Sunday, September 22, 2013

Mystery Skypes This Week


This week we had TWO Mystery Skypes!

Mrs. Merced’s 2nd Grade Class

On Wednesday morning we Skyped with Ms. Merced’s 2nd grade class. During our Skyping session each student had the opportunity to ask or answer a question. When a question was asked our class answered the question and then Ms. Merced’s class answered the same question. We were very lucky to have Ms. Betsy as our recorder. Ms. Betsy recorded all of Ms. Merced’s students’ answers.

After our initial Skyping session we used the answers from Mrs. Merced’s questions to formulate a question to enter into the google search engine.  We worked on formulating questions which would help us locate Mrs. Merced’s state.

For example, one of the questions asked during our Mystery Skype was: What famous person was born in your state?  Mrs. Merced’s class answered: Abe Lincoln.  Using the answer from Mrs. Merced’s class we formulated a search question: What state was Abe Lincoln born in?

Students were divided into partnerships and began to type in their question into google to help them determine where Ms. Merced’s class was located.

Some answers to our specific questions were:

What is your state bird? (Red Cardinal)

What food festivals happen in your state? (The Taste, Burger Fest, BBQ Fest, Ribs Fest)

What is your state animal? (White tailed deer)

What college(s) are (is) in your state? (DePaul)

What famous people are from your state? (Michael Jordan and Barack Obama)

What is your state famous for? (Abe Lincoln, Deep Dish Pizza, Lake Michigan and Michael Jordon)  

What is your hometown sports team? (Blackhawks, The Fire, White Sox, Cubs, Bears and Bulls)

Once partnerships brainstormed possible state locations for Ms. Merced’s class we compiled a list of our guesses. The last step in our Mystery Skype process is to develop “We think” statements. 

We think you are in Illinois because Abe Lincoln was born in Illinois.

We think you are in Illinois because Illinois is near Lake Michigan.

We think you are in Illinois because Illinois’ state bird is the red cardinal.

We think you are in Illinois because Illinois is famous for deep dish pizza.

We think you are in Chicago because Chicago is named the Windy City.  We learned that Chicago is name the Windy City because it is near Lake Michigan.

On Monday we are going to Skype with Mrs. Merced’s class and find out if our guess is correct. We want to thank Ms. Merced and her class for taking time to Skype with us! They had amazing questions and worked incredibly well as a class. We are so excited to be blogging buddies with Ms. Merced’s class!

Ms. Avery’s 3rd Grade Class

On Thursday afternoon we Mystery Skyped with Ms. Avery’s 3rd Grade class.  This Mystery Skype was run differently than any of our Mystery Skypes before!  Half of our class gave clues and the other half of the class used iPads to do research during the Mystery Skype. The research group had to listen very carefully to the clues Ms. Avery’s class was giving our class, they then had to use the information to guide their research.  During our Mystery Skype with Ms. Avery’s class we found both the state they were located in and the city!

The clues that helped us locate which state Ms. Avery’s class was in were:

We are part of the Western United States and the Mountain West States.

 
The Grand Canyon is in our state.

 
We are one of the four corner states.

 
One quarter of our state is made up of the Navajo Nation.

 
Our first guess was correct… We guessed Ms. Avery’s class was located in Arizona.

 
The clue which helped us figure out what city Ms. Avery’s class was located in was: Our city is the 6th largest city in United States.  We correctly guessed that Ms. Avery’s class was in Phoenix!

 
We had a great time Mystery Skyping this week!

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