Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper

One School Book 2013-2014
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It started with Wonder, continued with The One and Only Ivan and then in 2014-2015 N.E.W. Academy Canoga Park embarked on the biggest literary adventure we've ever had with Sharon Draper's Out of My Mind. Enjoy learning about the many adventures Melody's story inspired us to take, what we learned and who we met along the way.

NACP kicked off our 3rd "One School One Book" with Sharon Draper's Out of My Mind

     On Friday, September 12th the campus was buzzing with excitement and anticipation for this year's highly anticipated "One School One Book" Book Launch Assembly. We were joined by our new friends from United Cerebral Palsy Los Angeles (UCPLA), Amy Simons and Tamara Pompey, as we announced the name of our whole school read aloud, Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper, and partnership with UCPLA. 
     We embarked on our first Literary Inclusion Project, our biggest literary adventure thus far. UCPLA and NACP have been dreaming of ways we can partner together, such as through writing projects with their new writer’s guild, art projects with their artists in residence/fine art gallery program, Skypes, cooking, gardening, recycling and more. We worked hard to find funding and resources that would make it an incredible year and celebration of NEW Academy’s 10th year anniversary and UCPLA’s 70th anniversary! 
     
Sharon Draper's novel, Out of My Mind  took us on an amazing journey beyond the pages:
  • Leigh Baker, an author and UCPLA resident, came to read her book to us.
  • Robyn Zelden and her therapy dog, Barron, came to visit us and share how animals like Barron help people with disabilities. There were some wonderful connections made by the students to Melody's dog, Butterscotch in Out of My Mind.
  • We've learned about many other developmental disabilities such as Down Syndrome and ALS and even skyped with Tim Harris! 
  • To learn about the deaf and hard of hearing, we Skyped with an ASL instructor, Kim Marhefka. (We even learned how to play I Spy in ASL and how to sign our names! Scroll down for an I Spy video and a video of two 1st graders signing their name for us.)
  • Students in Mrs. E. Rodriguez's 1st grade class drew colors to see if they saw colors through sound like Melody.
  • Our 4th Graders drew pictures of their most beloved scenes from the book and also completed mentor sentence activities with lines from the book to improve their writing. 
  • Ms. Olson's 5th grade class created communication boards to experience what it must have been like for Melody. 
  • Students donated their own Halloween candy and raised $1068 for UCPLA, thanks to help from Dr. Rubin and Operation Gratitude. 
  • With help from our amazing music teacher, Genien Letford, students rewrote the song 'Wide Awake' to reflect their interaction with the Out of My Mind (click on the book cover below to watch). 
  • Big plans finished out the school year including Skypes with UCPLA residents, a Superhero Day (everyone can be a Superhero to themselves or to someone else) and so much more! Keep scrolling!

                                              *OUR SUPERHERO PROJECT*
Aerojet Rocketdyne's Tony Magee and Jud Meyers from Blastoff Comics joined us on 3/13/15 to help us kickoff our Superhero Inclusion Project with UCPLA! The adventures beyond the pages of our "One School One Book"continues! Over 500 of us wore capes as we discussed the superhero inside of us. Jud invited us to create a Super Team with Blastoff Comics.  We will be uniting force and making a huge difference! More pictures and more info to come, but in the meantime, check out the slideshow below and our interview with Fanbase Press. The journey beyond our One School One Book continues! http://www.fanbasepress.com/index.php/blogs/barbra-dillon/item/5042

Sharon Draper visited NACP!

Sharon Draper, author of New York Times Bestseller Out of My Mind, came to spend the day with us on December 12, 2014. For more pictures, information and fun videos from this incredible day, please continue to scroll down and explore this page. It was an adventure packed year!

Beyond the Pages:  Author Leigh Baker,
Robyn Zelden & Barron (the therapy dog) and 
Our Haloween Candy Drive to Raise Money for UCPLA

To kick off College and Career Month at NACP, author Leigh Baker, came to share her book, The Journey Through the Magic Book on November 7th. It is so special when we get to hear an author read their story to us! Robyn Zelden and Barron, a therapy dog, also came to greet the kids and share their career. The connections made to our school wide read of Out of My Mind, were out of this world! Get a glimpse of this incredible day by clicking through the images below.

(Please click on pictures for captions.)

Out of My Mind - Melody's Wide Awake Music Video
(produced and directed by our dynamic 
music/arts integration teacher:
Genein Letford)

We turned 534 pounds of candy into $1068 for UCPLA!

Class Competition Winners! 
Bottom Left: Ms. J. Rod's 1st Grade Class . . .  47 pounds!
                                Bottom Right: Ms. Greenan's 4th Grade Class . . . 44 pounds!                                  

Click through our slideshow below to see pictures from our 
highly anticipated and extraordinary day with 
New York Times Bestelling Author, Sharon Draper

We are so thrilled to have Sharon Draper's signature on our "Author Wall!" 

Highlights from "Draper Day!"

Beyond the Pages with ASL Instructor: Kim Marhefka

We Skyped with Kim Marhefka, an Advanced Signing Time Instructor, from Signing Time Academy to go along with our school wide read of Sharon Draper's Out of My Mind. We're practicing our signs so that she can teach us a game to play when we Skype with her again. (Watch us learn the game below the slide show, bottom left!)

I Spy with Mrs. Marhefka and 
American Sign Language!

Signing Time with Rachel Coleman:
Silly Pizza Song

Watch Mrs. J. Rod's 1st Graders Sign Their Name!

Student letters to the characters in Out of My Mind:

Finding Melody through the Arts with Mrs. Letford: