Email from Carol Gorman, author of Chelsey and the Green Haired Kid

Hello, Ms. Hagen and students!What a great email from you! I loved reading your comments about CHELSEY,and I'm so happy you liked the book!I'll answer your questions below:
Derek:how long did it take to publish Chelsey and the green haired kid?
Derek, the book was published a year and a half after I sold it toHoughton Mifflin.
Chloey:why is Jack so mysterious?
Chloey, Jack is mysterious because the book is a suspense novel, and mysterious people are interesting. :)
Harry:where did you come up with taco pizza?
Harry, when I wrote the book, taco pizza was my favorite!
Lauren:do you have other books related to Chelsey?
No, Lauren, CHELSEY AND THE GREEN-HAIRED KID is the only one of my booksin which Chelsey appears. Sorry! I enjoyed spending time with her, too!
Genessa:why did you name the wheelchair the Blue Streak?
Genessa, I thought Chelsey was the type of girl who might name her wheelchair, the way some people name their cars.
Emerson:what inspired you to write the book? Emerson, I wanted to write a suspense novel in which a murder wascommitted in a room full of people, but only one person witnessed it. Chloey:what would be your advice to someone who wants to get started writing?
Chloey, read as much and as widely as possible. And start writing storiesof your own. But don't fall in love with your words because writers alwayshave to revise and change and improve their writing!
Olivia:Why did you put a river at the end of suicide hill?
Olivia, Suicide Hill is a real place (but it's isn't called that!) in IowaCity. If you're ever in Iowa City, it's the Market Street hill that slopesdown toward a silver building. When I was young, there was no building atthe bottom, just a parking lot and the river beyond. So in my mind, Imoved the parking lot and river closer, so Chelsey and Jack could zoomdown the hill and coast until they were at the river's edge.
What is our favorite book you ever read?I have a lot of favorite books! I can't pin it down to just one.
Kailee:Have you thought about continuing the story of Chelsey and the green haired kid?
Kailee, I submitted a proposal for another book to Pocket Books. They published the paperback, and the editor liked it. But the publisher said,"Oh, we don't need any more mystery novels." So they didn't buy it.
Lauren:why did you make Jack smith's hair green?
Hi, Lauren. I grew up in Iowa City where I saw lots of interesting people.Jack's hair is his way of telling people, "I'm me, and I don't care what you think." I saw students on campus when I was growing up with purplehair or words shaved into their cut. I also saw a girl wearing a long gownand combat boots.
Emerson: how did you come up with the characters?
Emerson, Chelsey is a braver version of myself. Jack was a young versionof my husband Ed! Trystan:how did you come up with the book idea?
Trystan, I just used my imagination.
Liam:why did you have a character in a wheelchair?
Liam, it's scary to be a target, but even scarier if you can't run away fast!
Harry:why is Jack so bad?
Harry, he isn't bad. He's a normal kid who has had a tough life and madesome poor choices. Brianna:why are there no chapter names?
Brianna, I've never written chapter titles. For some reason, I don't likethem!
Whitney:how did you think of Suicide Hill? Whitney, see above.
Emma:why did Jerry Fields die in this book?
Emma, if Jerry Fields is killed, the bad guys seem more dangerous.
Lauren:why are Mac and Ron so mean?
Lauren, because this is a suspense novel, and they're the bad guys! :)
Liam: why did you make the book?Liam, I'm a writer, and a writer writes! :)
Omar: which book did you write first?
Omar, CHELSEY AND THE GREEN-HAIRED KID was the third novel that I wrote(after a book that didn't sell and T.J. AND THE PIRATE THAT WOULDN'T GOHOME), but the first novel that I ever sold.
this note is from Kailee>> I was wondering if you could make another Chelsey and the green haired> kid,because at the end of the book Jack said "This is the beginning of a> beautiful friendship".We were wondering since he did say that, you might> make another Chelsey and the green haired kid book. When our teacher> said to stop reading, we didn't want to stop.Kailee, that's exactly why I wrote that ending, so I could continue Chelsey's and Jack's story. I was hoping I could write more adventures for them.

I'm so glad that you all liked the book and wrote me! I'm sorry that my answers were so short, but I was in CT last weekend to speak at a library,I teach part-time at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, and this is mid-term,and I'm scrambling to keep up!
Thanks again for writing!
My best to you all,Carol Gorman

Safety Patrol

Hello All,
We have safety patrol the week of October 26th.
Have a great week!
Ms. Hagen

October News

Greetings Everyone,
Thank you everyone who attended parent teacher conferences. We have been continuing with a pretty regular routine lately. We are in the midst of the state testing and have completed the Reading sections this past week. We will continue testing the Math sessions on November 3rd and 4th.
For reading class, we did finish the book Chelsey and the Green Haired Kid. We e-mailed the author who responded to all the student questions and comments. It was exciting to see the response of the students. Carol Gorman has a website www.carolgorman.com which the students found interesting. Mrs. Gorman is from Iowa so we talked about her being a Midwest author.
I will post some of the questions and comments at a different time.

This week we celebrated Red Ribbon Week. Thank you to all the students who participated. The culminating event was a student versus staff basketball game.
Just as a reminder, we will be off of school on October 29-30. I hope you all have a safe and Happy Halloween.
Ms. Hagen

SAFETY PATROL

OUR CLASS WILL HAVE SAFETY PATROL THE WEEK OF OCTOBER 5TH-OCTOBER 9TH. HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

SEPTEMBER NEWS
MS. HAGEN’S CLASS

Greetings to All,
It is hard to believe that it is the end of September already. We are in the midst of a busy time at school. We have finished some of the assessments including the spelling pretest, writing assessment and reading inventory. In the next two weeks, we will be having MAPS assessment in the areas of reading, language, and math. I hope to have the results to share with you at conference time. We will be scheduling conferences this week.
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Late Start on Wednesday, September 30th. Classes will begin at 9:55. No breakfast will be served at school for this day.
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Conferences will be held on Friday, October 9th, Tuesday, October 13 and Thursday, October 15th. There is no school on Friday, October 9th due to conferences. The book fair will be here at school during conferences.
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Snacks for Milk Break:
Some students bring an individual snack but others are sharing a snack class. Would you be willing to send in a box of crackers, pretzels, or other item to have the class share during milk break? If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know or talk about it at conferences.

Students are enjoying the opportunity to switch classes. They are also enjoying using magnets for science class. In math, they are continuing to work on multiplication math facts. To keep up with the class, you can also keep track of our blog at
http://mshagens5thgradeblog.blogspot.com/

Have a great week! I look forward to seeing everyone at conferences.
Ms. Hagen

First weeks of school

Hello All,
We have had a terrific first two weeks of school even with the summer weather coming now.

We have been busy working on making classroom rules and routines. We have also been taking a pretest of spelling words for the year.

In reading, we are reading a class book called Chelsey and the Green Haired Kid. We are learning how to use the smart board and have done some basic activities on the smart board. We will continue with our learning and exploring.
In Science, we are working on our Friendship and Feelings unit in health. Math is working on a review of math and working on arrays, area, equal groups, and combinations.

Some reminders are:

• Please keep money in your child's lunch account
• If you are dropping off or picking up your child, please park in the parking lot and let them walk into school using the crosswalk.
• Your child may bring a water bottle to have in class. If it becomes a distraction, I may take it away.
• Please check to see if the assignments are being completed.

Ours class starts on safety patrol the week of September 14th. The students will know if they have duty during the week. They should all have their belts at school in case they need to fill in for another patrol. We will have patrol every 3 weeks from next week. Everyone will not be on the schedule every duty week as we need to rotate duties.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Have a great weekend!

Ms. Hagen

Welcome to the 2009-2010 school year

Welcome to the 2009-2010 school year! Where did the summer time go? I am sure that we all have more that we thought that we would get done or some other place we wanted to go. The summer went by quickly. I am looking forward to another school year. We will be using our smart board on a regular basis. This year our class will be switching classes for math and social studies. It will be an exciting year with many things to learn. Open House is on Thursday, August 20th from 5-7 pm. I hope to meet some of you at the open house.
Have a great rest of the summer! I will see the students on September 1st.
Ms. Hagen