Today's Blogging Assignment

Today you will be going to http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/ and working your way through "The First Thanksgiving." Use headphones to listen to all of the different things that happened on the Mayflower, how they lived their daily life, and the first feast itself. When you finished watching and listening to everything, write a response to what you saw and learned. It should be 2 paragraphs (4-5 sentences each) and proper grammar and punctuation is expected.

NaNoWriMo

November is National Novel Writing Month. For today's post you need to head over to http://www.nanowrimo.org/ and check out information on what it is and how it works.

For today's post you need to write two paragraphs. The first paragraph is about what you learned about NaNoWriMo and why you would want to get involved. The second paragraph should talk about what you would write about if you were to write a novel. Each paragraph should be at least four sentences long. Spelling, punctuation and proper grammar is important!

Today's Blogging Assignment

Some of you have you have been asking about other blogs and websites that you could check out. What I would like you to do today is do exactly that - find other class blogs that you and your classmates could correspond with and reply to. Try seeing what you can find on your own just by doing generic searches, but I would recommend searching Google with '#comments4kids' and see what you come up with.

After you find another website or two that you think would be worth sharing, create a post talking about why this class or website would be interesting to check out. Please include a link to the website by creating a hyperlink to the site that we can click on. How do you create a hyperlink? Click on the 'link' button when you are creating your post and follow the directions. Using hyperlinks makes your posts look more clean and user friendly!


When you finish head over to the class website to play our educational games (and now you have an idea what we will be working on next week...)

Have fun!

What Is A Blog?

What is a blog? Find out HERE.
Your tasks:

• Watch the youtube video linked above.
• Find some examples of blogs online that talk about things that interest you.
• Write a blog post about what you would want to share with a blog.

Today's Blogging Assignment

Believe it or not, this year we've barely scratched the surface of technological options for the classroom. We've learned and used things like Blogger; Google Mail, Sites and Documents; various games and sites like Spelling City and Primary Games; as well as many other different sites on different days. I've given and taught you how to do many of these options. Now it's your turn. Working with your partner(s), you take your chosen topic and will need to answer all of the following questions:

• What is it? Many of you will be given a topic as well as an example or two of what kind of website would fall under this category. Describe what the topic is and how it works. For instance, if you were talking about Spelling City, you would describe how it can be used to practice and test spelling words, as well as talk about how it works and what its overall purpose is.
• How can it be used in your daily lives? Why should someone your age use this tool? Give examples of ways you can use these sites, and, if you find some, link to some examples in your post using the "Link" option at the top of your editor, rather than putting the entire web address in your post. For example, if I wanted to link to our class homepage, I would give you a link like this instead of typing out the entire address like this: http://sites.google.com/site/stjohns8thgrade/home.
• How can this topic or website be used in the classroom? Some of the topics are things that we have already used, but many of them are not. You need to consider and/or find examples of ways these tools have been used for schools and classrooms. Sometimes a simple search of "_____ for education" or "_____ for teachers" will give you some ideas. Again, post links using the "Link" option at the top of your editor. 

For all of these points,  you and your partner(s) should come up with at least one solid (5 or more sentence) paragraph, if not more. Make sure that you have answered all the questions, followed all the directions and shown that you have spent time researching and looking at various options. Make the title of your post the topic you were given (ex: "Social Networking"). Also, make sure that you sign the post with the names of all the people in your group since you can only post as one person at a time.

Today's Blogging Assignment

Welcome to the last words I'll ever ask you to write about your research paper! This is a multi-step assignment, so follow closely.

First, Write a blog post on what you have learned from your paper. The title should be the name of your particular monument or park. It should be 2 paragraphs of 5 sentences each. The first paragraph should include facts that you learned that you thought were interesting. The second should include reasons why you think someone should visit your particular park or monument.

Second, read through some of your classmates posts on their topics. Choose two that you will comment on and write a response. Try to choose posts that have not been commented on yet to make your comments on. You may choose a third post to comment on for extra credit. These comments must also be 5 full sentences.

This is a 40 point assignment. Each sentence you write will be worth 2 points - 1 point for writing a complete sentence and 1 for making that sentence error-free. Proofreading is a must; and capitalization, punctuation and grammar are all important! This will be due Thursday at the beginning of the day.

Today's Blogging Assignment

Many of you have become fascinated by playing 'how-to' games - ones in which you are learning how to make or fix various things. I've found two new games for you. One is called Driver's Education and the other is The StreetWise 2.0. These two games (if you couldn't already guess) are two examples of learning how to drive. The first will most likely work better on our school computers, but feel free to try both. When you finish, type up a blog post on the following thoughts:

We live in a digital world, from the cell phones we carry to the computers we use on a daily basis. Technology is being used constantly to help us learn and do things we never thought possible. The future feels limitless, but is it? Do you feel that doing online simulations makes you qualified to drive a car, perform surgery or design a cell phone? Are these digital tools being created to be high tech games or are the designers hoping that you use these as a way to learn and prepare for real world opportunities or a new avenue for exploring your possible career options? What other kinds of simulations would you like to try? What do you think? Type a response, give it a proper title, and make sure it is long enough to answer all of the questions listed (at least 4-5 sentences)

Today's Blogging Assignment

For today's assignment please do a little research on 3 different options you would like to possibly do for your research papers. At least one of your choices cannot come off of the list that you received in class yesterday. Create a post with 3 paragraphs in the order of your preference for topics. Each paragraph needs to be at least 5 sentences long stating why you think this would be a good topic and why you would like to choose this particular park or monument. You may also include some facts that you have already found about your chosen topics that piqued your interest.

Today's Blogging Assignment

Going along with what we did last week, today you're going to interview a stranger. That's right - you have no idea who will answer the questions you write. It could be one of your best friends, one of your classmates, or a complete stranger! Here's what you need to do:
Write out 5 questions that any person in the world could answer. These questions need to require more than a one word answer, so no 'yes or no' questions, and no questions that ask, 'What is your favorite day of the week?' or anything else that could possibly be answered in one word or less. You could ask questions that end in, '...and why?' to work your way around this one. If you're stumped for questions try doing a little research for possible interview questions.
Please title your post "Interview with a Stranger."
When you finish, head over to Spelling City for some practice on this week's words (Chapter 18). When everyone is finished writing your questions I'll tell you all to go back to the blog and comment on two different posts. You need to read a post and reply with an answer to that person's 5 questions. Each post only should have two responses on it so if you see a post without any responses go to that one first.

The pilgrims

Life was very hard for the pilgrims and the Indians. They didn't get to go where they wanted to because they had to walk or not even bother going and they had a hard life of sitting on the ship for 65 days. The houses were not very big they were not even the size of a apartment building. try to imagine living in a house that is smaller than a apartment. They didn't really have any clothes either the Indians only really had cloths and the pilgrims had a lot of clothes to wear. The clothes wouldn't protect them from the cold of the winter. The pilgrims and the Indians had to be very good hunters and gathers to be able to survive the winters and all the rest of the seasons.