The collaborative learning connections that can occur when the classroom walls are flattened are rich and engaging for all learners, teachers included!
Here is a slide show documenting an international vocabulary building project between our third grade class in California and our blogging buddies in England, A Room With a View. This fabulous A-Z Twitter project was the idea of Catherine Monaghan. This literacy project integrates dictionary skills, Twitter, Google Presentations, and blogging.
Enjoy!
What was your favorite word?
What do you think of this type of global project?
Students and friends, use a high-level word or two in your comment! Let's keep learning!
Aloha Mrs. Yollis and class,
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful plethora of wonderful words! A splendid way not only to enlarge your vocabulary but make friends too!
A hui hou,
Mrs. Jacobs
@ Mrs. Jacobs,
ReplyDeleteMahalo! Indeed, this project was a superb way to acquire new vocabulary words. The jollification of dictionary skills made learning a pleasure.
Warmly,
Mrs. Y♥llis
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteMy word is galore.
Galore is just a higher level word for a lot.
My teacher has a galore of mascots in her room.
From,
Chance
@ Chance,
DeleteFabulous word choice! One of the things we don't subscribe to in our class is exclamation marks galore!
This Friday, it is going to be hearts galore! Don't you agree?
Where did you locate this word?
Your vocabulary-loving teacher,
Mrs. Y♥llis
Dear Mrs. Yollis and class,
ReplyDeleteI had a recreation time doing are A-Z enterprise. I did five slides they were A, P, Q, S, and T. Doing this grand enterprise I had three contrast partners. I think Mrs. Monaghan idea was grand.
How many word were you responsible for?
Sincerely,
Daniel
@ Daniel,
DeleteI love the word recreation. However, you are using it as an adjective, but in the form of a noun. That is a common mistake we make as we build our vocabulary!
If you add the suffix -al to the word it becomes recreational, an adjective!
I know that one of your recreational activities is playing guitar.
I concur with you. This vocabulary building enterprise was extraordinary!
Thanks for outstanding contributions!
Your vocabulary-loving teacher,
Mrs. Y♥llis
@ Mrs. Yollis,
DeleteI think that was a great lesson. There are many words that I never knew existed that other people said. Some of the words are fleetingly, roused, and wrinkled. I think that many more words will come even if they are not in our class.
Darius and Heather, those were magnificent words. Mrs. Yollis, did you see I put one of your words in my comment?
I will try to remember your lesson.
Sincerely,
D♣niel
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteMy word is fleetingly. Fleetingly is a higher level vocabulary word for quickly. The ocelot fleetingly glanced over at the human.
Your pupil,
Darius
@ Darius,
DeleteAlthough the ocelot looked fleetingly at the human, I certainly would not take a fleeting look at an ocelot. Instead, I'd take a lasting look at that beautiful feline. Have you ever seen one?
Did you notice I change fleetingly as an adverb to fleeting as an adjective?
Sincerely,
Mrs. Y♥llis
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteWhen we started this project, I was really roused to start drawing pictures and learning new words. This was a real lucrative idea, not for money, but for vocabulary!
I took the picture of alliteration with Daniel. I like it how Panda is patting a pretty pepperoni pizza. Did you know that Daniel brought in the pepperoni pizza on motive?
I had four words, so my other three were: quotient, taciturn, and zeal. I did quotient with Daniel again, and this time we depicted it. Like a diagram, we drew an arrow at the quotient to help the reader know that it is the quotient. If you didn't know what quotient was, and there were no words, would the diagram help you?
As you know, my other word was taciturn. Before we did the A-Z project, I didn't even know this word existed! Again, I drew this with Daniel. We both planned to have the boy be taciturn, until another boy asked him to play. If you look closely, the paper is a little wrinkled.
My last word was with Allison, and the word was zeal. All of the kids are zeal for blogging. Together, we illustrated this picture. What are you zeal in?
Sincerely,
Heather
@ Heather,
DeleteWhat an exceptional comment, as usual. You always display great leadership when encountering a challenge.
It is tough sometimes to modify words and use the correct form. That is what is magnificent about this exercise. Here is an example:
All of the kids are blogging zealots.
You inquired about the things I am zealous about. (Zealous is an adjective that means showing great zeal.) I adore quality comments, practicing yoga, and playing with Buck.
What brings out the zeal in you?
Your vocabulary-loving teacher,
Mrs. Y♥llis
Dear Heather,
DeleteWow that comment was amazing, but I'm not surprised because you always do excellent.
Oh and thank you for those words,they really helped me. At the beginning of the year I didn't even know what zeal meant. Now I know it means great enthusiasm! I have great zeal for vocabulary.
Sincerely,
Sheila and Ali
Dear Ms. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteI found a fabulous word: Mesmerizing
The definition is: To capture ones attention as if nothing else exists.
I was mesmerized by the colors of the painting that my grandmother painted.
Cheers,
Mia
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteMy word is sensational. The definition is causing great public interest and excitement (of an event, person, or piece of information).
The sensational teacher talked about her sensational class blog ;).
"Wow, I am getting sensational comments from my sensational students on my sensational blog!" exclaimed the sensational teacher.
Do you think you know who the sensational teacher is? I'll give you a hint, the sensational teacher owns this sensational blog. :)
Warmly,
Peter
Mrs Yollis and Shayna.
ReplyDeleteMy word is fabulous word is phenomenal. Your class page is phenomenal and your students leave phenomenal comments. I would really like to thank Shayna for her phenomenal comment that she left this morning on our class page. This is Mr Webbs reply on behalf of our students:
Shayna
Thank you for your comments I will share this with my class, they are very excited to be blogging and working online. It is so wonderful to receive your comment because we are still working on our comment format and how comments should look. I know that Mrs Yollis has done a lot of work with you and your class about modelling the best way to leave comments and some of our students are still working on this so it is great to have a fantastic example.
We have a mix of arts and projects in our classroom. As our students are older once a week they go to a local college (High School) and they receive extra lessons there as part of their learning and one of these is art. We also have art as part of our learning.
I think that if we asked our students about their favourite subject at school they would all probably say 'Physical Education' or PE for short. We have lots of students who play sport at our school in sports like Basketball, Rubgy Netball and Cricket and lots of students do this at the weekend. We are lucky that it is summer here at the moment we are able to go swimming every morning.
What sports are most popular with the students from your classroom?
Thank you for your wonderful comment.
Mr Webb and Room One
Dear Mrs.Yollis,
ReplyDeleteI have a word and it is peered. Peered means to take a look at something. The human heard a noise and peered around.
Another word I have is trotting. The child was trotting to be silly.
Your student,
Darius
Dear Mrs. Yollis and Class,
ReplyDeleteMy first word is attire. They dressed in their finest attire when they attended the President's party at the White House. My second word is multitude. I learned a multitude of phenomenal words from the A-Z project.
I had a lot of fun with the A- Z project. My three words were genre, plethora and yodel.
Your learning loving friend,
Jemma
Dear Mrs. Yollis and Mrs. Monaghan,
ReplyDeleteI had a remarkable time with my class sharing lofty vocabulary words with your class, Mrs. Monaghan, and am mournful that the activity is now gone. :( I think this was a swell way to enhance our vocabulary skills. Truly, I didn't know that some internet resources can be so useful! At first, the internet and its gang weren't as real chums of mine at the beginning of the year as they are now; thank you, Mrs. Yollis! Now I am making comrades on the web daily!
I beamed with enthusiasm when I saw all of the amusing drawings we made or pictures we took.
Sincerely,
Aashi
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteI am amazed by this collaborative project! It is so fabulous to see students in different parts of the world working together to learn new words.
My favorite word is genre. Do your students know why?
From,
Mrs. Hembree
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteThis has been an exhilaratingassignment. My real word is acquire. It means to get, to recive, or obtain. My Mother acquired a basketball signed by the acclaimed coach John Wooden.
Sincerely,
Bryce
Dear Mrs. Yollis and Mrs. Monaghan,
ReplyDeleteWhen we started the A-Z project, I was eager to begin. I had two words in the project. I did both of those words with different colleagues in the class.
My first word was genre. I did genre with Jemma, and this word was a very pleasant word. Jemma and I organized the books into groups based on their genre. We then placed signs on top of the stacks so the public could identify the books in the various categories. Sometimes, since it took a while to finish this enterprise, folks would remove books from the setup, and mess up the stacks of books. This would cause Jemma and me to reorganize the stacks, and put the cards on top of the stories. One time, someone took Jemma's library book! Did you know that happened? What is your most favored genre?
My second word was relevant. I did relevant with Shayna, and luckily, this time, no dilemmas occurred. The image that we drew shows a teacher asking the answer to a division problem. Two pupils responded, but only one student's response was relevant. The other child's response was irrelevant. Have you ever been in a classroom and the teacher has asked you a question, but you were not paying attention and thinking of something totally off topic? If so, What were you thinking of?
Sincerely,
Keira
Dear Keira,
DeleteI was just as impatient as you when Mrs. Yollis told us about this idea.
Since you solicited about if I knew that Jemma's book was extracted by someone else that was innocent, the answer is YES! We are friends, as you may know, so we tell each other everything that needs seeking. After a while, we found someone reading the book by accident.
My favorite genre is mystery, adventure, and best of all, fiction. I like mystery because then you can have fun trying to guess where or what it might be. Adventure fits me because then you can explore all of the interesting places without actually going there. I especially like fiction because if something sad happens, you don't have to worry because it isn't even real! :-D What genres do you like and why?
Yes, I have thought of something irrelevant when Mrs. Yollis was talking. I was thinking of, "What a great trip it will be with Keira to Universal Studios this Sunday!" For real, I am really jumpy for this remarkable Sunday. Luckily, I used my metacognition to put me back on track. Have you daydreamed?
Your friend,
Heather
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteMy word is envious. It means you are jealous of someone. I am envious that your sensational blog has 1,000,000 pageveiws and mine only has 6,000! ;)
Warmly,
Peter
Dear Mrs. Yollis and class,
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing project! You all showed your zeal, for learning- I also love learning new words as well. I think learning globally is a great way to connect to other people and create authentic learning- which is learning that is real and important. One of my favourite high level words to use is plethora , which means a very large amount or number. Thanks for sharing,
Ms. Neumeyer
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteMy word is adorn .It is a verb.The definition is to decorate with ornaments. She adorned the Christmas tree with lights and a sparkling star.
Your student,
Samantha
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteMy word is swindle.The definition of swindle is to cheat or trick someone to give you something.
.
In a movie called Swindle a crook swindled a old baseball card from two boys,but unknown to the two boys the card was fake.
Your pupil,
♥ Sheila ♥
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteMy first word is swift. Here is how to use it in a sentecne, the swith person won the race, and earned a gold medal. My second word is pensive.
I was in a pensive mood today. My last word is revise. I revise my homework everyday after my mom or dad check my assignments.
cheer
@lec
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteWe watched your slide show. I like it! My favorite word was optimistic. Did you watch the Olympics? I think it's cool and optimistic to watch.
From,
Chloe
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteWe watched your slide show. My favorite word was zaol- the last one. Is it fun making a slide show because I would like to. I really liked your slide show.
From,
Adele
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Aiden. I liked your slide show. My favorite word was nocturnal. How do you like the Olympics?
From,
Aiden
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteWe watched your video. Now I know lots of words. I like the word eager. I also liked nocturnal and the picture. What word did you like best? I really liked your slideshow.
From,
Luka
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteI liked the word static and I really liked your slideshow.
From,
Macy
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteThose photos look good. I mean great, great, great! You're a great teacher.
From,
Carlos
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteWe saw your word slideshow! My favorite word was jinx. How far do you live from Seattle? How did you make your word slides?
From,
Nikolas
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteWe watched your slide show. My favorite word was eager because it means excited. Whenever I hear that word, it makes me happy. Also, did you watch the Olympics?
From,
Emina
Dear Mrs Yollis ,
ReplyDeleteMy word is vast. It means, very great in size, extent, amount or number. Here is my sentence with the word:
North America is an incredibly vast continent full of land. It has many states and each state is special in its own way.
From, Ben
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteMy word is engrossing.
All Mrs. Yollis' posts are most engrossing.
Engrossing is another word for interesting.
My other word is engaging.
Buck is an engaging dog.
Engaging is another word for cute.
Do you agree with my example sentences?
Sincerely,
Chloe
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteOne of my words is illusion.
A little girl saw three unicorns in the forest, but it was just an illusion.
Another one of my words is habitually.
Grace is habitually optimistic about life!
My final word is entranced.
I was so entranced by the queen's beauty, it made me smile.
Have you ever experienced an illusion before?
Sincerely,
Clare
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteMy words are admire, tremendous, and amazing.
I admire the slide show the class made. All the pictures are tremendous . The child admired her Mother's dress. The children got tremendous grades. The class put amazing effort in the slide show!
Your Blogging Friend,
E♥ilyn
Dear Mrs. Yollis and class,
ReplyDeleteI think that this A-Z vocabulary project was a beneficial and enjoyable activity. Because of this learning opportunity, students were exposed to new words.
I participated in the project by drawing three pictures that represented a word. They were waning, relevant, and contraction. My first word was contraction. I illustrated it with Aashi and when we were done we took a picture of the drawing and added it to the rest of the photographs that were already in the document. My second word was waning. I drew it with Nate. What I liked about this word was the way we could use it multiple times. For example, the moon wanes as it gets earlier in the morning and a tip of a pencil or crayon would wane if you have used it many times. My third and final word was relevant. I did this word with Keira. I liked how Keira and I took our time on the illustration. As George Washington said, "haste makes waste."
What was your favorite word that you illustrated? Why was it your favorite?
Your learner,
Sh♥yna
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteOne of my words is evident.
when we study hard it is evident to get a good grade.
My next word is conduct.
scientists have been conducting a lot of studies to find a cure for cancer.
My final word is engage.
I like to engage in a conversation when i like the topic.
Can you use these three words in a sentence?
Warmely,
Ali
Dear Mrs Yollis,
ReplyDeleteAs a novice in an american school, at the beginning I was intrigued with the blog. Then I was keen on reading more. And now I am still amazed by the way we learn here.
from your French student
Theo
Dear Mrs. Yollis and Class,
ReplyDeleteThis will be an especially felicitous weekend because it is perfectly timed to have a three day weekend that coincides with Valentine's Day. What an apt way to spend a long weekend - celebrating love with friends and family. What are you doing for this felicitous holiday?
Your student and friend,
Allison