Tool #7 Reaching Outside Your Classroom

I was impressed with Class2Class. On there I saw a project using M&M graphing. This is a math activity we do each year. Typically, we just have each child graph a bag of m&ms. It would be great to take it further by using technology and then reaching outside our classroom to another class. The objective I would be teaching is having students construct a graph using real objects and then pictures in order to answer questions. We would implement this in late September/early October using Class2Class. It would be fun for each of our Kindergarten classes to construct individual graphs using m&m candies, eventually compiling the data together. Then we could compare to classes outside of Rummel Creek. I have a friend that teaches kindergarten in Austin. I'm excited to tell her about this opportunity. She could get her team on board, as well.
I would also like to Skype with another kindergarten classroom about our cylinder gardening we do each year, as well as Skype with the master gardener that will be helping us with this project next year. We could even use google spreadsheets to collect data on our plants that are growing. The possibilities to reach out of our classroom using online digital projects are pretty endless.