adventure

Continue Our Story…….

Roadrunners

As school came to an end we were writing fairy tales and folk tales…. help us continue this story by adding to it.  Perhaps the sharks arrive, pirates take them aboard a ship,  they are washed out to sea to a deserted island or another adventure awaits them…..Perhaps they are sweep away to the Gold Coast, Saltburn by the Sea, Hilo, Spain, Jamaica or Italy……. What do you think will happen to the young travelers as they explore the ocean?

Once upon a time in the month of June there was two young boys who waited weeks to go to _____________ beach when  school was out. They packed their gear and climbed aboard a __________ to make the journey of  many miles and long hours with the excitement of a long awaited trip.  Chatter could be heard along with “Are we there yet?”  Arriving at the final destination they quickly got prepared for the trip down to the Atlantic Ocean.  They crossed sand dunes with long pieces of grass sticking up and big and small footprints could be seen in the deep, yellow-white sands.

When they walked a little further  the ocean waves called to them to” come  closer.”  So the two  eager young boys journeyed across the hot desert with a few stops along the way.  Others had journeyed there ahead of them and  screaming and laughter could be heard at every turn.  Someone had built a  a moat, another  built a castle with a drawbridge, others gathered shells in buckets and each time the two young travelers stopped to add more to the scene .   The others were all sizes from tiny infants to giants as tall as a building with their shadows looming over the small ones crawling, jumping, running around the castles.  Joyful laughing and the splashing of water was close by.  Some sat under big colorful umbrellas while others laid on colorful blankets scattered across the sands.  Water had gathered in the center of the desert and one small person lay on his belly kicking and laughing in the wet sand and water while other small ones continued to pile wet sand around the edges.   Soon the ocean was calling again and the  eager, young travelers set forth to continue on the journey across the hot sands.

Once they reached the edge of the sand, the giant waves crashed into the boys knocking them down………

Special Friendships Across the Seas

Roadrunners

We established a sister school agreement last year with Middleham , Mrs. Monaghan and students in A Room with a View in North Yorkshire, England.   We had a lot of fun blogging, sharing the same books, and skyping during the year.   We hope to continue that special friendship this year with a new group of students.   A few days ago we received our third post card this time from Venice and Mrs. Monaghan.

  •  We wonder how many miles did it have to travel?
  •   How many countries did it go through to get from Venice to North Carolina?  

Mrs. Monaghan and her family took off on a summer adventure of their own traveling by train through 8 countries.  They enjoyed seeing all the different places and people on their summer vacation.  On the postcard she talked about the beautiful sites and the delicous ice cream.

She likes challenges so her students received postcards from these 8 countries while she was traveling.    We wonder were they  able to figure out where she went.  Take a journey of your own and see where she has been by visiting their blog site at:  http://middlehampri2.posterous.com/

  • Where would you like to travel if you could?

Connecting with 73 countries

Roadrunners

This year we worked on being a part of a global world in our 2nd grade class room at Rocky River Elementary in Monroe, North Carolina.  We are 7 and 8 year olds that loved to explore and be curious about the world.

    • We blogged and Skyped with others around the world.
    • We made connections.
    • We had fun.
    • We learned about other people and places.
    • We collaborated.
    •  We communicated.
    • We were creative thinkers, problem solvers and users of web 2.0 tools.
    • We created Global notebooks to track our learning about the world.
    • We became more aware of maps and locations of countries around the globe.
    • We tracked visitors to our blog site.

We loved doing this each day and seeing how far away we were from goals we set.
 Our average this month is 30 with 23 in the past 24 hours.
We decided to try and draw the flags from the 73 countries that visited.
 With a piece of paper, ruler , pencil and crayons we created these flags to honor our visitors and to say THANK YOU for visiting.  We learned a lot from many of you about your country.

Mystery Surrounds Us–What Could Be In Them?

Roadrunners

One was brown and like a shoe box the other white and soft with lots of stamps.   They were addressed and sent to our classroom.   Everyone wondered what could it be?  We begged to find out but Mrs. Todd said we needed to get our work done and  we’d check them out later.   They sat in the floor all morning while we did morning math work.  We anxiously wondered What Could be in them?   Where were they from?   Some of us tried to get a sneak peak at them.   Then we went to Music class and when we came back they weren’t there.  What had happened?  The children instantly searched the classroom to see if they had been placed somewhere else but they couldn’t be located.   Stay tuned for what happens next with the mysterious packages!

What is It? Where Can You Find Both of Us?

Roadrunners

                                                   

 

                                                                               

 

 

 

 

“I wonder what it is”?

Although we are both called Roadrunners you can find us in different places.

Rodney Roadrunner is at Rocky River Elementary as our school mascot.

He often is seen with sneakers and a backpack.  He is  bright blue and yellow.

Rodney is happy to see you.   Welcome to Rocky River Elementary School.

 

Where do you find the other Roadrunner?

What does he/she eat?

Where does he/she  live?

 

 

 

 

 

Wonder if any of our Flat Friends traveling around the world  has seen either of these

Roadrunners?

Our Flat Friends will be off and traveling again this week to a new school.  Where will they go?   

 

 

Flat Friends Traveling Around

Roadrunners

A few weeks back we joined with 4 other classes on a Flat Friend journey.   Some of us got to travel to the desert area in Arizona, some to see a castle and history in England, some to Australia to visit the beach, and sites in  Sydney and Victoria .   We received some Flat Friends from Sydney Australia at Curl, Curl,   They’ve gotten a chance to go to some of our special area classes and go home with us.   We’ve had them two whole weeks staying busy as beavers.     Ours got sidetracked on their journey to Sydney in the postal system so we had to go to a back-up plan and send them through email.  We are hoping the originals  arrive soon in Sydney and will be waiting for them when they return to school from their holidays.   Ours came with these wonderful journals and we’ve enjoyed writing in them over their time at Rocky River.

We wonder what everyone has been getting into with their Flat Friends.  You can check out the adventures around the world at this site:      http://flat-stanley-adventures.posterous.com/

Australian animals and landforms

Roadrunners

Students learned about the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru (Ayers Rock) during the study of physical features of Australia and drew some pictures  to share.

They also worked on animals posters.   Then they taught children at New Town in Monroe, NC all about these during a Skype session.

 

Teaching Peers About Other Places

Roadrunners

G’Day,

Kia Ora, 

Hello

What do  second graders from Rocky River and New Town two schools in Union County, NC learn when they get  together for a Skype session ?   They teach each other about places miles and continents  away that they are learning about this year.    The students at Rocky River have  been learning about Australia  so they answered questions about animals, food, schools, sports and landmarks.  They shared pictures and a song  about a Kookaburra under a gum tree  with New Town students.  They shared  about the Great Barrier Reef,  Uluru/Ayers Rock and the Outback.  The students  had drawn  pictures of Kangaroos, dingoes, wombats and koalas  to share.   Ms. Lologa asked about the special package that had arrived from Australia.  We were  surprised they knew about our Flat Selves arriving from Sydney.   She mentioned they had looked at our Going Global blog site right before the skype.  We were excited they had been one of our visitors.    The second grade classes from New Town had several questions and shared a song and dance with us.  Their teacher, Ms. Lologa,   from New Zealand is a VIF teacher in Union County.     There were two classes  participating from New Town.  Although our connection was not the best we still enjoyed sharing with them. 

 

Ms. Lologa  answered questions about New Zealand.  Students counted in Maori for us.   We hope to Skype again and have some more time to ask questions about New Zealand.  Students asked about schools and volcanoes.    They heard about landforms and sports like cricket and rugby.

When the  Skype session ended one of the students mentioned he even saw a friend.  Connections new and old being made all in a short time.

 

World Education Games

Roadrunners

This is our first year ever to participate in the World Education Games.  At first we were a little nervous because we are in second grade.  Some of us answered questions in the 4-7 age group and some of us had to do the  8-10 age group.      We’ve been busy practicing spelling, math and science the past few weeks.  Now it’s time to show what we can do for the games.  We are excited and love to see who we will compete against.  They come from all around the world.    The science questions were hard we discovered and we answered 731 during the warm-up.  We only did science one week because of difficulty getting on.  For the warm-up time in spelling we answered over 15,152 questions.  And in math 11, 726 questions.    It’s been a lot of fun just practicing.  

Arrival South Africa

Roadrunners

The more that Tom was told he was crazy wanting to try and ride his bike round the world and across Africa the more he wanted to do it.  Have you ever wanted to do anything so much that you ignored everyone telling you that you couldn’t do  it  or that it would be dangerous and you couldn’t do it?

He started out with his classmates making fun of him when he blurted out a wish “I’m going to cycle the world.”  Throughout the story everyone tells him reasons he won’t  achieve his dream.  What do you feel is the most important character traits that Tom showed during this epic  journey?

 Our Wonders……

We are wondering if Tom’s adventures are a mirror of Al Humpreys real trip cycling the world.  We’ve seen movies that was nothing like the original book.  We would like to know if the real  trip was a lot different?    What was the most challenging thing to Al Humpreys?  What will be the biggest challenge for Al crossing the Altantic Ocean or going to the South Pole?

 

We wonder what adventures await Tom on his ride in the Americans?   Where will his bicycle take him next?  What kind of people will he encounter?