2nd Graders Skype with "Mystery Schools"
Second graders in the classrooms taught by Mrs. Susan Leiker and Mrs. Anne Werner recently participated in their first ever "Mystery Skype." Each classroom was paired with a classroom of second graders from another state. The two Sabetha teachers then partnered with their teachers from other states to arrange for a common time for the each class to meet their "mystery class" using the Internet-based video calling tool, Skype.
Before the connection, the teachers worked with the second-grade students on geographical terms so that the students would be able to ask questions of their mystery school to help locate their mystery class using the process of elimination. Students expanded their knowledge in the area of US geography including states' names, neighboring countries and bodies of water, and major geographical features of our country like mountain ranges, major rivers, and lakes. They learned about using directions to communicate about location as well as words like "neighboring" and "bordering" to describe location. When the connections took place, the classes asked one another geographical questions in the style of the old 20 Questions game. As the partner class responded, students used US maps brought in to a drawing tool on iPads to mark off states they eliminated until they were able to narrow down the state in which the partner class was located. Students in Mrs. Leiker's room were able to locate their mystery class in their home state of Alabama, while Mrs. Werner's students successfully located their partners in the state of Utah.
