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?

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.?

Sing-a-long: Mr. B. and 3 Rs Song

Mrs. Yollis' class from California is friends with Mr. Salsich's class in Connecticut. These classes are blogging buddies and Skyped back in November.

On Friday, the two classes got together to share about their paperless classroom experiences  which you can read about here and here.

The classes also enjoyed singing some songs with Mr. B.

Three it's a magic number

Yes it is, it's a magic number

Because two times three is six

And three times six is eighteen

And the eighteenth letter in the alphabet is R

We've got three R's we're going to talk about today

We've got to learn to

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

If you're going to the market to buy some juice

You've got to bring your own bags and you learn to reduce your waste

And if your brother or your sister's got some cool clothes

You could try them on before you buy some more of those

Reuse, we've got to learn to reuse

And if the first two R's don't work out

And if you've got to make some trash

Don't throw it out

Recycle, we've got to learn to recycle,

We've got to learn to

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Because three it's a magic number

Yes it is, it's a magic number

3, 3, 3

3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36

33, 30, 27, 24, 21, 18, 15, 12, 9, 6, and

3, it's a magic number

We then enjoyed singing This Land is Your Land and You're a Grand Old Flag.

At the end, Mr. Salsich's class sang a solo with Mr. B.

  Mr. Salsich's students were on the Atlantic coast and Mr. B. was on the Pacific coast. 

It was difficult because of a slight Skype delay. But they did it!

The two classes enjoyed discussing what they liked about the paperless day:

• Both classes enjoyed using the whiteboards instead of paper.

• A student from Mr. Salsich's class liked that there was no noise from a pencil sharpener all day!

• Mrs. Yollis' class liked the idea of paperless homework!

Thank you to our scribes (Sydney, Jaxon, Kendall,  and Ben) and our photographer. (Ethan)

What did you like about the connection?

How did you like singing together from opposite coasts?

Sing-a-long: Chay Chay Koo-lay!

Chay Chay Koo-lay  

 This is a call and response song. 
Please echo back to Mr. B.!

Note: Today was Pajama Day! (We don't usually wear pajamas to school!)

Leader:  Chay chay koo-lay

Leader:   Chay chay Kofisa

Leader:   Kofisa Langa  

Leader:   Kaka Shilanga

Leader:   Kum Aden Day

Leader:  Kum Aden Day HEY! (all)

Leader: Hands on your head

Leader: Hand on your shoulders

Leader: Hands on your waist

Leader: Hands on your knees

Leader: Hands on your ankles

Leader: Hands on your ankles, hey! (all)

Do you like Chay Chay Koo-lay? 

Did you sing with us?

Our First Music Class With Mr. B.!

Today in music we learned the concept of

ostinato!

Mr. B. told us that means: rhythmic patterns played together

* * * * *

The most important musician was our cowbell player. He kept a steady rhythm. A very difficult job!

Next, Mr. B. brought out...a bag of fruit?!

Wait a minute, that's not fruit! Those are shakers!

Third, came the rhythm sticks...Keep the rhythm... 1, 2, 3 and 4

Finally, Boom Whackers!
Each whacker was of a different length.
A different length gives the whacker a different pitch!

Beautiful ostinato, Mr. B.!

What part did you play?

Was it easy to keep the rhythm or not?
What part did you want to play?

Song: Leaving on a Jet Plane

Today was the big Concert on the Green with Mr. B., our wonderful music teacher.

All grades performed a song.

When we came back to our class, we recorded the song for our blog.

Here is a presentation of our song, "Leaving on a Jet Plane" by John Denver.

What was your favorite part of the Concert on the Green?

How did like our song?

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!