Show Your School Spirit!

Today was Sports Spirit Day! 

Many students wore their favorite jerseys or team colors.

Sports Day at School! on PhotoPeach

What were some of the similarities you noticed?

What were some of the differences?

Let's Learn Some HTML Code!

Mrs. Yollis' students consistently compose 

2-Point comments on the blog 

and 

that makes the blog conversation very interesting.

:-)

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Recently, Mrs. Yollis was asked to explain how to get italics or hyperlinks in a comment.




As a reward for great commenting, here are a few HTML tricks!

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is a language.

Learning to write HTML code, or HTML tags, is a somewhat simple way to take your comment to the next level.

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To write HTML code, use the following symbols:

Important: Do not add a space between the HTML tag and the word or sentence.

 

                                                                                                                                                                

1.  To put text in italics, place this HTML code around the text:

 

 

The sentence will look like this when published:

 

Bloggers should always proofread a comment before publishing.

                                                                                                                                                                

2.  To make text bold, place this HTML code around the text:

The sentence will look like this when published: 


Bloggers should always proofread a comment before publishing.

                                                                                                                                                                

 
3.  To make a hyperlink, it gets a little tricky.

Use the following HTML code around the URL and add your own link word/words:

  [The URL is the address of the web page. It starts with http://www…]

The HTML code below:

Will become this hyperlink when published:

Mrs. Yollis’ Website

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What do you think about learning a little HTML code?

A Rainy Fun Friday!

Students who complete all of their work and demonstrate that they are responsible third graders earn free-time during Fun Friday!

We were ready for some fun after being stuck inside all week.

Check out the final reading on our rain gauge!

(Click on the picture to enlarge.)

Sculpting is always a popular activity!

Students had a whale of a time!

Someone etched his name in the clay.

Others created beds or fantastic scenes!

Our story for the week was

The Mysterious Giant of Barletta,

by Tomie de Paola.

That folktale was an inspiration for two artists.

Equally popular was Fun with Magnets!

Who can use the encyclopedia and share something about magnets?

Who can teach us something about Tomie de Paola?

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Mrs. Yollis' class put a rain gauge out on Tuesday morning to keep track of the  rain storms that were forecast for the week.

After 24 hours, the gauge showed over 2.5 inches of rain.

 

By the end of Thursday, the rain gauge showed 4 inches of rain since Tuesday morning.

 

The ground is soaked and a tree fell over near the school.

 

What is the weather like where you are?

What is Plagiarism?

According to the New Oxford American Dictionary:

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Now that Mrs. Yollis' class is learning to research using the World Book Encyclopedia Online, it is important for everyone to understand how to share learning without just copying.

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How to share learning without becoming a plagiarist is tricky.

Step 1:   Read the passage completely.

Step 2:   Take notes on the interesting parts.
                  (IMPORTANT - Only write facts. Do not copy sentences.)

Example:

• California
• largest population
• 33,871,648 people

Step 3:    Use the facts to compose your own sentences.
                    Now is a good time to add your opinion as you share.


Example:

I was surprised to learn that my state, California, has the largest population of all fifty states. There are approximately  34 million California citizens. 

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 How do you research?

How would you feel if someone took your writing and tried to pass it off as their own?

Please leave a comment with something that YOU researched. Remember, put it in your own words!

(If your comment gets published, you will earn five minutes of free time on Mrs. Yollis' website!)

An Introduction to an Encyclopedia

The PFC (Parent/Faculty Club) generously purchased a one year subscription to World Book Online!

The students in Mrs. Yollis' class are learning how to research!

• Step 1 :  Think about a topic you'd like to learn about!

• Step 2: Log-in to the online site using your username and password.
  

• Step 3: Type the topic of interest in the search box and press return.

• Step 4: Read and learn! Remember,  subheadings can help guide a researcher to the answer.   

Share the facts you learned with others!

Today we discovered:

1. North America has a population of 538,000,000 people. (How does that compare with the other continents?  Hmmm.....)

2.  North America is the third largest continent. Asia is the largest, and Africa is larger than North America. (Hmmm...I wonder how big North America is in square feet?)

3. Coast redwoods are the tallest living tree. (I wonder exactly how tall? Hmmm....)

4. Sequoia trees only grow on the western side of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. They can live for over 2,000 years! (Hmmm.... What was the name of that famous one...General...? Why was that sequoia so famous?)

Have you learned anything new from an encyclopedia?

Please share!

(If your World Book comment gets published, you will earn five free minutes on Mrs. Yollis' Website!)

10,000+ Visitors!

Thank you to all of our fabulous visitors from around the world!

We appreciate that you follow us in your RSS Feed and leave fantastic 2-point comments!

To our good friends here and here and to our new visitors, enjoy the Hello Song from our archive.

It was recorded back in April for our wonderful friends and Australian buddies at 2KM.

The Hello Song! from mrsyollis on Vimeo.

Sing-a-long!

Hello, bon jour, buenos dias!

G'day, guten-tag, konichiwa.....

Ciao, shalom, do-brey dien,

Hello to all the children of the world!

We live in different places From all around the world.

We speak in many different ways!

Though some things may be different,

We're children just the same-

And we all like to sing and play!

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What is one of your favorite posts in our archive and why?

Click on our Flag Counter or Clustrmap. 

Which countries, besides the U.S.A., visit us the most?

Are there countries listed that are new to you? Use your atlas and tell us where they are located!

Happy Birthday Martin Luther King, Jr.!

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Mr. B. accompanied the class as they honored Dr. King with a song.
Listen and enjoy! 

 Fast Facts:

• American's celebrate his birth on the third Monday in January. MLK Day is a national holiday. 

• Martin was first named Michael, but his name was later changed to Martin, after  his father. His father's name was Martin Luther King, Sr.

• 1948 was the year he graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.
  
 

• In 1955, Mr. King received his doctorate degree from Boston University. His new title was Dr. King.
  

• Dr. King used nonviolent acts to change the unfair laws of the U.S.
  

• On August 28, 1963, Dr. King gave his "I have a Dream" speech in Washington, D. C. to over 200, 000 people. This important speech was given on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. 

• In 1963, MLK was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the civil rights movement.

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Do you know any other interesting facts about Dr. King?

How did you like the song?

More Exploration of North America

Today, Mrs. Yollis' class had another opportunity to explore the
26' x 35' Giant Map of North America.

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Mrs. Hanzer, 

who sponsored the map for our school, 

joined us and talked about the importance of geography!

She has traveled to all SEVEN continents!

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Below, four students stood in the Four Corners region. 

Do you know why it is called the Four Corners?

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Below, Mrs. Yollis' class created the Sierra Nevada range, the Rocky Mountains, and the Appalachian Mountains. Several students climbed Mt. McKinley! (Also called Denali.)

(Does anyone recall its elevation?)

 

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  Can you name any of the features below?

Try to find:    Pikes Peak, the Mississippi River, the Missouri River, the Ohio River, the Arkansas River, the Appalachian Mountains, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Caribbean Sea.

 

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We created the Mississippi watershed. 

As shown, all the water drains into the Gulf of Mexico.

(Do you know what a watershed is?)

 

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Can you name the man-made feature the students are pointing at in the Panama Isthmus?

 

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Panda got to visit the Hawaiian Islands!

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Then it was time to put our shoes back on and leave the Giant Map of North America forever...

 

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What did you learn from your experience on the map?

Exploring North America!

This week, Mrs. Yollis' class has been learning about geography 
using National Geographic's

Giant Traveling Map of North America.

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The class has been learning about water features like the  
Great Lakes.

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They made the Mississippi River out of blue chain.

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Several students made the Rocky Mountains!

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They made the Appalachian Mountains, too!

The students have been exploring and learning every day!

The more you explore, the more you learn!

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Two explorers met at the International Date Line! 

I wonder what day it was for each?

Soon, we will publish our movie like the one we made last year about the 

Giant Traveling Map of Asia.

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What have you learned about North America this week?

What do you still need to find out?

A New Year!

Panda took away the 9 in our 2009.

To make 10, we needed a new digit.

Everyone sprinkled some golden glitter and made a wish for 2010.

Panda placed the digits in the correct order.

Happy 2010!

Do you have any New Year's Resolutions?
(A resolution is firm decision to do or not do something.)