Brian's interaction with WILD LIFE

This week's discussion had us examining our own survival skills.
We pointed out that in our previous books of survival, the characters had some knowledge and past experience helped them in their journey.
THIS time, Brian is a city boy.  He has no past experience.  No dad to show him how it's done.  He is surviving using his own ideas and learning from his mistakes.
Which kind are we?  Are we like Karana and Julie?  Or are we more like Brian?

We watched two videos:  The first one was how to survive a bear attack.  
                                          The second video was how to safely extract porcupine quills.

Outside we went with our flint and steel to test our skills at making a fire.  We suddenly had a lot of empathy for Brian.  Getting a spark to land right into the tinder "nest" is a challenge, and takes a lot of perseverance and patience!  However, we were successful a handful of times!  YAY!

Then, we practiced our bear attack survival pose.  Hands laced behind the neck, and protect the internal organs by laying flat on our bellies, legs spread.  "Mama Bear" Nalani tried her hardest to flip her prey over, but it proved impossible, and all of our victims survived!!

Next week, come prepared to discuss the exciting ending of our book!

HATCHET

Our new book, Hatchet,  is full of intensity.
We learned a bit about the author and his past, and recognized that sometimes our real-life experiences make for a fantastic plot for writing stories.
Since the character in the book finds himself having to pilot an airplane, we logged onto a flight simulator (with Google Earth) and took turns flying over the cities.  It is A LOT more difficult than we expected.  None our of classroom pilots were able to land safely and made for some comical moments.

Continue reading the book, up to at least chapter 14, and come to class ready to discuss porcupine pricks, bear attacks, skunk sprays and starting a fire with flint and steel.

Number the Stars

This past week, we began our discussion of our new book, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.
To set the scene of our story, we looked at a map of Denmark and noted how it shared a border with Germany and how close it is to Sweden.  We also learned a bit more about King Christian X of Denmark and the tough choices he had to make during the German occupation.
We saw illustrations of a Nazi soldier's uniform and agreed that it would be intimidating to see in our own neighborhood.  We also reminded ourselves about Adolf Hitler and his crazy ideas about the Master Race and why Jewish families were being relocated.  We all agreed that we would NOT want to have be separated from our families and go live with our friends' family, but that we understood that it was for our own protection from the German soldiers.

(Concentration Camps and Jewish extermination horrors were not discussed- I will leave that discussion up to the families)