Turkey Takes a Vacation :: Happy Thanksgiving!

 

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Turkey Takes a Vacation!

Stories and Vacation Photos by Mrs. Yollis’ Third Graders

Enjoy!

Tech Tip: Click on the three dots to "Enter full screen". 

How did we create this project? 

First, we read Turkey Trouble, by Wendi Silvano.  The funny fantasy follows our feathered friend as he finds out what Americans feast upon for Thanksgiving.  Thank you to Noah and his family for purchasing the book for the class! 

Second, we selected an exotic vacation location for Turkey. (If he left America over Thanksgiving break, he would not get eaten.)

Third, we researched an international landmark using reference materials like Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 

Fourth, we located the international landmark on Google Earth and took a "vacation" screenshot. Pegman was so helpful! The screenshot was uploaded to our class collaborative photo album. 

Fifth, we used our facts to create a story about Turkey's time at the international landmark.

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What was your favorite part about the project and why?

What landmark would you like to visit? 

Turkey Takes a Vacation!

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Turkey Takes a Vacation!

Stories and Vacation Photos by Mrs. Yollis’ Third Graders

Enjoy!

***Click to enlarge the Google Photo Album!***

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Steps Taken to Complete this 

*Turkey Takes a Vacation* 

photo album 

First, we read Turkey Trouble, by Wendi Silvano.  The funny fantasy follows our feathered friend as he finds out what Americans feast upon for Thanksgiving.  

Second, we selected an exotic vacation location for Turkey. (If he left America over Thanksgiving break, he would not get eaten.)

Third, we researched an international landmark using reference books from Epic and Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 

Fourth, we located the international landmark on Google Earth and took a "vacation" screenshot. Pegman was so helpful! The screenshot was uploaded to our class collaborative photo album. 

Fifth, we used our facts to create a story about Turkey's time at the international landmark.

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What was your favorite part about the project and why?

What landmark would you like to visit? 

App Smashing :: Turkey Travels!

My students love writing and creating! At the end of November, we wrote fanciful stories about a troubled turkey, and we just completed the illustrations. We are finally ready to publish our funny fantasies!

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Turkey Takes a Vacation!

Stories and Vacation Photos by Mrs. Yollis’ Third Graders

Turkey Visits Paris, France

By Sean

     Once upon a time there lived a turkey named Mrs. Dole who lived in California with the Howard family. Mrs. Dole didn’t like the idea of being the main course at Thanksgiving dinner, so she disguised herself as a tourist and ran away to France.

   She decided to go to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower is 984 feet tall (300 meters). Gustave Eiffel built the Eiffel Tower. About 2 million people visited the Eiffel Tower in the first year it was built! It was built by 300 steel workers!

 

After she took the double decker bus to the Lourve Museum to see the  Mona Lisa. It is 508 years old! It is an oil painting. The artist is Leonardo Da Vinci. Then took a flight back to California because Thanksgiving was over.

 

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Turkey Visits Japan

By Troy

     Once upon a time there lived a turkey named Bob who lived in California with the Joey-bob family. Bob didn’t like the idea of being the main course at Thanksgiving dinner, so he disguised himself as a tourist and ran away to Japan. When he got there, he visited Mount Fuji and found out it is 12,388 feet tall! 

In fact, it is the tallest mountain in Japan. As he looked up at the colossal, snow-covered peak, he felt amazed. Since the volcano hadn’t erupted in hundreds of years, he thought it might any minute.

He decided to rush over to Itsukushima Torii, which is a 52 foot high gate that is the entrance into a Shinto Shrine, but he discovered that he had to wait for low tide to get to it.  Finally, the tide went out, and Bob asked another tourist if he knew any facts about the gate. The tourist told him that some people drop coins in front of it and make wishes. Bob wished never to be in California in November for the rest of his life!  And, that’s exactly what happened!

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Turkey Visits Paris, France

By Ruby

Once upon a time there lived a turkey named Mrs. Midas who lived in Sacramento, California, with the Midas family. Mrs. Midas didn’t like the horrifying idea of being the main course at Thanksgiving dinner, so she disguised herself as a tourist and ran away to France. While Mrs. Midas was looking around, she wanted to visit the Eiffel Tower in Paris. She thought about how many feet tall it would be. She found out it was 984 feet ( 300 meters).

Mrs. Midas wanted to waddle to Versailles to learn some facts.  She discovered that Versailles has about 1,300 rooms. There is a famous room called the Hall of Mirrors. 

Next Mrs. Midas traveled to Louvre, so she could learn a fact or two about the Mona Lisa. Mrs. Midas found out that the Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo da Vinci. The Mona Lisa was completed in 1506, so it is 508 years years old! Mrs. Midas loved France, but she knew that the Midas family would miss her so she went home. She knew she would be back next Thanksgiving!

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Read all the stories and see the fabulous vacation photos! Click Here!

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Would you like to know how 
we made this project? 

Steps Taken to Complete the Writing Portion 

First, we read Turkey Trouble, by Wendi Silvano.  The funny fantasy follows our feathered friend as he finds out what Americans feast upon for Thanksgiving.  

Second, we selected an exotic vacation location for Turkey. (If he left America over Thanksgiving break, he would not get eaten.)

Third, we researched a vacation destination using reference books and World Book Online. Two landmarks were chosen from a foreign country and facts were collected. 

Fourth, we wrote the first draft of our turkey narratives. Once written, Mrs. Yollis opened her Google Drive on five classroom laptops and students took turns typing their revised stories on one document. (It was fun to watch the text getting added from five different people! Soon students will have their own Google Drive and will be able to type using their own GAFE Drive.) 

Steps Taken to Complete the Vacation Photos 

We used Greg Kulowiec's idea of App Smashing (use multiple apps to create a project) and were able to provide "vacation photos" from Turkey's Trip! 

Here are the apps we smashed to finalize our project: Google Earth, Google Drive, Blogger, the iPad camera roll, and PuppetPals Director's ($4.99) *Or use PicCollage for free (Thanks for the tip, Tina Schmitt!)  

First, each student created a paper turkey and decorated it. 

Second, each student shot a photo of  his/her paper turkey.  It was automatically saved  to the camera roll on one of our seven iPads.

Third, each student went on Google Earth and found one of the landmarks from Turkey's trip. (Example: the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, German) A screenshot was taken which automatically saved to the iPad camera roll. Students repeated this step for their second landmark screenshot. (Example: the London Eye or Big Ben)

Some students had difficulty getting the perfect screenshot. Sometimes they were too close in Google Earth and the photo was blurry or no one could tell what it was; sometimes they were too far away and no one could tell what the landmark was. The strategy of trial and error was applied. Students who were successful helped others who were having difficulty. 

Fourth, each student went into PuppetPals Director's Cut app and uploaded his/her turkey photo from the camera roll. In PuppetPal Director's Pass, the students were able to outline the turkey and make it a puppet.

Fifth, each student stayed in PuppetPals Director's Cut and uploaded their two landmark screenshots taken in Google Earth from the camera roll. Each photo was imported as a PuppetPal Director's Pass scene. 

Sixth, each student made TWO PuppetPal Director's Pass scenes. Each student placed his/her turkey puppet in the first landmark scene and took a screenshot. The screenshot was automatically saved in the camera roll. The student repeated this step using the second landmark scene. The second landmark screenshot was saved to the camera roll. 

Here is Nicholas' turkey in Berlin, Germany. He found a Google Earth image with a double-decker tour bus, so he placed his turkey on the bus! So clever!

Again, some students had difficulty getting the perfect screenshot. Sometimes they made the turkey puppet so big it blocked the landmark; sometimes they made the turkey puppet was so small no one could see it. The strategy of trial and error was applied. Students who were successful helped others who were having difficulty. 

Some student used vacation photos from friends. Here is turkey with Mrs. Minicozzi, our tech teacher! 



Seventh, each student emailed his/her two "vacation photos" from the camera roll to Mrs. Yollis' email. 

Finally, each student (or Mrs. Yollis) inserted the "vacation photo" photos into the group Google Doc.

We hope you enjoyed our stories!

Which turkey narrative did you enjoy?

What are some other apps we could smash? 

Google Earth: Latitude & Longitude

We are in the middle of a global project called Our World, Our Numbers. 

This week the bloggers are looking at numbers as they relate to geography.

Check out our the Google Earth movie we made to share about latitude and longitude. 

What is your exact location on the planet?

Which hemispheres are you located?

What's your latitude and longitude?

Advanced:  What are the the special lines of latitude like: the Tropic of Cancer, the Tropic of Capricorn, the Arctic Circle, and the Antarctic Circle? 

Google Earth Geometry!

Post written by Mia, Sasha,  Brenden, Kelly, Alyssa, Aidan, Leila, Royce, and Sarah

Mrs. Yollis' student love exploring  Google Earth! Today, they combined their love of geography with their love of geometry!

While exploring Washington, D.C., America's capital city, they also searched for  2 and 3-dimentional shapes!

The White House

The President of the United States lives in the White House. The address is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The White House belongs to all Americans. 

Notice the columns in front. They are cylinders.  

Mia discovered that Pennsylvania Avenue is parallel to Constitution for a while, and then Pennsylvania turns in another direction.  

Logan identified some intersecting streets. Pennsylvania Avenue intersects 19th Street! 

 Washington Monument

                                                                                   

Here is an aerial shot of the Washington Monument. Around the base of the obelisk is a circle of flags. In addition, there are two other circles around the monument. The top is a square base pyramid.

Brenden took a picture of the Washington Monument looking down inside of it.

 Jefferson Memorial

Here is an amazing photograph of the Jefferson Memorial!   The dome ceiling appears to be a hemisphere. Notice the concentric circles around the memorial. Concentric means shapes that share the same center point.

Here is a screen shot of Jefferson Memorial with the Washington Monument in the background. 

 

  This is a photo of Jefferson Memorial with the statue of Jefferson inside. Without the domed roof, the building is a cylinder.

 Here is an amazing close up of the Jefferson Memorial statue.  It is around 18 feet tall in person.  It looks tiny here, but it is HUGE in person!

 Lincoln Memorial

                              Here is the Lincoln Memorial from the sky!  There are intersecting lines, circles, and rectangular prisms on the Lincoln Memorial. 

              In this photograph,  the Lincoln Memorial is seen from a different angle. 

To tilt down in Google Earth, press SHIFT + ARROW down. 

  Notice the circle around the Lincoln Memorial.  There are columns that look like cylinders holding the Lincoln Memorial up. There are three rectangular prisms on the roof of the Lincoln Memorial. 

              

Here is a photo of the Lincoln Memorial. There are cylinders (columns) holding up the Lincoln Memorial.

                              

This is the Abraham Lincoln statue inside the Lincoln Memorial!  Did you know if you have the 3-D buildings layer on in Google  Earth, you can go inside the memorial as well? Try it!

                                   

This is a gorgeous building!  On the front there is a triangle. It is a beauty! Do you know the name of this building?  Some students thought it was the Department of Treasury. Others thought is was the Supreme Court Building.

Can you name this building?

Have you ever used Google Earth?

Have you ever been to any of these places?

 

Do you know any facts about these places?