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Friday, March 30, 2012

Meet Mr. Mannell!

Mr. Mannell,  a retired teacher from New South Wales, Australia is a wonderfully supportive member of our online learning community. He regularly comments on our classroom blog, and we love learning with him!


Here is just one of the numerous comments we've received. This one was from our Tremendous Two Week Tessellation. He always add new information to our posts, and we appreciate his contributions.



Mrs. Yollis contacted Mr. Mannell so we could personally thank him for helping us learn. We discovered that we were the first class Mr. Mannell has ever Skyped with! Exciting!


Before the call, we organized the questions we had for Mr. Mannell by category: 
 teaching, blogging, free-time, and Australia



The rest of this post was written by: Alexandra, Trey, Brenden, and Alyssa.


Here is Sarah's first photo of the Skype call. Notice that Mr. Mannell has both flags, the Australian and the American flag.
It was exciting to learn that this was Mr. Mannell's first Skype call.

We felt proud. 




                                 
                             
                                  Students were listening carefully to Mr. Mannell. We learned many facts about him. For example, we learned that in his teaching career he taught kindergarten through high school. We were surprised  about the range that he taught. Mrs. Yollis has only taught elementary school.
                      

Many students were asking questions about the rural school he used to teach at. One questions was, "What was the most uncommon animal that you had to chase off the school yard?" He said that the black snake was the most uncommon. Another question was, "What was the most common animal you had to chase?" He said that the Emu was the most common.

                               

                                          


 Acacia and Leila took notes in Word and Mrs. Yollis placed them in Google Docs. Here is a link. 

















Some students took notes on their white boards.






Sarah took a photo of the orange cubic pin on our blog bulletin board. Mr. Mannell lives in  the state of New South Wales. (Notice, we have numerous blogging buddies in the southern hemisphere.)





The geographers, Alyssa and Brenden, found New South Wales in our big blue atlas.



Mr. Mannell lives in the southern part of New South Wales, Australia.


One of the things he likes about blogging is that he gets to be part of a class again. As you can see, he is definitely part of our class!



Mr. Mannell often adds to our learning through his blog called Extended Comments. You can leave him a comment without needing an email or joining anything! Check it out!


Thanks Sarah for the great photographs!





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Have you ever Skyped with anyone? 

Do you have any other questions for Mr. Mannell?

Has Mr. Mannell ever taught you anything? 



Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Learning From Cybraryman


Guest post by: Sasha, Mia, Sammy, and Parsa

Recently, we Skyped with the world famous Cybraryman from Florida! He taught us the process he uses to make cartoon books. There are many steps to consider when writing a story.



Several students took notes to help them learn.




Cybraryman was hired to write a cartoon book for a utility company. A utility company  is a company that works with electricity.  He was very funny and made us try to guess what a utility means!  He was hilarious and asked Mrs. Yollis to turn off the lights as a little clue!  Utility companies provide electricity, gas, and water!  


First, he had to think of a main character. 




Cybrary Man's first idea for a character was a super hero!  If you look  closely, you can see that the super hero is a very old man!  It just didn't seem to be the right character.  







       This is the hero that Cybraryman wanted because he is young, but this picture had some problems.  The boy was clenching his fists, and the little girl's hands looked like they had claws.  She was also looking up in the sky like she was waiting for something evil to happen.  They had to change that!





                            When you are writing a book you have to research!  Cybraryman researched energy, since that is what the book is about.   He always goes to the library, not Wikipedia.                                            


This is a close up of a classmate's notes.  Everybody wanted to learn how to make a cartoon book, so they brought their notes home and tried.  Cybraryman told us to make the story interesting and to try to make good ideas better!



When Cybraryman  started making cartoon books, he used a typewriter!  He said, "It was a real pain in the neck because if you made a mistake, you'd have to start all over again!"



This is an example of things you need to do before you do the final copy.  First you plan, then outline.  Then you ask your friend or somebody like your boss to give you feedback.





Cybraryman showed us a sloppy copy and a final copy to show us how much a book can change.  He asked us if we can indicate  any differences.  If you can see, the cat on the left has his fire suit unbuckled and on the right it is snapped together.  (The left is the sloppy copy.)







These are all the steps to write a cartoon book: idea, need, approach, outline, script, dummy, revisions, and  final copy.  A dummy is a real size fake person of the character, so you can see what the character will look like.  





This is what the final copy looks like!  The boys fists are not clenched, the girl is not looking at the sky, and her hands do not look like claws.  That was an improvement! 


Cybraryman told us that it can take a long to complete a book. This one took him about a year to make! That's perseverance!  


We are writing a class book right now and are going to apply Cybraryman's ideas to it a great book!

Thank you, Mia, for the wonderful photos!




Do you know how to write a cartoon book?
Have you ever written a book? Tell us about it!
What steps did you take?



Monday, March 26, 2012

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!








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?

Sunday, March 25, 2012

QuadBlogging ~ Meet Open the Door to B4

Mrs. Yollis' class enjoys being QuadBlogging buddies with three other classes:


 

This week it is Open the Door to B4's  turn to be the featured class.

They are a class of 20 Year 2 and 3 students, 
which means they are 6 and 7 years old. Check out what these young writers are doing!

Head on over to this fabulous New Zealand blog and leave a quality comment!

Be sure to say which class you are from!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

QuadBlogging ~ Meet Mr. Salsich's Class

Mrs. Yollis' class enjoys being quad-blogging buddies with three other classes:


 

This week we're going to visit Mr. Salsich's class
Mr. Salsich and his third grade students live in Connecticut, USA.
for you to enjoy.

Leave a comment to introduce yourself.
Remember to say where you are from!

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Happy Birthday Mr. Avery!

Mr Avery is a special sixth grade teacher in Massachusetts, USA.

He maintains Mr Avery's Classroom Blog which is a model blog for classes around the world. Mr Avery is very talented at making videos with his students to help them understand maths concepts.

Mr Avery has been blogging with his class since late 2010 and we sometimes leave comments on each others blogs.

Saturday March 17th is a special milestone for Mr Avery. It is his...

Mr Avery's blogging buddies wanted to surprise him by getting together to create a special birthday post!

Here is a Prezi that B4, Mr Salsich's class4KM & 4KJ and Mrs Watson's class collaborated on.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Our Grand Government

Mrs. Yollis' 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 government 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?

Sunday, March 11, 2012

QuadBlogging Week 2 : Meet 4KM and 4KJ

Mrs. Yollis' class enjoys sharing and learning with other classes around the world. This year, they are QuadBlogging buddies again with three other classes:

 


 
Here is a fabulous video we made last year explaining how QuadBlogging works! 
 

QuadBlogging was invented by @deputymitchell. Learn more about Quadblogging here.


This week we're going to visit 4KM and 4KJ. 
The 52 4th graders work in two joined classrooms 
and their teachers 
Mrs. Morris and Miss Jordan team-teach.
Head on over and read the posts they've chosen 
for you to enjoy.


Leave a comment to introduce yourself.
Remember to say where you are from!

Friday, March 9, 2012

Guest Post: Skyping with 4KM and 4KJ

 Guest Post by Mia, Ellie, and Maya





Today, we Skyped with our Australian friends! We learned a lot through asking questions and getting answers. It was Thursday afternoon in America, and it was Friday morning in Australia!




Here are both of our flags from our countries,  United States of America (U.S.A) and Australia.








 This is a picture of Mia typing the notes in a Word document. It is a little blurry, but it shows a lot of action. Mia, Ellie, and Maya were the typists.








Here is a Google Doc with the transcript.



 We prepared one question, but then we realized that we were supposed to ask multiple questions.  We adapted quickly, and we came up with new questions.   It was easy to come up with questions because we wanted to know a lot about 4KM and 4KJ. It was very hard to type because some people talked so fast.






Below is a chart of the interviewees. (An interviewee is a person being interviewed.) Sarah was the first Yollis student to be asked questions. We called it the hot seat and the names are shown below in green.  The names in brown are the interviewers. (An interviewer is a person who asks questions.)  Kelly asked the first series of questions.



After all the questions were asked, we had some free time. 4KM and 4KJ sang the Australian National Anthem. Here is a video!









Sarah played the Star Spangled Banner on her violin. (She sounded very good). 



Here is a video of Sarah practicing the Star Spangled Banner before the call. Beverly really enjoyed it!










Here are Mrs. Morris, Miss Jordan, and the 4KM/4KJ class mascot,  Leo!   We have Beverly and Panda as mascots, and they have Leo. 
 (We have a puppet that looks exactly like Leo, but a girl.  Her name is Lia!)




The bell rang and most of the class had to go. However, a few students stayed and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. 



4KM and 4KJ recited their school oath.



*     *     *     *     *



Thank you, Sasha, for the fabulous photos!



Have you ever Skyped with someone from a different country?

What was your favorite question?

Saturday, March 3, 2012

QuadBlogging Begins! Week 1

Mrs. Yollis' class enjoys sharing and learning with other classes. This year, they are QuadBlogging buddies with three other classes! For the next four weeks, these classes will connect and learn about each other.


Here is a fabulous video we made last year explaining how QuadBlogging works! QuadBlogging was invented by @deputymitchell. Learn more about Quadblogging here.



Mrs. Yollis' class will start the process!


*     *     *     *     *

Mrs. Yollis' class is an enthusiastic group of third graders. There are twenty-five students in the class, and they live in a suburb of Los Angeles, California.  Students enjoy learning and meeting other classroom bloggers. The class maintains two blogs, Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog and the Yollis' 366 Project.  The 366 project is a daily digital documentation. Anyone, including YOU, can submit a photo of the day. Just email Mrs. Yollis an interesting photo with some text to accompany the shot!


We have two blog mascots, Panda and Beverly. Panda is a polite, punctual, panda who enjoys pole-vaulting. Beverly is big and un-bear-ably cute. Although bears only hibernate in the winter, she seems to go into a deep sleep quite often! 




Mrs. Yollis' students have been in school since August 2011, so they have numerous posts in the blog archive. 
(An archive is a list of past posts published. Hey, that's alliteration!
The archive is located in the sidebar.)



Here are some class recommendations to help you 
get to know Mrs. Yollis' bloggers!



Madison recommends that you check out Poly-gone from our 366 Project. Here you will see Mrs. Yollis' new puppy, Buck, helping her grade the geometry tests!

Parsa and Brenden recommend Orange You From California?  They like this post from our class 366 project because it has a pun in the title. Plus, the fabulous photo was taken by guest photographer, Mrs. Morris! 


  Sarah and Kelly recommend another 366 post called Seed Pod or Mr. Green. It features Buck, Mrs. Yollis' new puppy, making a judgement about what to eat.


  Ellie recommends a post that features her dad. It is called Fire Safety With Ellie's Dad. This an important post for all to read!

  Alyssa and Leila recommend our 100,000 Visitors post! We created a movie to welcome in a new place value position...the hundred thousands place!



Parsa and Brenden are back with one more recommendation. Check out Skyping With 4KM and 4KJ. Learn about Australia and the United States. We look forward to meeting B4 and Skyping with Mr. Salsich's class again!


Sasha thinks that you should check out Google Earth Geometry. See how we investigated our nation's capital, Washington, D.C., while identifying 2 and 3-D features!


  Beverly recommends you check out her post called Beverly's a Pirate! (Do so at your own risk!)


  Mrs. Yollis' recommends you take a look our student blogs. So far, six students have earned their own blogs by demonstrating responsible work habits and regularly participating in our class blog.


  Panda recommends that you watch this video.  He says you will learn FIVE tips to help you compose a quality comment! Remember it is important to make a good impression when leaving a comment.




Tips for writing a quality comment:


1. Compliment the writer in a specific way.
2. Make a connection
3. Add relevant information.
4. End with a question if you'd like to start a conversation.
5. Proofread! (Anything underlined in red is probably misspelled.)



We look forward to meeting everyone and getting some conversations going!


Please leave us a comment telling us about yourself! 

Feel free to ask questions!