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Monday, February 28, 2011

Tutorials: Identifying Quadrilaterals!

In our polygon unit we are learning about four-sided figures called

QUADRILATERALS!

Many people were confused about why some shapes have more than one name. Here are some tutorials to help you learn about quadrilaterals.

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What is a parallelogram?






Here is an interactive parallelogram.


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What is a rectangle?



Here is an interactive rectangle.


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What is a rhombus?




Here is an interactive rhombus.


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What is a square?








Here is an interactive square.



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Maybe you'd like to watch the Polygon Movie again and meet these quadrilaterals in person!  


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Have you used our quadrilateral tutorials? 

Which tutorial helped the most?

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Let's Meet Our Blogging Buddies: Mrs. M♔Kenzie and B4

Mrs. Yollis' class enjoys sharing and learning with other classes. This year, they are QUAD-buddies with three other classes! 

This week they're going to find out more about the quad-blogging buddies in Reefton, New Zealand!


Head on over to Open the Door to B4!

Leave them a quality comment and don't forget to say you're from Mrs. Yollis' class! 

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Quiz: Types of Triangles


There are three types of triangles.



equilateral
(3 equal sides / 3 equal angles)



isosceles 
(2 equal sides / 2 equal angles)






scalene
(NO equal sides / NO equal angles)


Types of Triangles! on PhotoPeach



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Would you like to try another quiz? 
Check out Mrs. Ranney's Name that Angle Quiz! 

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Which triangle is the hardest to identify? 

If you take a picture of a triangle in your house and send via email, Mrs. Yollis will add your triangle to the quiz!


Learning From Other Bloggers!



Today,  note taking was taught! 
When you take notes on a topic, you look for main headings and details to support those headings.
In addition, you only write down facts


Mrs. Yollis was going to use the text from the class reading book, but she noticed their Quad-Blogging buddies had a video about Allison's amphibians.
Mrs. Yollis adapted her note taking lesson to Mr. Salsich's student video!

First, we watched and listened.

Then we watched it again to listen for main headings.



Then we folded our paper into 4 equal parts. The top part was where we would take notes about All amphibians. The bottom boxes were for individual amphibians. We gathered many details about each amphibian!

Click to enlarge.


Click to enlarge.


 Learning from other bloggers is one of the many benefits of educational blogging!

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What did you learn about note taking?


Have you ever used note taking before?



Audio Poem: Smart

This week, Mrs. Yollis' class is learning about poetry! 



 
When reading a poem aloud it is important to:
1. Practice reading the poem in a clear voice.
2. Change the sound of your voice to help express the idea of the poem.
3. Pause a little at the end of each line. Pause longer at punctuation marks.
4. Look up at your listeners whenever you can.
 
 

Have a listen as we recite the humorous poem Smart by Shel Silverstein




Smart

My dad gave me one dollar bill
'Cause I'm his smartest son,
And I swapped it for two shiny quarters
'Cause two is more than one!
And then I took the quarters
And traded them to Lou
For three dimes -- I guess he don't know
That three is more than two!
Just then, along came old blind Bates
And just 'cause he can't see
He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,
And four is more than three!
And I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs
Down at the seed-feed store,
And the fool gave me five pennies for them,
And five is more than four!
And then I went and showed my dad,
And he got red in the cheeks
And closed his eyes and shook his head--
Too proud of me to speak!




Reciters:  Jaden, Nicolas, Miriam, Grace, and Adia


How did you like the poem?

Which was your favorite stanza?

 

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Audio Poem: Seal


This week, Mrs. Yollis' class is learning about poetry! 


When reading a poem aloud it is important to:
1. Practice reading the poem in a clear voice.
2. Change the sound of your voice to help express the idea of the poem.
3. Pause a little at the end of each line. Pause longer at punctuation marks.
4. Look up at your listeners whenever you can.
 

Have a listen as we recite the poem Seal by the poet William Jay Smith.


Click to enlarge and read along with them!

Readers:  Ryan, Tucker, Iman, Lindsay, Hannah, and Amitai



How did you like the poem?

What did you think of their expression? 
Do you have a poem you'd like to recite?

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Teaching Commenting and Encouraging Parent Participation


Mrs. Yollis was invited to present at Tech Talk Tuesday by Anne Mirtschin (@murcha). 
 Tech Talk Tuesdays is a regular online webinar offered every Tuesday during Victorian, Australia school terms, from 3:45 – 4:45pm. The webinar  is offered to global educationalists and those interested in education. Even though it was called Tech Talk Tuesday, it was actually Monday for Mrs. Yollis!

The name of the presentation was 





Here is a link to the recording. 

One additional idea Mrs. Yollis wants to share with teachers is a useful site called Comments4Kids. This site, started by William Chamberlain (@wmchamberlain) is a wonderful way to connect teachers who are interested in connecting students to commenters. Use the hashmark #comments4kids on Twitter to alert teachers of posts that need comments. 


Happy Blogging!


Monday, February 21, 2011

Happy Birthday President Washington and President Lincoln!


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The third Monday in February is Presidents' Day in America. It is a national holiday, so there is no mail delivery, banks are closed, and the schools are on recess.

This national holiday celebrates two great presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Mrs. Yollis' class researched information about the two men using the World Book Encyclopedia and reference books. They wrote down facts about the presidents.



Next, students took a fact card and turned the key words into a sentence to add to the paragraphs below. Some students turned the facts into several sentences. Notice the fine transitions!

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Wonderful Washington
(1732-1799)

George Washington was the first president of the United States. He was born on a farm in Virginia in 1732.  When Washington was eleven, his father died from a bad illness. Later in his life, he married Martha Custis in 1759. She became the first First Lady!

George Washington was a soldier in the army. He was so good, he became general of the Continental Army for the American Revolution. This war was against Britain and Washington's army was triumphant. America was born!

George Washington lead the Constitutional Convention where the U.S. Constitution was written. Americans voted Washington to be their very first president in 1789. He was re-elected to a second term and left office in 1797. He died at Mount Vernon on December 14, 1799.

This great president is featured on the one dollar bill and the quarter. In addition, Washington's name is used in many other ways, such as a state, the capital, and school names. Americans honored Washington when they  built the  Washington Monument in Washington, D.C.

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Lovely Lincoln
(1809-1865)

Abraham was born on February 12, 1809,  in a log cabin in Kentucky. Lincoln's mom died when he was nine years old.  Lincoln  lived on the frontier and loved to learn.  Surprisingly, he only had one year of formal school.  

Abe Lincoln loved to read, and he walked many long miles to borrow books from his friends. Often, he would read by the light of the fire. Abraham Lincoln studied and became  a lawyer. Before he was president, Lincoln ran for the Senate. Unfortunately, he lost to Senator Douglas. In 1834, he ran again for the legislature and won! 

Lincoln was elected as the sixteenth president in 1860.   In 1861, the Civil War started. The northern states and the southern states were fighting. The war lasted the whole time Lincoln was president.  In 1863, he freed the slaves in the southern states. In 1865, the Civil War finally ended. His Gettysburg Address is a famous speech that he gave at a battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  Sadly, just after the end of the Civil War, President Lincoln was assassinated in a theatre on April 4, 1865.

Lincoln is featured on the penny and the five dollar bill. Cities and schools have been named after him and the Lincoln Memorial is a place of honor for the president. 


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Do you know any additional facts about these two great presidents? 

Which president would you want to be and why?


Sunday, February 20, 2011

Let's Meet Our Blogging Buddies: Mr Salsich's Class

Mrs. Yollis' class enjoys sharing and learning with other classes. This year, they are QUAD-buddies with three other classes! 

This week they're going to find out more about the quad-blogging buddies in
Mr Salsich's Grade 3 class, in Conneticut, USA.

 
While you're there, you can meet Juan Pablo, the talking frog, and help him with his learning.



Instead of leaving a comment on this post, please head over to 
Mr. Salsich's blog and leave a comment for them! 
 
Happy Quad-Blogging!


Thursday, February 17, 2011

The Polygon Movie!


Mrs. Yollis' class has been learning all about geometry. 

This week, the students are learning about POLYGONS! 
(A polygon is a closed figure with straight lines.)

 
In this 2008 drama, Circle tries to get a starring role in the new movie, Polygons, but is forced to accept the fact that A CIRCLE is NOT A POLYGON and never will be.  Don't worry, it has a happy ending!

Click here to watch the movie!


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Do you have any polygons in your house? Tell us about it!


Which shape was your favorite character?
 
 
 

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Meet Mrs. Yollis' Student Bloggers!

Below is an introduction to our student blogs for our 
QUAD-Blogging Buddies!


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Mrs. Yollis allows students to earn their own blogs. The students who demonstrate responsible work habits and regularly leave quality comments are eligible. It is very difficult to choose!
The parents are the administrators of each of these student blogs. They do a terrific job as well!


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Here is a link to Miriam's Magical Moments!





 Here is a link to Hannah's Hacienda!









Here is a link to Adia's Babble Blog!






Here is a link to Grace on the Go!

 
Here is a link to Jaden's Awesome Blog



Here is a link to Brothers' Blog.



Please visit our student blogs! They'd love a comment from you!



Our Grand Government!

Our class has been learning all about the United States Government!




We have focused much of our learning on the 
Three Branches of the Government.


Watch the slide show and study for our test at the same time!




United States Government on PhotoPeach

 


What interesting facts have you learned about our government?
What facts can you add about our government, our nation's symbols, or our nation's monuments?

Symmetry for Smarties!

Sometimes you can learn from other bloggers! Today we watched a quiz about symmetry from 
The Smarties in Australia!

We got 100% on their quiz! Thank you Smarties!

Today we found objects with symmetry in our own room!

We took the Smarties Symmetry quiz!



A line of symmetry divides a figure into 2 congruent parts.

Congruent means:

  • same shape
  • same size
Check out our examples!

Symmetrical?

Yes!

Symmetrical?

Yes!

Symmetrical?

Yes!

Symmetrical?

Yes! Yes! Yes! and Yes! A square has 4 lines of symmetry!

This pentagon?

One line of symmetry.

A ♥ is symmetrical!

We even looked at letters! Some were symmetrical and some were not!


Do you see any lines of symmetry in your house or yard?


Monday, February 14, 2011

Mrs. Yollis' Field Trip Photos: Chumash Center

Mrs. Yollis promised to share all the photos she took from the field trip today to our local Chumash Interpretive Center. The Chumash are the historic local Native American tribe.

If you would like to do a blog post about the trip, you may used the photos. Please remember to credit the photos to Mrs. Yollis. (You do not need to credit each one, a one sentence credit at the bottom of your post will do.)
Drag the photos you would like to use on to your desktop. You can upload them from there. Use the "insert image" icon to load them, and you can add a caption. Remember, do NOT just copy information from the museum charts. Put it in your own words. Use your own adjectives!



















































Please let Mrs. Yollis know when your post is ready!





What facts would you like included in a Chumash post?

Please share!