Week One - Mystery Location, QR Codes, Daily5 and Brain Breaks

On Friday, August 8, I got to meet my new 4th graders. It was the first day of our new school year and I was in for quite a surprise. We planned for only three sections of fourth grade becasue we didn't have enough students registered to warrant four sections. Well, by the end of the day each teacher had over 36 students in her homeroom. Yikes!

A request has been put in for another teacher, but it takes a while to be processed. In the meantime we jumped right in to our new year. Friday was moslty about getting supplies organized and labeled, doing some teambuilding, and getting to know our procedures.

When Monday rolled around we were ready to switch classes and start implementing the Daily 5 in ELA and the Daily 3 in math. I love that we are teaching our students to build stamina during the read to self block of Daily5. My students managed to get to thirteen minutes of stamina by Friday. We used this Word Work Choice Board with our weekly spelling unit for that section of Daily5.

During the Work on Writing part of the Daily5, my students started writing their first personal narrative of the year. Most chose to write about something they did this summer. No one has completed all of the 6 Traits steps to get their work to publication yet, but I hope by early next week they will. The students also enjoyed hearing the following read alouds during the Listen to Reading part of the Daily5 structure. I put the YouTube URLs through safeshare.tv to eliminate the "clutter" from the YouTube videos and then created QR codes using goo.gl.com URL shortner. Here is the document. 

One of the activities my students enjoyed doing was making posters about how to be a bucket filler after we listened to Have You Filled a Bucket Today? They did a great job working in a collaboartive group to create their posters. Here are a couple of examples. 

In math class we have worked on standard, word, and expanded form of numbers up to the millions. We also sharpened our addition and subtraction skills with larger numbers. Getting to play games was a big hit this week and even with all those students in our room. they kept the noise down to an acceptable level. We are using the classroom computers to complete a math placement test on MobyMax and will then be able to add computer time to our math daily rotations. 

This week in social studies we learned about the continents and oceans and practiced our mapping skills. One of the best ways I know to get kids to love learning about the geography of the United States is by playing Mystery Location via a video conference call using Skype or Google Hangout with another class. We were able to do just that with Mrs. Regruth's class located in Indiana. Over Skype using a series of yes/no questions they guessed our location first. My students had a blast and were thrilled when they figured out their location too.

We had a super first week, worked hard, learned new things, cooperated and collaborated nicely with our classmates. and even took quite a few brain breaks using one of our favorite sites - GoNoodle. So far our favorite GoNoodle brain break is Ice Cream and Guacamole.

Hello Round 4 Quadblogging Buddies

Welcome to our class blog. We are so excited to be part of this blogging quad. We are a fourth grade classroom just outside of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, and in Ms. Naugle's class we learn math, science, and social studies. Let us give you a peek into some things we are doing in our classes.

We are learning how to write short research papers in science class. Each one of us had to select an animal we wanted to learn more about and research it online. We wrote notes in our notebook and put down where we got our information from for our bibliography. We have a set of netbooks in our classroom, so we each share a computer with another student. Soon we will share our individual blogs with you. That is where we are going to write our final reports.

One of the things we love doing is connecting with others by using video-conferencing tools like Skype or Google Hangouts. Last week we were visited by author Jeff Rivera via Skype. Jeff read his new children's book to us and we definitely are fans. His books are available as Kindle books from Amazon. Guess what the title of his book is? Um...Mommy I Think I Flushed My Brother Down the Toilet.

In math class, we are learning about fractions and decimals. We have learned how to show a fraction as an area model, a set, and on a number line. One of the sites we use to learn about this is LearnZillion. Ms. Naugle also put a Google document into Edmodo for us that has some other websites on fractions for us to check out. 

Well that gives you some information about us. We look forward to learning more about you and reading your comments. We'll be checking out your blogs in the coming weeks. Happy Blogging!

Day 1 of Mardi Gras Skype Calls

There was a definite buzz in the air today in HR222. Purple, green, and gold was everywhere you looked. The back of the classroom looked like an annex for Beads by the Dozen. Today was going to be a great day of collaboration and communication for us. We had five Skype calls planned back to back from 8:45 until 10:30. The students had researched, created Glogsters, practiced their parts, and learned how to properly do a "second line" all in preparation for today's Mardi Gras Skype calls. They were now the "experts" who were going to educate other classrooms around the country about Mardi Gras.

Our first call was with Mrs. Grayson's 4th grade in Virginia. We loved the fact that Mrs. Grayson donned a wonderful Mardi Gras themed hat for the call. Her students and mine backchanneled on an Skype Collaboration group I had set up in Edmodo during the call. The students in Virginia learned about Mardi Gras through both the presentation done via Skype and by viewing the Glogsters my students had embedded into the Edmodo group. What a great way to start a day of learning.

We then traveled virtually to Minnesota, and connected with Mr. Kruger's 3rd graders. Unfortunately there were some technically difficulties with this Skype connection, but Mr. Kruger assured me through Twitter that our presentation sparked a lot of follow up conversation among his students. We wrapped up this call with our closing second line, and we know this class in Minnesota learned a lot about Mardi Gras when they answered our verbal quiz questions with flying colors. Check out Mr. Kruger's post about the call.                                                                      

Mrs. Mercier's 3rd grade class in Connecticut was not able to connect with us today due to a scheduling conflict. We hope to be able to connect with them at some date in the future. Ah, the life of an elementary school teacher. We have to remain flexible because schedules can change quickly. During the time we would have been Skyping with Mrs; Mercier's class, my students took their social studies test.

Our next connection was with Mrs. Seibel's 4th grade class in Kansas. My students' level of confidence had greatly increased from the first call, and they spoke with more assured voices during this call. We showed them various trinkets that are prized "catches" from different Mardi Gras krewes - a play sword, a Mardi Gras football, and a prized Zulu coconut.

We rounded out our Skype collaboration with Mrs. Yollis' 3rd graders in California. We were greeted by Mrs. Yollis and one of her students who was wearing a Mardi Gras mask. We had to disconnect and place the call a couple of times before we had a stable connection. Mrs. Yollis' students are Skype experts and have various jobs they perform during Skype calls. Read about the Mardi Gras Skype Call from their perspective on her blog here.

Her students also had a few questions they were dying to ask us, so we did a Q&A about non-Mardi Gras things at the end of our presentation. One of her students wanted to know if my students had ever seen an alligator up close and personal. Imagine his excitement when Raegan told him that she went alligator hunting with her grandpa and caught a 12 foot gator. She also shared that she is related to one of the featured people on The History Channel series "Swamp People". Another question was about our Hurricane Katrina experience. Mrs. Yollis' students learned that every one of my students had to evacuate the city during the storm and that at least three of them were gone for more than two years before they returned.

(Lesson learned - take a picture of the Skype call on the computer screen instead of the imagine displayed on the Promethean board. While what we saw during the calls was very clear, the photos leave a lot to be desired.)

So are you ready to let the good times roll? What celebration is unique to your area?

Let the Good Times Roll

I'm so excited to announce that my 4th graders with be sharing their Mardi Gras expertise with at least 14 other classes in the United States and Canada. While my students have been busy doing research, writing, creating Glogsters, writing blog posts, and gathering props to share during our Skype calls, I've been busy getting our Skype call schedule set.

My part was pretty easy. First I decided which days we could Skype. Then I created a Google doc to have others sign up, and tweeted about it on Twitter.

Viola, in less than 24 hours we had 14 eager participants. My students will also be back channeling on our Skype Collaboration group in Edmodo. If the other class wants to join in on that activity, I will share the code to join the group with them.

I will be adding updates to our blog as this awesome activity unfolds. So stay tuned.

Our First Mystery Skype Call

On Friday the students in my 5th period math class got to participate in our first Mystery Skype call this year. Joan Young, a 4th grade teacher and member of my PLN (personal learning network), and I planned our call via Twitter and email. We used this post and this post to help us learn how to do a Mystery Skype call.

About half hour before the Skype call, Joan sent me an IM on Skype reminding me to remove my city and state from my profile. I quickly did so. The Mystery Skype call would not have been much fun if I had placed the Skype call and Mrs. Young's students could see where I was located. This is how my Skype profile looks now. (Click on imagine to enlarge.)


We decided which students would be greeters and questioners, and which students would be researchers and helpers. Then the call was placed and the questioning began.

Mrs. Young's class graciously let us go first. We asked if they were located in the United States. Yes, they answered. Are you located east of the Mississippi River? They answered no, and I was so caught up in the game that I forgot a no meant our turn was over. As we tried to ask another question, Mrs. Young reminded us of the rules. So it was their turn. They asked if our state touched an ocean. We answered no and got a turn again. And so it went back and forth.

Mrs. Young's class asked such great questions, they were quickly able to determine that we were located in Louisiana. It took us a little longer to discover that they are located in California. We tried to extend the activity by trying to figure out the city each other is located in. Again, Mrs. Young's fourth graders beat us and zeroed in on New Orleans rather quickly. My kids kept commenting about how well they played and how smart they were.

Mrs. Young's Class Cheer Their Victory

We thoroughly enjoyed the experience and learned some important geography skills along the way. We can't wait until our next Mystery Skype call.

If you are looking for a class to connect with to do a Mystery Skype call check here or here.