School's Out for Summer!

Today was the last day of school! 

Parsa feverishly typed away earning an AlphaSmart completion certificate! Way to go!

Sean wore a shirt from the 100th day of school. I loved his 100 right angles!

Chloe, Shayna, and Aashi created a fabulous class diorama! Check it out!

Everyone enjoyed a final game of Jeopardy! Thanks to Bennett's mom for finding Jeopardy Labs. What the fun learning site!

A final group hug, and summer vacation officially started!

This was a humdinger of a year!  :-) 

Here is Mrs. Yollis' annual goodbye video! Enjoy!

What are some happy memories you have from the 2012-2013 school year?

What fun activities do you have planned for the summer?

If it is winter in your hemisphere, what winter activities will you enjoy? 

Wildlife Experience, 2013!

Post and photo credit: Mrs. Ranney

As part of our animal adaptation science unit, Beverly Critcher 

from Wildlife Experience brought wild animals
to Mrs. Ranney's class for careful
scientific observation.

Wildlife Experience  is a non-profit wildlife education organization that brings native and exotic animals to schools and teaches children about the importance of our natural world.

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This is Vince, the veiled chameleon. Chameleon's are carnivorous reptiles that cannot run but can climb well. They have prehensile tails that help them hold on to branches and a tongue like a rubber band to help them catch a tasty meal. Do you remember why they eat the skin they shed?

Here is Awesome, the four-month-old opossum! Opossums are a special kind of mammal called a marsupial, and they are the only marsupial found in North America. They are omnivores. Do you remember what happens when opossums "play dead?"

Here is Tuck, the hedgehog. Hedgehogs got their names from the fact that they live in hedges or bushes and that they grunt like hogs!
They roll into balls and bump from side to side to protect themselves. Hedgehogs are insectivores. Do you remember what their quills are made of?

This leopard gecko is a lizard that stores fat in its tail. It wiggles its tail at would-be predators. Do you remember why?

Punk, the skunk, a nocturnal mammal lives right here in our community! Skunks are omnivores and will eat just about anything. Do you remember what skunks do with their tails when threatened?

Another animal found in our local environment is the red-tailed hawk. This one, named Shasta, was found injured near the Shasta Mountains. Hawks can see clearly 8 times farther than we can! Why might they need to do that?

Ball pythons, like this one, are carnivorous snakes found in Africa. Snakes are reptiles, which we know means they are vertebrate animals. They can swallow something whole that is 3 times the size of their heads! Pythons are constrictors. Do you remember what that means?

What did the skin feel like to you?

Squirrel monkeys are the smallest monkeys in the world, weighing in at only around 2 pounds! To this monkey a smile is threatening, so we could not show our teeth! Squirrel monkeys are omnivores that live in the rain forest in groups of up to 250. Do you remember why they like large groups?

Sally, the tiger salamander, is the largest kind in the United States. Salamanders are amphibians which means they must stay wet. Do you remember how salamanders breathe when underwater?

 Our final visitor, Moose, the fennec fox, is the smallest fox in the world but has the biggest ears! Foxes, like other dogs, do not sweat, but pant to release heat. Do you remember another way that the fennec fox releases heat?



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Thanks, Ms. C. for another wonderful wildlife experience!

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What was your favorite animal and why?

What other fabulous facts can you share about our visitors! 

Wonderful Wingspans!

Nate’s North American Anthology of Wonderful Wingspans

Nate (a second grader) has an interest in birds. Ansel (a third grader) and her father are birders too. Below is a mix of Nate's wingspan data and Ansel's father's photographs.

After looking at the bird photos and talking about the wingspans, we went outside and drew life-size wingspans of several birds.

Check out the photos, the facts, and the life-size wingspans!

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle 80” 

Black-footed Albatross

Black-footed Albatross 84” 

Brown Pelican

Golden Eagle

Golden Eagle 79” 

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron 72” 

Greater Sandhill Crane

Laysan Albatross

Laysan Albatross 78”

Lesser Sandhill Crane

Sandhill Crane (lesser) 73” 

Short-tailed Albatross

 Short-tailed Albatross 87”   

Turkey Vulture

 Turkey Vulture 67” 

White Pelican 

American White Pelican 108” 

Addition wingspans:

California Condor 109”
Whooping Crane 87”
Trumpeter Swan 80”
Brown Pelican 79”
Sandhill Crane (greater) 77”
Mute Swan 75”

Here are the life-size models:

What surprised you about the wingspans?

How did you convert the inches to feet and/or yards?

What is your favorite bird?

Howard Rheingold Interviews Mrs. Yollis

Originally published by Howard Rheingold on DML Central (Digital Media and Learning)
and the National Writing Project

*     *     *     *     *

Usually Mrs. Yollis and her students are conducting, or carrying out interviews.  Today, the interview will feature Mrs. Yollis. She was recently contacted by the great teacher and writer, Howard Rheingold.  He was interested in learning about how Mrs. Yollis teaches young children to build a positive digital footprint through educational blogging.

Here is Mr. Rheingold's interview:

Learning Online in the Second Grade: Linda Yollis from DML Research Hub on Vimeo.

Mr. Rheingold writes:

Blogging, commenting thoughtfully on others’ blogs, staying safe online, creating a positive digital footprint, using audio and video to connect with students in other parts of the world, creating and publishing video – at what grade level should students be introduced to these essential digital literacies? How about the second and third grade? Linda Yollis, a teacher in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, remembers the classroom in which she started teaching in the 1980s: “Learning was confined to the four walls of the classroom, was entirely paper-based, worksheet-driven, and I was the audience for most of the written work in this classroom; parents found out what was going on by reading the newsletter that I would send out and maybe by looking at the graded projects their children took home. All of the learning took place between eight and three. I had a very closed classroom. That all changed in 2008 when I started blogging. Having a class blog has flattened the walls of this classroom. Now we have an online space where students, parents, and other classrooms all over the world can come together in an online learning community.”

Mrs. Yollis not only teaches her second and third graders to blog (some of whom came into her class with blogging experience from Mrs. Levy’s first grade blog), she teaches them – and her students make videos to teach others – about raising the level of online discourse through quality blog comments. Take a look at Mrs. Yollis’ introduction to blog commenting and ask yourself whether the online commons could become a much better place in a few years if more second and third graders were introduced to online discourse in this way. She even introduced a rubric for blog comments that eight year olds can understand: “A one-point comment is a general comment that doesn't add very much to the post. Example: I like your blog. Please visit mine! A two-point comment adds something to the comment conversation. A commenter might compliment the writer in a specific way or add new information. Another idea is to make a connection. Maybe the post reminds you of an experience that you've had. Share that connection! Try to end your comment with a relevant question. That way, an interesting conversation can develop.”

If you think this kind of higher-level thinking and digital skills are unrealistic goals for such young students, you can judge for yourself by inspecting the results: Here is the teacher’s blog post about making “reasonable estimates” and the comment dialogue among her students that followed, in which each student challenged others to try an estimate.

To read more from Howard Rheingold, head over to his full post at DML Central.

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Have you ever been interviewed?

Do you have any follow-up questions for Mrs. Yollis or Mr. Rheingold?

Fotobabble Biographies!

We used our iPads to photograph our biography dioramas and artifacts. We complemented our artwork with some audio using the a web tool called Fotobabble.

Some of the Fotobabbles were too wide, so Mrs. Yollis showed everyone how to adjust the HTML code. It was easier than it looked!

Photo by Bennett

 We hope you enjoy our presentations! Presenting information without stammering or saying useless sounds like ummmm was difficult. We practiced many times before we recorded. 

 Enjoy!

 THOMAS EDISON by Sean
  LOUIS BRAILLE by Shayna NEIL ARMSTRONG by Bennett HELEN KELLER by Mallory JANE GOODALL by Kiernan JACKIE ROBINSON by Daniel Mr. Robinson was the first black man to play in Major League Baseball (MLB). STEVE JOBS by Heather ELIZABETH BLACKWELL by Aashi WRIGHT BROTHERS by Peter BENJAMIN FRANKLIN by Bryce JOHN AUDUBON BY NATE SALLY RIDE by Savannah RONALD REAGAN by Ryan AMELIA EARHART by Collin MONET by Abbey NORMAN ROCKWELL by Chloe PABLO PICASSO by Grace HARRIET TUBMAN by Jenna ANSEL ADAMS by Katelyn ABRAHAM LINCOLN by Ali SUSAN B. ANTHONY by Keira THOMAS JEFFERSON BY Parsa What did you learn from our presentations? What is something you noticed about the dioramas or the artifacts? What did you think of our audio recordings?

Our World, Our Numbers Finale!

This is a cross-post from Our World, Our Numbers

(Thanks to Kathleen Morris of 4KM and 4KJ)

Since 25th February, the seven classes participating in Our World, Our Numbers have enjoyed:

• learning about different areas of mathematics from their friends in other countries
• making comparisons and contrasts between their lives and the lives of their blogging buddies
• sharing mathematical knowledge and skills
• using a range of tools to create posts
• engaging in rich conversations through commenting

It is now time to finish up the Our World, Our Numbers project. To conclude this wonderful learning experience, all of the classes have been working collaboratively on a collection of mathematical poems.

Watch the Sliderocket below to see the classes perform:

• The Skip Counting Song (B4, New Zealand)
• Aussie Doubling Ditty (4KM and 4KJ, Australia)
• What is a Million? (Room with a View, England)
• Triangle Trouble (Mr Avery's Class, Massachusetts, USA)
• Smart (Mrs Yollis' Class, California, USA)
• Shapes, Shapes, Shapes (Mrs Watson's Class, Canada)

Why don't you head over to the 

Our World, Our Numbers blog 

and leave a final comment?

Interview: Meet Mr. Mannell

Mr. Mannell is a retired teacher who lives in New South Wales, Australia. Although he is no longer in the classroom, he is a virtual volunteer in classes all over the world. His blog, Extended Comments for Students, has wonderful blog posts that extend the learning in numerous classrooms. For example, we had a post on our blog about biographies, and students left comments as if they were a famous person. Mr. Mannell contributed an amazing one from Albert Einstein!  In addition, he did a solid post about Rocks and Minerals! Finally, everyone loved learning about kangaroos and koalas on this post! 

Photo by Mr. Mannell

Photo by Mr. Mannell

Be sure to look through Mr. Mannell's archive! It is a treasure trove of information! 

We enjoy learning so much from Mr. Mannell, we set up an interview to learn about Mr. Mannell!

(An interview is a question and answer session set up to learn more about a person or topic.) 

Here are some photos from our interesting interview! 

Google HangOut with Mr. Mannell on PhotoPeach

Do you have any additional questions for Mr. Mannell?

What is your favorite Mr. Mannell post?

Do you ever leave comments for other bloggers? How does that help build a learning community?  

Annotated Arrays!

We have been exploring arrays!

Row x Column = Product

The multiplication for the array above is

3 x 4 = 12

because it has 3 rows of 4. 

When the factors are different digits, 

the arrays are in the shape of a rectangle. 

When the factors are the same digit, 

the array is a square!

*     *     *     *     *

Let's look for arrays! 

We walked around the school looking for arrays. Once we captured our arrays on our iPads, we went back to class and used Skitch to annotate our images. Here is the definition of annotate!

Images +  = great illustrations!

Wow!
Shayna went home, downloaded Skitch for iPads, and created her own array!

Which array did you photograph and annotate?

What are some tips you can share about using Skitch   to annotate?