Our New Main Street Sign

2.5' x 8' Banners by Vistaprint

Soon this banner will be hanging in downtown Greenville. We used some of the money we made during the "Jingle, Mingle" Street Fair in December. The Futuristic Foxes are determined to help the businesses on Main Street after they spent four months being almost shut down by the road closing!

Makers Club Trailer

Saying Goodbye to Hermit Crabs

Election Day

Mrs. Abernethy's class takes politics very seriously. They actually have their own government. Below is a video of the Futuristic Foxes on Election Day. Not only do they walk to the high school to observe the electoral process, they have their long awaited and long planned election of their own for class president. View highlights for the election day below and click on some of the links below the video to follow some of our other happenings leading up to the election posted on our Social Studies blog. Then check out today's inauguration video to find out who the president of the Dauntless Dogs is!



Campaign Speeches: http://futuristicfoxesss.blogspot.com/2015/11/campaign-speech.html

Election Day: http://futuristicfoxesss.blogspot.com/2015/11/election-day.html

,br /> Inauguration Day: http://futuristicfoxesss.blogspot.com/2016/01/inauguration-day.html

Futuristic Foxes Support Main Street

It all started when our town's main street was shutdown for months. The businesses remained open, but they were definitely feeling a great loss. They became the talk of just not local news, but regional news, too.


The Futuristic Foxes knew they needed to do something to help out the town. After a brainstorm session, they came up with the idea to propose a street fair where all of the businesses decorated the outside of their businesses, brought in some entertainment and perhaps gave out some coupons. We even offered our

We spoke to the Chamber of Commerce, got addresses, and sent out persuasive letters to all the businesses on Main Street, and guess what? They liked our idea. That's why they decided to have a day called, "Jingle, Mingle." Almost all the businesses participated. One business, 1spa took us up on our offer and allowed us to decorate their Christmas tree otside their storefront. The owner also donated hot chocolate for the kids to sell and a bunch of toys for a street/yard sale. The kids decided all proceeds would go toward helping the businesses on Main Street.

The Futuristic Foxes came in droves that day to help out, and we earned $188.80! We decided we will spend some of the money advertising in the local newspaper for people to support Main Street and buy local. We are also thinking about getting a banner made that we can hang somewhere in the town.

The Futuristic Foxes supporting Main Street at the Jingle Mingle.

Supporting Stray Haven

Our new president started her new job by fulfilling one of her campaign promises. Imagine that! She started a drive for the local animal shelter called, Stray Haven. Her drive was a success! With only Futuristic Foxes participating, it wasn't long before the giant box she brought it was overflowing with treats, blankets, pet food, cleaning supplies and more. She actually brought in a second box! Finally, a group of students met at Stray Haven after school to deliver the supplies and play with some of the pets who reside there.

Our New Business Cards

Standard Business Cards by Vistaprint

Our skype with Africa!

Today we skyped with Livingstone Kegode who lives in a small village called Kimilille in Nairobe, Kenya, Africa! We shared our classroom pets while he shared a slideshow and information about the wild animals that live in Africa. Below are pictures we took during the skype and pictures HE took during the skype. Also, I have attached the presentation he shared with my students. It was like a trip to the zoo, but the animals were not in cages! They were in their natural habitat!

Our pic of Livingstone during the skype

Our pic of Livingstone sharing his presentation

Our pic of us during the skype

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Pic of the class taken by Livingstone

Pic of our tortoise Thurman taken by Livingstone

Us sharing our pets with Livingstone

The Global Read Aloud

The Futuristic Foxes are participating in The Global Read Aloud 2015. In short, the Global Read Aloud is a program where thousands of teachers and students from around the world are reading aloud the same novel for six weeks. There are five different books to choose from based on the students' ages and interest. To learn more about, go to this link: http://theglobalreadaloud.com/about-the-gra/faq/ or watch the video below:



The Futuristic Foxes have chosen to read the book, Fish by L. S. Matthews.

Some of the ways we are interacting with the book include: Twitter, Write About It, and Skype. So far on Twitter, we are following other classrooms who are reading the book Fish, including a sixth grade class in our own school who have named themselves The Terrific Tigers. We comment on others posts and make posts of our own. While Mrs. Abernethy is reading the book, we often use sketchnoting. We share our sketches on Twitter and ask others to comment by asking them questions about our pictures. Below are some pictures we have sketched and posted so far.

We also use a program called Write About, https://www.writeabout.com/. We were give a free account when we signed up for the Global Read Aloud. Each of us have our own blog. We write responses to the book and share them with others reading the book. We are especially excited to chat about the book with the sixth grade class in our school reading the book too. We will be able to read and comment on their blog posts and they will be able to do the same on ours. We are also connected with a class from Australia, so that should be fun, too.

Last, but not least, we plan to skype with other classrooms reading the book and hopefully with the author of the book. We just finished week two and with four weeks to go, I am sure we will find even more exciting ways to collaborate and connect with others locally and globally.

Maker's Club

East Elementary has started a Friday morning club called Maker's Club. It is so popular that more than seventy students are in the club! There are three different sections. One is the STEAM Team, one is Creation Station, and one is High Tech. View pictures below from today's club activities.

STEAM TEAM

CREATION STATION

HIGH-TECH