Roald Dahl created fantastical worlds: young boys and giant peaches, a boy, his grandfather and a wacky candy maker and a girl who has magical mind powers. His books like “James and the Giant Peach,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Matilda” have delighted kids for years. Dahl was born on September 13, 1916 in the European nation of Great Britain and died on November 23, 1990. In addition to his many books, Dahl also wrote screenplays for movies, such as the children’s fantasy “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” and the movie version of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Search your eEdition and the Internet for weird news items that could be the basis of fictional stories. Write an outline for a story based on one news item, including characters, setting, beginning, middle and end. Then write the first chapter.

World of My Imagination

Create Your Own Toy

I Am Thankful For …

Farewell, Manny

Black Friday

How would you like a job as a toy tester? Good Housekeeping magazine had 140 children ages 3-13 come to a laboratory and test out 135 new toys this year. The top toys picked by the young testers include the Hexbug Hive Habitat, which has mechanical bugs running through customized mazes; the Playmates Shell-raiser, which is a car for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; the Moose Toys Fortune Cookie Maker; the Lego Friends Adven-ture Camper; the Playmobil E-Rangers Headquarters; some Wild Planet Night Sight goggles; the K’Nex Atomic Coaster; and the Ravensburger 3D Building Set. What kind of toy would you create if you worked at a toy company? What age group would you target? Search your eEdition and the Internet for new toys on the market for the holidays. Using these toys as a jumping off point, draw your own toy invention. Write a set of instructions on how to use the toy.

Sometimes in life, dreams don’t turn out the way we think they will. Detroit, Michigan, boxing legend Emanuel Steward understood that. He made an impression as a young, amateur boxer, but supporting a family changed his dream of turning professional. He worked as a lineman for the Detroit Edison electric company, but he never lost his passion for boxing. In 1971, he became a part-time

coach at the Kronk Recreation Center and began building a reputation as someone you would want in your corner. He ended up training great boxers like Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis and Oscar De La Hoya. Steward died last week at age 68, and his obituary has run in newspapers around the world. Obituaries are a final account of a person’s life. Read several obituaries in your eEdition. Then use a search engine to find biographical information about someone you admire. Use what you find to write a short obituary for the person you admire.

This week our country celebrates Thanksgiving. President Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1863 as a means of helping the nation heal the pain caused by the American Civil War. Turkeys didn’t become the centerpiece of the meal until after World War II, however. Thanks- giving is a time to remember the story of the Pilgrims, who came to a new land to create a new life for themselves. It also is a time to remember everything for which we are thankful. Search your eEdition for things that make you feel thankful. Draw a picture of them. Or draw a comic strip showing your family being thankful for something.

The day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year, as families rush out to buy gifts for Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah. As a class, look for stories about holiday shopping in the eEdition. Talk about all the ways shopping at stores and malls benefits the community and people who live there. Then look through the holiday ads in the eEdition for items you might like to buy for relatives. Pick items for three relatives (don’t worry about the cost). Write a complete sentence for each, explaining why you would give each relative each gift. Then pick something you would like to buy for yourself and write a sentence explaining why.

Common Core/National Standard: Producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience.

Common Core/National Standards: Producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience; knowing the different visual characteristics and purposes of art to convey ideas.

Common Core/National Standards: Using drawings or visual dis-plays when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or points; knowing the different visual characteristics and purposes of art to convey ideas.

Common Core/National Standards: Defining subject searching and devising a search strategy to locate information using available electronic research resources; responding to a variety of written and electronic texts by making connections to students’ personal lives.

Common Core/National Standard: Producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience.

The battle between Boston College and the University of Miami on November 23, 1984, went down in history as one of the best college football games of all time. Miami fans already were celebrating a victory when Boston quarterback Doug Flutie threw the ultimate Hail Mary pass with zero time left on the clock. The 48-yard throw sailed over the heads of defenders and into the hands of B.C. receiver Gerard Phelan, upsetting Miami 47-45. Whatever happened to Flutie and Phelan? Search your eEdition and the Internet for stories about them and write an essay in the style of a newspaper feature story on what they are doing now.

Sending Up a Hail Mary

Standing Up for Elders

Find Those Phrases

Protecting History

Shame vs. Jail

Who protects the old and infirm? In the case of Arizona resident Marie Long, not the state’s legal system. Long is a 91-year-old widow who was worth $1.3 million when she suffered a stroke in 2005. She came under the “protection” of the state’s probate court, and by 2009 the money was gone. According to a column in the Arizona Republic, the commissioner in charge of her case, Lindsay Ellis, made rulings that “the attorneys and fiducia-ries were justified in helping themselves to well over $1 million.” On top of that, several attorneys who volunteered their services to help Long fight the taking of her money met resistance at the Superior Court level and recently were refused a hearing by the state’s Supreme Court. Search your eEdition and the Internet for cases in which senior citizens are taken advantage of. As a class, debate what should be done to protect them.

The pyramids, the Sphinx and other treasures in the African nation of Egypt are being threatened by a terrorist named Murgan Salem al-Gohary. Al-Gohary recently went on Egyptian television and called on Muslims to destroy these ancient wonders, because God had told the Muslim prophet Muhammad to destroy all idols, such as statues. According to news reports, al-Gohary said the Sphinx and the pyramids

are idols that are worshipped. Claiming to have served in the Taliban terrorist group, he noted that he and fellow Taliban members destroyed Buddha statues in Afghanistan when they were in control there. The Egyptian government is taking steps to protect the pyramids and the Sphinx. Search your eEdition and the Internet for articles about the history of the pyramids and the Sphinx and threats against them. Write an essay in the style of an eEdition story about how and when they were built, how they have survived through history and their importance to the Egyptian people. Create a model or draw a picture of the pyramids or the Sphinx to go with your essay.

Words do many things. They can name things as nouns do, show action as verbs do, describe nouns as adjectives do, or tell when and where something happens as prepositional phrases do. Preposi-tions are words like “on,” “in” “before” or “after.” Prepositional phrases can be part of a sentence such as “on his bike” or “in the store.” Find a story in your eEdition that looks interesting to you. Print out the story. Using a highlighter, find and highlight all the prepositional phrases you can find. Then use the search features of the eEdition to search for the prepositions “on,” “in” “before,” and one other chosen by you or your class. Chart which are used most as a bar graph.

An Ohio judge recently ordered Shena Hardin to stand at an intersection hold-ing a sign reading, “Only an idiot would drive on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus.” The Ohio judge isn’t the only one to use shame as a deterrent. A Texas couple must stand outside a mall for five hours every weekend for six years holding a sign that reads, “I Am a Thief.” Another Texas man had to spend 30 nights sleep-ing in a doghouse after pleading guilty to whipping his stepson. Search your eEdition and the Internet for unusual sentences given to offenders. Write your own ideas for unusual sentences.

Common Core/National Standard: Producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience.

Common Core/National Standard: Responding thoughtfully to diverse perspectives, summarizing points of agreement and disagreement.

Common Core/National Standard: Identifying parts of speech, including compound sentences, direct and indirect objects, common and proper nouns and prepositional phrases; defining subject searching and devising a search strategy to locate information.

Common Core/National Standard: Producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience.

Common Core/National Standards: Producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience; knowing the different visual characteristics and purposes of art to convey ideas.

At almost every American sporting event, people rise and sing the National Anthem. That tradition was iced for Pennsylvania high school hockey games recently. A directive came down from the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League that the National Anthem should not be performed because of economic issues that include the cost of rent-ing ice time. The league’s commissioner said, “It’s not that we’re not patriotic, that’s the furthest from the truth” but the rented time should be used for hockey, not singing. The ban has caused an outcry among parents, fans and players. As a class, debate the merits of the ban. Then write a short editorial for the eEdition giving your opinion on whether the league should ban the national anthem for this reason.

To Sing or Not to Sing

Who Are You???

Pick One

States Pulling Out?

From Pages to Silver Screen

Who do you aspire to be like one day? One of our nation’s great presidents? Maybe a civil rights leader who led the way for equality for all people? Possibly a fantastic teacher who made a difference in your life? Not Valeria Lukyanova. She wants to be like a Barbie doll. And the 21-year-old Ukrainian isn’t the only one who wants to look like a doll or cartoon character. In fact, Sarah Burge from England has spent more then $500,000 on surgeries and clothes to try to look like Barbie. Search your eEdition or the Internet for people who drastically alter themselves, or pursue dreams to extremes. Write an opinion essay about one person, what he/she did and why.

“I swear, if (fill in the blank here) is elected, I’ll move to Canada!” During heated elections, people often spout off about what they’ll do if the candidate they support loses and one they dislike wins. But residents in 20 states have gone even further after Barack Obama won re-election, collecting signatures petitioning the federal government to allow their states to peacefully secede from the United States.

Those states include people from all regions of the country, including Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina in the South; New York, New Jersey, Michigan and Indiana in the North; and Montana, Texas, Colorado and Oregon in mountain and western states. These petitions are primarily a symbolic gesture to garner the attention of the Obama administration to address issues that a group called “We the People” would like to see addressed. Search your eEdition and the Internet for groups supporting secession. Write an analysis essay on why people would want to secede, and why it is unlikely the request would ever be granted.

The toolbar at the top or side of the eEdition allows readers to move through the eEdition with pull-down menus. Pull-down menus let readers pick specific pages to go to by number. They also al-low readers to pick specific sections and even different dates of the eEdition. Using the pull-down menus, go to the movie listings or ads. Write down a movie you’d like to see, what movie theater you’d like to see it at and the best time to see the movie. Next, write a paragraph describing how using an eEdition is different from print for find-ing movies, along with the advantages and disadvantages.

Movie lovers will be bombarded with movie options during the last two months of 2012. Many of the highly anticipated movies coming out are based on novels. The musical version of Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables” will soon be in theaters, as will J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy, and the eagerly awaited “Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2” based on the books by Stephenie Meyer. Search your eEdition for reviews or previews of these movies. Choose one and read the novel before seeing the movie. Write a review of the movie comparing it to the book. Which was better in your opinion?

Common Core/National Standard: Responding thoughtfully to diverse perspectives, summarizing points of agreement and disagreement.

Common Core/National Standard: Producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience.

Common Core/National Standards: Using a variety of technology tools for data collection; comparing information technologies from the past and present.

Common Core/National Standard: Producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience.

Common Core/National Standard: Producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience.