Friday, October 14, 2011

Skyping With Connecticut!


Today Mrs. Yollis' class traveled across the United States! They didn't really go from the west coast to the east coast, they met their Connecticut blogging buddies via Skype!

Sheriff Yollis and Sheriff Salsich also connect these greenhorns over at the Reading Round-Up! 



Parsa and Sasha were our geographers. Here is the great state of Connecticut. What do you noticed about the state? Who are their neighbors?  In our atlas, it says that Connecticut is in the New England region of the United States. What does that mean?

Sheriff Yollis and our greeter say a big howdy to the cowboys and cowgirls in Sheriff Salsich's class!

California is the THIRD largest state and has an AREA of 158,706 SQUARE MILES.

The beautiful state flower, the California poppy.

Our winter temperatures are pretty mild compared to Connecticut! Does anyone remember their annual rainfall? How much snow do they get yearly?


Here is Connecticut's state flower, the beautiful mountain laurel. This is a flowering shrub. Sometimes they grow together and form thickets! (What's a thicket?)

Favorite recess games were shared!

Mrs. Yollis' students enjoyed taking notes about their new Connecticut friends.

They got to meet Juan Pablo, the mascot of Mr. Salsich's class...

...they were also introduced to Perezoso, the sloth mascot!



Panda and Beverly were on hand for introductions. As usual, Panda was polite and had something useful to say. Panda said, "Actions speak louder than words."  So true, Panda!
 Beverly is still in hibernation!



Mia and Sarah have been busy with their AlphaSmart lessons and can already type! Because of their achievement, they were selected to take notes on TodaysMeet!


Here is their transcript!
(There are a few repeats because the girls were just learning how to use this new web tool.) 



Here are a few of the similarities and differences we noticed. We are trying to learn how to use our new MOBI!




Thank you, Leila, for being a fantastic photographer for the event!




Mr. Salsich published a post about the Skype connection on his class blog.


What did you learn about the state of Connecticut? Answer some of the question asked in this post!

Do you have any questions for the Nutmeggers? Please ask!





20 comments:

  1. Hello Mrs Yollis' class,

    Skype can certainly open up a new dimension as you travel virtually around the world. I found the information on Connecticut interesting. I know a family living in CT that aren't connected to the school blogs I visit. They are just people I've known for years.

    Keep up these interesting posts. The world is watching. :)

    Ross Mannell (teacher)
    NSW, Australia

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Mrs. Yollis' class
    I'm a student-teacher in Miss B's class. I enjoyed this blog about both states. And I think it was really interesting how both classes obtained the information through Skype. Love seeing the students taking notes and comparing both states, while learning in a different and interactive way. I see myself in a future trying this with students.

    Great work

    Miss Paola
    Miss B's Block

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear Mrs Yollis and class,

    Wow once again you have had a wonderful skyping session with another wonderful blogging pal.
    You cowboys and cowgirls are so lucky!

    Mr Mannel is so right about skyping as it sure does open up a wonderful way of learning near and far.

    Thank you for sharing your interesting information about Connecticut even I learned something new which is always great. :)

    From your pal down under,
    AA.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mrs. Yollis and Students,
    I really enjoyed reading about the skyping session with your Connecticut Connection. Skyping is such a great way to make learning fun and interesting. In the school before I retired from education, we were the cowboys. Once a cowboy always a cowboy! You may want to check out their school web site www.neisd.net/longs/index.html
    Happy Learning and Skyping to y'all.
    Your #1 fan in San Antonio Texas
    Mr. Cantrell

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dear Mrs. Yollis,
    I always learn lots of new facts when I visit your blog!
    Today I learned that the Praying Mantis is the state insect in CT. I used to like to catch them when I was a child living in Massachusetts.
    I also learned the term MOBI. I didn't know what that was! I had to follow the link to look and see!
    Now I have a question for you! I really like the atlas you use for your lessons. Our atlas is too old and I need to replace it.
    Can you share with me the name of your atlas and the ISBN number? That is the number above the scanning lines usually located on the back cover.
    Would you recommend this atlas for our library?
    I look forward to reading more in the months to come!
    From your Washington friend,
    Mrs. Hembree

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear Mrs. Yollis and class,

    I am always so inspired by what you all are doing. I love seeing the learning go on with the Mobi too! This is such a great example of how a Mobi should be used in the classroom -- in the hands of the students in addition to the teacher.

    Did you know that you are helping me learn more about the states? I don't have a good sense of direction, and feared geography growing up. So, your fun approach is refreshing.

    Kind regards,
    Mrs. Watanabe

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dear Mrs Yollis,

    I think the golden poppy is beautiful. I also really like taking notes because I learned many facts about their state.

    I also really liked their mascot because it was very cute.

    A thicket is a dense growth of shrubby or small trees. I learned that their community is a suburb just like ours.

    From,
    Sarah

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dear Mrs Yollis and Grade 3
    Skyping is a lot of fun, especially when you all have a particular job to do. Well done to everyone.

    I visited the post from Mr Salsich's class and found that the country of New Zealand and the state of Connecticut have a similar sized population, however the land area of New Zealand is much larger.
    New Zealand has an area of about 103,700 sq miles, while Connecticut is 4,844 sq miles.

    The state of California is larger than our country in both population and area!

    Geography is also fun!

    from Mrs M♔Kenzie

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dear Mrs. Yollis' Class,

    It was so exciting to get to "meet" all of you on our Skype call! I was very impressed with the way you introduced yourselves and presented your information.

    We learned an abundance of interesting facts during the call (abundance means a lot, or, as our Australian friends might say, heaps).

    One of the things that I found most interesting is that your community has a higher population even though it has a smaller size in square miles. We have an abundance of forests where we live, maybe that is why there are less people.

    I also thought it was interesting that you only get about 14 inches of rain a year! Sometimes we get that much rain in one month. We have been studying habitats, and deserts only get 10 inches of rain a year, so you don't get much more rain than a desert!

    I also enjoyed seeing Hoppy again and meeting Beverly, even though she was still hibernating.

    Your friend in New England,
    Mr. Salsich

    ReplyDelete
  10. @ Mrs Yollis,

    we looked at your blog.

    what are the nams in your class blog?

    from your

    blogging pal

    Jacob

    ReplyDelete
  11. Dear Mrs Yollis' class,

    Great post Mrs Yollis!

    For the students who typed down what Mr Salsich said, was typing that fast hard for you?

    For the students who wrote down the facts, did you get all of the facts from the computer, or from books, or did you know some facts.

    Again, great post Mrs Yollis.

    Lots of love,

    Haille * :lol: * :oops: *

    ReplyDelete
  12. @ Mrs Yolis,

    Great post.

    How long did you skype for?

    Your pal,
    Jarrod

    ReplyDelete
  13. @ Mrs Yollis,

    Great post!

    We found out our state flower it is the Common Heath it’s a pink flower and they look like little bells.

    How long were you on Skype for? It looked like so much fun.

    From,
    Molly

    ReplyDelete
  14. Dear Mrs. Yollis,
    It was exciting to skype with connecticut.I learnt that the state bird is a robin and the state flower is the mountain laurel.

    I thought their mascot was very cute.

    From,
    Atrina

    ReplyDelete
  15. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I had so much fun skyping with Connecticut! I learned a lot too!

    I did some research and here is some information I learned about Connecticut:

    It is bordered by Massachusetts to the north, the state of New York to the west and the south, and the state of Rhode Island to the east. Connecticut is in New England which is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States. It consists of the six states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

    Sincerely,
    Leila♥

    ReplyDelete
  16. Dear Mrs. Yollis and class,

    We love the idea of Skyping with another class in a different state. Our class noticed that you used a map to find out more about the class you were talking to. We think that Google Earth would be valuable for finding out more information about other areas. Has your class used Google Earth before?

    We noticed that your class and Mr. Salsich's class have mascots. We have a mascot now too! We will introduce him soon.

    Here's a fact about Michigan. Our state flower is the apple blossom and our state bird is the robin. Could you share another special fact about California with us?

    Sincerely,
    The Techie Kids and Mrs. Moore

    ReplyDelete
  17. @ Mrs.Yollis,

    I'm Mikayla from 2KM and 2KJ.My techer is Mrs.Morris and Miss.Jorden they are graet techers.

    I like that you skiped with MR.Sherf Slosich.

    I like your blog and blog it is graet.I'm one of your blogging baddys.We have skiped your old class last year.

    I like your blog post and blog again.

    Your blogging pal,
    Mikayla

    ReplyDelete
  18. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    It's great to visit your blog again. I don't know if you remember me, I was in Mr. Salsich's class last year. Now I have my own blog.I remember when we skyped with you guys. It was so fun learning about each other and sharing ideas. I definetly miss it. My new teacher doesn't have a blog. But I keep going on mine. I have a new post about a field trip to see The Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra.


    I think it was cool how you compared the two states. I cant wait to hear from you again!

    From,
    Amanda
    Mr. Salsichs former third grade student

    P.S. Here is the link to my blog:

    amandab9.edublogs.com

    ReplyDelete
  19. Mrs. Yollis,

    I'm a student in Dr. Strange's EDM310 class at the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed reading this post. It looks like the students in both classrooms had a great time. I love your blog. It has really taught me a lot about using blogging as a tool in my future classroom. This was a great activity that makes learning fun. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Hi Mrs. Yollis' my name is Meredith Fondren and I am in Dr. Strange's EDM 310 class and I was assigned to comment on this post. I thoroughly enjoyed your post and found it very interesting. How exciting is it to Skype with students across the United States! I liked that the classes compared their states symbols and animals. The students did very good taking notes and pictures. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete

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