Miss Wyatt’s challenge #7  proved to be very interesting for our kids.  As the class discussed vacations, they came to realize that a vacation really doesn’t have to be anything fancy.  A vacation is simply going somewhere with the family and spending quality time together.  I hope you enjoy the recaps of our students’ most memorable vacations.

My favorite vacation was a trip to Washington D.C. I flew with my mom, dad, grandmother, and my little brother.  We went to see where the president lives.  It had lots of presidents on the wall.

Adrian

One of my favorite vacations was a trip to Six Flags over Texas.  I went with my mom and dad.  We drove there and spent the night.  We rode lots of rides together.  We went to Hurricane Harbour too.

Alex

My best vacation was when I went to Wyoming.  I went in my mom’s car.  My mom, her boyfriend, and my sister went in the summer.  We saw the state flag.  We had a lot of fun.

Kristen

Do you have a favorite vacation or even a dream vacation?  We would love to hear about yours and be sure to link some attractions that you saw, or would love to see.

Yes, I am very proud. This is my grandson, Tyler. This is the first time he has ever sung in public, and I know it takes a lot of courage to get up in front of a large group and perform. He has many talents, and you can read about some of those on his blog, Tyler’s Talking. He is also a member of Mrs. Carrington’s Bright Spots, Gifted and Talented group. You make me smile with pride!

One of our students entered the Talent Show this past Friday, and we just wanted to say how proud we are of you, Brittany.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The end of October is a special time for children and that holds true here at White Oak Elementary. We celebrated Red Ribbon Week all five days with special activities like crazy sock, sunglasses, red chains, hats, team jersey, and today was camouflage day. The intermediate students even put on a talent show that lasted well over two hours. We have so much talent among our students. Here are just a few shots of the events that transpired on our campus today. We are wishing everyone a Happy Halloween weekend. How will YOU spend Halloween?

As a part of the Blog Challenge09 #8, we were asked to complete a task called “Count Out Three”.  We were to visit one of the participant’s blogs and leave a comment. Then we were to visit one of the blogs listed in their blogroll and leave a comment. The third blog visit was to come from the second’s blogroll. This quest was really rewarding.

We first visited Mrs. Yollis’ Classroom Blog a third grade class from California. There we read paragraphs written by the students about their Halloween costumes. The students are very good writers. In fact they have a badge widget that says that they won the 2009 Digital Voice Award. We also visited Mrs. Yollis’ website, which is awesome!

From her blogroll we linked to Mr. Salsich’s Class, Connecticutt. We were especially intrigued by a blog post there about a Nature Scape field trip. We are in the process of building a Nature Center on a piece of land adjacent to our intermediate school. We are excited about its completion.  One of our classes just released passion butterflies into the Nature Center. The page links were very helpful and contained a lot of good information.

Our Count Three took us to a New Zealand blog called Pt England Scribes.  The recordings of the students stories were well read and has given us some good ideas about story retelling.

This blog challenge took us out of our boundaries and into the world of student bloggers.

The students at White Oak Intermediate are becoming aware of our digital footprint and how important it is for us to watch what we post online for the world to view.  We have discussions prior to ever accessing the internet about internet safety and the problems that can result because of its misuse. While our classroom teachers stress these guidelines, it is our computer lab teacher that really brings meaning to the concept.

We have the best computer teacher in the world. She begins the first of every year talking to us about digital citizenship and commenting guidelines. Her name is Nina Peery, and you can find all kinds of helpful information on her technology blog, Keystrokes.  After two weeks of internet safety, we review our what we have learned by playing Internet Safety Games that Mrs. Peery designed.

This week’s challenge asked that we add a couple of different kinds of widgets:

1. A translator
2. A Widget that tells something about our region

Also, we were asked to visit blogs from five different countries and tell what we learned from these blogs.  Below are listed the blogs that we visited and on which we left comments:

• http://mistea.edublogs.org/ – This is Miss Trask’s blog from New Zealand.  I was so surprised to see that right there in one of her posts there was a pingback to my own grandson’s blog, Tyler’s Talking.  I immediately gave him a call on the phone and told him I was sending him the link via email.  He once told me that he just didn’t have anything interesting to say and wondered if anyone would ever read his posts. I guess this proves it to him. Thank you, Miss Trask.
• http://mrtoft.edublogs.org/ – We visited Canada’s own Mr. Toft’s blog where he has his students listed as additional Category links. Under the blogroll, each student is listed by his/her own ID number and first name.  This is an excellent use of categories, and I fully intend to use it with our Gifted and Talented students’ class blog. Great idea!
• http://p7kw.edublogs.org/ – Mrs. Knott and Mrs. Webster from Scotland have more than one thing in common with us. First of all, we both have chosen the same blog theme, but both look different in their own unique ways. It shows how versatile blogging designs can be to create a personal identity for your class. We also have added the adopt-a-pet widget and even went so far as to adopt THE SAME PET. I see that they teach 33 students and they are listed as Primary 7. I am interested in the significance of that listing. Are there 7 classes of Primary students?
• http://markaki-fce.blogspot.com/ – This post was written by fan10, but this is the Maria Markaki School in Greece. It is a school of foreign language and students attend daily to practice their English skills. I am fascinated that the language we speak right here in Texas is the basis for an entire school. So interesting.
• http://rebedominguez.blogspot.com/ – Mrs. Dominguez’s blog (Chile) is written in Spanish.  There is not a translator on her blog, but it is full of interesting videos and I particularly liked the one where the group made the sound of rain.  I left a comment anyway, hoping that she will be able to translate it. We have a translator on our blog and invited her students to visit and read our posts.

Do YOU know why October 23-27th is special?

This week we celebrate one of the oldest and largest organized drug-free campaigns in the United States. Millions of young people will choose to wear red ribbons to symbolize their pledge to live drug-free lives, but do you know why or how the last week in October came to be Red Ribbon week?

Red Ribbon week first began to honor DEA Kiki Camarena who 25 years ago sacrificed his life fighting drugs. Shortly after his death, his long-time friend organized “Camarena Clubs” whose members pledged to live their lives drug-free. His friend was determined that Kiki’s life and ultimately his death would make a difference in the fight against drugs in America. Then in 1988, the National Family Partnership coordinated the very first National Red Ribbon Week with President and Mrs. Reagan serving as honorary chairpersons.

Today school’s promote Red Ribbon Week in various ways. We too will celebrate this event at White Oak Intermediate with special activities to remind our students the importance of living a drug-free life.

• MONDAY: WEAR CRAZY SOCKS AND/OR SUNGLASSES
• TUESDAY: WEAR RED
• WEDNESDAY: WEAR A CAP OR HAT
• THURSDAY: WEAR A WHITE OAK, COLLEGE, OR FAVORITE TEAM SHIRT
• FRIDAY: WEAR CAMOUFLAGE