We celebrated world read aloud day today with a Skype call to Ms. Hahn's 4th grade class from Our Lady of Peace school.

They began the Skype call with giving us a few facts to locate their state such as:
-they are near a lot of lakes
- a country borders their state
- their state has a 125ft. tower
-their is a large supply of iron in their state

We then gave them some facts about our state such as
-we are located in the southeastern region
-Mardi gras is celebrated here
- we became a state in 1812
- our state was named for King Louis IVX of France
- our state flower is the magnolia bloom, state tree is the bald cypress, and the state bird is the brown pelican

They took their guess of Louisiana and were right! We then took our guess which was a class split between Michigan and Wisconsin. We were wrong with both of our guesses, so we asked for one more clue. Their next clue was that the Mississippi River begins in their state. The students knew the answer right away was Minnesota.

Then Ms. Hahn's class shared a Dr. Seuss book with us titled Theirs a Wocket in my Pocket

I shared Wacky Wednesday by Dr. Seuss.

How did you celebrate World Read Aloud Day?

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Mrs. Shepherd

My 4th graders participated in their very first Mystery Skype today with a 6th grade class in Missouri. Before we began the Skype I gave each table of 4 students a job. One group used the Almanac in their Social Studies book to look up some of the facts given by the other class, some used Google to research the facts, some students used laminated maps to identify the area of the US where they thought the state may be located, and a few students helped out by reading our facts to the other class. After the 6th grade class gave us their facts, they took a guess at where we were from and we did the same. We were both successful!
Some of their facts were:

• Their state is near the Mississippi River
• Their state was a swing state in the Election
• The name of their state contains 8 letters
• They are near Jefferson City

Then they surprised us by asking if we wanted to guess what city they were from in Missouri and they would do the same. We ended up being successful with that guess as well!

It was such a great opportunity and experience, and we are certainly looking forward to doing more Mystery Skypes in the near future. Here's a look at the 6th grade class we Skyped with today on our Promethean board.

This week in Reading students learned how to analyze and evaluate an informational text to identify evidence and opinions. They worked really hard analyzing the texts given on this Monday -Wednesday while discovering the different types of evidence used by the author to support their claim. They also had the opportunity to think about their own opinion in comparison to the author's and decide whether they agreed or disagreed with the author. They were also given thinking stems of I think...... and I would.... to elaborate on their explanation. Today they took their learning further by writing a persuasive letter to Santa using opinions and reasons stating why they deserve the presents they are asking for for Christmas. They also learned today while typing their paper on Microsoft Word how to add clipart.

Here's a sample letter to Santa.

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Mrs. Shepherd

During the next few weeks, Shepherd's Shining Stars have a few things to look forward to.

   First up is a field trip to our local library. My homeroom and my partner teacher's homeroom are attending a field trip to Belle Terre Library this Friday. Students will have the opportunity to explore some of the resources available to them. On February 16, students have a Social Studies project that is due and will participate in our annual Social Studies fair at school. So, one of their main purposes on the field trip will be to locate 5 books on their topic to gather information from. They will also fill in a bibliographic template to list the books found.

    Next, is an upcoming Mardi Gras Skype! I am really looking forward to this as I know my students will also. Thanks to my good friend and colleague @plnaugle, who shared an exciting Mardi Gras Skype lesson with me. This week and next students will begin researching Mardi Gras to gather information on things like: the history, colors, king cake, beads and doubloons and parades. They will then put together their information found, their own personal views and search for photos to create a Glog using Glogster. Finally, with the help of Ms. Naugle, students will Skype with a few classrooms worldwide to present their projects. Please leave me a comment below if you are interested in learning about the history of Mardi Gras during the week of February 18th. We would love to Skype with as many classes as possible.

    We love communicating via email with our trucker buddy! We have learned so much about our trucker buddy and what his job entails. He sends us pictures and writes us lengthy emails answering all of our questions. The last email he sent, he inquired about our class pet. Well, we don't have one, but now the kids are asking. So, my student teacher told them they could earn  a beta fish by working hard and exhibiting good behavior. I think we are going to have a class pet soon. Our trucker buddy may also make a visit to our school the week before our Mardi Gras break. We are looking forward to his visit.

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Mrs. Shepherd

Today my fourth graders and I participated in our first Mystery Skype. I placed my students in 5 collaborative groups.

Here's a picture of the group who used the iPads. They used the search engine Google and typed in the clues that were given by the Mystery Class.

 These two ladies wrote down the clues for the class on the chart paper.

This group used the netbooks. They dicsused the questions through Edmodo. 

These two guys used maps to eliminate the choices.

Here are the clues we were given by the other class:

1. Our state was once called "The Great American Desert"
2. Our state sits above the largest underground lake called Lake Ogallala Aquifer
3. We are home to Offut Air Force Base.
4. Our state is divided into 2 time zones: central & mountain.
5. Our state has 4 district seasons with definite changes in the weather.
6. Our famous landmarks are Devil's Gourge, Badlands, Chimney Rock.
7. Our state borders CO, WY, IA,  MO, and KS

Bonus: Our state is known as the Cornhusker State

Can you guess?

That's right it is Nebraska!

Here is a video that was created by one of my students using our flipcamera.

My fourth graders and I had a wonderful experience today and I can't wait to do it again. Any interested 3-4th grade classes out there leave me a post, if you want to set up a Mystery Skype.

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Mrs. Shepherd