Ten Video Games to Ban

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I am well aware that your child may hope that you do not read this post….especially if you have these games or your child has been begging for them.

Below is an article from the New York Times highlight games that contain excessive violence, gore and sociopathic behavior. Ongoing continued exposure to this type of content can create a sense of “normalcy” around this type of behavior which then makes it easier for children to repeat what they are seeing and doing in real life.

Know that law enforcement experts, doctors, psychologists, educators and many others are concerned about the amount of violence children are exposed to these days—and we are horrified when violence is part of children’s video/gaming “play” activity.

Please read on and be aware of the type of content in these games and avoid having your child play them.

Written by Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times
When it comes to video entertainment, my daughter still prefers wholesome sports, arcade and music-themed games. But many young children and teenagers are attracted to the over-the-top characters, graphics and game play found in action-thriller titles better suited for older players.

The Web site for Common Sense Media, which offers guidance on the content of movies, music and video games, offers a list of the 10 “cool” games kids want, but parents may want to veto:

A lot of this season’s most talked-about games include ones with excessive violence, negative role models, extreme gore, sociopathic behavior and other things that have been proven to have a negative effect on children.

Various studies have linked video game violence to increased aggression and excessive game playing to lower grades. But there is also no denying the dramatic and technical appeal of many of the new games on the market. A game like Dragon Age: Origins, from Electronic Arts, has won rave reviews in the gaming community for its movielike images and engaging story line. But the game is rated M for mature audiences of 17 or older, with intense violence, blood and sexual content. As the trailer shows, the game features combat, decapitations and swords plunged into the chests of both people and dragons.

To learn more about video games and ratings, go to the Web site of the Entertainment Software Rating Board. Here are 10 of the most popular games not to give to children, based on advice from Common Sense Media:

Assassin’s Creed II: Realistic action and historical accuracy, but the player takes on the role of an assassin who relies on an arsenal of weapons.

Borderlands: Strong language, human enemies used as target practice, mature humor and lots of blood and gore.

Brutal Legend: A violent cartoon fantasy action game that includes the use of a double-sided axe to hack at demonic armies.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: Contains an optional level where the player can go undercover as an enemy terrorist.

Dead Space: Extraction: Blood spurting out of victims’ bodies, human carcasses littering the floor, blood-stained walls and floors, and copious screams of torture put it over the top.

The remaining five games on the list are:

Dragon Age: Origins
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony
Demon’s Souls
Left 4 Dead 2
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

To see the full list, more detailed game summaries and 10 alternative games that are more appropriate for teenagers, read the full story on the Common Sense Web site, “10 Cool Games That Are Uncool for Kids.”


Market Day Advertisement

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The children did a wonderful job of planning, producing, and selling their goods. They talked about natural, human and capital resources that they used during production. They looked at scarcity and opportunity cost when selling or buying. They offered sales when selling. It was a wonderful learning experience for each of them. Please take a moment to look at their advertisements on the keynote.

Market Day


Quick Update

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Tomorrow will be a very busy but fun day. In the morning, the kiids will be selling and purchasing goods during Market Day. I’m sure they will be bringing home some homemade treasures. It was a wonderful way to wrap up our economics unit. In the afternoon, we will be heading to Hudsonville High School to see a play put on by some of the English students. We should be back at school around 2:15.



Classroom Basket

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I just wanted to remind you that our theme is “A Chocolate Dream.” If possible could you send in one item to add to our basket that we will be raffling off during conferences. The possibilities are endless. You can send in anything that has chocolate in it (for example, candy, brownie mix, frosting, hot chocolate, etc.). Other ideas might include the movie Wille Wonka & the Chocolate Factory or recipe books. We greatly appreciate your help!

Picture 3



Economics

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We have been talking about our wants and needs (which was a review from first grade) during Social Studies. We have also discussed goods, services, and scarcity. Today we had a guest speaker, Mrs. Raterink, from Michigan State Agriculture come into our classroom to provide us with an opportunity to practice production and distribution. We loved hearing about her dairy farm. We found out that it was not very fun to have to pay the banker after being paid for the milk that we sold. Our vocabulary for the lesson included the following terms: economics, human resource, natural resource, capital resource, producers, consumers, profit, distribution, goods, services, and production. We even used our math skills to figure out our profit. We especially loved being able to be the farmers, truckers, distributors, grocers and our favorite was the consumers. Yummy!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.



Homework

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Please check your child’s nightly folder. The children brought their All About Books home to work on this evening (or tomorrow if we have a snow day). We have been working on them for the past two weeks and they know what they need to do to finish it. We are all teachers when completing this type of writing, therefore, we should include some facts that our readers don’t already know. Please remind them to capitalize the first letter of a sentence & names, use punctuation and spell our priority words correctly. Some of the children may even need a little nudge to complete work neatly. Send the papers back to school every day, so that when we have time we can work on it. Our goal is to be completely finished by Friday.