Hello, Russia!

We would like to welcome our new friends from Russia to Water for Sixth Grade. We are very excited to learn about Russia and experience communication with students living in Russia first hand. The goal of International Connection is to bring the world into our classroom. There is no better tool to make that happen than the Internet. With the Internet, our huge, wonderful world shrinks to allow us to travel around the world without actually buying a plane ticket. Learning about other countries by reading books--boring; learning about other countries by talking to students living there--exciting. We are very thankful that you agreed to share with us. We hope that we will have a chance to share with you what our lives are like here in South Dakota, USA.
To post your comments, simply click on "comments" below. A pop-up window will appear with a box to type in. Simply type your answers or whatever you would like to say and then click the box next to "name" Type your first name only and leave the URL BLANK. Just your first name will do. Then click the "publish" button and your comment will be sent to us. Thank you again.

1. What is a typical school day like in Russia? (how many classes do you have, do you switch teachers, what types of classes do you have, etc. Anything about your school day.)

2. What do you do for fun in your free time?

3. What type of food do you eat? What are popular foods in your country?

4. What is the weather like in Russia?

5. What type of clothing do you wear?

6. What Holidays do you celebrate?

7. Share anything else about your country that you want. Please tell us more about Russia. Things that may simple and uninteresting to you, will be fascinating to us.

Hello, Australia!

Water for Sixth Grade would like to welcome our new friends from Australia. We are very excited about this new connection. The wonderful thing about the Internet is that is can bring the world into the classroom, which is what the goal of this project is. We want to learn about this amazing world by talking to students in other countries, not just by reading a book. It is far more fascinating learning from you.
Please answer the questions below. Click "comment" to leave your answers in the pop-up box. Simply check the "name" box and write your first name. Do not enter a URL address. Thank you very much.

1. What is a typical school day like in Australia? (how many classes do you have, do you switch teachers, what types of classes do you have, etc. Anything about your school day.)

2. What do you do for fun in your free time?

3. What type of food do you eat? What are popular foods in your country?

4. What is the weather like in Australia?

5. What type of clothing do you wear?

6. What Holidays do you celebrate?

7. Share anything else about your country that you want.

To Scotland, From USA

American Students, please answer the following questions for our friends in Scotland. Answer some of the questions or all of the questions. Do a good job teaching them about what it is like in the United States. They are learning from you. You are the teacher now. Answer the questions thoroughly. You do not have to write the question, just the number of the question you are answering.



1. What kinds of food do you eat? Do you like Chinese food? Have you ever tried haggis?
2. What hobbies do you do in your spare time? What games do you play in the playground at school?
3. What time do you finish school for the day?
4. Do you play American football and do you have a school team? What is ‘lynx’? (We have Lynx deodorant in Scotland!)
5. What is a middle school?
6. What kind of books do you read?
7. What’s your favourite film?
8. Do you like PE? Your PE hall looks massive! What activities do you get in PE?
9. What school trips do you get to go on?
10. Have you ever been in a hurricane?

What?

A few of my students "trying" to make fun of me....

So Long, Ancient Rome!

Can you believe it. It has been 21 days since we last blogged on Water for Sixth Grade. Part of the delay is due to International Connections and the Creating Rome project. Now we are back. It is so good to be back. Stretch out your fingers, settle into your seat, and blog like you've never blogged before. You have just finished taking the Ancient Rome Examination. Like we have done in the past, let us think about what we have learned, what we have accomplished, and what we are going to miss about this unique civilization, this civilization of Rome. What have we learned? Well, we have learned that being a gladiator is a risky way of life, taking a bath with strangers in the middle of town is NOT weird, volcano's erupt, Christianity spread, and a 'circus' is not just about clowns and funnel cakes. What have we accomplished? Well, we have conquered the web quest, built Ancient Rome and increased our ancient civilization knowledge. What will we miss? Well, we will miss everything.
This is your last chance to deal with Ancient Rome, so do a good job. Using only your brain, tell me and tell our international audience everything you know about Rome. Simple guidelines, true, but meaningful as well. Practice your typing skills, practice your thinking skills, and practice your summarizing skills.
That is it. Tell me everything you know about Rome. Extensive information should be written about your Creating Rome topic for sure.
Format: Tell me everything you know about Rome.
Length: your comment should be no less than 300 words.
DUE: March 10th, 2009. 10:00 p.m.
Points: 10 Completion points.

I am so lucky to have such cool students like yourselves. Thank you. And thank you for all your efforts and great attitudes as we move throughout this school year. Keep up the good work and never be satisfied.

Our Friends From Turkey

Warm Greetings From Turkey

View more presentations from Dan Klumper.

This is a slideshow put together by Burcu Akyol, a 5th grade english teacher in Istanbul, Turkey. My class and her class communicate with each other via the blog, a part of International Connections.

Welcome to Ancient Rome

I am currently in the process of making the presentations into a movie. Be looking for it soon, right here on Water for Sixth Grade.

Brandon Valley Middle School, USA

Slideshow

Hopefully this will give you an idea what things look like here in Brandon, SD, USA. Click "slideshow" if you want to see the slideshow bigger than what is on the blog. I hope you enjoying seeing what we look like and what our school looks like. Enjoy!