A Visit From Ella in 2KM/2KJ Australia!

On Wednesday, Ella was in her own 2KM/2KJ classroom in Victoria, Australia.

Photo by Kathleen Morris

By Thursday, she was in her blogging buddies' classroom in Los Angeles, California! 

What a world traveler!

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Before Ella arrived, Mrs. Yollis' students applied some Australian tattoos they'd received as a gift from Ryley in 2KM/2KJ! He was in Mrs. Yollis' class two weeks ago!

Mrs. Yollis' and Mrs. Ranney's students were excited to meet Ella and her family.  Everyone was astounded at the travel day they had endured!

They left Australia on Thursday, May 12, at 10:00 A.M. 

They arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday, May 12, at 8:00 A.M.

They were in Mrs. Yollis' classroom by 2:00 on May 12! 

That's some May 12!

Ella shares about her travel plans!

Mrs. Morris and Miss Jordan joined in via Skype from Australia!

Jack and Ella were still on May 12 in America, while it was May 13 in Australia!

Many students stayed in class after the bell rang so they could visit a little more with Ella and Jack.

Panda and Mrs. Yollis enjoy making new friends!

Ella, Jack, and their parents in Mrs. Yollis' classroom!

Ella and her family brought many fun books and Australian souvenirs to share!

The koalas were a big hit!

What did you think of the visit?

Do you have any questions for Ella and her family?

Would you like to travel to Australia one day?

Mothers, Daughters, Friendship, and Blogging!

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Mrs. Yollis and her mother, Mrs. Pfau, have become friends with a mother and daughter from Australia named Bianca and AA! Even though the  mother-daughter pairs live on separate continents, a friendship has developed.  

The connection began in the classroom blog comment section. In 2010, Bianca (from Mrs. Morris' 2KM blog) was turning eight, and she learned that  Mrs. Pfau was turning 80. Once Bianca found out Mrs. Pfau was becoming an octogenarian, she thoughtfully sent a birthday card across the ocean. Mrs. Pfau was so pleased, she played a birthday song for her new friend. 

Listen to that birthday message here.  

Bianca and AA

This year, Bianca and her mom sent a special Australian gift to Mrs. Yollis and Mrs. Pfau and in the package was a special birthday card! The package also included cute koalas, a Aussie pen, a post card, an Australian letter holder, and an Australian flag!

Mrs. Yollis and her mom, Mrs. Pfau

A classroom blog is a wonderful project filled with unexpected treasures!

♥    ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥

What do you think about friendship?

How do you feel about the friends you've made through educational blogging?

Interview: Mrs. Yollis and Mrs. Morris

Yesterday, Mrs. Yollis and her good friend Mrs. Morris from 2KM in Australia were interviewed about educational blogging for a podcast called The Virtual Staffroom. Chris Betcher conducted the interview via Skype from Sydney, Australia, where he is a teacher and ICT integration support person.

If you'd like to listen to the one hour podcast, please visit The Virtual Staffroom! 

What did you learn from the interview?

Do you have any other questions you'd like Mrs. Yollis or Mrs. Morris to answer? 

Have you ever conducted an interview or been interviewed?

A Beautiful Gift from Australia!

Mrs. Yollis and her class are dear friends with  2KM and 2KJ in Australia. These blogging buddies have developed a wonderful friendship over the last year. 

The classes  connected through Skype in November, they worked together on The Ugandan Global Project which was a big success. Last June, 2KM came to school an hour early and Mrs. Yollis' class stayed an hour late so they could have a Skype Show-and-Tell Party! There have been gifts sent from the class and also from  Bianca and AA.  Mrs. Yollis' class sent a California gift pack to Australia!

Today we received a beautiful Air Mail package filled with lovely holiday gifts!

A precious Christmas recipe book filled with family favorites for the holidays! Yum!

Australian pencils for all!

A souvenir booklet of Australian money!

Everything was wrapped in a fabulous Australian flag! 

Included in the package was a ♬ ♫ CD of Aussie Christmas music! ♬ ♫

Here is a thank you video filled with our special holiday ♬ ♫ wishes ♬ ♫ for our friends down under!

We treasure your friendship and we wish you well in your new grade!

What's fun about having friends in another country?

What is your favorite memory about the 2KM and 2KJ connection?

How can we keep in touch with our friends?

Skyping With Our Friends Down Under!

Mrs. Yollis' class is friends with Miss McGeady (soon to be Mrs. Morris), Miss Jordan, and their classes in Victoria Australia. We had a fun time connecting yesterday via Skype!

Mrs. Yollis' class understands about time zones, but it was still hard to  comprehend that when it was  

2:00 P.M. on Monday in Los Angeles, it was  at 9:00 A.M. on Tuesday in Victoria!

Funny!

 

Miss Jordan and Miss McGeady greeted the class!

Students were excited to see and learn about the Australian community!

Students shared information about their community. The information was collected on a class poster.

Mrs. Ranney and her class were able to join in the fun!

Adia and Grace were able to record the information as it came in. This was the first time we tried Todaysmeet.



We noticed some similarities and differences!


Similarities:

Our summer and winter climate is very much the same.

We both live close to the beach.

We both are located in the 30˚ latitudes. (We're 34˚ and they are 38˚)


 


Differences: 

We are a half hour drive from the beach, and they are 15 minutes.

Their school year ENDS in three weeks! Ours ends in June!

We have 600 students in our school and they have 700.

They are in the southern hemisphere, and we are in the northern hemisphere.


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Here is a transcript from Grace and Adia.  Thanks, Iman, for being our photographer!

How is the transcript useful? Are there any facts that don't make sense?


What was your favorite part about the connection?

Skype: Show-and-Tell Party With 2KM!

The school year is about to end for Mrs. Yollis' class. They have skyped with Miss McGeady's class a couple of times in the past, however because of the current time zones, they could not Skype during school hours. Due to the enthusiasm of the students and the support of parents, all hope was not lost! Today 2KM came to school one hour early and Mrs Yollis’ class stayed back from school late for a special Skype session. 

What fun!




Here it is on Vimeo!

 

Thank you, Kayla, for being our class photographer!  :-)

What did you think of the party?

Blogging Friendships

Making friends is just one of the many wonderful aspects of having a classroom blog!

2KM, our blogging friends from Australia,  sent us a surprise package on March 12.

On March 31, we received another generous gift from Bianca and her mother, AA.

We wanted to send our valued friends some things from America, specifically from our state of California. 

Miss McGeady and 2Km just got the air mail package and check out this thank you video they made for us!

A Surprise Gift from Kathleen McGeady on Vimeo.

Educational blogging has truly made learning more fun and so meaningful!

Lovely Friends!

Mrs. Yollis and her students could not have been any happier today!

Bianca, from 2KM, and her wonderful mother, put together another Australian care package for the class.

Such thoughtfulness!

Not only is educational blogging good for the mind, 

it's good for the heart, too!

 :-)

Today during Fun Thursday, students built a home for the koalas!

Fun!      Fun!      Fun!

Skyping With Our Friends Down Under!

Last week, Mrs. Yollis' class received a surprise gift from their blogging buddies in Australia.

A Skype call was planned for the following week. Unfortunately, with the daylight saving time change...Mrs. Yollis' class was out of school before 2KM started.

Some might have thought that the call would never happen...but so many students in Mrs. Yollis' class wanted to talk with their Australian friends...  they stayed after school!

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Here are a few of the students who stayed  to complete their homework. Look at them go!

Others came back for the call at 3:00 P.M. 

(9:00 A.M. in Australia)

 

Right on time, Miss McGeady and 2KM called and the fun started! 

Everyone from 2KM got a chance to introduce themselves and tell us about a hobby they enjoyed!

(Mrs. Yollis' class shared during the last call.)

Some 2KM students like to play netball, soccer, or swim. Others like to dance or create art. A couple students have motorbikes. One girl likes to ride horses and another showed us some Karate moves!

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American students wondered if their Australian friends said a national pledge daily. They do not. 

2KM  asked if they could hear the American pledge.

Each student from Mrs. Yollis' class stood up, faced the flag, and recited the pledge.

Mrs. McGeady said that her students sometimes sing the Australian National Anthem. We asked if they could sing it for us... 

Enjoy!

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We value our international friends and loved spending time with them today!


:-)

What did you think of the Skype call?

What was your favorite part?

A Gift from our Friends Down Under!

When Mrs. Yollis went to the office yesterday,  there was a surprise  Air-Mail package from Australia!

Inside was a manifold of gifts from our good friends and fellow collaborators, Miss McGeady and 2KM!

Inside was a wonderful letter from Miss McGready! In addition, she included  a famous Australian book by Mem Fox called Possom Magic complete with lesson plans. Also included was a carton of Weet-Bix, a tube of vegemite, and Australian flags for EVERYONE!

We thank our Australian friends!

We thank Miss McGeady and 2KM for their generosity and friendship!

:-)

Introducing Collaboration Corner!

Mrs. Yollis' class has met many wonderful teachers and students through their educational blog. 

 Last year, they became good friends with Miss McGeady and her students from the  2KM blog in Australia. 

Mrs. Yollis and her class were so excited when they made their new international friendship, 

they sent a song to their new blogging buddies.

The two classes regularly read each other's blogs and have met via Skype.
Read about that experience here.

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Recently, Miss McGeady and Mrs. Yollis have been collaborating on ways to

get the two classes to work together. They have created a new blog for their joint projects called

Collaboration Corner!
(Collaboration is a fancy word that means working together)

The Collaboration Corner blog will be a place for the two classes to collaborate on projects.

The first project is called What's For Lunch?

This fantastic project was first discovered on our new friend's blog, The Smarties, from Western Australia!

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The What's for Lunch? project will begin soon! 

Voice Thread: Summer Poetry

Our Australian buddies at 2KM did a creative Voice Thread about the winter season that is beginning in the southern hemisphere.

Since we live in the northern hemisphere, we did a creative Voice Thread about the summer season that is just beginning!

Like our buddies, we brainstormed things that you see, hear, feel, taste, and touch in the summer! Each student wrote a poem about Summer and shared a line from the poem in the Voice Thread.

Thanks 2KM for the inspiration!

Please enjoy our Summer Voice Thread! Click on the triangle to HEAR the poetry.
(To add a recorded comment, you will need an email address.)



What do you think of our Voice Thread?

Which is your favorite season and what do you like to do during that season?

The Hello Song!

Today we had music with the the wonderful Mr. B and Mrs. Ranney's class.

We recorded a special song for our new 2KM blogging friends in Australia.

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!

Special thanks to Mr. B.! We hope you liked our singing!

Our Global Friends!

Yesterday Mrs. Yollis' Class made new friends with some young classroom bloggers in the southern hemisphere!

We met the interesting students from Australia when Mrs. Yollis discovered their blog. Click here to view the fabulous 2KM blog and be sure to leave a comment. They have a fun sing-a-long song called the Skip Count Song! Give it a listen!

2KM informed us about another classroom blog in Texas called C-O Connections Blog. We are going to investigate and comment on their blog as well!

It has been fun reading about what other students from different places are learning.


We had a wonderful time exploring all the visitor dots that were visible on 2KM's ClustrMap!

We look forward to our global friendship!