Where's The Gingerbread Man? is a travel buddy project.  A stuffed gingerbread man will visit our class for three weeks.  We will then send him to the next host class along with information about out community and our favorite book. Mrs. McLeod's class from Cannon Elementary School in Elsberry, Missouri will be graphing the favorite books of all participating classes and share the results.

Ollie and Oscar's Online Odyssey  is hosted by Mrs. Burns' first grade class at Arroyo Mocho Elementary School in Livermore, California.  These travel buddies "are each traveling to classrooms who are willing to receive them by mail and cuddle and care for them for a week, to communicate each's adventures by electronic mail, to introduce each to another animal friend, take pictures and then send each on to his next destination."

We had such a wonderful time hosting Ollie.  Read all about it and see our pictures on the Odyssey website!

Flat Stanley Project is coordinated by Sherry Johnson and Tammy Bushey.  This is a geography project based on the book "Flat Stanley" which was written by Jeff Brown.   Students will make paper Flat Stanleys and mail them to different people.  The goal of this project is to learn about many different places in the world. What an innovative way to learn geography!

Read Across the USAis coordinated by Diane Quirk, a teacher at Van Buren Elementary School in Baldwinsville, New York.  Participants in this project will send her class the title of their favorite book.  Mrs. Quirk's class will read the books and share their reactions. Classes will also exchange postcards and provide information about their communities.  The goal of this project is to integrate skills in language arts, social studies, and math. Diane will be designing a web page to go along with this project.

Class Pet Exchange is coordinated by Connie Campbell, Technology Trainer at Jefferson County Schools, Tennessee.  The objectives of this project are for students to develop creative writing skills, grammatical skills, and communicate with a peer in another area or country via e-mail.  Classes will be exchanging stuffed animals and visiting students' homes. The children will write stories in a journal that will be sent back to the partner class along with the stuffed animal.

Thanksgiving Detectives involves classes across the US exchanging information about a typical Thanksgiving celebration in their area. Students will determine the prices of five ingredients that go into a Thanksgiving meal. Students can also share common Thanksgiving customs, common places where they celebrate Thanksgiving, and information about their school and city.   This is the third year that my students will participate in this wonderful project.   It ties in well with the New York State learning standards in mathematics.

The Great Chocolate Experience III

Last year my students participated in this wonderful collaborative project.   It was so successful that I registered to participate in it again this year. Click on the above link and read all about it! The Great Chocolate Experience II motivated me to create an entire unit on chocolate. We read books about chocolate, wrote poems, drew pictures, did chocolate math lessons, saw the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and ate lots and lots of chocolate! Some of my ideas came from Chocolate, A Thematic Unit by Teacher Created Materials, Inc.  I'm looking forward to doing these same activities again.

Story Writing Project

This will be the third year that my students will participate in Deborah Falk's story writing project. My class will be writing a paragraph as part of a collaborative story. We will be told in advance where the other classes are from so that we can also learn some geography. Be sure to visit the site and read all the stories!

Write On

"Write On! is a collaborative writing project involving 10 classes of second grade age students around the world. Together these classes will write and illustrate a story. The purpose of this activity is to expand writing skills, and utilize email for communication. This activity will also allow for an exploration of geography as students track the location of participating schools."

To The Rocky Shore

We are very fortunate to live on the rocky shore of Long Island because we can join this wonderful project hosted by Shirly Crawford in New Zealand!  We will study all about the rocky shore and send stories, poems, and pictures to be included in Mrs. Crawford's website!  Our project will begin this May when it is warm enough to collect shells, rocks and even have a picnic at Mrs. Silverman's house!  We will do this on a weekend so that our parents will be able to participate with us.  Be sure to visit this site and see how children in so many different parts of the world are learning about the rocky shore!

The Poetry Project

This is a collaborative poetry project coordinated by Susan Nixon, Cartwright School, Phoenix, Arizona.  Participating classes will send in poem each week to be showcased on a website.