Mystery Skype With Iowa!

Recently, Mrs. Yollis' class participated in a Mystery Skype Call with Mrs. Pearson's class in Iowa! 

To learn more a Mystery Skype Call, click here.

Mystery Skype: Iowa! on PhotoPeach

What clues were used to figure out the mystery state?

How is Mrs. Pearson's community different that your community?

Did you enjoy your Mystery Skype job?

Rural Iowa : Skype Follow-up!

On May 20, 2011, Mrs. Yollis' class Skyped with Mrs. Pearson's class in Iowa. Their rural town was very different from a California suburb.

We did a follow-up Skype call with Mrs. Pearson. She sent us these wonderful pictures so the class could better understand what some parts of Iowa look like.

Iowa is a Great Plains state and as you can see, is very flat.

This corn was planted in early May. Mr. Pearson hopes it will be "thigh high by the Fourth of July."

These are grain elevators.

The grain bins can hold anywhere from 30,000 bushels to 700,000 bushels.  The white elevator in the picture currently holds about 500,000 bushels.

This is some farm equipment. In our social studies book this would be called capital investment. 

Here are some notes we took while learning:

1.Today we are skyping with Mrs. Pearson from Iowa.

2.They make corn and wheat and they sell it, so animals can eat it.

3.They don’t have air conditioning in their schoo,l and we do.

4.Their market is very small and expensive.

5.Walmart and Target are 16 miles away.

 6.They only have hogs on their farm.

7.Farmers sell their stuff that they produce on their farms.

8.There are NO sleds allowed at their school because it is too dangerous!

9.If it is below 0 degrees they stay inside for recess and lunch.

10.For fun, you might go camping and ride their horses.

 11.The favorite school foods are pizza and chill casitas. Some kids have brunch for lunch.

12.They don’t take spring break, but we do.

13.They sled in the winter, swim, golf, play, baseball in the summers. Sometimes they go to musical theater.

14.Their dad is the coach, so he gives his son a little advantage.

15.They have between 300-350 hogs in their farm.

16.The hogs weigh about 12-85 pounds.

17.They are about three weeks when they get them.

18.They have more males than females they think.

19.Their state bird is the gold finch.

20.Their dog is spoiled, and it is their favorite animal.  :-)

21.Their favorite movies are the Harry Potters and Toy Story.

22.Their farm is VERY FLAT!
Everyone says bye!

This week, we got a surprise box from Mrs. Pearson!

 Inside was a fabulous orange shirt that says IOWA on it, a bag of corn from the Pearson's farm, a beautiful magazine about Iowa,  some real Iowa dirt!

Everyone took a a few kernels home as a souvenir! 


Look at the difference! Here is the dark rich Iowa soil compared to our local soil, which has a lot of clay in it!

Who can tell us what a bushel is?

Do you have any farm questions for the Pearsons?

 

Skyping with Iowa!

Today Mrs. Yollis' class connected with some wonderful students in Iowa! 

The class has been thinking a lot about Iowa because that is where the Decorah Eagles live!

Iowa is the 29th state! The western border is the Missouri River and the eastern border is the Mississippi River.

Meet our Iowan friends!

We gathered facts about our state using this nonfiction book. It had excellent photos!

Students were excited to hear about farms and climate of Iowa!

In Iowa, the farmers grow corn and soy beans. Some students live on farms where they raise cattle and hogs.

 We discussed some similarities and differences.

Compare:

We both went to the school library today! Our elevation is low, too. We are at approximately 800 feet above sea level and Iowa is about 1,000 feet. We both have blogs! We are both third graders who live in America and are nearing the end of third grade. The Iowans are done in two days, and Mrs. Yollis' class finishes up in about a month.

Contrast:

Our community is suburban town with  a population of 24, 000. Our Iowan friend's population is about 300 people. Clearly, they are a rural community. We learned that their town has homes and an elementary school, but no other buildings like markets or stores. The high school is nine miles away! They are a 15 hour drive to the Pacific Ocean, while we are a 25 minute drive. We are in the Pacific Standard Time (PST) and they are in Central Standard Time. (CST) In California, it was 11:00 and in Iowa it was 1:00 P. M. Our average winter temperatures are 40 - 60˚ F, while their winters were freezing!  They mention that with a wind chill factor, the temperatures can be -30˚ to -40˚!  If it is zero degrees or higher, they get to go out to recess. If you have snow gear, you can play in the snow.

Mrs. Yollis and her class really enjoyed learning about Iowa!

Thank you Adia, Hannah, and Miriam for taking notes! Here is the transcript.

 

Thank you, Ryan, for being our class photographer!

Our call ended too soon!

Questions for our Iowans friends:

Are sleds allowed at recess? 

Does anyone cross country ski to school?

What are the favorite cafeteria foods?

If you live on a farm, do you to ride horse?

What do people do during their free time in Iowa?

What's fun about living on a farm? What is a negative about living on a farm?

Has anyone been to the Pacific Ocean or the Atlantic Ocean?

Have you ever been to Iowa?

What did you enjoy about the Skype connection? 

Do you know any facts about soy beans?