GREEN WEEK AT RITA CANNAN!

Good morning. It’s Green Week when we think more about how we can take care of our planet and clean up our trash and recycling stuff.

Today we are going to talk about folding milk cartons. Folded milk cartons take up less space in our recycling bins and in the recycling trucks. This helps our planet because the recycling trucks will use less gas if they take less trips back and forth to their headquarters. The air will not be polluted with gas fumes.

Here’s how to fold a milk carton:

First you will have to finish or pour out your milk so the carton is empty.

The next thing you will have to do is squish the left and right sides and squeeze them in to make the milk carton flat. Then you will have to fold up the bottom. That’s how you fold a milk carton.

Your teacher will also show you a video of how to fold a milk carton after this announcement. Just click on the video below to see us model folding the milk cartons.

Here is how much space 10 unfolded milk cartons take up.

Look how little space 10 folded cartons take up. 

Imagine how much gas and pollution we will save by ALWAYS folding our milk cartons before we recycle them.

We can make a difference starting right now during Rita Cannan's GREEN WEEK

St. Patrick's Day Limmericks

Here is The Amazing 5th Grade Group reciting their Limmericks. Listen for the rhythm and rhyme!

Please leave a comment about our amazing Limmericks.

Martha and George Washington Visit!

Look who showed up in our classroom today!

George and Martha Washington were really interesting when they visited our classroom. In fact we learned some really interesting facts that we didn't know before. 

For example we learned that George Washington adopted Martha's children as his own. She had four children, but two died. One got smallpox and the other died in the war. Martha had smallpox too but doctors cut the pox out with a knife! She said there was a lot of blood. She also said smallpox is like chickenpox but worse. 

Also we learned George's soldiers were really poor. They didn't wear uniforms just a while shirt with long sleeves. They were starving so they even ate their own shoe leather!

George Washington asked a woman to make the first purple heart medal. Finally he didn't wear a wig he just put white powder in his hair!

by Anahi, Caston, Daniel, Joshua, Kacie, and Marcos

What are you thinking so far?

We have been studying the causes, events, and important people in the American Revolution. Here is a place where you can state your opinion on the Essential Question: Was the American Revolution Justified?
Just click on the post to write what you think, but remember to use evidence to back up your claim. Also remember to add your first name so we know who thinks what! (notice my font color is red...)

Created with Padlet

New Job!

So while I was a 6th grade teacher when I started this class blog, now I have the chance to work with the students in both 5th and 3rd grade. I am so lucky to work with amazing teachers and about 100 students every day!

So this blog will now be changing to display work from my very special groups of students...We'll be posting published work on the 2015 writing page and some group posts on our main blog page. Check back soon.

Welcome to the new Blogging Along!

Welcome to 6th Grade!

This is your first computer assignment! I look forward to seeing how you get on. We are looking for motivated self-starters, who help one another when they find out how to do new and exciting things with technology...Good Luck!

Learn How to Program Computers!

I am so excited to announce that this coming year my students will be learning how to program computers! We will be working with the creators of nclab.com to program Karel the Robot so he will do whatever we want...as in pick up gems, not do your homework!

We will also learn to design 3D objects on our computers. Wow!

This is an amazing opportunity, as we will be working with UNR professors, and they will not only help us out, but they will use the UNR 3D printer to actually build the 3D objects we design. 

Click on the nclab logo on our Gadget bar to see the website we'll be using. I already have everyone's login, now we just need to start school...

See you all on August 12th.

CRT Week!

This week our class has been working SO hard on CRTs. For those of you who don't know, that stands for Criterion Referenced Tests. Students take the tests in math, reading, and also science in 5th grade. The maximum score is 500, and 300 is meeting grade level.

This is always a tiring, stressful time, but our class has done an EXCEPTIONAL job of doing their best work. I have seen highlighting, rereading for evidence or clarification, checking answers multiple times, and a ton of good, clear writing! 

Everyone should be very proud of their hard work...just one more day, and on to our field trip to visit local bridges.

Check out our class wiki at mrsharveychampions.wikispaces.com for information on bridges that you can read, try out, and watch!

Cinco de Mayo in Reno!

IF you are wondering what to do this weekend, to relax before the CRTs start on Monday, why not check out this event?

Of course, you have to get to bed EARLY so you are fresh for the math test, but you have all day free...so:

Sturday,  4 & Sunday, May 5, 2013

11:00 am – 7:00 pm

Grand Sierra Resort (Northwest parking lot) - 2500 E. 2nd St., Reno, NV 89595

$5 Admission (ages 12-65) • Under 12 and over 65 FREE

Two full days of live entertainment for all ages.
Live Latin music both days with local bands and finale headliners...

Saturday Entertainment:Los Dareyes de la Sierra

Sunday Entertainment:
El Flaco Elizalde y Su Banda

Student Edublogs Challenge - WARNING!

I know we are on break, but if you do not have a recent post on your Kidblog by Saturday, March 30th, you will be removed from the Edublogs Challenge! 

Because you are working alone, we are a little behind in the challenges, but here is a recent one that you could do yourselves. I look forward to seeing how creative you can be!

• Post about a passion (something you LOVE to do, make, play, share...)
• Post about 10 dream jobs
• Add tags and categories to all your previous posts - go to Edit Post then think what your post is about and add that word - like Bones, projects, artwork, social studies etc
• Add links to your blogroll - like a link to your Youtube Claymation project, or the Chorus video
• Post about a special event - what's going on in Reno, or around the world that interests you?
• Research a famous person - tell us about him or her. What makes or made them famous?
• Leave comments on other blogs using the special codes from Mrs Yollis’ blog - her blog is listed on the right sidebar of our Blogging Along homepage.

Challenge with number 10

I have just finished washing my clothes and found one sock that is now full of holes. I can’t use it as a sock, but list 10 other ways I could use the sock.

Finally, if you visit my Kidblog page, there is a list of very very cool sites to visit and try to use. You might need an e mail to sign up for some of them, but they are all free. Explore, then use them and share what you found! You can still log in to Voki, and remember Wimp me or Clay me? They were fun...

So much to try, and you have SO MUCH TIME!!!

Claymations Published!

Despite all the problems, most of the Frames Claymations survived and are now published on their own page. Look under our Blogging Along title to find the Claymations page tab.
I posted them there so that we could look at them at any time, rather than lose them in archive posts. I am sorry that Crystal and Jalecia's are not published, but I know Crystal will redo hers, and Jalecia's should be saved when they fix her laptop!

If you want to publish your Claymation in your own post on Kidblog, you can click on share and embed, then copy the code and paste it into your post when you have clicked on HTML instead of compose...otherwise just post the link, and people can visit YouTube.

Earth Hour 2013!

This Saturday, March 23rd, at 8:30pm, people all over the world will show their support of the Earth by turning off all their power!
Yes, that means lights, computers, gaming systems, cell phones, TVs ~ EVERYTHING!
Check out the video below, and then see what you can do during the hour...light some candles and play a game. Cards, Monopoly, sing a song or two, hide and seek...
I'm going to meet friends Downtown and run with glow sticks...sounds fun!

Student Edublogs Challenge One!

This week we are starting the Edublogs Student Challenge for 2013! Last fall we only joined as a class, using this blog, but since you have all been blogging for a while now, you can use your own Kidblog to take part internationally!

Do the first challenge, then try some of the others too! 

Here is the first week's challenge....

1. If you could meet 10 people, alive or dead, who would they be? Make a list of the people and include one question you would ask them in an interview. You cannot repeat the same question.

2. Create an avatar that represents you – check out this post for websites to try. Most blogging platforms allow you to upload your avatar, so use the Get Help section on the sidebar for your type of blog.

3. Are you going to have any guidelines or rules for leaving comments on your blog? Check out these from other students – now create your own and add to a new page on your blog.  Teegan (bit hard to read though) Abbey (older student)

4. Write a post about why students and classes should visit your blog.  Why is your blog going to be interesting? What will you be posting about? What could they learn from reading your blog? Make sure you hyperlink back to this challenge post  somewhere in your post. That way, I will get a trackback or pingback and I will be able to visit your blog to read your post, otherwise I won’t know if you have written anything about this challenge.

eg. This post is for Challenge 1 in the March 2013 challenge. Highlight ‘Challenge 1′  then use the Link icon  – chains joined – and copy and paste in the URL below

http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/2013/03/03/challenge-1-who-am-i/ ‎

This is one of the most important skills to know when blogging – how to make a link – if unsure check out this post for Edublogs or this post for blogspot.

5.  Part of good digital citizenship is not being a cyber bully. Have you ever been cyber-bullied? What did you do about it? Make a list of hints for students who are being cyber-bullied. Maybe make a poster about what to do and what not to do. Perhaps you could use glogster or as a class use wallwisher. Check out the list of web 2.0 tools you could use on the sidebar.

Claymation Myth Project

Things are moving along well with our claymation my project! Below you'll see some photos Adany took of our work in progress. I also loaded a 5th grade class' animation of The Hare and the Tortoise. You can see that they don't animate every moment of the script, which is fine. They also use very simple sets, and are narrating the story, which is what we will be doing.

The link to the website Kids' Vid is also below the video, and it gives some good hints for writing a script, storyboard, and turning your animation into a video.

5th Grade Class, St, Joseph School
Patti Rose, Art Teacher, music by Jeremy Foutz, Music Teacher

For more ideas and tips, check out http://kidsvid.4teachers.org/
Happy animating!

Chorus Concert

Chorus has been working hard on a beautiful song with two parts in the genre Latin Jazz. Listen to how wonderful they sound, and notice how professional they sound! Both the teachers and the 4th Graders loved the performance!

Ratio and Scale Art Project!

This month we are studying Ancient Greece AND ratios and scale in math...so obviously an art project is the thing to do!
Here is the image of the god Zeus (modeled by Mr. Folkers at age 19) Our ratio is 1:6, so we should have a LARGE piece of artwork to display on our wall!
Check below for the completed project...

Here it is!!!!

Excellent work on scale and ratios!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful concert from the strings and chorus this afternoon...despite some awfully windy conditions!
Also, look how adorable our 6th grade reindeer look. It's amazing what you can do with a little newspaper and paint.
I'm sure your parents loved them!

Bones Project

While many of us are starting to think about Christmas presents and celebrating with families, there are others in the world who are suffering and struggling to simply stay alive.

Our project to build bones for the Students Rebuild organization is complete - today we will photograph our bone collection so we are ready to mail them to Washington D.C. for the fundraising exhibit.

Click the link below to see more on the countries our bones will help.
http://studentsrebuild.org/learn-more-about-cause

Ancient Egyptian Museum Presentations

This was quite a day of presentations! Our class took turns either presenting the information they had learned, or walking around learning and questioning the exhibitors.
It was inspiring to see the intricate models, amazing posters, and Power Point Presentations people made. I appreciated the time many people had spent working on this assignment at home.
Check Elizabeth and Jason's song, some of our photos, and an Animoto of the presentations below. 
For more photos, visit our class Flickr page by clicking the word "Flickr."