The Toy Guy

Would you like to have a job where you get paid to play with toys? We would! This week in reading we were learning about facts and opinions. Mrs. Braymer introduced us to Chris Byrne whose nickname is "The Toy Guy." First, Chris got a job writing instructions about how toys work or how to put them together. Next, he started going on television to explain new toys. Then, he began writing reviews about the toys in order to persuade people to buy them. Today, he still plays with toys and writes the good and bad about each one. We were able to look at some of his toy reviews and find facts and opinions.  You can check out his website at www.thetoyguy.com/index.php. Make sure you go and read some of his reviews about this year's best toys.

Anne Frank

   Imagine what it would be like to live in a tiny apartment with eight other people and no one can know you are there. Anne Frank, her family, and friends were Jews in hiding during World War II. Earlier this year, we read Number the Stars which was also about Jews in hiding. In that story, AnneMarie helped her Jewish friends hide.

   The story of AnneMarie is fiction, but the story of Anne Frank is non-fiction. Anne Frank kept a diary while her family hid for about two years. Months before the end of the war, the Nazi soldiers discovered the Frank family and their friends. The Nazis separated them onto different trains. Anne and her sister Margot had their heads shaved and were made to work very hard in concentration camps. Before they were given their freedom, Anne and Margot Frank got dysentery, which is a disease. The Nazis stopped feeding the girls, and Anne died at the age of fifteen.

   Of the eight people who lived in the apartment, only Otto Frank, Anne's father survived. Years later, someone found Anne's diary and gave it to her father. He had it made into a book that has been translated into many languages. Anne Frank was not only intelligent, but she was very brave. You can read about it in her diary.

FALLING UP

"I tripped on my shoelace

And I fell up...

I got sick to my stomach

And I threw down."

This is part of a poem from a book called Falling Up by Shel Silverstein. This book is a collection of silly and hilarious poems. Mrs. Braymer reads them to us during a time she calls "Poetry after Lunch." We are always entertained by these poems. We get so excited you can hear us begging, "Please, read us one more!" whenever Mrs. Braymer finishes one. The pictures in the book are also funny.

Because we love them so much, we're going to give you another.

SNOWBALL

by Shel Silverstein

I made myself a snowball

As perfect as could be.

I thought I'd keep it as a pet

And let it sleep with me.

I made it some pajamas

And a pillow for its head.

Then last night it ran away, 

But first - it wet the bed.