Exploring Your Mount Everest

This week we read all about the Mary's cousin, the reclusive and mysterious Collin. We learned that Collin is wheel-chair bound and his doctor does not believe he will ever be able to walk again. Collin accepts his doctor's prediction as being a fact he can't do anything to change. Walking becomes a mountain that Collin believes he can never climb; his 'Mount Everest.'

Think about something you once thought you could never do, accomplish or change (a Mount Everest of your own). Tell what lead you to feel that way. If you overcame that obstacle, tell how you did it. If you have yet to accomplish that feat, come up with a couple ideas of things you could do to work towards achieving it. Remember that you can do anything you set your mind to! Over the next week listen during read-aloud time for how Collin approaches his own Mount Everest.

Click on the link below to read about the first people to climb Mount Everest; Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
Mount Everest

Exploring the Setting

The Secret Garden by  Frances Hodgson Burnett takes place in Yorkshire England at the turn of the 20th century. In specific, the majority of the story plays out at Misselthwaite manor, the Yorkshire home of Mary's reclusive uncle, with whom she has been sent to live. In class we have read all about the garden that Mary discovers hidden behind the ivy-covered door.

I want you all to imagine that you have a garden of your very own just like Mary. Mary chooses to plant a variety of flowers in her garden.Think about and then describe what you will grow in your garden. Anything is possible- flowers, vegetables, fruits, or herbs. Tell why you chose to grow the kind of garden you did.

For ideas about types of flowers you might like to grow in your garden, please visit and explore the link below.
Tropical Flowers