HELLO MOOSE JAW!

Yesterday, we finally got to skype Mrs Cassidy and her Grade 1's in Moose Jaw, Canada.

Mrs Cassidy's class had a literacy night at their school, so they took the opportunity to talk with us - and we talked for ONE HOUR!

It was SOOO exciting to meet our blogging buddies and talk to them in 'real' time. It was 10 am Wednesday here but over in Moose Jaw it was 6 pm, Tuesday evening.

We started our skype call with a big HELLO and then we gave each other a tour of our classrooms. We noticed that there were tennisballs on the legs of the chairs in Mrs Cassidy's room. They told us they helped keep the room quieter. We thought they looked cool! Mrs Cassidy recorded this part of the call. You can view the video on Mrs Cassidy's blog.

Then we spent the rest of our chat asking each other questions. Some of the things we talked about were - what we learn at school, the sports we like, the games we play, what our school looks like, the foods we eat, our pets. We discovered that even though we are thousands of kilometres apart, we have a LOT in common.

Skyping with Moose Jaw on PhotoPeach

One of the questions we had for Mrs Cassidy's class was - why is your city called Moose Jaw? We wondered if it was because, long ago, there were lots of moose wandering around.

Mrs Cassidy told us the native Indians had a name for the area that meant 'a warm place by the river'. To the white settlers, this name sounded like Moose Jaw, so that became the name. Her class also showed us a picture of Mac the Moose, a REALLY big statue of a moose in their town.

Skyping with Mrs Cassidy and her class was lots of fun. We loved talking to them and know we are lucky to have such SPECIAL friends on the other side of the world.

(2M, what did you enjoy most about skyping Mrs Cassidy's class? Share with us in a comment. Mrs M)

ANOTHER INTERVIEW FOR MRS M

Today Mrs M was interviewed by Peter Gooch from ABC Radio.

He had read the article about us in
'Education Technology Solutions' and wanted to hear more about how we 'blog to learn and learn to blog'.

Johanna, Callum, Patrick and Ben M were also interviewed. They showed Mr Gooch their blogs and although nervous, told him about how we use our blogs to show our learning and connect with others. Callum showed a post that he had already put up about the interview.

The interview will be on the ABC Radio website by the end of next week.
Keep watching our blog for a direct link.

PHEASANT UPDATE

2M - the pheasants in Mrs Cassidy's classroom have hatched!
You can read all about this exciting event and view a movie of some of the hatchlings here!

How do the baby pheasants compare to the baby kookaburras we saw on the movie we sent Mrs Cassidy's class? Are there similarities? differences?

Tell me about your observations in a comment.

THE DAY HAS ARRIVED - HELLO MOOSE JAW!!

We had a WONDERFUL start to the day today.
An event that we have been eagerly waiting for, finally took place.

This morning we skyped Mrs Cassidy and her Grade Ones in Moose Jaw!

Even though some of us were a little shy, it was SOOO exciting to meet our blogging buddies and talk to them in 'real' time. It was just after 9:30 am here but over in Moose Jaw it was just after 5:30pm, Wednesday afternoon.


We took our turn in front of the mic and webcam and talked to each other about what we like to do, what our schools look like, our favourite toys, TV shows and sports we play.
For some of us, our buddy wasn't there so we chatted to Mrs Cassidy.





Some of the things we learnt were:
* they don't wear a uniform (we do)
* our schools are similar in size although they
go up to Year 8
* we enjoy the same TV shows and movies
* we play with similar toys - like Barbies, PSP
and XBox
* we love reading stories
*except for 'before school', they have 3 recesses ( we have 2)
* some choose to go home for lunch and even walk by themselves ( we eat lunch at
school and are not allowed to leave by ourselves)
* they (girls and boys) play hockey and soccer -in fact, some of our buddies left
the chat early because they were going to soccer
* they call a 'footpath' a 'sidewalk'; we say we're going to 'training', they say
'practice'
* they have a gym ( we have our sport outside on the oval)
* they have squirrels and gophers but not as many types of insects as us because
it's too cold

We were so busy chatting, that we were surprised when our lunch bell rang and we realised that we had been chatting for nearly 1½ hours!

Skyping with Mrs Cassidy and our buddies was lots of fun. We loved seeing them and know how lucky we are to have such SPECIAL friends on the other side of the world.

(2M, what did you enjoy most about skyping today? What did you learn about your buddy? Share with us in a comment. Mrs M)

THE WAIT IS OVER!

There was much excitement as we came into our room this morning.
We all couldn't wait to find out what was in the package that Mrs Cassidy's class had sent us.
Before we opened the package, we all tried to guess what it might contain.
We looked at the package, we felt the package and we also looked at Mrs Cassidy's blog to see if there were any clues.
Some of us thought there might be a picture inside. Others thought a flag. We were amazed at what some of the teachers thought it might be!!
Most of us though were convinced that it was a book.

BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images.

And we were right!

Mrs Cassidy's class have sent us a beautiful book called 'A Prairie Alphabet'.

This book helps us learn about the part of Canada where Mrs Cassidy and her class live.

It's already become one of our favourites.

We are so lucky to have such wonderful blogging friends.
THANKYOU MRS CASSIDY'S CLASS!!

A SURPRISE IN THE POST

2M!
LOOK WHAT I FOUND IN MY PIGEON HOLE BEFORE I WENT HOME!

WHAT DO YOU THINK COULD BE INSIDE THIS PACKAGE?

I wonder if there are any clues on Mrs Cassidy's blog?

SKYPING MRS CASSIDY

Guess what we did today?
We spoke to Mrs Cassidy in Canada!

Last week we had problems with Skype so we were really excited when Mrs M told us she had fixed the problem and we could talk to Mrs Cassidy.

We got to see her and we got to hear her too.
She used the webcam to show us some snow outside the window. Some of us asked her about our buddies. We couldn't talk to them because it was 5 o'clock in the afternoon and they had gone home

It was fun talking to Mrs Cassidy. She was very nice too.
We can't wait to talk to her again.

by Tierney

LET'S CONNECT!

We have started the week with the great news that Mrs M was able to skype Mrs Cassidy in Canada on Saturday morning.

They talked about how both classes can connect more with each other this term... and here's one way - by each of us buddying up with a member of Mrs Cassidy's class.

We already think of Mrs Cassidy's class as our blogging buddies but now we each have someone in her class to buddy up with and get to know better.

Today, when we went to the Library, Mrs M told us who our buddy was and we introduced ourselves by leaving a comment for them on their blog.

They are still on holidays so we hope they get a lovely surprise when they go back to school tomorrow.

REFRESHINGLY COOL!

Our blogging buddies in Canada made something for us.

On a day like today, when it was 32 C, we felt cooler just watching.

It was nice to imagine we were there with them.

If only we could....

THANKYOU MRS CASSIDY AND GRADE 1!

To see what our special gift was, click here.

OUR FIRST VIP!

Yesterday and today we had our first V.I.P in our room.

This V.I.P or Very Important Parent was Benny's mum.

Why is she a V.I.P?

Because she came to help us post and comment!

With Benny's mum's help, we left comments on 4/5J's, 4/5R's, 4/5B's and 3C's blogs and Isaac and Benny were able to create their Animoto of Australian Landmarks for Mr Greenberg.( and Benny's mum is now an Animoto expert too!)

That's what it's all about - us ALL helping each other learn.

We love viewing all the blogs each day and are keen to add a post or comment at school. If any other parents would like to help us with our posting and commenting, please let Mrs M know... it really is EASY!

COME LEARN WITH US!

AUSTRALIAN LANDMARKS

We made an ANIMOTO of some Australian landmarks for Mr Greenberg
and the Brain Waves.
We liked their landmark animoto but it didn't have any Australian landmarks
in it.
Mr Greenberg asked us for some ideas, so here's our response.

PLAYING WITH ANIMOTO

Every Monday, we have a 'special' ICT time with 2BP where we teach them how to use a Web 2.0 tool.This week it was ANIMOTO. This is a great tool that lets you upload your pictures, add music and then creates a video for you. Here is an ANIMOTO about CHINESE NEW YEAR.

EVEN COURTNEY HAS A WILD SELF!

Look 2M,
Even though Courtney is no longer at our school, she is still keeping up with what we are doing.
She emailed us her 'wild self'

and she even has her new classmates involved!

This one is of her friend Annabelle.
Isn't it great, that even though some people are in other places, they can still be part of all that's happening in our room!

A PEEK AT OUR WILD SELVES

This morning we went to the library with Mrs P's class to work on the laptops.
We are showing the children in Mrs P's class how to blog.

In the hour that we were there, all of us created our 'wild self'.
We had lots of fun deciding what features to add to our 'bodies'.
Here's a peek at some of us.

Even Mrs P has a wild side!

Check back soon to see a slideshow of ALL of us in our WILD disguise.
While you're waiting, go to BUILD YOUR WILD SELF and create your own.
We'd love to see the 'wild' you, so email it to us at 2mgems@gmail.com

MEET OUR BLOGGING BUDDIES

Last year, when some of us were in 1M, we became blogging buddies with Mrs Cassidy's Year 1 class in Moose Jaw. We'd leave comments on their class blog and on some of the children's pages too.

Those of us who are new to Mrs M's class don't know where Moose Jaw is and we imagine that those of you who are new to our blog are also asking "Where's that?" So here is a map Mrs M made last year.

You can see where we are on the map.
Click and drag with your mouse to find out where Moose Jaw is.


Did you guess CANADA?
Well, you are correct!
Mrs M told us that Mrs Cassidy and her class have been eagerly waiting for us to return to school so that we can start blogging and learning more about each other. They have still been at school while we have been on holidays.

Today when we looked at their blog, we learnt something about them.
Not all of Mrs Cassidy's class was at school today because it was MINUS 49 DEGREES!!!
We can't imagine how COLD that is!
Read all about it here.

We discovered that our temperature was 29 degrees ABOVE zero and the temperature in Moose Jaw was 49 degrees BELOW zero.
CAN YOU WORK OUT THE DIFFERENCE IN TEMPERATURE?