Thursday, May 16, 2013

Open House ♥ 2013



Welcome to our Open House! 



Ancestry Dolls


Color Poems





Who Am I?



Josefina Story Quilt




Step-Up to Writing: My Favorite 2-D or 3-D Shapes




Traditional Haiku





Paper Bag Puppets




A Trip Down Memory Lane!  




Our International Blog and Blogging Buddies! 









Tangram Talk! Fun With Quotation Marks!










Were You Attracted to the Magnet Table? 





Rocks and Minerals (Special letter and rock samples from Mr. Mannell!)







Biography Timeline! Sculptures and Artifacts







What was your favorite part of the night? 

 What did you learn?

Monday, May 13, 2013

Mrs. Yollis Heads to ISTE!



Last week, Mrs. Yollis noticed this tweet from her Twitter friend, Ms. Moroder. The tweet mentioned a "Thank a Teacher" essay contest to win a free trip to ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education),  compliments of Promethean. 


 




Mrs. Yollis mentioned the contest to her class and they immediately and enthusiastically jumped on the wagon train to support their teacher and get her to San Antonio, Texas, where ISTE will be held at the end of June! 

On Friday, the winner was announced!  Here is a video of Principal Hibler revealing the exiting news to Mrs. Yollis and her class!










Sheriff Yollis, who makes western style literacy videos with her sidekick Sheriff Salsich,  is excited to head out to the great state of Texas to start the learnin'.





When asked how she feels about winning the contest, Mrs. Yollis stated, "I'd like to give a big, Texas-size thank you to my students, their parents, and my principal for contributing such heart-warming letters on my behalf. As everyone knows, integrating technology in meaningful ways is a passion of mine. Last year, I presented Flattening Classroom Walls: Educational Blogging at ISTE with my talented Australian blogging buddy, Kathleen Morris. I saw firsthand how valuable this type of professional development can be for educators and their students. I look forward to this opportunity to continue my learning."  

Thank you, Promethean,  for selecting me as the recipient of your generous gift!  I look forward to learning and sharing my insights right here on Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog.



What are some topics you would like Mrs. Yollis to explore while at ISTE?

Have you ever been to Texas? Please share some Texan facts!



Monday, May 6, 2013

Biographical Bonanza!




biography is a true story about a person's life.
Mrs. Yollis' class is currently reading biographies about
people who have made significant contributions to our world!



Artists, inventors, statesman, composers,
doctors, inventors,
aviators, astronauts, and pioneers in many fields 
are among the amazing historical figures about whom we are reading!









We are each reading a library book, as well as doing research using
 
World Book Online.



 


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After reading about your biography subject

please leave  a comment as if you are that person!




Be sure to include at least three facts you learned from your library book or the online encyclopedia. Try to use the HTML code to bold your facts!   DO NOT PLAGIARIZE! (Use your own words!)

Watch the comments to see if you can converse with another biography subject you may know!


Family members and friends: 
You are invited to choose your own biography subject and join in the conversation!


Thursday, May 2, 2013

Share & Compare: California • Nebraska • New York

Today we had a wonderful Share & Compare session with two classes. One class lived in Nebraska, and one class lived in New York. We went from the west coast, across the plains, to the east coast of the United States! These teachers first connected at the Google Teacher Academy! 


Yesterday, @MsJennyKirsch tweeted out a photo of her fifth grade New Yorkers preparing for the HangOut. 



This morning, @catlett1 Brent Catlett tweeted out this picture so we could get a sense of what the day looked like in Nebraska. It was cold out on the plains today! Freezing is 32˚F! How many degrees above freezing was it in Nebraska? 

What do you call people from Nebraska?



He also tweeted out this picture and asked, "How many snowmen do you see on the playground?" Look carefully! 




In the spirit of sharing, we went outside with our thermometers and measured the temperature.  It was quite a bit hotter here in sunny California.  It was 81˚F at 10:00! As you can see, the Californians are wearing shorts and tank tops!



Here are some photos from the informative Google HangOut!



Share & Compare GoogleHangout on PhotoPeach

During the Share & Compare, students entered state data on a Google doc. The chart made it very easy to compare the three states, the three communities, and the three schools. It was also fun to watch everyone entering data from across the United States at the same time!







Thank you, Shayna, for being our class photographer!





What did you learn?

If it was 11:00 A.M. in Los Angeles (Pacific Standard Time), 
what time was it in Nebraska and New York?

What are their time zones?


Please include any questions you have for our friends so we can answer them in a follow-up session!


The Josefina Story Quilt



Second graders are reading The Josefina Story Quilt by Eleanor Coerr. This historical fiction book is about a family of pioneers who head out for California in the 1850s. Faith, the main character,  wants to bring her hen, Josefina, on the trip west even though Pa says she is useless. He said that Josefina is too old to lay eggs and too tough to eat!

Ma gave Pa  a special look, and then Pa changed his mind. Pa did say that if Josefina caused any trouble she'd have to go.





Public Domain Photo


Pick a character from the book and drop us a comment from his/her point-of-view!



How are you enjoying the journey west?  

What exciting events have occurred? 

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Mexican Hat Dance & Fiesta


To complement our story of the week, Pepita Talks Twice, we scheduled a fiesta!  We learned and danced the Mexican Hat Dance. Click here to go to our Learn Spanish video. 


¡Qué grandes bailarines! 

(What great dancers!)


and we had a special taco bar! 

¡Gracias padres!
(Thanks parents!)









After dining, Mrs. Yollis put on some more music and dancing ensued!








¿Qué piensas de la fiesta?

(What did you think of the fiesta?)




Use translate.google.com to leave a comment in English and Spanish!

Monday, April 22, 2013

Learn Spanish! ¡Aprender Español!

This week, Mrs. Yollis' third graders is reading "Pepita Talks Twice!"





Pepita, who can speak both English and Spanish, decides that she doesn't want to "speak twice" anymore. When her decision creates problems she hadn't thought of, Pepita realizes that sometimes it can be a good thing to understand two languages.

The story was even written in both English and Spanish,



so we began learning some Spanish words ourselves.




*       *      *       *       *

The video below, made by former students in both Mrs. Ranney's and Mrs. Yollis' class, demonstrates many Spanish words we learned!








Translations:


¡Bueños días! Good day!


¡Bueñas tardes! Good afternoon!


¡Bueñas noches! Good night!


¿Cómo estas? How are you?


¡Muy bien! Very well!


¡No muy bien! Not very well!


¡Que lástima! What a pity!


¡Gracias! Thank you!


De nada. You're welcome.


¡Hasta mañana! See you tomorrow!


¡Hasta luego! See you later!



Los Días de la Semana The Days of the Week


lunes Monday


martes Tuesday


miércoles Wednesday


jueves Thursday


viernes Friday


sábado Saturday


domingo Sunday



Me gusta...I like...


el pan bread


los tacos tacos


escuela school


matemáticas math



¡Que divertido! What fun!


¡Que buena idea! What a great idea!


¿Vamos a aprender Español? We're going to learn Spanish?

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Video: Nonfiction Text Features


Mrs. Yollis' class is learning about nonfiction

Nonfiction writing is based on facts, real events, and real people.  There are many helpful text features found in nonfiction writing.  Some common text features are:  headings, subheadings, captions, diagrams, time lines, maps, charts, and the glossary.


Below is a humdinger of a video made by Sheriff Yollis and Sheriff Salsich. They hope their video helps you greenhorns learn about about these important reading features!

Yee-haw! 





Here it is on YouTube:




If YouTube is blocked, here's a Vimeo version:

The Nonfiction Trail from Jonah Salsich on Vimeo.



Are you reading a nonfiction book right  now? If so, what is it?

What did you learn from a text feature?


Sunday, April 7, 2013

Video: The Benefits of Blogging!



I am passionate about educational blogging.  Below is a video I created with my second and third grade students. We hope that our video inspires and motivates other teachers to consider blogging with their classes. There are so many wonderful benefits!

Enjoy!





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If you are new to blogging, here is an informative video made by my former students. They offer FIVE great tips for writing quality comments. 






*     *     *     *     *



If YouTube is blocked, here is the same video on Vimeo:






*     *     *     *     *

Interested in learning more about blogging? 

Here is Kathleen Morris' Educational Blogging Resources
Kathleen and I presented "Flattening the Classroom Walls With Education Blogging" at ISTE last year. 

Photo by John Miller

  
*     *     *     *     *


These video were made to share. Feel free to use them at a staff meeting or embed them in your blog. Be sure to link back to this site! 


What are some other benefits of educational blogging?




Monday, April 1, 2013

California Science Museum


On Thursday, the split classes at our school split! In other words, the 2/3 split and the 4/5 split classes embarked on a field trip together to the California Science Center! What an incredible day of learning!

Because the second and third graders are studying animals and their habitats, we spent a good deal of time at the Ecosystems Exhibit.

Enjoy some photos from the plethora (pleth • É™ • rÉ™) of exhibits. A plethora is a fancy word for a large amount.

California Science Center on PhotoPeach



The Giant Kelp Forest Exhibit was spectacular! Watch and learn!




One of the highlights of the trip was viewing the Endeavour Space Shuttle!


Photo by Mrs. Yollis




 It is a triumph of scientific achievement! Here is a link to some amazing facts about the Endeavour. Mrs. Ranney's student, Alex, wrote a post about it too:  The Enormous, Enthralling Endeavour. 

What was your favorite zone?

Share one or two facts you learn while visiting the California Science Center!