As the school year comes to a close...

The Media Mouse has seem many fun activities as the school year comes to a close. Track and Field Days are a big tradition at our school.

Finally, things are growing!

Spring is here! Our lovely early flowers are ready for you to enjoy.

Many families are joined by Bangu Under 14 soccer team

Bangu Under 14 girls soccer team joined families, students and teachers on April 21 for another successful day of work in the garden. We are most thankful for the time and effort on this project.

Progress in the courtyard garden

The first Saturday work day in the garden was a huge success!

Our Principal, Eric Paulson, was very busy with the sod kicker. Community members, staff and students all helped to line the paths with brick. Please join us for more garden work on Saturday April 21.

April in the garden

Richfield had an inch of snow this week but it is gone now. Tomorrow, April 14th, will be the first scheduled "work day" in the garden and we hope that the temperature will be in the 50's. On May 15th we will be sharing our garden through a video conference. We will learn about other school gardens in Kyle, Texas; Humble, Texas; Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.

The Media Mouse learns about the court yard garden

The Media Mouse (shown here as Poppy the deer mouse) is ready to go outdoors to the Courtyard Garden. Third grade classes have been making observations of the garden since last fall. As the seasons change, so does the activity in the garden.

Some podcasts are ready!

Students in Mrs. Munson's class and Ms. Tschumper's class have been very busy in the Computer Lab and Media Center writing and recording their podcasts. More will be added as they are finished.
http://www.richfield.k12.mn.us/se3bin/clientgenie.cgi?schoolname=school233&statusFlag=goGenie&geniesite=67&myButton=g5plugin&db=g67_b1092

Pre-production of podcasts!

Many grade 5 students are writing book reviews that will be part of our first RIS Spartan World podcasts. They are getting so excited to do the actual production! Do you have any ideas for other topics for our pod casts? (We are starting with what we know well, books.)

BIG NEWS: Read Across America video conferences

Four classrooms have been matched with classes across America to celebrate Read Across America!

The third grade classroom of Mrs. Schleyer will participate in a video conference on Monday, March 5, 2007
at 10:30-11:30 GMT-5: Eastern Standard Time
with the class of
Karen Burlington in Michigan

The third grade classroom of Miss Rosie Holt will participate in a video conference
Friday, March 2, 2007
Time: 09:30-10:30 GMT-6: Central Standard Time
with teacher
Natalie Moore in Texas

The third grade class of Mrs. Diane Erdmann will participate in a video conference
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Time: 10:00-11:00 GMT-5: Eastern Standard Time
with teacher
Sue Woodliff in Michigan

The video conference for Grade 5 class, Mr. Pregler has not been assigned yet.

Inside recess... what an afternoon!

Everybody needs fresh air and activity but when the wind chills drop to the below zero range, even a Media Mouse needs to stay inside and read a book!

MegaConference Jr. February 22, 2007

This will be our second year participating/interacting with other students around the world during MegaConference Jr. http://megaconferencejr.org

Richfield Intermediate School will be interacting with the session called “Students Journey into Space with Astronaut Norm Thagard” from the University of Florida and “Big Picture, Small World: Expedition Africa” with the York Region District School Board, Character Education and York University.

MegaConference Jr. February 22, 2007

This will be our second year participating/interacting with other students around the world during MegaConference Jr. http://megaconferencejr.org

Richfield Intermediate School will be interacting with the session called “Students Journey into Space with Astronaut Norm Thagard” from the University of Florida and “Big Picture, Small World: Expedition Africa” with the York Region District School Board, Character Education and York University.

Miss Holt's Grade 3 class

Today we were getting ready for non-fiction animal reports. http://www.brainpopjr.com/reading/genres/readingnonfiction/
We learned about non-fiction book parts by using Brain Pop Jr with Annie and Moby. The example was a snake so then we went to Grolier Online "Amazing Animals" database and learned about 126 kinds of snakes! Our in depth study was on the Corn Snake.

Mrs. Schleyer's Grade 3 class

Mrs Schleyer's class continued the discussion of mice as characters in children's books.

• Poppy
• Three Blind Mice (the classic nursery rhyme)
• The Nutcracker (the play that the class went to at the Children's Theater and many books here in our Media Center)
• If you take a mouse to school
• If you take a mouse to the movies
• Ralph S. Mouse

Charlotte's Web came up for discussion and it was decided that the character in this book is really a rat. What is the difference between mice and rats? If you know or can find out, post a comment on this blog.

Mrs. Lasswell's class

This morning Mrs. Lasswell's grade 4 class was introduced to this blog and brainstormed a list of books that have mice as characters. If you can think of other childrens books that are not in their list, please leave it in the comments section.

• Stuart Little
• Alexander and the wind up mouse
• Tale of Despereaux
• Geronimo Stilton (series)
• Redwall (series)
• Mouse Magic
• If you give a mouse a cookie

Welcome to Media Mouse blog!

The Media Center at Richfield Intermediate School (RIS) is entering the the world of blogging! The title "Media Mouse" was chosen because of the many, many book characters for children in grades 3-4-5 that are mice.