Thursday, February 25, 2016

Mystery Skype with Forest class

This week, Forest class prepared for and participated in a Mystery Skype session with another fourth grade class in the United States. Mystery Skype is a global geography game played through Skype between two classes in different parts of the country or world. The object of the game is to guess where the other class is located by asking yes/no questions.


We split the class into Question/Answer teams - the Question team was responsible for coming up with questions to ask the other class so that we could figure out their location. These questions had to be vague enough that we could eliminate many states at once but also be responsive to the answers we had already received. The Answer team made sure to answer correctly the questions posed by the other class about our whereabouts. This team had to be intimately familiar with where North Carolina is in relation to other states and landmarks. We also had teams of students to greet the class, share information about our state, and document the whole experience in photos and videos.



And what a great experience it was! We found out that the other class lives and goes to school in New Jersey, the Garden State. Their state flower is the violet, their state vegetable is the tomato, and their local sports teams are the New York Giants and the New York Jets. 


Thank you to Room 15 for being our first Mystery Skype!

We also shared similar information about our state and told them about our school. Forest class students did a fantastic job of working together, using their map skills, and communicating with our Mystery class. Check out the video below!







Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Our first ebook!

Hooray! We've just acquired our first ebook! To support Mountain and Forest classes in their study of North Carolina, we now have an unlimited subscription to North Carolina by Davy Sweazey. This means that every student (and teacher) can be reading this book online at the same time! Though this may be a rare occurrence, it would be a great way to teach nonfiction reading and note-taking skills.


The book is available on our Follett Shelf at https://wbb58700.follettshelf.com

To login, use any username from "student1" through "student62
with the same password we use for PebbleGo and WorldBook Online.

(Teachers can use "teacher1" to "teacher10" when working with students.)

This book can be accessed from anywhere, so feel free to explore it at home, too! 

Happy reading, 



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