Blog Is Up and Running! :)

I am so excited that all papers have been returned and that I can start posting pictures and information from the classroom on the blog.

I will also start to post Facebook messages and pictures to help your family and friends stay connected with your child's learning. 

Be sure to check your child's Take Home folder tomorrow for information about how to "friend" Mrs. Trent's Teaching Tales.

Starfall...Fall In Love With Reading!

 I use this website throughout the day and during intervention time. Please visit Starfall to see all of the amazing ways your child can interact with reading.

 

 

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Counting

Valentine Heart Writing

Heart Writing Black and White

 

Valentine Voki

 

 

Valentine Starfall

Color Heart Sudoku

What's Different

Blog Posting Paper Sent Home...PLEASE send back!

Please check your child's Wednesday/Thursday folder for a blog posting permission slip. I love to add pictures for you and your extended family to see.  Pictures will include our daily learning, birthday messages, and other special activities we have going on.  Please note that if your slip is NOT returned your child's face will be shown on the blog.

Thanks so much for your help!

Earth Day! What We Can Do To Save the Earth.

Today we learned about ways that we can save the Earth.  We used our SMART board to watch Moby the robot practice ways to keep our Earth clean and beautiful.  Next, we used starfall.com to read a book about cleaning up the environment.  During the book the students had a chance to touch items and move them into the different piles for recycling.  Finally, we created our own Earth and each student wrote ways that they can help save the Earth.  We had a great day!  HAPPY EARTH DAY EVERYONE!


What can you do to help save the Earth? Leave us a comment...we would love to read it.

Want to watch our learning videos at home?  Click on the links below. Happy Learning!

Brain Pop Jr.- Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

Starfall- Every Day Is Earth Day!

PBS Kids- Earth Day 2010

Our First Skype Guest Reader!

This week the AM and PM students were surprised by Mrs. Morris from the Village School in California. The students LOVED the book about the life cycle of a butterfly and seeing Mrs. Morris.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, Mrs. Morris for taking part in our Guest Reader program.

We can't wait to share our poems with you and learn new information from your tadpole frog study. 

Subscribe Now!

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. This way you will never miss a moment of our learning!!

We Have Reached 21000 visitors!

WOW!! Thank you so much for visiting my classroom blog. I NEVER thought it would be this successful. We will continue to learn and post our thinking from Room 206 frequently. Thanks again for making this 21st century technology tool such a success. :)

Our Last Olympic Skying Day :(

Today we said goodbye to our friends in Canada and Mr. Stahl's kindergarten class.  We had the best time researching the Olympics and learning with them. We are looking for more projects that we can do together in the future.  If you have any ideas please let me know.  Thanks again for a great learning experience. My students LOVED IT! I will upload all the pictures and videos in a post before I delete the Olympic Project Page.

Our Olympic Learning Page

Get Ready. Get Set. Go Olympics!

We investiged the 2010 Winter Olympic games in Vancouver, Canada.  We Skyped with many classrooms to collect information about the medals, athletes and events.  Here is the Olympic Project Page.

Meet our Fellow Researchers from the United States!

Mr. Stahl's Kindergarten Class at WT Elementary (West Clermont Local Schools)

AM Class

PM Class

 

 Mrs. Morris' Class at Village School     in Pacific Palisades, CA 

Meet our Researchers from Canada!

Ms. Ewert-Molesky Grades 1/2 at Haultain Community School in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

Take a trip to CA and Canada!

Download Google Earth and see the distance from your house to our pals' schools.

WT Elementary:
733 Ohio Pike Cincinnati, OH 45245

Village School:
780 Swarthmore Avenue Pacific Palisades, CA 90272

Haultain Community School:
1033 Edgar St. Regina, Saskatchewan S4N 3J5

 Want to keep up with the Olympics at home?

Visit NBC Sports.  We LOVE this website and use it daily for our classroom reseach.

Keep track of the USA Medal Count with us. 

Our First Day of Skyping!


Medal Results 2.19

Medal Results 2.22!

Medal Results 2.23

Medal Results 2.24

Amelia Students Call Californians Classmates

Amelia students call Californians classmates

By Cindy Kranz • ckranz@enquirer.com • February 26, 2010

AMELIA - When Lori Van Eman’s kindergartners first learned that Olympic snowboarder and gold medalist Shaun White is nicknamed “The Flying Tomato,” they giggled and laughed.
The Amelia Elementary kindergartners are still giggling about the reference to White’s red hair.

It’s the favorite fun fact they’ve learned about the 2010 Olympic Winter Games – and they learned it while Skyping with other kindergartners in White’s home state of California.

Since the Vancouver Olympics began nearly three weeks ago, the Amelia kindergartners have been Skyping – seeing and hearing each other over the Internet – with The Village School in Pacific Palisades, Calif., and Haultain Community School in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.

They also Skype daily with Joe Stahl’s kindergarten class at Withamsville-Tobasco Elementary and have Skyped several times with Mary Lou Van Eman’s third-grade class at Mercer Elementary in Anderson Township. She’s Van Eman’s mother.

“We want to see the learning at home connect to the learning at school,” Van Eman said. “It’s letting them know they can go home and Skype anybody you want. It’s forming that friendship and that eagerness to learn what others are doing, what others are seeing.”

The kindergartners have been Skyping once a week with the California and Canadian schools since the Olympics began two weeks ago. Sessions last around 8 minutes, which is about their maximum attention span, Van Eman said. During that time, they exchange information about athletes and events, plus track medals won by the United States.

On Thursday, Van Eman’s students Skyped with their California friends. The first time Van Eman’s students Skyped with the California school, they couldn’t understand why they were wearing shorts.
“The kids could not get over that the climate was different there,” she said.

To give their new friends a taste of snow, Van Eman’s class made a video outside and threw snowballs at the camera.

The students also keep Olympic journals and graphs of the number of gold, silver and bronze medals won by the United States, which allows Van Eman to test their language and math skills.
Van Eman writes a classroom blog, which is now populated with photos and information about the students’ Olympics lessons.

After the Olympics, she and her students have an appointment to Skype with Kelli Stack of Brooklyn Heights, Ohio, a member of the silver medal-winning women’s ice hockey team.
Although the Olympics end Sunday, Van Eman’s class will continue Skyping with their new California friends. Plans are to become reading buddies with the children.

A year ago, Van Eman didn’t have any of the resources that she does now.

“I can honestly say that it has changed my students’ learning 100 percent,” Van Eman said. “There is little need for redirection when we are working with the SMART board technology or Skyping because the students know that if anything is going to happen it is going to be happening on our board.”

“Their eyes are always glued to see what is coming next.”

We are going to be in the newspaper!!

Today the PM class had the privilege to show off how much fun we have in our classroom. We had a visitor from the Cincinnati Enquirer come in and watch us Skype with our friends in California. They were so excited to find out that they are going to be in the paper. I think a quote from one of my students captures their excitement the best.... " I can't believe that I am going to be famous. I'm only in Kindergarten!" My PM friends, thank you all so much for showing Ms. Cindy just how respectful, responsible and safe Amelia Tigers are.

Parents, I will post the publish date on the blog if it is before we come back to school on Monday.

Our New Skyping Friends...Mercer Elementary 3rd Grade Students

For the last 2 days we have been Skyping with Mercer Elementary 3rd grade students about the Olympics. Yesterday, we gave them their "homework" which was to report back to us with interesting facts about the Olympics. Mrs. Van Eman's class were wonderful reporters and we learned many facts about the 2010 Winter games. Thank you so much for Skyping with us!

Gunnar and My Skyping Session!

Today Gunnar and I had a great session. I got to see his cat, new baby brother (Chad Jr.) and his new gemstone. We talked about what he liked about the day and he said "all the work." It is music to my ears when I hear how much my students love to work. I am so proud of all of you for working so hard everyday!


If your child would like to Skype with me please see my later posts... "Trevor and My Skyping Session" and "Want to Skype with Me?" for more information.

Trevor and my Skyping Session!

This afternoon Trevor and his family Skyped with me! I loved talking with (his sister) McKenna, (his brother) Caleb, and (his mother) Heather. We talked about what Trevor did after he went home and decided that his spinach wrap was better than my bowl of soup today! Thanks so much for Skyping with me and enjoying this new technology in our room. If you would like to Skype with me with I am availble to Skype with a camera from 8:00-8:15 a.m. and 3:15-3:35 p.m.

By the way, the AM class will enjoy a little morning hello and words of encouragement one day this week from Trevor's mom!

Thank you

Wow, I love the increased amount of followers! Today we looked at all who were following our classroom blog. The students LOVED to see all the people who are following the learning going on in our classroom. Thanks so much!

Listen Now!

Now your child can enjoy our classroom blog all by themself. At the top of each page is the "Listen Now" icon. Please click on the icon to have the post or page read aloud to you. This feature will encourage students to search all the powerful features of our classroom blog with confidence. Please show your child the newest feature and watch them explore freely!

Hello From Snowy Ohio!

"Hello from snowy Ohio!"

On Friday, we recorded a welcome message for our new friends at the Village School in California and Haultain Community School in Canada.

Want to Skype With Me?

Dear AM and PM Kindergarteners,

I know how much you love Skyping at school and would like to invite you to Skype with me before and after school. I look forward to Skyping with you!

Love,

Miss Van Eman
Username-lori.vaneman (Cincinnati,Ohio)


Parents:
Skyping is very easy and free! All you have to do is go to http://www.skype.com/intl/en/download/skype/windows/?c=101 and download the program. The website will guide you through the process and in less than 5 minutes the program will be installed and ready to go. Some computers will have different features already installed such as a video camera and microphone. I did not have the features but a camera can be purchased with a microphone already installed at any electronic store. Please let me know if you have any questions. Hopefully we will be Skyping soon! :)

Welcome Kindergarten Families!!

Wow, I had fun working on our classroom blog. Every day I find new items to add or create. I am so excited for your family to use the blog and see how great it is to be in Kindergarten.

Helpful Hints for the Blog:

On the side you will see the different pages in our blog. Your child's class (AM or PM), Links, Weekly Goals, Our Olympic Project, and the Amelia Elementary School Blog. Pages will be added and deleted based on our changing themes and projects.

I will post important dates, activities, and updates on the main page frequently, so make sure you keep coming back. :)


This is my first blog so please feel free to offer suggestions, advice and comments that will help our classroom blog be the best it can be.

Happy Searching!