Sunday, September 23, 2012

Skyping With Our California Buddies

We enjoyed a 'Share and Compare' skype session with 
Mrs Yollis and her Grade 2/3 students.

Here is the distance between us 'as the crow flies'.
Do you know what that means?


Each class prepared information on a Google Doc about the communities

 and the schools.
Whose school is bigger?

In New Zealand it was 9am on Friday September 21, and one of our students was celebrating his 7th birthday.
In California it was 2pm on Thursday 20 September where his birthday would be the next day!
Why?
Birthday boy!

We wrote our information on little boards to make for easy sharing.




We met mascots Panda and Beverly from Mrs Yollis' class,

Beverley the Bear liked the look of our couch! Zzzzz.

and introduced our mascot, the cheeky and clever 
Quicksilver the Kea, and his friends: kind and helpful Mr Beesley, and fun, cuddly Squirmy-Wormy.


Our mascots Quicksilver

and Mr Beesley

These boys proudly showed their 'manu taratahi', a traditional Maori kite that they made during our Social Studies topic.

These boys made this manu taratahi during topic. 
Thank you Mrs Yollis and Grade 2/3.
We hope to talk to you again soon.

Do you have any questions for us or for our Californian friends?
Have you ever Skyped someone from home or from school?



8 comments:

  1. Hello B4,

    After visiting Mrs. Yollis and her class blog and reading of your Skype adventure, I had to drop in on your blog as well.

    I have also been able to Skype with Mrs. Yollis and her previous class. It was a great deal of fun so I can understand how much you all must have enjoyed your Skype visit.

    Both of your classes have great mascots but I do like Quicksilver. While in New Zealand a number of times, I always enjoyed encounters with keas. They are very clever parrots but, as you have said, can be a little cheeky. :)

    I have been in Reefton a couple times over the years as I sometimes chose to reach the west coast from Christchurch by heading via Hamner Springs. You live in a beautiful part of New Zealand, not that this is hard to do with so many beautiful places.

    Keep blogging. I know your 4KM and 4KJ buddies are on vacation at the moment as are children in my state.

    @RossMannell
    Teacher (retired), NSW, Australia

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Mr Mannell

      I have been to Hanmer Springs. Have you been down the hydroslide?
      Have you been down the toilet one?
      On the way to Hanmer, I saw Keas, lots of Keas!


      from Nikita

      Delete
    2. Dear Nikita,

      It has been quite a long time since I was last at Hanmer Springs (I see I misspelt its name in my comment). When I was there, there wasn't a hydroslide or toilet slide but they sound like fun.

      We do have a small fun park in my town with two water slides. One goes through a tunnel. Both aren't heated so they aren't popular in winter.

      @RossMannell

      Delete



  2. Dear Mrs. McKenzie and class,

    My name is Collin from Mrs. Yollis' class. I had a great time skyping with you. I love your class mascots and how you weaved a kite! But I was confused when I heard that your school has ages 5 to 16 and only 200 people. About how many in each class? Are you in a split class like us? How long did it take to weave your awesome kite? About how big is your school?

    Sincerly,
    C♣llin

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Collin

      My name is Mason and Nathan and Aleigha.
      We really liked skyping with you.
      Nathan's favourite bit was when we held the kite up.
      Aleigha’s favourite bit was when the people held up the kite too.
      and Mason’s best bit was when the people held up the kite as well.
      We made it out of flax, bamboo and paua shells.
      We shared it at assembly.

      Sincerely
      Mason and Nathan and Aleigha.

      Delete
  3. Dear b4
    I really like to skype with other friend’s. I think its fun. I think it is nice to get on with friends to see how they’re going with school.

    from Elizabeth

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear B4,

    It was so much fun to connect with you via Skype. I can hardly believe that you were so far away in the southern hemisphere! 6,866 is a lot of miles away!

    When it was 9:00 on September 21 in our classroom, we stopped to think. We talked about how that time had passed for you, but had just arrived for us. Well, I guess I wouldn't say "just" arrived. We slept all night before it arrived! :-)

    Have you taken the kites out to fly? I wonder how they've done?

    Your friends,
    Mrs. Yollis and class

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello Mrs McKenzie and B4,

    What a great skype session you had with Mrs Yollis's class. I really liked how you made comparisons between your two places.

    My class are learning about skype and we had a first skype session with a friend of mine from New Zealand.

    I was wondering if you would be willing to skype my class/grade level at some stage. My whole grade level (6 classes) are learning about New Zealand this year.

    My email is Ula.Lologa@ucps.k12.nc.us

    Hope to hear from you soon.

    Ka Kite
    Miss Lologa and the Kapai Kiwis

    ReplyDelete