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.  

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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!

Help Fund Our DonorsChoose Project!

Mrs. Yollis' class makes a lot of movies! 

Sometimes they are big productions like this video about our trip to Asia!

Sometimes they are smaller productions like our How to Write Quality Comments video.

Sometimes they are used to kick off a new project.

And sometimes they are quick tutorials to helps students learn from home. 

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A frequent problem Mrs. Yollis' class has with movie making involves sound. Often times, the microphone they use shorts out or makes static and they have to re-record over and over. Mrs. Yollis' class has submitted a project to purchase a microphone at DonorsChoose.org. Kelly Tenkely from iLearn Technology will be funding the classroom project with the most votes.

Please click here to help fund our project!

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Reminder: Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog is nominated for FOUR Edublog Awards!

Voting ends Tuesday!

Vote here if you haven't had a chance!

Visitor Count Palindrome!

This week we noticed that the Visitor Count number was a palindrome!

pal • in• drome (noun)
a word, phrase, or sequence that reads the same backward as forward, e.g., madam or nurses run.

Do you see any palindromes in your life?

Reminder: Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog is nominated for FOUR Edublog Awards!

Voting ends Tuesday!

Vote here if you haven't had a chance!

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 NYC: The Borough of Brooklyn!

On Wednesday,  Mrs. Yollis' class had the pleasure of making new friends in New York City!

Meeting Mrs. Bova,  Mrs. Barbaro, and their third grade classes.

Alexa, Kristen, and Adia keep notes of the call using TodaysMeet.

We shared about California, the Golden State. 

We learned many things about the state of New York and the city of New York.

New York state bird:    bluebird

New York state flower:   rose

New York state's highest point:    Mount Marcy  5,344 ft.  (1,629 m)  

New York state's population:  18,000,000

New York state's area:  54,556 sq. miles (128,403 km²)

New York state nickname:  Empire State

New York state tree: sugar maple

New York state mammal:  beaver

New York state insect: lady bug

New York state fish:   brook trout

 We did not have all of the answers for the New Yorkers, so we researched and now can share!

• The highest point in California is Mt. Whitney is 14,505 feet (4421 m). That makes Mt. Whitney the tallest point in the contiguous United States. 

• The population of California is approximately 37,000,000! California has the highest population followed by Texas and New York.

• The state of California is 158,706 square miles which makes it the 3rd largest state. Does anyone know which two states are larger? 

Thank you, Finn, for being our photographer! Thank you Alexa, Kristen, and Adia for taking notes for us at TodaysMeet.    Here is the  transcript from the call.

What was the most interesting fact you learned from the call?

How is their community different than ours? How is it similar?

What else would you like to know about New York?