Mystery Skype

Our Mystery Skype, that we did yesterday was awesome. A Mystery Skype is a Skype when you try to figure out the other persons' location before the other class finds out. We could only ask "yes" or "no" questions. We Skyped with a class in Riverside, Illinois. We guessed their location before they guessed ours.  The funny thing  about the  Mystery Skype was that they asked if we lived close to the city of Tuscaloosa. They always guessed cities that were near Tuscaloosa, but they never actually guessed Tuscaloosa until the end. 

It was really cool because we had maps to help us figure out their clues. The kids we were Skyping with were pros at Mystery Skype. They each had apple laptops. We each had a map that had a sheet protector over it, so that we could write on it with an expo marker, and our own devices. When they said it was by the Great Lakes, we started to guess all of the states that touched the Great Lakes. We also knew that the state didn't touch Canada. Illinois was the last state there was. Once we guessed Illinois, we began narrowing down their city. It took a long time to figure out what city it was.  We were surprised that they didn't guess our state and city before us.

At the end of the day their teacher tweeted that if you ever do and Mystery Skype to be very specific with your questions. By doing a Mystery Skype we were able to analyze clues, use process of elimination, and draw conclusions; those are important skills to learn for anything you do in life. To do a mystery Skype successfully, you need to be a strong communicator and thinker. We can't wait until we do it again.

Book Trailers: Skyping

We Skyped with people in Hueytown Middle School to talk about the book trailers we are publishing. We gave them ideas and they gave us ideas on tools, books, and management tips. They told us what books they were doing, so we did too. In some of the book trailers, people drew it, took pictures of people who acted as the characters in the book that they were doing, or they took videos too. We really enjoyed when they explained what books they were doing. Some of them we hadn't even heard of! The ones that we did, but hadn't read, sounded really good. They got good ideas from us.We cant wait to see how there book trailers are going. Skyping was a great way to learn from people who aren't in our class...and it's fun! ~MD and TB

Global Read Aloud: Surprise Guest Reader

Mrs. Ramsay told us we were going to get a surprise on Friday.We could not figure out what it was.So, when we got back from lunch, we thought we were just going to read The One and Only Ivan which always makes us happy and excited. We got on our class carpet and sat down with our books, iPods, and iPads. Then all of a sudden a Skype call came through our class computer.Guess who?  It was Mrs. Ripp!  She is very nice. Mrs.Ripp is the founder of the Global Read Aloud. She with some other teachers chose the book The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate for us to read this year for the Global Read Aloud.

 It is one of the best books we have ever read. It is a book about a gorilla and other animals facing life changes in a mall. We all love this book truly. It was written by a very enthusiastic author, who can write very interesting and detailed books.We read to almost the end of the book with Mrs. Ripp. We felt honored and surprised to read with the founder of the Global Read Aloud. This was a great surprise. ~LC

Skyping with Ms. Penno's Class

Today, we Skyped with Ms. Penno's grade 4 class.Their class is in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We are in Fultondale, Alabama, USA.We discussed  The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. We were separated in 6 groups to discuss which animal character we would save from the book. Our groups were: Ivan, Stella 1, Stella 2, Ruby, Mixed characters, and Bob. Each group had  turns talking to the students in Ms. Penno's class. Each group discussed who will they save, how would they save them, why they save them. We also asked questions about the story. We Skyped for one hour with their classroom. When we were Skyping, we felt as if we were actually talking class to class. Skyping to Canada was the most awesome experience ever. We also got to learn some cool information about their school and their city. ~DC and AM.