Buckaroo Book Club • Skype

Last week, Sheriff Yollis and Sheriff Salsich circled their wagons and had the first ever Buckaroo Book Club!

Mosey on over to the Reading Round-Up blog!

Watch the Skype video of the jawin' that went on!

Yee Haw!

 

Online World Book Encyclopedia

The PFC (Parent/Faculty Club) generously purchased a one year subscription to World Book Online!

The students in Mrs. Yollis' class are learning how to research!

1. Go to the school website.
2. Go to the Learning Links
3. Select:  World Book Web
4.  The username and password have been sent to each parent via email.

Learn and share some facts about Africa that can be used in the class movie.

• How tall are the Pyramids? How old? What are they?
• What is the source of the Nile River?
• How many days does it take to scale Mt. Kilimanjaro? (on average)
• What are some facts about the Sahara Desert?
• How big is Lake Victoria?
• Where is Victoria Falls?

Human ClustrMap of Africa!

This week, Mrs. Yollis' class will be in Africa!

Well, not really. They will be on 

National Geographic's Giant Traveling Map of Africa!

Today, the class recreated the ClustrMap from our blog.

Here is our human ClustrMap!

How did you like your first day in Africa? 

What activity did you enjoy the most?

Which country was easy to find? Which country was difficult to locate?

40,000+ Visitors!

Mrs. Yollis' class was astounded when they checked the daily visitor count today!

Over 40,000 visitors!

Which continent has the most visitors?

What do you notice about our North American visitors? Our South American visitors?

Can you name an African country that has NEVER visited our blog?

Which continent has more visitors, Europe or Asia?

What do you notice about the Australasia continent?

Please share an observation you made by looking at our ClustrMap?

What did you learn?

Three New Student Blogs!

Last month, Adia, Miriam, and Hannah were the top winners for our bi-annual Family Blogging Month extravaganza! (Extravaganza is a fancy word that means an elaborate and spectacular production.)

Each girl earned their own blog and today...they are launching their spectacular blogs!

A big thank you goes out to the parents of our student bloggers. Parents are the administrators of each student blog and have been learning right alongside their child.  Well done parents!

Behold!

 Here is a link to Miriam's Magical Moments!

 Here is a link to Hannah's Hacienda!

Here is a link to Adia's Babble Blog!

Please visit these new blogs and support them with a comment!

New Project for 2011

Mrs. Yollis and her class take a lot of digital images for the class blog. To improve their photography skills, they've started a new project called

Yollis' 365 Project

Please head on over there and leave a comment!


Links to MAKE A SNOWFLAKE!

Best Class Blog • First Runner-Up!

A big THANK YOU to the students, parents, and readers who voted for our third grade blog!

Here is a video we made about why we love blogging so much!

I am honored and proud to have won the Edublog Lifetime Achievement Award. The educational blogging community is such a wonderful, dedicated group of people and I appreciate all the support I receive. This is a great win for educational bloggers everywhere! 

If you're interested in starting a classroom blog, here is an educational blogging wiki with ideas that might be helpful.  

★     ★     ★     ★     ★

 

What else have you learned from blogging?

 

How does blogging make learning more interesting?

 

 

 

 

Holiday Party! 2010

What was your favorite part about the party?

What are your vacation plans?

Where is Nonno? - Dove e' Nonno - Courmayer, Italy - The Story of Rhémy de Noël

Nonno is Ben's grandfather who lives in Italy. He is a guest blogger. Check out his "Where's Nonno?" series in our archive!

Nonno is going back to Courmayeur after his visit to Florida and California. Nonno wants to leave you this story about Rhémy de Noël, il Babbo Natale di Courmayeur (The Father Christmas of Courmayeur)

This is a story about Father Christmas in Courmayeur. It is a tale based upon folk stories and stories people in the mountains tell about the magic of Christmas in Courmayeur. 

Rhémy de Noel is the Father Christmas of Courmayeur, our village at the base of Mt. Blanc, (Monte Bianco) the tallest mountain in western Europe. Its elevation is 15,782 feet. (4,810.45 m)

Rhemy de Noel is a Father Christmas who talks about the issues of today such as the environment. His story begins at the time when there was less snow in Courmayeur. Rhemy decides to go face the unknown to find out what happened to the snow.

Ben in the Summer Waiting for Snow

Rhemy and his courageous, loyal friends, help him get where no one has arrived before, on top of Mont Blanc. Up there, Rhemy meets a giant at the giant's tooth, who, for reasons that Rhemy discovers, has imprisoned the snow. 

The story is in Italian so we will have to wait for Francesca to tell us how it ends. But it is a story that should fill the dreams and imagination of people of all ages. This year Christmas in Courmayeur has a very special visit based on the story of Rhemy de Noel, Father Christmas and Mont Blanc/Monte Bianco.

For many years Father Christmas, passed in a sleigh through the streets of Courmayeur handing out sweets to kids and adults. Then he stopped his visits. Since then, letters to Father Christmas continued to arrive in Courmayeur from all over Italy from people who continued writing to the Father Christmas they had met on the streets of Courmayeur.

The highlight of the Christmas season will be the day Rhemy de Noel, returns to our village so he can meet his friends large and small.

And in the meantime, those who want to can post a message to Rhemy de' Noel, the Father Christmas of Mont Blanc in the special mail box for Rhemy situated near the Jardin de l'Ange on the via Roma, or send by mail to:

 

See Rhemy Pointing To His Mailbox

Rhemy de Noel,

Father Christmas in Courmayeur

Viale Monte Bianco -

11013 Courmayeur - Valle d'Aosta

Italy

Thank you, Nonno, for a wonderful holiday folktale!

Which Where's Nonno? post is your favorite and why?

Barletta 

Cisternino

Genova

Alberobello

Merry Christmas, Nonno and Francesca! 

Edublog Awards! Link to the Live Show at 4:00

The Edublog Awards will be announced in a live international award show today at 4:00 PST.

Click on the link below if you would like to attend! All are welcome!

 You can log in to the show in Elluminate here: https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2008350&password=M.4B894D4EAF91C3FB2995800EC6F804

The awards will be announced in the following order!

The Edublog Award Categories….

1. Best individual blog
2. Best individual tweeter
3. Best group blog
4. Best new blog
5. Best class blog
6. Best student blog
7. Best resource sharing blog
8. Most influential blog post
9. Most influential tweet / series of tweets / tweet based discussion
10. Best teacher blog
11. Best librarian / library blog
12. Best school administrator blog
13. Best educational tech support blog
14. Best elearning / corporate education blog
15. Best educational use of audio
16. Best educational use of video / visual
17. Best educational wiki
18. Best educational podcast
19. Best educational webinar series
20. Best educational use of a social network
21. Best educational use of a virtual world
22. Best use of a PLN
23. Lifetime achievement

Mrs. Yollis and her students are proud to have been nominated and wish everyone the best of luck!