Wonderful Winter Solstice, 2013!

In the Northern Hemisphere, winter is the 

coldest season of the year. 

It begins about December 21 and lasts until about March 21. Around December 21 or 22, 

the sun's rays fall directly over the farthest point south of the equator - marking the first day of winter. 

Winter days have fewer hours of daylight because of the path the earth takes as it revolves around the sun. The earth completely revolves around the sun during 365 days. The earth's axis always tips about 23 1/2 degrees from a line perpendicular to its path. 

In the Southern Hemisphere, winter begins in June.

Different regions have longer winters than others. For example, in the polar regions, winter takes up half the year. In the Temperate Zones winter takes up about one quarter of the year. 

In regions where there is cold weather, it causes many changes in the environment. Water may freeze and become ice, snow, sleet or icicles. Most plants and animals become dormant and rest. 

Some animals hibernate. 

The only plants that grow and remain green are evergreens. 

People protect themselves from the cold climate with winter clothing when they go outdoors. They enjoy a variety of indoor activities or outdoor winter sports such as skiing, skating, or sledding. 

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Here are some fun winter links!
 

Want to make an online snowflake? Click here! 

BrainPop has some great winter and snow movies! Click here! 

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What do you enjoy most about winter?


How will you be celebrating the holidays?

What activities will you be 

participating in this winter break?

A Variety of Van Allsburgs!

Recently in our reading text books, we read The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, Chris Van Allsburg's first children's book. It is a clever and mysterious story about a dog named Fritz who runs into Mr. Gasazi's garden. Fritz is possibly turned into a duck by Mr. Gasazi, but the reader never really knows for sure. Mr. Van Allsburg leaves that up to the reader to decide.

Because Mr. Van Allsburg is such a talented writer and has written so many wonderful books, Mrs. Ranney read three more to us.

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The first book we enjoyed was Bad Day at River Bend. The story seems to take place in an old western town. Everything and everyone in town is being covered by a colorful greasy slime. However, at the end it is revealed that all the characters are in a young boy's coloring book!

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The second one we listened to was called Two Bad Ants. Through their experiences in the jar of crystals, which turn out to be sugar, these ants learn that they are better off staying with their colony rather than venturing out on their own.

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Finally, Mrs. Ranney read The Widow's Broom to us. It was an eerie tale in which a witch's broom comes to be owned by a widow. The neighbors are very upset about this enchanted broom who does all the widow's chores and want to do away with it. However, the widow comes up with an extremely clever plan to trick the neighbors and keep her broom!

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Which of these stories did you like best and why?

 
What other books by Chris Van Allsburg 

have you enjoyed?

 
Please leave a comment and give us your opinions.

Geography of the U. S. A!

Recently we have been learning about geography,
the study of people and
 places on the earth.

We have learned about landforms,

or shapes on Earth's surface.

In addition, we have studied the regions,
or areas that share one or more features, 

of the United States. 

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Here is an interactive quiz to help in practicing

 and reviewing what we learned! 

Geography Quiz on PhotoPeach

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What have you learned about geography?

What landforms or bodies of water 
have you visited in the United States? 

Which regions have you visited 
and what have you seen? 

Family Month Blogging Winners Announced!

                     On November 1, Mrs. Ranney announced 

that it would be Family Blogging Month!  

The project generated lots of enthusiasm and family participation!

In fact,  

over 130 comments (most from family members)

  were published during the month of November!

And the winners are... 

First Place: Lucas, with 27 stellar comments!

Second Place: Colin, with 25 outstanding comments!

Third Place: Ayden with 18 grand comments!

Each student received a certificate, won a free meal a Kings, and was given an opportunity to publish a free-choice post on our classroom blog!

Congratulations to our top bloggers! We will be running another Family Blogging Month in the spring! Thank you to all the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends for your participation!

We hope you will continue to participate in our learning community!

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What did you like most about Family Blogging Month?

Which family members left comments, and 

how did that make you feel?

How did your family enjoy the month?

The Giant of Barletta!

This week Mrs. Yollis' class continues with their unit 

 on fantasy. The story of the week is called

 The Mysterious Giant of Barletta by Tomie dePaola.

As luck would have it Chase's grandfather, named Nonno, 

has been to see the giant!

Nonno was a guest blogger when Chase's brother, Ben, was in Mrs. Yollis' class.

 He  lives in Italy and shared his Italian travels with all Mrs. Yollis' class! 

Now we can enjoy his guest post:

We visited Barletta during our trip to Puglia after Mrs. Yollis told us you would be hearing a story about the Mysterious Giant of Barletta. We wanted to see the giant and take some pictures to share with you.

Barletta is also in Puglia, on the heel of Italy.

The giant statue is located right in the city on a busy street.

People park their cars in front of the statue, ride their bicycles past and also wait for the bus right by the statue.

The statue is more than five meters tall. Five meters is more than 16 feet. Here is a picture of Cecca right next to the base, or pedestal, of the statue so you can judge how tall the statue is.

And also took one of her standing on the pedestal near his leg. Cecca is one meter 54 centimeters tall.

Barletta has many farms and fields around the city where they grow grapes and olives. (Can you imagine the giant meeting Captain Minekion out here in one of these fields?)



Very close to Barletta is a place where they make salt from sea water.

Barletta is now a modern city, but years ago it was a city of the Roman Empire. Years ago the coast was often invaded so the people built a huge fort for protection. Now it has a modern harbor that is overlooked by the huge fort where people can visit.

 

Is That Luigi?

Movie stars can be seen near the statue.



Now the statue is called The Colossus of Barletta. Here is what the people of Barletta tell us about it.

The Colossus of Barletta is a bronze statue of the Early Middle Ages, hollow on the inside and over 5 meters high. It most probably represents an emperor or famous warrior as shown by his military uniform, his rich, imperial robe and the bejeweled crown on his head, trimmed with two strings of pearls. Maybe Hercules, maybe not.

We are not sure how the statue arrived in Barletta. According to one story the Venetians stole the statue from Constantinople. On the journey back to Venice, the ship was wrecked in a storm and the statue was found on the beach near Barletta. According to another story, the Colossus was discovered in Ravenna, north of Barletta. Transported by ship, it was brought to Barletta’s harbor, probably to be used in some celebration.  When the statue came to Barletta it did not have a base, that was built later so it would seem even taller.

What did you think of Nonno's guest blog post?

Write a comment as if you are the Giant of Barletta 

or Zia Concetta!

Do you know any Italian facts or any Italian words? 
 

Try using Google Translate!