Welcome back fourth graders!  How did it feel to revisit your second grade blog?  What are you blogging about now?

These bloggers are now in third grade!  They are in different classes, with different teachers, and may be blogging at a different site.  When I learn more information, I'll let you know!

My current second graders are busy learning, too, and we hope to begin blogging later this school year.

Thank you for all of your visits, and we hope to see you soon!

Hi Third Graders!  As you get ready to start your new year, think about sharing fun things from your summer, or your getting-ready-for-school on your blog.  You can write a new article on your blog or leave a comment here.  I'd like to know what all of you have been up to!

How did you celebrate the Fourth of July?  Did you watch a fireworks show?  Click on this BrainPOP link to learn more about fireworks.  Then, write an article describing how you celebrated the holiday.

Ms. Custer's Class wrote about their favorite things from 2nd grade.  Visit their blogs to see what they've written.  Then start a new article of your own.  What were your favorite things about second grade.  Why?

Ms. Custer's 2nd Grade Blog

Our second grade class wrote paragraphs trying to persuade third grade teachers and other adults in our school that third graders SHOULD have a blog. We would love to hear what you think!

Have you ever used sand to make art?  Mrs. Cassidy had a fun website on her blog called this is sand, where you can create your own sand art on the computer.  Click on my sand art to go to the website.  Once you are there, click on the small gray box at the top left to read the directions.  Have fun creating!  (If you like the site, you can visit Mrs. Cassidy's class blog and let them know you like it, too!)

Since we're learning about the United States, I thought it might be fun to watch this video again! Watch the video, and then see how many states you can remember afterwards! If you want to learn more about a state, or continue doing your state research, you can visit this website. Have fun!

We just got a comment from Samantha in Mrs. Beagley's 4th and 5th Grade Class in South Africa!

Visit Samantha's blog and leave a comment for her!

We have been reading many traditional and fractured fairy tales.  Fairy tales usually begin with "Once upon a time," have magic, things in threes, good and bad characters, and a happy ending.  Our class is busy writing and publishing their own fairy tales.  Please keep visiting our blog - I'll be putting students' fairy tales on their blogs!

Check out the fairy tales written by:  Becca, Bridie, Cameron, Emily, George, Jackson, Kevin, Lucky and Molly

Hi Second Graders!  We have been so busy writing our fairy tales and putting them in our blank books, and I am so proud of all of your stories!  I was wondering if you would be interested in sharing your fairy tales with our fellow bloggers and visitors.  Since we have already typed our fairy tales, it would be easy to copy the writing and paste it into a blog article to put on our blogs. 

What do you think?  Would you like to see your fairy tale on your blog?

We love to read!  Think about different characters in the books you have read or heard.  If you could pick any character in any book to become friends with, who would it be and why?

I found this blog written by 4th and 5th graders in South Africa!  Since we had so much fun learning about South Africa when Max did his country project, I thought you might like to visit their blog and see what they are learning.  They have also been working on a senior citizen's project, and would love to receive comments from you!  Just remember to copy our blog URL (address) before checking out the site.  Have fun making a new connection!

Each week, we all work together to write our class newsletter. This week we made a class newsletter Voice Thread. We have gotten some great comments from families, so I thought I would take Jonah's suggestion and post it on our blog.

What did you think of making our class newsletter in this way? Did you like making the Voice Thread? Do you think it is a better way of sharing our week with our families instead of on paper or emails? Why? Do you think there is something we can do next week to make our Voice Thread newsletter even better?

Please leave a comment or write an article to let me know what you think!

Do you want to learn how to put a picture on your blog?  I'll show you soon!  But first you need to tell me what kinds of pictures you want to put on your blog.  I need to put them on our file server first.  Leave a comment and let me know what kinds of pictures you would like to see.  Would you like to see pictures of fairy tale creatures?  Real photographs of sports or landscapes?  Do you want me to choose some interesting images?  Let me know!

Everyone made great guesses for our mystery objects.  That tells me that you are paying attention and learning about the United States!  The three mystery symbols for the United States are the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, and the White House.

Today you learned what do do in the computer lab by watching a video that I made using Jing.  What did you think of this new tool?  Did the video help?  Did you like watching it?  What could I do to make it better?

If you think it's a tool we should use again, what are some other "how-to" videos that you think would be helpful?  Maybe the video could help parents and we could put it on our class website, or it could be a video to help you.

I can't wait to read your comments!

We are learning about the United States and have been talking about landmarks.  Can you figure out these three important mystery objects?

I was reading the blogs of some blogging challenge bloggers and found these fun games and activities.  Click on the links below to check them out, and let us know what you think!

The Adventures of Vermi the Worm              

Compost at Home              

Michael, Michael, Go Recycle!    

Environmental Kids Club              

Energy Hog Buster              

Go Green VoiceThread by Mary Claire in Mrs. Heaton's Class

We celebrate Earth Day on April 22nd.  Think about the things that we can do to help the earth.

Write an article on your blog that tells at least three things you can do to help our environment.  Remember, that can include plants, animals, land, water, and more!

What is your favorite color?  Is it yellow like the sun?  Blue like the ocean?  Green like the grass?

(photo from http://www.boldcolorlife.com)

Write a paragraph or poem to tell about your favorite color, and why it is your favorite color.  What are some things that you see that are your favorite color?

Today in economics we made paper donuts and learned about unit production and assembly-line production.  This is a picture of donuts from Flicker.  Use the picture and your schema to write an article about donuts.  Be sure to include many adjectives to tell how the donuts look, feel, and taste.  I can't wait to read your yummy articles!

I found this video on Moturoa's Web Log (4th and 5th Grades, New Zealand), and thought you might be interested in learning what happens to the materials you put in your recycling bin. You can click on the link or the picture to watch.  Feel free to leave a comment and share what you learned! 

What are the 3R’s? If you asked your grandparents they would say reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic. Three of the most basic skills needed to survive in the twentieth century.



But we are now in the 21st century, so what do the 3R’s represent now? Reduce, reuse and recycle.



How do you reduce, reuse and recycle at your home or school?



Are you and your family going to take part in Earth Hour on 28th March at 8.30pm? What would you normally be doing at this time of day? Check out the Earth Hour Kids website to find out what is going to be happening around the world.

We learned that Harmony Day is celebrated in Australia.  Harmony is when you work in total cooperation with others.  We added our thoughts about harmony to a Voice Thread that a class in Australia created.  To learn more about Harmony Day, and to see the Voice Thread, please visit their blog, LEEP.

The first day of spring was Friday, March 20th.  Kristi wrote a book for our class to help us celebrate the beginning of spring, and I thought it would be fun to share it on our blog.  Thank you Kristi!

I have added many new blogs to our list of links.  You can visit the blogs, read, and leave comments with our blog address.  It is so fun to see what other classes are working on, and this will help us meet the blogging challenge #3 too!

This week's blogging challenge is to attract visitors and see who is visiting our blog.

To see who is visiting our blog, take a look at our ClustrMap and list of daily visitors.  We have many visitors to our blog, but many people do not leave comments.

To attract visitors, visit other blogs and leave comments (with our blog URL), write an interesting article that others want to read and comment on, and write interesting titles for your articles to get the readers' attention.

This week, you need to visit at least 10 new blogs and leave comments.  Before you begin, remember to copy and paste our blog URL into your response.  Let me know if you need help.

Let's make some connections!

The Student Blogging Challenge 2009 has begun!  The purpose of the challenge is to meet new people and challenge ourselves to try something new.

First, see what other students are participating in the challenge by clicking this link.  I have also added the link to our list as "Blogging Challenge Bloggers" so you can revisit their blogs throughout the challenge.

Challenge 1 - Introduce Yourself  Whenever you meet someone face to face for the first time, you usually tell them a little about yourself.  The same thing happens when blogging.  Your readers need to know about you and your interests.

Log in to your blog and click on the "Control Panel" button.  In the "About You" section, tell your readers a little about yourself.  What are some things you like to do?  Do you have any favorites?  It can be like what you share when you are the Star Citizen, but remember to not give out any personal information.  After you write about yourself, click on "Submit Description."  I'll need to read and approve your writing before it is posted to your blog.

After you finish introducing yourself, visit the link above and check out some of the other blogs, of students and classes that are participating in the challenge.  I can't wait to blog with people around the world!  Can you?

Hi Award Winning Bloggers!  I just signed our class up for the Student Blogging Challenge 2009!  It will be a great way to meet new bloggers around the world, make new friends, and have fun!  We'll have new challenges to complete each week, and I can't wait to get started!

Five year old students in New Zealand are learning about friendship.  Visit their blog and leave them a comment.  Remember to copy and paste the URL from our blog so they can find us!

Hello Second Grade Bloggers!  I went to a reception tonight to receive the Larry Stilgebauer Award of Excellence for our second grade blog.  I can't wait to bring it to school on Tuesday so you can see!

Our read aloud today was A Pen Pal for Max by Gloria Rand.  Write a new blog article about the book.  What was your favorite thing about the book?  Would you recommend the book to others?  Tell why or why not, and give specific reasons.

Let's check out some class blogs!  Remember that comments should be specific compliments, so the writers know exactly what you liked, or questions to ask for more information.

Ms. Wojtera's first graders just posted a Voice Thread about what they like to do in the snow.  Add a Voice Thread comment to let them know what you like to do in the snow!

Mrs. Patterson's first graders posted a Voice Thread about President Lincoln, and wrote about their new class pet Pee Wee.

New Zealand fourth and fifth graders have been learning how to swim, and learning about water safety.

These first graders in Australia learned about the Presidents, celebrated their 100th day of school, and are learning about phonics.

Check out Mr. Mc's Top Dog Blog to see what the second graders did on Valentine's Day and the 100th day of school.

Visit the 2M Gems in Australia to learn about Skyping (talking with people in different places, through the computer).  They also have a fun "Zero Hero" video you can watch, just scroll down.

Read our very own Mr. Edwards' fourth grade blog.  His students have been working very hard to write good articles, so let's leave them some great comments!

Ms. Mead's 3rd graders in Australia have just begun a new school year.  Read about their goals and give them some encouragement!

Mrs. Koishal's first graders learned about elephant painting.  What do you think?

Of course, you can visit other blogs and leave comments for them, too!  Let's get blogging!

Wow!  Everyone made such great guesses!  Our mystery person was Abraham Lincoln!

Instead of a new mystery object, I thought we could try to figure out this mystery person!  Look closely at the picture.  Who do you think it is?  Leave a comment with your guess.

I'll post a picture of the person's face later this week!

Caroline, Kevin, George, and Kristi read the book Weird Leela, about an Indian-American girl whose grandmother visits from India.  After reading the book, they wrote their own stories about friends from a different culture.  Please visit their blogs and let them know what you like about their stories!

Bridie, Jackson, Joseph, Emily, and Molly read Dr. Seuss and His Stories, a biography about Dr. Seuss.  We read some of his books, and then wrote our own poems or stories in the style of Dr. Seuss.  Please visit their blogs and let them know what you like about their writing!

I just found this great song about the 50 states! Watch the video, and then see how many you can remember afterwards!

In KidSmarts today we read the book Serendipity by Tobi Tobias.

What is an example of serendipity?  Comment to this blog post, and tell us your examples!

Today, February 2nd, you need to write an article in response to my "February 2nd is Groundhog Day!" article.  Read the article below, then write an article of your own to answer the question.

Then, visit at least one of the following blogs and leave a comment.  Remember to copy the URL of our blog page and velcro it into your comment so that other bloggers can find you!

-Visit Ms. Custer's blog.  They read Alfie the Apostrophe, too!  Leave a comment to tell what you thought about and learned from the book.

-Visit Harley's blog and read his article "I'm ready!"  Leave him a comment telling him what you love the most!

-Kristi received a comment from Mrs. Curran.  Visit her class blog and leave a comment!

-Visit Mrs. Kenyon's 3rd grade blog.  They have written about why they like blogging.  Read some of their articles and leave comments!

If you have more time after writing your Groundhog Day article, and visiting at least one blog and leaving at least one comment, please look at the comments that Kevin left for us under the article "Blogging Today." He found some great games that we think you'd like to play!

Have a great time blogging second graders!

Some people believe that if a groundhog sees its shadow on February 2nd, there will be six more weeks of winter.  If it does not see its shadow, they think that there will be an early spring.

Do you want six more weeks of winter?  Why or why not?  Write a new article and tell us about it!

Our second grade class has been very interested in the inauguration events today. We watched President Obama and Vice President Biden take their oaths, and we have been watching the events progress throughout the day. While watching the different events, we took notes about what we saw, heard, noticed, thought, felt, and wondered. Please visit our blogs to read what each second grader experienced on this historic day.

Bloggers have so much to say!

-Ms. Custer's class wrote about their new year's resolutions, or goals.

-Harley looked outside and saw snow!  Comment on his blog and share words to describe the snow.  (We have had a lot of snow lately, so everyone should be able to think of a few describing words!)

-Mrs. Bese's class wrote stories about Brother Bear.  I'm sure they'd love if you read their stories and left comments!

-Ms. Weseen wrote an article about how they celebrate birthdays in the classroom.  Do we celebrate the same way?  What is different?

-Liza's class has been writing about their favorite colors.  Do you have the same favorites?  Many of Liza's students have been commenting on our blogs, so you should send comments back to those people who wrote to you, too.

Click on a class blog link at the left, and check out a new blog!  Have fun reading and commenting!

Our class will be making a fun Voice Thread about emotions.  Please check back tomorrow to take a look!

Liza's fourth grade class from Malaysia left a special message for us on the middle of their class blog!  Visit their blog by clicking on the link at the left.  Read the message, and then comment to answer their questions!

Our class has been learning about emotions.  Before our Winter Sing performance in December, we wrote poems sharing our feelings.  We typed our poems on our blogs, and also did Voice Threads.  (This was the first time we tried making Voice Threads!)  Visit each of our blogs to see our Voice Threads.  We are so excited!!

We have had visitors to our class blog, and they left us comments!  To read the new comments, you could look at the list of the "Latest 10 Comments" on the right under the bookshelf and typing game.  If you see a comment you have not read before, click on it.  It will take you to the new comment so you can read it all.  It's so exciting to receive comments on our blogs!

There is a new typing practice game under our bookshelf!  Take a look and play the game.  You need to choose the beginner, intermediate, or advanced level and click play.  Then, type each letter you see.  Thanks to Kevin for showing me the game!!

To all of our friends and families, have a very happy and healthy new year, and we look forward to a fabulous 2009!  Second grade bloggers, keep up the good work!  We can't wait to read your blogs and comments.  :)

Citizens show compassion by thinking about other people.  If you needed to give away some of your old toys to make room for new ones, where would you send the toys?  Why?

Snow began to cover the Chicagoland area last night, and today we have our first snow day! 

Pretend that you are the first person to step onto a fresh blanket of snow. Write about three things you will do in the snow. Why would you choose to do those things?  Write about it in a new article on your blog.  We can't wait to read your ideas!

This was a super tough mystery object!  The mystery object was a picture of one of the speakers on the tv.  Great guesses everyone!

Remember what we learned in science lab this this week?  We learned about sound and the ear!  Mr. Berman posted a voice thread about the ear on his blog.  Please visit his website (the link to his class blog is on the left column).  When you get to his blog, click on the play arrow under the picture of the ear.  You'll hear Mr. Berman tell you about the ear, and I'm sure you can make connections to our science lab from Monday!  After you listen to the voice thread, leave a comment here to let me know what you thought.  We'll be doing our own voice threads on Friday.  Are you excited? Interested?

    This is our second mystery object.  What do you think it is?  Please comment to this post and tell what you think it is.  Remember to use a complete sentence.  Family members and other bloggers can guess too!

Shopping malls and department stores are very busy this time of year. Pretend that you are a mouse in a busy store. What do you see there?

On her blog, Kristi wrote about a power she would like to have.  If you were a super hero, would you rather be able to fly or become invisible?  Why?  Would you like to have any other superpowers?  You could write a paragraph explaining your choice, or you could write a story starring you as the superhero, using your superpowers.  I can't wait to read about your powers!

We have so much to share with and learn from bloggers around the world!

If you need a blogging idea, please visit Ms. Custer's second grade blog.  They are busy writing poetry.  Write a poem of your own, and then visit Ms. Custer's blog to read her students' poems.  You could also visit Ms. Bentley's class blog.  They're writing about citizenship and compassion, two things we've learned about this year.  Take a look at their blogs and then comment, or write an article of your own!

Other bloggers have also been visiting our blog, and they enjoy our ideas!  Please visit Ms. Forsman's blog and Mrs. B's 5th grade blog to see their lists of "What Bloggers Do."  Mrs. B teaches many grades in Lebanon, and I'll add some of her blogs to our list of links.

Please show our blogging friends that we value their comments and ideas.  Remember to visit their blogs to read articles and add comments.  If you'd like to possibly receive a comment from them in return, please tell them that you're from Mrs. Shulman's class at the end of your comment.  Then, the blogger will know where your blog lives!  Or, we can follow the example of Ms. Mead's students in Australia, and include the address (url) of our blog in your comments.  I can show you how!!

Happy Blogging!!

Today we made a list of the things bloggers do.  When you visit our blog, you can do these things too!

• Write articles


• Type things you've written on paper


• Send comments to give people ideas, make connections, or give compliments


• Look at the ClustrMap and see where our visitors come from


• Read comments people have made on our blogs


• Read Mrs. Shulman's articles


• Look at the bookshelf


• Visit links to Dance Mat Typing, Free Rice


• Visit blogs from other classes around the world

Have fun blogging!

     Great guesses everyone!  Did you guess Mystery Object #1 correctly?  We'll do another mystery object soon!

I have added new links to our class blog!  If you look to the left column, under the globe, you will find many links.

•The link for Dance Mat Typing will help you practice keyboarding.

•There are also many links to class blogs from around the world, from students of different ages.  You can visit their blogs, read their articles, and send them comments.  But please remember, we do not know these bloggers like we know our friends and family members.  Do not write your last name or any people names in your comments!

•Free Rice is a website that donates rice to people in countries that do not have enough food.  In order to help donate rice, you need to visit and answer questions about vocabulary, grammar, or other subjects correctly.  For each question you answer correctly, free rice will be donated.

Click on the link to visit the website.  Explore and have fun!

Our first mystery object will be revealed Monday morning!  Please make your guesses and stay tuned!

This is our first mystery object.  It is an object you have all seen at school.  What do you think it is?  Please comment to this post and tell what you think it is.  Remember to use a complete sentence.  Family members can guess too!

I have just added a ClustrMaps map at the bottom right of our class blog page.  Soon, we should see dots on the  map that show where our visitors are from.

Think back to Thanksgivings you have celebrated in the past.  How do you usually spend the day?  Where do you go?  Who is there?  What do you do together when you're not eating?

Think about the book we read in KidSmarts this morning, The Child's World of Thankfulness.  What three things are you most thankful for and why did you choose those three?

If you could snap your fingers and in an instant go anywhere in the world, where would you go, and what would you do there?

The weather is changing!  What is your favorite season - winter, spring, summer, or fall?  Why is that season your favorite?

Our class blog (web log) is a website that we will be using to share ideas with our classmates, families, school, and others. The children will post articles on their blogs, and everyone will have the opportunity to comment on the posts. Please keep in mind, though, that I need to approve all posts and comments before they will appear online, so please be patient. Thank you!

Students, please use your best spelling and reread your articles before you request publishing. I look forward to reading your posts!