Mystery Skypes

We had two great Mystery Skype Sessions yesterday! 

Mrs. Williams' 5th grade students participated in a game with a class from Massachusetts.  Neither class knew the location of the other, so they took turns asking each other yes/no questions to narrow down an educated guess as to where the other class was located.  They started with questions such as these:

• Is your state east of the Mississippi River?
• Is your state one of the original 13 colonies?
• Does your state border an ocean?
• Does your state border another country?
• Does your state's name start with a vowel?

They were quickly able to narrow down their guess down to two states.  They had to use a lot of problem solving skills and rely on things they knew about history, geography, and map skills.  The other class asked us some questions they we haven't heard before, such as:

• Does your state flag have a star in it?
• Does your state have a coast line?
• Does your state border the Gulf of Mexico?
• Does the Rio Grande run through your state?

They were also able to figure out that we were in Alabama!

Our 1st graders did a similar activity with a class in New York.  Their mission was to use problem solving skills discover a mystery number.  Using numbers 1-30, they eliminated possibilities with questions like this:

• Is your number even?
• Does your number have two digits?
• Is your number greater than ____?

These seem like simple questions, but they are really important skills for first graders!  They need to understand these concepts before they go on to add, subtract, and solve problems.  Here is a picture from the class in New York at Todd School while they were playing the game with us.

Mystery Skype

This afternoon our 3rd-5th grade students Skyped with Brainpop artist, Mike Watanabe.  Brainpop is a favorite website among our kids at Mitchell.  

To start the Skype call, the students tried to guess where Mr. Watanabe was located.  We had three teams of students.  Some asked questions, some recorded answers, and others eliminated states on the map based on his answers to the questions.  The students quickly narrowed their guess down to two states:  Hawaii and Alaska.  Mr. Watanabe then announced that he was calling from Honolulu, Hawaii, where it was 8:30 in the morning.

He then went on to tell the students about how he studied to be an artist and how Brainpop was born.  In celebration of Cyber Safety Day, he quizzed the students on safety rules for using the Internet.  A few students were able to ask him questions.  The students really enjoyed connecting with Mr. Watanabe!