Monroe

Welcome Back

Roadrunners

Hello world,

We are busy learning about schools around the world and would like to learn more about your school to compare.

Please leave us a brief description of your school, the school day and where you are located.

 

We have about 820 students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.  We have 17 pre-kindergartens that are four year olds.  We have about 150 kindergartens.  There are 8 classrooms of kindergarten children.  We have six and seven of other grades.  When you are in first grade you might be six then turn seven.  We have about 40 classroom teachers.  We have a PE teacher, music, art, global studies/technology and media teacher for specials.

Our school Rocky River is 7 years old.RockyRiverMisc_2011089

  • It’s very bright and shaped like a capital E.  We have bright blue, bright green and orange hallways.
  • We have 3 playgrounds.
  • We are located in Monroe, North Carolina in Union County.

We got our first postcard this week through the post card project.  It came from the Shetland Islands.  We were very excited to compare their playground to our playground.  It came from Burravoe Primary School.  Do you know where we  found the Shetland Islands?   We looked them up on google earth today.  Can you find them?

playground bridge 2013

  • Some of us bring lunch from home and some buy and eat lunch from our cafeteria.
  • We have math, literacy (reading, writing, word study) and science or social studies daily.   We have recess (outside time for 30 minutes) and lunch.  We go to specials for 40 minutes each day.
  • Some of us come to school by car and many by big yellow buses.  No one walks to school.
  • Monroe is a small town outside Charlotte, NC which is about 30 minutes away.  There are about 27,000 people we found out.    It has farms, the city streets and buildings and several other nearby small towns.  There are about 30 elementary schools in Union County.  We might see horses, cattle, sheep, goats, chickens on our way to school.   We see neighborhoods with many houses.  We see houses by themselves.

Visit the website for Monroe to learn more about where we are.

http://www.visitmonroenc.org/

 

 

 

Vietnam Next Stop

Roadrunners

 

 

Introducing the second graders of Rocky River to my birthplace was a fun task.  Opening up with a video, of my own cousin speaking Vietnamese, that introduced me and asked them if they were ready to journey with me to Vietnam.  Then proceeding to show them what the countryside looked like, through a short video that highlighted the beauty of Vietnam.

 

Getting into the meat of the presentation, I was able to introduce the kids to the basics of Vietnam, the facts about the geography and standard details (population, capital, language, products that they exported …) then went on to talk about some more interesting facts, like the rare animals that live in Vietnam and of course, one of my favorite things about Vietnam, the food!  It was neat when I had a child recognize the spring rolls they saw upon the screen! The kids also got to see an Ao Dai, the traditional costume that the women of Vietnam wore for special events. After discussing some of the foods and the costume/dress, I went on to talk about some famous Vietnamese people and loved it when the kids recognized the Yellow Power Ranger, Trini!

 

I think one of the highlights was when the kids got to watch a video of the Mid-Autumn Festival, simply because it is a festival that revolves around the children.  Lots of interesting sights to see in the form of the lanterns, food, parading and the dragon dances!  Another thing that the kids found interesting was the comparison on the school days between us and the children in Vietnam!

 

In closing, the kids got to watch another short video that showed more sights from all around the different parts of Vietnam and then I did a “drawing” and presented three lucky kids with special prizes … one even got a Moon Cake!

Our World

Roadrunners

Where is Monroe, North Carolina?

  •  Where is Rocky River Elementary in the World?    34° 59′ N / 80° 36′ W

It is in the Piedmont region of North Carolina.  There are over 800 students.   Over 40 classrooms.

We have been learning about latitude and longitude and maps from Our World Our Numbers.  This next week when we return to school we would like some help to understand how big your city is and how much different areas of the world recycles in our own mapping project.

Rocky River Elementary School is in Monroe, North Carolina.

Geography:
North Carolina is bordered by South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia, as well as the Atlantic Ocean along its eastern coast. Off the coast of North Carolina, out in the Atlantic Ocean, are a string of barrier islands, called the Outer Banks, the site of the Wright brothers first flights, the Kitty Hawk flying experiments.

North Carolina’s main geographic features are the coastal plains and the Appalachian Mountains. The sub ranges of the Appalachians located in North Carolina are the Great Smoky Mountains, the Blue Ridge Mountains, Great Balsam Mountains, and the Black Mountains, which have the highest in the eastern United States, Mount Mitchell.

North Carolina is one of the fifty states in the USA.  California is all the way across the United States.  You can drive there in several days.  It’s between four and five hours to fly there.

The United States (50 States) joins Canada (10 provinces and 3 territories )  to make up what is known as North America.   Bordered by the Pacific Ocean on the west side and the Atlantic Ocean on the east side.

Flight Distance

Monroe to Middleham UK—3924.69 miles / 6316.18 km

Monroe to Sydney, Australia-  9486.7 miles / 15267.36 km

Monroe, NC to Victoria, Australia–9902.31 miles / 15936.23 km

Monroe to Los Angeles California   2146.63 miles / 3454.67 km  driving time  2442.18mi / 3930.3km

Monroe to British Columbia Canada and Mrs. Watson’s Class  2636.95 miles / 4243.76 km

Monroe to Palmerston North, New Zealand-     8343.44 miles / 13427.47 km