Thursday, March 31, 2011

Skyping With Our Quad Blogging Buddies: Mr. Avery's Class in Massachusetts!

We had a wonderful time today, Skyping with our
Quad Blogging Buddies in Mr. Avery's class in
Plympton, Massachusetts!





They called us at 11:00 A. M., which was 
2:00 P. M. Eastern Standard Time.
By the time we were finished talking, Mr. Avery's class was being dismissed to go home, and we were on our way to music with Mr. B!





The students in each class took turns sharing facts about 
their states, communities, and schools.

It was interesting to make comparisons and contrasts! 
For example, California is the third largest state in area with 158,633 square miles, and
Massachusetts is the sixth smallest state with an area of only 8,263 square miles!

In addition, California is the number one most populated state in the USA with
37,253,956 people! Massachusetts has a population of 6,547,629, 
which is a large number for such a small state!

We noticed that we have something special in common, the ocean!
Of course, ours is the Pacific and theirs is the Atlantic!


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

Each of us prepared a fact to share with Mr. Avery's class.

Some of the facts we shared were about our state symbols.
Watch the slide show to see some of the symbols of California!

California State Symbols on PhotoPeach






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What did you enjoy most about our Skyping experience?

What California facts did you find most interesting?

What facts did you learn from Mr. Avery's class?

What Massachusetts state symbols do you remember?




Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Learn Spanish! ¡Aprender Español!


Recently Mrs. Ranney's class read "Pepita Talks Twice!"

Pepita, who can speak both English and Spanish, decides that she doesn't want to "speak twice" anymore. When her decision creates problems she hadn't thought of, Pepita realizes that sometimes it can be a good thing to understand two languages.

The story was even written in both English and Spanish,



so we began learning some Spanish words ourselves.




*       *      *       *       *

The video below, made by students in both Mrs. Ranney's and Mrs. Yollis' class, demonstrates many Spanish words we learned!








Translations:


¡Bueños días! Good day!


¡Bueñas tardes! Good afternoon!


¡Bueñas noches! Good night!


¿Cómo estas? How are you?


¡Muy bien! Very well!


¡No muy bien! Not very well!


¡Que lástima! What a pity!


¡Gracias! Thank you!


De nada. You're welcome.


¡Hasta mañana! See you tomorrow!


¡Hasta luego! See you later!



Los Días de la Semana The Days of the Week


lunes Monday


martes Tuesday


miércoles Wednesday


jueves Thursday


viernes Friday


sábado Saturday


domingo Sunday



Me gusta...I like...


el pan bread


los tacos tacos


escuela school


matemáticas math



¡Que divertido! What fun!


¡Que buena idea! What a great idea!


¿Vamos a aprender Español? We're going to learn Spanish?


***************
What Spanish words or phrases have you enjoyed learning?


Can you teach us some new Spanish words or phrases?

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Let's Meet Our Blogging Buddies: Mrs. de Vries' Class in Australia!

Mrs. Ranney's class enjoys sharing and learning 
with other classes around the world. 
This year, they are QUAD buddies with three other classes!


 
Mrs. Ranney's Classroom Blog 3rd Grade California, USA 
(March 7th-13th)

Mr. Avery’s Classroom Blog 4th Grade Massachusetts, USA 
(March 14-20th)

3DD Classroom Blog Grade 3 Australia (March 28th-April 3rd)

Mrs. Watson's 2/3 Class British Columbia, Canada (April 4-10)


The concept is  four blogging classes come together and learn about one another one week at a time. 
This alliance will help each class increase learning more about the wonderful world we live in.






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

This week, let's meet Mrs. de Vries' Grade 3 in Australia! 
Since they are located in the Eastern Hemisphere, they are18 hours ahead of us!
If it is 12 o'clock noon on March 28th, here in California, 
it is 6 A. M. on March 29th in Australia!




Head on over to 3DD Class Blog (Leopold, Australia) to learn about them 
and leave a comment!

To leave a comment, look for the comment count 
at the top of any post. 
Click on it, and you can leave a comment of your own.
Be sure to say that you are from Mrs. Ranney's Class!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Animals, Announce Your Adaptations!

This week, Mrs. Ranney's class is learning about animal adaptations.

An adaptation is a body part or behavior that helps a living thing survive in its environment.

For example, a giraffe's long neck helps it reach the leaves in high trees on the savannas of Africa.
The giraffe's neck is a physical adaptation.



An antelope squirrel stays cool during the hot desert day by staying in its underground burrow.
This is an example of a behavioral adaptation.




********


Many animals have physical or behavioral adaptations. For example, polar bears of the Arctic can run on the ice without slipping. To learn about the polar bear's physical adaptation, click here!

Here is a fun animal adaptation quiz!


********

 

Use the Online World Book Encyclopedia to research an animal of your choice.
Take notes about two to three adaptations.
Be sure to include the animal's habitat.



Write a comment as if you are that animal. 
Tell us about your adaptations!


What makes your adaptations so useful? Use HTML code to bold the facts!



Sunday, March 13, 2011

Let's Meet Our Blogging Buddies: Mr. Avery's Class in Massachusetts!

Mrs. Ranney's class enjoys sharing and learning 
with other classes around the world. 
This year, they are QUAD buddies with three other classes!


 

Mr. Avery’s Classroom Blog 4th Grade Massachusetts, USA

3DD Classroom Blog Grade 3 Australia

Mrs. Ranney's Classroom Blog 3rd Grade California, USA

Mrs. Watson's 2/3 Class British Columbia, Canada




The concept is  four blogging classes come together and learn about one another one week at a time. 
This alliance will help each class increase learning more about the wonderful world we live in.


This week, let's meet Mr. Avery's 4th Graders from Massachusetts!

Head on over to Mr. Avery's Class Blog to learn about them 
and leave a comment!
(When you arrive at their class blog, you will find the link for comments at the top of the post.
The comment section will ask fore an email address, but you do not have to give one.)
Be sure to say that you are from Mrs. Ranney's Class!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Spectacular Skyping with Our Buddies in British Columbia!


On Friday, we were thrilled to able to Skype for our very first time!

We had a wonderful conversation with our Quad Blogging Buddies in
Mrs. Watson's 2/3 Class in the province of British Columbia, Canada!



Since they are also in the Pacific Time Zone, it was the same time there as here, 1:15 P. M!
 




It was amazing to realize that they were 1,079 miles, or 1,736 kilometers away
while we were speaking with them!




We learned that their school  is located on a very small island with a population of only about 800 people. The island lies in a bay between Vancouver Island and mainland British Columbia, Canada.





Everyone in both classes had the opportunity to introduce themselves and
share some information or ask questions.



We compared many interesting facts about our countries and 
state or province.
Did you enjoy Skyping with our new buddies?

What did you learn from the conversation?

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Quad Blogging Excitement Builds!

We have really been enjoying all the commenting conversations we've been having with our new buddies in:

Mr. Avery’s Classroom Blog 4th Grade Massachusetts, USA

3DD Classroom Blog Grade 3 Australia

Mrs. Ranney's Classroom Blog 3rd Grade California, USA

Mrs. Watson's 2/3 Class British Columbia, Canada
 
 
 
 
 
One thing of particular interest to us has been checking the
world time zone map to see what time it is 
where each buddy class is located!


 In addition, we have been very excited to watch as our 
visitor count has been rising rapidly!

 At last count, we had 7,798 visits!
That means only 202 to go to hit 8,000!

Please help us meet that goal by visiting, and, of course, commenting on this or any other post you might be interested in!


We love to keep the conversation going!


What have you enjoyed most so far about 
Quad Blogging?  
 

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Welcome, Quad Blogging Buddies: Meet Mrs. Ranney's Class!


Mrs. Ranney's class looks forward to sharing and learning with our QUAD blogging buddies!



 

Mr. Avery’s Classroom Blog 4th Grade Massachusetts, USA

3DD Classroom Blog Grade 3 Australia

Mrs. Ranney's Classroom Blog 3rd Grade California, USA

Mrs. Watson's 2/3 Class British Columbia, Canada




The concept is  four blogging classes come together and learn about one another one week at a time. This alliance will help each class increase learning more about the wonderful world we live in.


This week, let's meet Mrs. Ranney's third graders from California! 
We are a group of 12 girls and 10 boys!

Enjoy watching the slide show to learn more about us!




Room 9 is Fine! on PhotoPeach



Enjoy browsing through our blog!

We anxiously await comments from our new buddies!

Feel free to comment on this or any other post! 

Friday, March 4, 2011

The Great Kapok Tree

This week, Mrs. Ranney's class is reading The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry. 




The story takes place in the rain forest of the Amazon.
Throughout the story, rain forest animals try to  persuade a logger to leave the kapok tree alone.

Because the setting of the story is the rain forest,
we have been reading and researching about plants and animals of that habitat.


We all looked our animals up in classroom dictionaries, animal atlases, or library books.






Our dictionaries had great facts and pictures.



We are working on illustrations as well!






















Another great way to research rain forest animals is in the online encyclopedia that the PFC purchased.




For your comment on this post, research a rain forest animal or plant using the World Book Encyclopedia. Write a comment as if you are that animal or plant! Be sure to include facts you learned from the online encyclopedia. DO NOT PLAGIARIZE! (Use your own words!)
☂   ☼  ☂   ☼  ☂   ☼  ☂   ☼ ☂  ☼


It will be exciting to learn about an animal from that animal!
Be sure to read  the sample comments left  by 
Mrs. Ranney and Peggy, the Penguin!

(Be sure to use html code around your facts, so they will be in bold print!)