Sunday, November 4, 2007

A Bit of Fun with Photostory

On Friday a few students decided to try making a Photostory using their research and the pictures from their explorer comics. I think that these were really good first attempts at slide show videos. The first slide show was made by Kathryne.







Launch in external player

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Our First VoiceThread

About US Money

I am having some trouble posting this tonight. If the video does not play, you can go ahead and click launch in external player.












Launch in external player

Friday, October 26, 2007

Room 219 Update

This week we are at 1993 miles in Read Across America. This afternoon we learned about money. Three of us spoke on the New Zealand website. We got an answer really quick. Someone must have been up at 7:30 Saturday morning. Did you know that Friday afternoon here is Saturday morning in New Zealand?
We did our vocabulary test in a "special" way. We used our smartboard. Today was a great day. Everyone keep reading, next Friday we need to be at 92 lines.

Posting by:
Aqib, Wilson, Faith and the rest of us

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Fun with Technology

We are a bit behind on our blogging. We are spending our blogging time playing with our new technology. Thanks to Mr. Stewart our class has become a technology test class. Our job is to use some great new technology to enhance our learning. We received a smart board, an Elmo and a projector. The whole class is really enjoying them. It was an exciting moment yesterday when everyone got a chance to write on the smart board or move text around. We also had fun with the magic eraser.

This week in 219

Students just finished their rock guides in science and will be finishing our geology unit by Friday. Next week we move on to plants.

In social studies, we are learning about New York explorers. We are reading Voyage of the Half Moon. It is a historical fiction book written from the point of view of Henry Hudson's son. We are currently researching explorers. Some students are creating comic strips to share their information and others are working on newscasts. Look for some of the final projects next week on our website.

Our reading story is Letters from Yosemite. We are learning about National Parks and how they preserve geology, wildlife and plants. The reading skills we are working on this week are main idea and details, facts and opinions, and summarizing.

In Math, we are still working on addition properties, subtraction and math vocabulary. We will also be starting to explore money. As always we are working on word problems. Please keep using CUBS.

In read around America, we are now in the Midwest. Congratulations to Ursula for 200 steps. Congratulations also to Aqib and Ana for 100 steps each.

Keep reading everyone. Our goal is 79 steps by Friday.

Friday, October 12, 2007

October 12, 2007

This has been an interesting week. We read a story that was set in Japan and even made sushi. We finished reading Because of Winn-Dixie and watched part of the movie at lunch. It was different from the book. The dog was cleaner and did not have bald spots. Nat watched the commentary video and told us that two dogs played Winn-Dixie. The bird in the movie was very rude compared to the book.
We will update our Read Across America on Monday. We were too busy eating sushi to do it this afternoon. Have a nice weekend everyone.

Wilson, Nat and Damion

Monday, October 8, 2007

This week in Room 219

We are a bit behind in reporting our Read Across America travels. The last few weeks have been busy, but we have still been reading, reading, reading. Our combined line total is 718. This has allowed us to travel to the capitals of several New England states. We looked for tea in the Boston Harbor and enjoyed maple syrup in Montpelier, VT. Now we are relaxing in Providence RI. This week we will continue our travels through New England and maybe start are journey to the west.

Now, let’s look at this week in room 219. We will be learning about explorers that came to New York and researching why each explorer’s journey was important.
In Science, we will continue learning (Geology) about the earth and rocks. We will begin creating our own rock guides and sorting rocks into 3 groups (Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic). We will also talk about how the earth changes over time due to such forces as erosion and volcanoes.
We will continue practicing solving word problems in math. Everyone is starting to get the hang of CUBS. We will also continue working on place value, problem solving and chip trading. We will also learn number properties and moving around a 1000 board. Ask your student to use the numbers in a deck of cards to teach you how to play close to 1,000.
Our reading story this week is Grandfather’s Journey. Mrs. Lewis came in and talked about emigration and immigration last week. The Grandfather in the story emigrated from Japan. For more information on this week’s story and vocabulary, look for the Family Times to come home on Tuesday.

Have a great week!