBN: 0805019642
Book Description: In letters to her cousin, a young Jewish girl chronicles her family's flight from Russia in 1919 and her own experiences when she must be left in Belgium temporarily when the others emigrate to America.

A Long Way from Chicago
by Richard Peck
ISBN: 0803722907
Book Description: A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural Illinois with his sister during the Great Depression to visit their larger-than-life grandmother.

Lord of the Flies
by Tim Wynne-Jones
ISBN: 0789426234
Book Description: This wonderfully wise and witty new collection is full of surprises as ordinary kids in offbeat situations uncover the unexpected – about themselves and others.

Love Among the Walnuts
by Jean Ferris
ISBN: 0152015906
Book Description: Born and raised in isolation in a wealthy, eccentric family, Sandy is shocked when he, his parents, and their servants become victims of a vicious plot by his greedy uncles to incapacitate them and take their money.

Love from Your Friend, Hannah
by Mindy Warshaw Skolsky
ISBN: 0789424924
Book Description: Here is a year of letters, at times hilarious, at others touching or suspenseful. The principal correspondent is Hannah Diamond of quiet Grand View, NY, who writes one day to Edward Winchley, a farm boy of Wichita, KS.

Milly Stories
by Joyce Lankester Brisley
ISBN: 789424916
Book Description: Unlike her aunt, 11-year-old Millie, who lives in the funeral home run by her uncle, finds it very difficult to determine who's peculiar and who's not, even as she learns to understand and accept herself.

Miracle's Boys
by Jacqueline Woodson
ISBN: 0399231137
Book Description: Twelve-year-old Lafayette's close relationship with his older brother Charlie changes after Charlie is released from a detention home and blames Lafayette for the death of their mother.

On the Fringe
by Donald R. Gallo
ISBN: 0803726562
Book Description: Offering insights into popularity and peer pressure, nonconformity and persecution, acceptance and hate, these riveting, provocative tales will leave readers thinking and start them talking. Stories by: Joan Bauer, Alden R. Carter, Chris Crutcher, Jack Gantos, Angela Johnson, M. E. Kerr, Ron Koertge, Francess Lantz, Graham Salisbury, Will Weaver, Nancy Werlin.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
by Mildred D. Taylor
ISBN: 0803774737
Book Description: This is an extraordinarily moving novel not easily forgotten. Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, it is the story of one family's struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence.

The Secret Platform 13
by Eva Ibbotson
ISBN: 0525459294
Book Description: Odge Gribble, a young hag, accompanies an old wizard, a gentle fey, and a giant ogre on their mission through a magical tunnel from their Island to London to rescue their King and Queen's son who had been stolen as an infant.

Stranger in Dadland
by Amy Goldman Koss
ISBN: 0803725639
Book Description: Twelve-year-old John develops a new understanding of his divorced father during an eventful summer visit to California.

The Thief
by Megan Whalen Turner
ISBN: 0140388346
Book Description: Gen flaunts his ingenuity as a thief and relishes in the adventure that takes him to a remote temple of the gods where he will attempt to steal a precious stone.

The Truth Out There
by Celia Rees
ISBN: 0789426684
Book Description: Thirteen-year-old Josh begins digging into the mystery of his Uncle Patrick, an autistic boy who died at Josh's age while investigating the crash of a flying saucer, and a terrible family secret is uncovered.

Voices in the Park
by Anthony Browne
ISBN: 078942522X
Book Description: Four people enter a park, and through their eyes we see four different visions. There's the bossy woman, the sad man, the lonely boy, and the young girl whose warmth touches those she meets. As the story moves from one voice to another, their perspectives are reflected in the shifting landscape and seasons.

We Goddesses: Athena, Aphrodite, Hera
by Doris Orgel
ISBN: 0789425866
Book Description: In "life" they hardly got along, but their book is a triumph of witty, robust, spell-casting collaboration. The Greek myths have never before been told by their leading ladies, or ever before in such a charming, conversational, yet dramatic and modern way.

The Westing Game
by Ellen Raskin
ISBN: 0140386645
Book Description: The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an unlikely assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before they can claim their inheritance.

The Wings of Merlin
by T. A. Baron
ISBN: 039923456X
Book Description: Merlin's fragile home on the isle of Fincayra is threatened by the attack of a mysterious warrior with swords for arms, and by the escape of Stangmar from his imprisonment, as Merlin continues to move toward his ultimate destiny.

A Year Down Yonder
by Richard Peck
ISBN: 0803725183
Book Description: During the recession of 1937, 15-year-old Mary Alice is sent to live with her feisty, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois and comes to a better understanding of this fearsome woman.

May 21, 2007

While you do not have homework for the next several weeks, please make sure to:

1. Study your test taking tips (notes taken in class)

2. Begin your research on The Titanic....

Miss Clark & Mrs. Hogsett

Friday, May 25, 2007

None -Happy Memorial Day!

Miss Clark & Mrs. Hogsett