Mystery Skype with Canada

This week, most of our 6th grade students are on a 3-day overnight field trip to Nature's Classroom in New Hampshire.  Those of us who stayed at school had an adventure all the way to Alberta, Canada.

No, we didn't actually go to Alberta, but we did the next best thing!  We had a Mystery Google Hangout with a class to discuss the Global Read Aloud book, Fish in a Tree.

In a Mystery Google Hangout/Skype students spend the first portion of the session trying to figure out where the other class is from.  Students must ask Yes or No questions similar to the game "20 questions".

At first, we begin with a map of the world, divide up each hemisphere and begin asking questions to get closer to the location.  After each question, the student will color (with an Expo marker) out the area that the other class is NOT in.  This helps them to narrow down the search.  Each class takes turns until both classes guess where the other class is from.

Click HERE for questions to use for finding out where in the WORLD they are located in.

Click HERE for questions to use for finding out where in the United States they are located in.

Once students have figured out where our new friends are from, they participated in a discussion about the book. There were some great text-to-self connections which made us realize how similar we all are.

After the session, our 6th graders made a digital project using the app "Chatterpix" to make a self portrait and tell what we're good at.  Then, they made a movie trailer using the app "iMovie" for another Global Read Aloud book for our Kindergarten students based on the book "Exclamation Mark".  It was certainly a fun day!