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Monday, May 31, 2010

Family Blogging Month Winner ~ Trent's Mammoth Lakes Adventure

During the month of April, Mrs. Yollis' class held the first annual April is Family Blogging Month.

The top three winners for the month won their own post here on Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog.

Trent won third place and here is a wonderful post he created about his favorite family vacation spot!











Have you ever been to Mammoth Lakes, California?

Do you have any questions for Trent?

Today is Memorial Day in America



Today is the last Monday of May and that means it is Memorial Day in America!

On this solemn day, Americans honor the men and women who died in active military service.







Below is a PowerPoint presentation called National Cemeteries from El Civics.







Did you know...

Memorial Day became a federal holiday in 1971.

It was first called Decoration Day in the years following the Civil War.

On Memorial Day many Americans visit cemeteries, attend patriotic parades, and have family gatherings.

It is customary to fly the flag at half staff until noon and then raise it to the top of the staff until sunset.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

20,000+ Visitors!

Mrs. Yollis' class has been watching the ClustrMap with a lot of interest the past few weeks.


Finally, it happened!






Thank you to all of our readers! 

We appreciate you!

:-)

Mrs. Yollis' Class Attends the Los Angeles County Digital Voice Awards!


 




Mrs. Yollis and her students attended the Los Angeles County Office of Education's
 Digital Voice Awards. 

Their blog won three awards!


(This video documents the lessons learned while using National Geographic's Giant Traveling Map of North America.)



Here is our acceptance speech!




(This post integrates digital photography, descriptive writing, and commenting skills. Over 80 comments were collected in the comment section!)



Here is our acceptance speech!






Winner #3: The Nick Cool Blog ~ Chumash Museum post!
(This is the student blog. A visit to the local Chumash Museum was documented by Nick, a third grader in Mrs. Yollis' class. Nick wrote the post and shot the digital images. He was able to generate a lot of interest in the comment section from both students and adults!) 



Here is our acceptance speech!





Congratulations to all the bloggers! Everyone did terrific!

Collaboration Corner: Project #2 Begins!


Mrs. Yollis' class (United States) 

and Miss McGeady's class (Australia)

are starting another great project on their blog, Collaboration Corner.



New project: Tell Us About Your School!




*     *     *     *     *   

Please visit Collaboration Corner and leave a comment.

Everyone is invited to participate!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Open House ~ 2010

A wonderful evening had by all!

Open House ~ 2010 on PhotoPeach

What was your favorite project?

What did you like about the evening?

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Family Blogging Month Winner ~ Ethan's Sea World Adventure

By Ethan 




During the month of April, Mrs. Yollis' class held the first annual April is Family Blogging Month

The top three winners for the month won their own post here on Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog.

Ethan won second place and here is a wonderful post he created about a recent trip!






Have you ever been to Sea World?

Do you have any questions for Ethan?

Visit: Germany!

By Kendall

Over the break, Kendall and her family had the opportunity to fly over to Germany in Europe. She visited with family and learned about a new country.

Here is a slide show Kendall put together! Thank you for sharing your trip!
Kendall's German Adventure on PhotoPeach

Have you ever been to Germany?

Have you ever visited a foreign country?


Mr. B. Plays the Didgeredoo!

Mr. B. is a fabulous music teacher and musician. Today he brought his didgeridoo to play for the students.



Didgeridoo Fun Facts!

1.  A didgeridoo is a wind instrument.

2.  It was developed by the indigenous Australians of northern Australia.

3.  A didgeridoo is traditionally made of eucalyptus, but Mr. B.'s is made out of a yucca plant.

Do you know any other facts about the didgeridoo?
Do you have any questions for Mr. B.?


Thursday, May 13, 2010

Celebrating Mexican Culture!





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!

Let's Learn Spanish! from mrsyollis on Vimeo.


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?



*       *      *       *       *


Later in the week, with our friends in Mrs. Ranney's class, we celebrated with the Mexican Hat Dance...








and by having Jollene's mother bring homemade enchiladas and share some information about Mexican culture!



























What did you enjoy most about our celebration of Mexican culture?

What other Spanish words or phrases have you learned?

Teaching First Graders to Comment!

Mrs. Yollis' class is friends with a first grade class at their school, Mrs. Levy's Class


Mrs. Levy's class has a blog.

Today, Mrs. Yollis' students met their buddies in the computer lab to teach them how to comment on a blog!  First graders can do a lot!

Blogging Buddies: First and Third Graders on PhotoPeach
What did you think of the first grade bloggers?

What are some good comment habits that you taught your first grade buddy?


Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Meet Mr. Gallon! The Captain of Capacity!

Mrs. Yollis' class has been learning about capacity using customary units.  


Gallon is a customary unit for capacity.

 

Corey brought Mr. Gallon to school today. 
Mr. Gallon was very helpful with conversions!









Meet Mr. Gallon!






Mr. Gallon says, "There are four blue quarts in a gallon!"







Mr. Gallon says, "There are eight purple pints in a gallon!"







Mr. Gallon says, "There are 16 green cups in a gallon!"




What do you think of Mr. Gallon?

Did he help you learn about capacity?

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

An Award From Fellow Bloggers!


 Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog was so happy to discover they had been given  an award
from Miss W (in Tasmania), Mrs. Lynch (in Canada), and Miss Nichols (in Los Angeles).

The purpose of the award is to spread the word about fantastic blogs! 




Here are the rules for the award:

1.  Copy and display the picture of the award given to you

2.  Link back to the blog that nominated you

3.  Nominate 10 different blogs yourself

4.  Inform the people you nominated, so they can in turn, continue the chain and spread the word about other great blogs out there. 




Here are ten fantastic blogs:

2KM ~ Australia

Mr. Salsich ~ Connecticut

Friend ~ Russia

Room 8@Melville ~ New Zealand

The Smarties ~ Australia

Mrs. Cassidy ~ Canada

IST Grade 2~ Tanzania

Team Toa ~ China

The Ripple Effect ~ Canada

Huzzah! ~ Canada

It's fun to spread the word!

Monday, May 10, 2010

Family Blogging Winners Announced!


Last month, Mrs. Yollis had the first annual April is Family Blogging Month!"


It was a real hit!

Comments were collected from: moms, dads, grandmothers, grandfathers, great-uncles, great-aunts, uncles, aunts, brothers, and sisters!

It was so much fun, the students voted to continue until Friday, June 11!



FIRST PLACE - Gal
SECOND PLACE - Ethan
THIRD PLACE - Trent

The winners received:

  1. A certificate for a free meal at a local restaurant!
  2. A free blog posting of their choice on Mrs. Yollis' Clasroom BLog! (Even if it isn't technically an educational post.)
  3. The opportunity to selected the Custom Glitter Text for this post!

What do you think of our winners?

How did you encourage your family to participate?

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

An Excellent Example of Educational Bloggers Learning From Each Other!


Mrs. Yollis' class, in California, has been learning about nonfiction books. 
Mr. Salsich's class, our good friends in Connecticut, are doing the same. 


Here is a fantastic VoiceThread by Mr. Salsich's third grade students.


After viewing this VoiceThread, Mrs. Yollis' students looked for an example of a text feature in one of their nonfiction books.    
(animal report book or biography book)


 *     *     *     *     *


Here are examples of text features and how they were used!

 
Ayush said, "I used the table of contents to find information about the blue whale's diet. The chapter was What Do Blue Whales Eat? I learned that one creature the blue whale feeds on is krill."


Ava stated, "The table of contents helped me find out information about the sea turtle's body." 

Kayla declared, "The timeline helped me a lot. For example, I learned that in 1872, Susan B. Anthony voted for the presidential election when she was NOT allowed to."

Kendall explained, "I used the table of contents to help me find out why Elizabeth Blackwell decided to be a doctor. In a chapter called A Dream Begins, I found out that a friend told Elizabeth that she should be the first woman doctor."

 *     *     *     *     *


Paul stated, "I looked in the glossary for the definition for vertebrate which means a creature has a backbone."

Ben explained, "One caption in the book The Picture Life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt told me that in 1943 he met in Teheran, Iran, for a conference with Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill."

Trent said, "I used the timeline to find that Charles Lindbergh bought his first airplane in 1923."

Kate stated, "The timeline helped me find important dates in Abraham Lincoln's life. For example, in 1960 he was elected president."


 *     *     *     *     *




Nick declared, " The timeline helped me by remembering JFK's election for president on November 8, 1960."

Jaxon

Richie stated, "The diagram (sketch) helped me understand how the telephone worked."

"The map helped me a whole lot because I had no idea where the boa constrictor lived," said Corey.



 *     *     *     *     *




Sydney remarked, "I used the glossary and diagram to help me find the fact about the mane of a zebra."

Ethan 
Anais said, "I used the table of contents to help me find information about Sacagawea. For example, to find out when she started working for Lewis and Clark, I used the chapter called Hired by Lewis and Clark."
"The table of contents helps me look for information that I need for my cheetah report. One chapter of the table contents I used for was How They Look. I used How They Look for the color of the cheetah," Jollene declared.

 *     *     *     *     *


Gal declared,  "I used a timeline to find that Amelia Earhart became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932."


Scarlet  said, "I used the glossary to help me find the word trunk. The trunk is used by the elephant to breathe, eat smell, and drink."

Jared declared, "My text feature in my Milton Hershey: Chocolate King book is the index. The cool part about the index is it helps me find the subjects I need and the correct pages. For example, pages 58-61 have information about chocolate."

"In the book Coyote, I found a map that helped me figure out where coyotes live," Caleb explained.


 *     *     *     *     *

Sam declared, " I used the glossary to find out what the word rosette means. Rosette means a spot or a group of spots that look like a  flower."

Moraiya said, "The content help me find that the roadrunner runs through the bushy desert. I found this in Chapter 1."

Aaliyah declared, "The timeline helped me find details about Pocohontas. For example, in 1614, Pocohontas married John Rolfe."

Charlie remarked, "I used a picture to see what a Gila monster looks like."


 *     *     *     *     *


During our computer lab time we wrote comments for Mr. Salsich's students on their class blog. Here is a link to those comments. 


 *     *     *     *     *

What do you think of the cross country lesson?

How was the VoiceThread helpful for Mr. Salsich's students?

How was the VoiceThread helpful for Mrs. Yollis' students?

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Visit: Joshua Tree National Park!


The United States has many wonderful National Parks.


 
Last week, Mrs. Yollis visited a special place 




Have you ever visited a national park?
Please leave a comment about the experience!

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Ayush's Grandmother Teaches About India!

During our April is Family Blogging Month project, many grandmothers came in to share about their background.
Grandma Marty from Australia came in, Halmoni from Korea, and recently we had Ayush's grandmother from India!

Enjoy!




Have you ever eaten samosa?

Do you know any facts about India?
Please share!