Thursday, March 31, 2011

April is Family Blogging Month!


Mrs. Yollis and her students to share what they are 
learning and experiencing.

In an effort to include more family members in our online community, we are proclaiming:

April is Family Blogging Month!



Each student made a list of their family members. After looking through the archive, students selected specific posts tailored to the interest of a particular relative.






We're inviting everyone to comment:
moms, dads, brothers, sisters, grandmas, grandpas, uncles, aunts, and cousins. We welcome friends, too!







Students will be inviting their family and friends to participate in a conversation! 
Maybe we'll get some 2-point comments!



Just in case you don't know what to say, here is a video made by Mrs. Yollis' third graders. They have FIVE tips for writing a quality comment! 


Here is the key we used for our last Family Blogging Month~



What do you think of our idea?
Who are you inviting to be a part of our online community?

Please leave a comment and introduce yourself!

A Postcard From Panania, New South Wales, Australia!

By Grace and Hannah


Our classroom received a breathtaking postcard from Panania, Australia. We think it is a community in Sydney.

   
 A fact about Australia is that Britain (United Kingdom), established Sydney as a prison colony during in the 1780s.  In the postcard the water looks very refreshing, clear, and beautiful! We both would absolutely love to swim in that water! In the background there are magnificent trees, green grass, blue sky. We would like to thank 6G for this wonderful postcard!  



Has anyone been to Australia?

Particularly to Sydney?

What is the population of Sydney? 

A Postcard From Yorkshire Dales, England!

By Nick and Lindsay

 We got a fabulous postcard from the Yorkshire Dales in England!




It was difficult to find Yorkshire Dales in our atlas, so we contacted the teacher!


Because Yorkshire Dales is a rural community, it was not listed in our giant atlas. With help from Mr. E., from Hawes Community Primary School, we located the town.

We also learned that they are famous for their cheese! The Wensleydale Creamery is in Yorkshire Dales. This cheese was made famous when it was featured in the movie Wallace and Gromit! The students and their families own the cows used to make the yummy cheese!


We thank Hawes Community Primary School for commenting on our blog, and we think it is cool that they are in a small school.  The waterfalls and the lakes look beautiful! They must be lucky that they have waterfalls. The sunsets in Yorkshire Dales look magnificent. It is a limestone country which we think means there is a lot of limestone to be quarried there. Yorkshire Dales has lush green valley known as dales.

We're wondering: 

What does "limestone country" mean?

How old is Yorkshire Dales? 

How old is your school? 

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Mothers, Daughters, Friendship, and Blogging!

    ♥  ♥  ♥ 

Mrs. Yollis and her mother, Mrs. Pfau, have become friends with a mother and daughter from Australia named Bianca and AA! Even though the  mother-daughter pairs live on separate continents, a friendship has developed.  

The connection began in the classroom blog comment section. In 2010, Bianca (from Mrs. Morris' 2KM blog) was turning eight, and she learned that  Mrs. Pfau was turning 80. Once Bianca found out Mrs. Pfau was becoming an octogenarian, she thoughtfully sent a birthday card across the ocean. Mrs. Pfau was so pleased, she played a birthday song for her new friend. 

Listen to that birthday message here.  

Bianca and AA

This year, Bianca and her mom sent a special Australian gift to Mrs. Yollis and Mrs. Pfau and in the package was a special birthday card! The package also included cute koalas, a Aussie pen, a post card, an Australian letter holder, and an Australian flag!


Mrs. Yollis and her mom, Mrs. Pfau

A classroom blog is a wonderful project filled with unexpected treasures!

    ♥  ♥  ♥ 

What do you think about friendship?

How do you feel about the friends you've made through educational blogging?


Jog-a-thon!


Today was the annual Jog-a-thon to raise money for our school! 

 


Hurdles were part of the obstacle course!
Stay low! (Thanks Jaden for straightening our horizon line!)

Head for the tires!

Hop! Hop! Hop!

Ms. Daniels, Mrs. Yollis, and Grace have fun hula hooping!

Lots of water! Lots of discussion: Should paper cups be used or is there another solution for next year?

Happy time with the popcicles!

:-)  Some students felt blue after the Jog-a-thon was over! :-)

How many cups do you think were used for the school Jog-a-thon?

What would have been a better solution?


Which obstacle was your favorite, or did you like the running the best?





Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Learn Spanish! ¡Aprender Español!



Recently Mrs. Yollis' class read "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 students in both Mrs. Ranney's and Mrs. Yollis' class, demonstrates many Spanish words we learned!



Just in case YouTube is blocked, here is a Vimeo version!




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?

A Postcard From Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A.!

By Iman and Alexa



We got a phenomenal post card from K-1 Happy Talk in  Honolulu, Hawaii! It was really spirit lifting! Alexa and I have both been to Honolulu, Hawaii, too.



We liked the postcard because we both agree that the statue of King Kamehameha with beautiful leis are so festive!  Alexa likes the palm trees swaying by the ocean. Our connection is that we go to Hawaii every year.

We researched and learned that Honolulu covers the whole island of Oahu! It is also the capitol, largest city, and chief port of Hawaii.  Honolulu is often called the crossroads off the Pacific.

Have you ever been to Honolulu, Hawaii?



Have you ever got a postcard from  Honolulu?

 

Monday, March 28, 2011

A Postcard From Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.!

By Finn, Kristen, and Andrew


Over the past few weeks, we have been getting a lot of  postcards from all over the world!



Recently, we got a wonderful post card from Seattle, Washington. 
Mrs. Hembree and the Bulldog Readers sent us a terrific post card, and on the front was a photo of Mount Rainier. Mount Rainier the tallest mountain in the state of Washington. This mountain is 14,410 feet above sea level. Mount Rainier is a volcano. 

Finn has a connection to Seattle, Washington, because his cousin lives there.



We wonder, have any of the Bulldog Readers  been to Mount Rainier?




Has anyone ever been to Mt. Rainier or Seattle, Washington? If so, please share!

Thank You Grandma Grace!

Mrs. Yollis' class enjoys receiving comments from all of their readers. They especially love to hear from parents and grandparents! This year, Grandma Grace has been a wonderful commenter!

Grandma Grace lives in North Carolina.

She always leaves quality comments! 
Her comment for our poem, Seal, was even in rhyme form!






Have you ever left a comment in rhyme form?

What do you think of our featured commenter? 

Where is Nonno? - Dove e Nonno? - Madonna di Campiglio

Buongiorno Class -
We just visited the Trentino province of Italy, all the way up in the northeast corner of the country. The local government invited us so we could learn more about Trentino. Trento is the main city of Trentino.

Years ago this area of Italy was part of the Austrian Empire and only became part of Italy in 1919. We visited the ski resort of Madonna di Campiglio to learn about the area, hotels and other parts of the resort.
The village is in a valley with mountains all around, the Adamello Glacier on one side and on the other side the Brenta Dolomites The Italians pronounce it    DOLOWMEETEES.


The village is very busy with skiers in the winter and in the summer with hikers and mountain bikers.

In the winter people ski, parasail; snowshoe on the glacier and in the woods and ice skate on the lake in the middle of the village.




It is well known for having a world cup ski race at night.

 In the summer people visit the large Adamello national park where they bike and hike in the mountains.


The national park has bears and the bear is the symbol of the park and the village. We did not see any bears as they are all still hibernating. The park also has waterfalls, lakes and trees; mountain goats, marmots, eagles and deer.

The hotel were we stayed is very old and was visited during the winter often by Franz Josef the Emperor of Austria and his wife, Princess Sissi.


Back then and even now you can ski right up to the hotel.

There would be dances and balls for the royalty and today they still dress up once a year to dance in the main hall.

One evening we all got in a big snow cat and were taken over the snow up the mountain to a refuge for dinner.


We had dinner of local food, cheese from goats, stew, polenta and local desserts.



One afternoon we visited some of the hotels in the village. Many of them have swimming pools, spas and nice views of the mountains. One of the hotels is all biologic/organic and has a Michelin starred restaurant. This hotel is a favorite of ours.



The ski school took some of us to ski all around the village and mountains and took others to snowshoe on the Adamello Glacier, the largest in Italy.
During the winter the Ferrari race team visits the village and they have go kart races on the frozen lake in the middle of the village.


After we finished our visit we left the village of Madonna di Campiglio, driving down the Adige Valley along the Adige River toward Verona and then home to Cormayeur. Next blog is about our village of Courmayeur.

A presto, Nonno

What would you like to do best in the winter?

In the summer?

Friday, March 25, 2011

1:1 Laptop Luck!

Today Mrs. Yollis' class was quite fortunate. The fifth grade class had Colonial Days! Why was that fortunate for Mrs. Yollis and her students?

They got to use the fourth/fifth grade 1:1 laptop cart! 


Here is how we used them:

In the morning, everyone composed a quality comment or two. Check out the funny conversations going on in the Animals, Announce Your Adaptation post!  The humpback whale, the spitting cobra, the gorilla, and the mountain goat were talking to one another! Hilarious!



Later, we logged into iXL to practice adding and subtracting fractions!







Some people went into Kerpoof and created fractional images!

By Grayson

By Adia, Hannah, and Grace


By Iman

By Jaden and Tucker

By Aaron and Linsday

By Ryan and Finn



After recharging our batteries by eating lunch and plugging in the laptops to recharge their batteries, we enjoyed more computer time after lunch!

We researched facts about places from our Post Card Project.
Seattle, Washington


Yorkshire Dales, England

Puffin facts for Scotland

It was very hard to find some of the rural places in our atlas!

Finally, those who participated in Fun Friday wanted to use the laptops again!


:-)     :-)     :-)     :-)     :-)

What are your thoughts about the 1:1 laptop experience?

What useful sites or applications could we use if we can get them again? 

If you have a 1:1 program, please lend us some advice!

:-)