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#11........................A Publication Of SchoolNet Global
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In This Issue
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We introduce a a school from the State of Mississippi in the USA., Henderson Intermediate School. Henderson students with teacher Kate Roberts have joined with Colette Cotton and youngsters at St. Mary's Primary in Folkestone Kent UK and children from Worcester Preparatory in Berlin Maryland USA to carry out a study of birds. In this edition is an article by Becky Wilkes reprinted from the Starkville (Mississippi) News about the iChat... iSight connection through SNG.
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Where is Starkville?
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Starkville is in the Southern United States in the State of Mississippi. Starkville is the home of Mississippi State University. Do you know any of the neighbouring states shown on the map?
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Henderson students enjoy chat with British students By BECKY WILKES/Starkville Daily News
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"Can you see us?" was the first question Henderson Intermediate School students asked Thursday as they looked at the computer.They were talking through an "I-Sight" device to a class in Dover, England. In one chair was a section of a pine tree that contained a woodpecker nest. Part of the SchoolNet Global Sustainability project, it's the only site in Mississippi where teachers and children around the world create projects of common interest.
Kate Roberts' Program for Enrichment of Academic Knowledge (PEAK) class at Henderson Intermediate School has always studied birds, so it's easy to understand why they were talking to students about birds. They've learned about our Audubon Society - and now they're learning about its British counterpart, the Royal Society for Preservation of Birds. The students in Dover oohhhed and ahhhed when Roberts' students pointed the camera to the woodpecker nest. They explained that it was in a southern pine and trained a light into the cavity to show what the bird had hollowed out.
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Both classes have participated in bird counts and shared graphs and information about them. They've learned that there are different kinds of birds in the different countries. But they've also learned that "we are more alike than they are different," a phrase heard often in Roberts' class. "These students will work in a global economy," said Roberts. "They need to be able to look at things from different perspectives." Roberts' classroom reflects a bit of that global view. Students in the class have parents who have come from countries like Pakistan, Egypt, Libya, Bulgaria, and China. An earlier class had talked via "I Sight" with Chip Daley, an entomologist at the University of Kansas about their monarch butterfly project. Roberts' class has tracked the migration route of the monarch and exchanges handmade butterflies with other classes doing the same. The "show and tell" with the class in Dover expanded from birds to other items: chalk from the white cliffs of Dover, fossils excavated during the digging of the channel tunnel, photos of the harbor and the castles at Kent, and on to money - "bills" to Roberts' students, "notes" to the British group. Students compared the length of the school day and year, then moved on to a discussion of uniforms. The British youngsters wore white shirts and ties with navy skirts or pants. They were staying after school to participate in the discussion; 9:15 a.m. in Starkville is 3:15 p.m. in Dover. The students in Dover were amazed that there were only six students in the PEAK class; PEAK students were amazed at the number of computers in the Dover classroom. "What will you do on your summer break?" asked one of the Henderson students. "Go to the beach," was the response, which was met with nods of approval.
Again, Roberts' refrain of "We're more alike than we are different" was heard. Caroline Brandon said, "I'm coming to England this summer. What should I see?" The teacher in Dover responded; then a youngster in Dover said he was coming to America this summer and asked what to see in Orlando. Responses were immediate and proved, once again, that across the globe we are, indeed, more alike than we are different.
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Bird Link Up to the U.S.A by Katie C age 9
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Showing a picture of the Kestral to the children in Maryland. USA
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We were talking to children at school in the U.S.A. It was fun there was a boy who kept making us laugh.
We were talking about the birds that we have seen in the Big School Bird Watch, that happened in England. The birds I talked about were the Kestral and the Greenfinch. I told them. that the Kestral and the Greenfinch flew into the big hall window and the Greenfinch died.
The USA children asked us if we had any seagulls but we said ours are called Herring Gulls and we have lots of them, as we are near the sea. More>
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Finding Out about Birds in the USA and the UK by Essrah L
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Telling us about the Magpie in the USA
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We have been talking to some USA children, from Maryland and have been telling them about some birds we have seen on our bird survey.
We all got a bird to talk about, I got to talk about a Magpie they said they have Magpies too.We then sang them the Magpie Song!
We had to speak slowly and loudly and very clearly, during our video/conference, overwise they would not be able to hear what we were saying properly and they will ask you to say your words again. More>
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Link up to Mississippi
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How big is your school?
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At school we are studying birds. All different birds around the school. Our link up was to Mississippi and we learnt a lot about America. They told us what birds they have seen and we told them. We asked all different questions and so did they. We found out a bird named the American Goldfinch. So we could learn more about birds and so could they. They didn't have lots of birds that we have here in Folkestone. We don't have American Goldfinches but we do have Goldfinches. Our link up was good and we learnt a lot more about different countries. More>
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Our Seagulls and the Great School Bird Survey
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Seagulls on the Snowy Roof.
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Our Bird Survey
We fed birds some bird food which we hung on the tree just outside of our classroom. Then we just waited for a bird to come. Every time a bird came to eat we would tick its name off the chart. We had lots of different birds like a blue tit, black bird, Seagulls, Herring gull, Green finch and Kestrels.
We made our own bird food as well. We had ingredients like cheese, Lard, peanuts, bird seed and raisins. We mixed all the ingredients in to the bowl and then put them in to the cup. We left it in the fridge for one hour. When it was quite hard we asked Mrs Mills to hang it on the tree outside of the classroom so we could see it. More>
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Talking to the U.S.A. Rosie M
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A boy from Worcester Prep in the USA, shows us a picture of a Bald-headed Eagle
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We talked to Worcester Prep School.It was great fun.We talked about the birds we had and what birds they had.
They had a book and were showing us the birds.
They showed us seagulls (just like ours in England) and the bald headed-eagle and lots more. More>
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