Over the past few weeks, 3/4 classes in the library have been practicing for a Mystery Skype. They've learned US geography and map-reading skills in order to prepare.
Today, we finally had a chance to put those skills to use! Mrs. Sorensen's class played the Mystery Skype game with another class somewhere in the United States, and through careful deduction and teamwork, they were able to discover that the other class was located in the state of Illinois! Best of all, they figured it out before the Illinois team guessed that we were in Connecticut!
Mystery Skyping requires each team to ask each other yes/no questions to logically deduce where the other team is located. Below, you can see a video that another school made of their first Mystery Skype.

Every year, students around the world participate in International Dot Day on (or around) September 15th in order to celebrate creativity, courage, and collaboration.

This year, classes gathered in the Lyman Library to celebrate. We read "The Dot" by Peter Reynolds,  talked about the different ways we can "make our mark" on the world, and discussed ways that we feel encouraged and ways we can encourage others.
Afterwards, students collaborated with each other in making dot art (both 2D and 3D), used a virtual dot-making application on iPads, and designed Core Ethical Value dots.

The following week, library classes got to experience a Skype conversation with another class in order to talk about how International Dot Day was celebrated elsewhere. We Skyped with other local schools as well as schools in other states. In Minnesota, for example, we learned that one class celebrated by having a dot scavenger hunt, and in another school, everyone made dots to hang on a dot wall - even the school's principal and superintendent!