Skype: Urban Florida and Suburban California

Today we had another fabulous Communities: Share & Compare session.

Last week we learned all about a rural community in New Zealand. This week we learned about an urban area in Florida. Meet our new third grade friends!

Political Map of the United States

The two classes were on separate coasts and in different time zones. The Floridians were just coming back from lunch, while the Californians were about to have a morning snack recess.

The mappers set up two photographs. One is a political map and one is a physical map. How is color used on these two maps? Which do you prefer? 

Physical Map of the United States

Students had facts prepared about our community and our school. In addition, each student practiced his/her presentational skills. Presentational skills included: giving an appropriate greeting, speaking slowly and clearly,  holding a white board level, and responding to questions. We also talked about troubleshooting problems that occur during a Skype call.

 Two students worked at the Google Doc data center. Their job was to keep the Share &  Compare moving in a logical order, and they typed relevant information as it came in. 

 (Much of the class data was added during our class research time as we learned about our own community.)

The greeters welcomed our new friends with a white board welcome and a smile!

 Mrs. Yollis' students enjoyed meeting the Florida Skype escorts and their class photographer. Below is a photo of the Floridian photographer taken by the California photographer!

Mrs. Yollis' students were really surprised to learn about the size of Jacksonville, Florida.
Our community is 13 square miles.  Jacksonville is a whopping 885 square miles!

After the call, we compare 13 squares to 885 squares. What a difference! The square area of our suburban community is quite small in comparison.

Here are some other facts from our Share & Compare Fact Sheet:


                      CALIFORNIA      FLORIDA

Students enjoyed meeting Skypey, a little blue class mascot from Florida!

Of course Panda was punctual and ready with a useful message. Panda says, "Actions speak louder than words." So true, Panda!

 Beverly was asleep, but jumped up to join the conversation when she heard the word alligator. Did you know that alligators are common in Florida? Beverly wonders how often the students see alligators.

Soon it was time to say goodbye. The timers stopped the clock and calculated the elapsed time of the call.

A big thank you to our class photographer! The photos really help tell the story. 

(Photographer photo will be added tomorrow!) 

Mrs. Yollis' class has now learned about urban, suburban, and rural communities in a fun and authentic way!

Do you have any questions for our Florida buddies?

Can we answer any questions for you? 

How is our suburban community different from their urban community? 

How are the communities alike?

Fabulous Fall ~ 2012

Did you know that this year, September 22, is the first day of autumn?

In Southern California, we do not experience autumn, or fall,
the same way some places do.
However, we do feel a change in our weather, and even
the leaves of our trees sometimes change color!

Have you ever wondered why leaves change color in the fall?

If you'd like to find out the answer

or learn some other fabulous fall facts,

click on this link called Awesome Autumn!

************

Leave a comment to tell us what you learned about autumn.

You can also include the answers to these questions:

What are your favorite fall sports and activities?

What do you like most about fall?

Why do some trees change color? Do you have any deciduous trees in your yard?

 (Deciduous trees drop all their leaves in the fall.)

Skype: Rural New Zealand & Suburban California!

Mappers located New Zealand in our big, blue atlas!

On Thursday, September 20, 2012,  Mrs. Yollis' class

Skyped with 

Mrs. McKenzie's class where it was Friday, September 21, 2012

9:00 A.M. on Sept. 21 in New Zealand

2:00 P.M. on Sept. 20 in California

How could this be? The answer, time zones. 

Everyone was excited to meet the blogging buddies and each person had a job to do.

A second grader and a third grader helped sequence the sharing. They also typed relevant information in the New Zealand / U.S. Skype Share & Compare Google doc. (It was thrilling to watch the New Zealanders type on the document at the same time we were!)

Here are some screenshots of the Google doc. Students filled in the information on the table!
(Click to enlarge.)

What do you notice about our two school?

 What do you notice about our two communities?

Students shared all kinds of community information. We used white boards to write the important words or numbers. 

 We learned that we live in a suburb and our New Zealand friends live in a rural area. 

 What is a suburb? 

What does rural mean?

 How many feet (or meters) are we above sea level?

 What does our community look like?

 Everyone enjoyed meeting the class mascots, Panda and Beverly! Panda was ready with a useful message! Panda was still wearing his super hero cape! 

Read more about Super Panda and Bad News Bev here!)

Beverly came out of her long hibernation and met the new blogging buddies. She was especially interested in a couch she saw in B4's classroom. Oh, Beverly!

 B4 has some fabulous mascots as well! We met the cheeky Quicksilver who is a bird. We wonder what kind of bird he is?

Wise and kind Mr. Beesley. We think Panda and Mr. Beesley would be fast friends!

Our timer said that the call started at 1:58 P.M. and ended at 2:26 P.M.

Elapsed time:  26 minutes

(Elapsed time is a fancy way of stating how much time passed.)

Thank you to our class photographer for the wonderful photo documentation!

Have you ever Skyped with someone?

Do you have any follow up questions for the New Zealanders or us?

• International Dot Day • 2012 •

September 15th is International Dot Day!

We celebrated today by reading 

The Dot

by Peter Reynolds.

International Dot Day is a day to celebrate being creative!

After listening to Mrs. Yollis read The Dot, we were inspired to be creative 

and create some dot creations of our own!

Enjoy the slide show of our Dot Day celebration of creativity!

 

What did you enjoy most about International Dot Day?

 

How will you celebrate at home?

 

Can you think of anything else to create with a dot?

Super Subjects and Perfect Predicates!

Mrs. Yollis' class has been working on learning about 

what it takes to create a 

SENTENCE!

We have learned that it takes two parts: 

a SUBJECT 

and 

a PREDICATE.

The subject tells the person or thing the sentence is about.
The predicate tells what the subject is or does.
The predicate always includes a verb!

Here are some sample subjects the class came up with today.
In the comment section, see if you can make a complete sentence. Of course, you may use your own subject if you prefer.

Buck

Goober

My dog Rocky

Marco

The library book

Panda and Beverly

The school bell

The upper yard

The _____ flower

The lake under the Lost and Found 

I

The children in Mrs. Yollis' class

Here are some student-made predicates. See if you can add a subject to make a sentence. Notice the verbs are bolded!

went to the dog park. 

rode a red bike to the library.

drove to Los Angeles, California. 

played basketball against Kobe.

is under a rock in the tank.

used the Internet to look up pig facts.

watched the Super Bowl with the Giants against the Patriots.

cleaned my messy room. 

walked to the Petting Zoo to pet a mule. 

screamed when she saw the ___________.

swatted the annoying fly.

put on his stinky shoes.

 

 

Challenge: Write some quality sentences to be read in class tomorrow!

After creating your sentence and typing it into your comment, tell us what the subject is and what the predicate is, or
if you want to give us a challenge...
Ask us to tell you what the subject and predicate are!  

Good luck!

Lucky Hat Day! 2012

Last week, Mrs. Yollis' third graders read  The Lost and Found, a story

in our anthology by Mark Teague.

The story is about three friends who get lost in the Lost and Found bin! Their lucky hats brings them good luck at the end of the story.

*       *       *      *       *

For fun, we wore our lucky hats today! Second grade's reading unit is called Silly Stories, so they wore a silly hat!

In class, we had a fun time looking at our silhouettes! A silhouette is a shadow. Can you find your hat? (Click on the photo to enlarge.)

Here are some fun photos from Lucky Hat day!


Lucky Hat Day ~ 2012 on PhotoPeach

What was your favorite part about today?

Tell us about your hat!

Back to School Night ~ 2012

Normally Mrs. Yollis' class looks like this.

Tonight, Mrs. Yollis' class looked like this!

It was Back to School Night!

Parents came to hear about the grade 2/3 combination!

Mrs. Yollis shared her website, where 

homework,  spelling words, parent information, and learning games 

can be found.

Parents viewed a reading video about how to choose the right book. They also learned how to  search for a Reading Counts book.

*          *          *          *          *

Parents discovered the benefits of educational blogging from class blogging buddies in Australia! Mrs. Yollis Skyped in Mrs. Morris and Miss Jordan who outlined the rewards of blogging.  Since it was Friday morning in Victoria, Australia, Mrs. Morris and Miss Jordan were teaching.

 Here is a link to our Australian buddies classroom blog,  4KM and 4KJ! Feel free to visit and leave a quality comment on their class blog! Be sure to mention you are from Mrs. Yollis' class.  :-)

*          *          *          *          *

What are you excited to learn about this year?

What did your parents think of your organized desk?

Parents, how is elementary school different from when you were in school?

Nonstop Number Sense!

Mrs. Yollis' new class has been exploring number sense! 

They have learned about digits, even numbers, odd numbers, and the three forms of writing a number.

The symbols 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 are digits.

The even digits are 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8.

The odd digits are 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9.

1.  Standard form: A way of writing numbers using digits


2.  Expanded form: A way to write numbers by showing   the VALUE  of each digit


3.  Word form:  A way to write numbers using words

 *     *     *     *     *

 We used our ClustrMap gadget to help us explore the number of visitors we've had in all since 2009.

 144,951 visitors!

Here is the number 144,951 in standard form, expanded form, and word form! 

 *     *     *     *     *

We have reviewed skills with the hundred chart and odd and even digits by playing some games!

To practice with the hundred chart, several students played

Digital Dog Bone!

Here are two mathematicians competing to see who can get the most digital dog bones!

 On your mark, get set, GO!

Congratulations!

Some students played manual Dog Bone on the carpet! Very clever! Manual is a fancy adjective that means done with your hands. 

 Other students practiced their odds and evens by playing Ghost Blasters!

 Find Ghost Blaster Even and Ghost Blaster Odd on the class website. 

Here is a link to the math games section.

Which form do you like best? Standard? Expanded? Word? 

Find a number at your house and write it in the three forms.

Welcome Back, 2012!

Welcome back to a new school year!

 

Here's a video greeting from Mrs. Yollis!

☼     ☼     ☼     ☼     ☼

I'm looking forward to a terrific year with my 
new students in our second and third grade classroom!

I hope that all my former third graders have a wonderful fourth grade experience and come visit me soon!

☼     ☼     ☼     ☼     ☼

Parents, here is a blog post I wrote about the rewards of teaching young students to blog.  

☼     ☼     ☼     ☼     ☼

If you are a new student, please leave a comment telling me about yourself. What did you do over your summer break? What adventures and experiences did you enjoyed?

If you are one of our blogging buddies, please introduce yourself to my new class. Where are you from? What have you been up to?

Remember to proofread your comment with a parent before you publish! 


:-)

Rewards of Teaching Young Students to Blog

This was originally published on SmartBlogs.  I'm hoping that  parents will read this article and have a good understanding about the benefits of blogging as we begin a new school year on Wednesday. 

 
I have been an elementary-school teacher for more than 25 years and I am always on the lookout for meaningful ways to engage and motivate my young students. I started Mrs. Yollis’ Classroom Blog in 2008 with the idea of sharing class activities with parents. Over time, the blog has grown to be the centerpiece of our third-grade classroom. It has become a true global learning community that offers myriad rewards for students, parents and teachers.

Develop quality literacy skills  

When I first started blogging, I thought the posts would be the primary focus of the blog. I quickly realized that the comment section was where the blog came to life. As a class, we set high standards and expectations for writing, agreed to always have an adult proofread before publishing, and created a video to help teach commenting skills.

How to Compose a Quality Comment! from yourwonderfulteacher on Vimeo.

My students are highly motivated by their authentic global audience and take great pride in producing top-notch writing for their readers. It has been a pleasure to watch my third-graders develop into writers who are eager to compose quality comments on one of our five classroom laptops.

What has been even more exciting for me is the student participation from home. Although I rarely require a comment, students frequently choose to comment on either our class blog or our class photo-of-the-day project during their free time. Clearly, my students enjoy contributing to our online learning community.

Include parents in the learning

Parental involvement has strengthened and expanded the learning opportunities for my class. Twice a year, I run what I call Family Blogging Month. It is a great way to formally invite parents to join in the classroom learning via the blog. The family comments are always valued, and during FBM, I highlight several family exchanges on the blog in the hopes of encouraging more parents and family members to comment. Here are two posts that feature rewarding family contributions: More Quality Comments: Family Blogging Month! and Family Blogging: When I Was Young…

Many parents work but would love to volunteer in some way. Last year, I asked parents to become “virtual volunteers” for our blogs. A virtual volunteer is a person who supports the blog by commenting back to students. This type of interaction helps strengthen the home-school connection and makes the comment sections more engaging.

Integrate curriculum in creative ways

With classroom time at a premium, I look for meaningful ways to integrate curriculum; the blog has been the perfect venue. When my class read “The Great Kapok Tree” by Lynne Cherry for language arts, the students followed up their reading by researching a rain forest animal that was mentioned in the story. Each student composed a comment for the blog from the point of view of that animal. It was a wonderful mix of reading, researching, science and creative writing! During our biography unit, I had each student select a famous person to study. Students submitted a creative comment pretending they were that person. George Washington got a comment from Queen Elizabeth I, Mozart and Tchaikovsky were chatting; the blog comments truly brought these historic people to life! See more examples of integrated curriculum.

Build a digital footprint

I believe it is important to teach young children how to be contributing members of an online community. Building a positive digital footprint and practicing Internet safety are not simply one-week units of study, but are regularly taught and practiced via the class blog.

Connect with other learners

Of all the riches that blogging has brought to my class, the relationships we’ve built with other classrooms around the world have been the most rewarding. The collaborative projects we have joined not only support the educational standards required at my grade level but have also given my students a real understanding of other topics such as geography, time zones, cultures and friendships. I recently presented four global projects at ISTE with my blogging colleague, Kathleen Morris from Australia. Although we have collaborated for many years, we met for the first time when we shared Flattening Classroom Walls with Blogging and Global Collaboration in San Diego.

Blogging offers many rewards!

What excites you about blogging?