Windsor LMC

March Happenings

2008-03-06T15:47:00.003-06:00

Meteorlogical Winter has ended, but no one told the clouds that. We have had snow and freezing temperatures this week. This morning there was a dusting of snow on the grass and trees. Kids are still bringing hats, mittens, snowpants, and even some boots to school.

On Saturday, the ABC/25 Foundation is holding a Gala and Raffle at a country club. This is a group of parents, staff and community members that raise money for extras that aren't part of the school budget. It is a black tie event. Items are raffled off. Each school has made an Adirondack chair to donate to the raffle. Windsor's chair has pictures of famous art on it.

This Sunday, March 9th, we begin Daylight Savings time, also known as DST. We turn the clocks ahead one hour on Sunday morning. "Spring ahead, Fall behind," is an easy way to remember which way to move the clock.

Mr. Kaye and Mr. Dutton have challenged the students to a Move and Crunch week. The students and staff are going to keep track of how many fruits and vegetables they eat. Everyone is encouraged to walk to and from school. We are looking for more physical activity and healthier eating habits. Mr. Kaye and Mr. Dutton will wear a silly hat, like the Chiquita banana hat. I will post a picture of that one for you to see.

Then on March 17th, we celebrate St. Patrick's day. Everyone is Irish for a day, wearing green clothes and many families have corned beef, potatoes, and Irish soda bread for dinner. In Chicago, they dye the Chicago River green and have a St. Patrick's day parade.

Windsor students participate in the Knowlege Master's Open, KMO. It is being held on March 17th after school. Good luck to our team! Our Gifted teacher is coordinating this with the students in Odyssey. Some schools call this the Talented and Gifted, (TAG) program.

St. Joseph's day is celebrated on March 19th. This is an Italian tradition and everyone wears red. Restaurants offer a St. Joseph's table filled with Italian foods: cannolis, antipasto, bread, pastries, lasagna, pasta, and meatballs. St. Joseph is known as the Patron saint of workers. This is a way that the community gives back to workers.

Spring break begins on Friday, March 21st. This lasts for a week. The students return on April 1st, also known as April Fool's Day. A day filled with practical jokes!

Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T18:34:00.000-06:00

Turkeys and Thanksgiving go together. Families gather together to share a meal on Thanksgiving. Many families have turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, bread, and pumpkin pie for dessert. This yummy treat was made with Oreos, candy corn and malted milk balls. Football is popular also. Today the Green Bay Packers played against the Detroit Lions. The Packers won! Way to go Packers!

Celebrations

2007-11-13T13:21:00.000-06:00

Windsor is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The school was built in 1957. There will be an all-school assembly on Friday. We are collecting canned goods for the food pantry. Each class is hoping to donate 50 cans. We are also participating in the Rebound Ball program. Children donate used balls, which are then deflated, packed and shipped to children that have no toys. They have a piece of paper for their entertainment. Next week we have parent/teacher conferences on Monday and Tuesday.

Thanksgiving is celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November. It is a national holiday. Sarah Hale petioned Abraham Lincoln in 1868 to have it become a national holiday, previously it was up to each state. Most families celebrate by having turkey, stuffing, cranberries, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pie. Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird for the United States. The Bald Eagle was chosen since it is only found in North America. The Bald Eagle was endangered. This summer on June 28th, it was taken off the endangered list and moved to protected status. There had been 400 nesting pairs in the entire US and now there are over 1,200 pairs.

Year Two Soiree

2007-11-07T20:08:00.000-06:00

On Wednesday 24th October we presented a musical play called "The Goblin Man" for our parents and friends. We all loved dressing up in our costumes and performing in our newly renovated auditorium. The story had an important message - that if we want to have good friends, we need to be kind and helpful to others. Above are some pictures of our performance:

Knox Year Two Buddy Day

2007-10-30T21:23:00.000-05:00

Hello Windsor School - We're really sorry it's taken us a while to respond to all your wonderful postings. In the last eight days we've had Buddy Day, Oktoberfest, Year Two Soiree and school Presentation Night!! Above are a few photos from Buddy Day - Year 7 students spent the morning with us. They watched our dress rehearsal for our Soiree, then we interviewed them. Afterwards we had a "Sausage Sizzle" lunch. It was great fun.

We'll add another post with photos of our other special events really soon. Hope our friends are enjoying being Third Graders!

PS Thanks for looking after Mr Whittle so well when he visited you - he's been showing us all his vacation photos in Assembly.

A few more pictures from Windsor

2007-10-18T06:34:00.001-05:00

Some chocolate macadamia nuts all the way from Australia.

Some images from my visit to Windsor Elementary School.

2007-10-18T06:30:00.000-05:00

Windsor students watching the DVD from The Knox School.

Lots of questions after watching the DVD.

"Why do you have an accent?" asks one of the students.

My visit to the USA

2007-10-18T06:08:00.000-05:00

I had a great time when I visited the USA and I especially enjoyed my time at Winsdor Elementary School. It was wonderful to meet Mrs Komarek, the LMC teacher at Windsor - we have communicating for a while over the web so it was good to be able to meet in personThe day I came to visit Windsor I was up very early to catch the train from downtown Chicago. Mrs Komarek met me at the station at Arlington Heights and drove me to school where I ate breakfast with my daughter Claire and Brandon, Mrs Komarek's son. I reallyenjoyed meeting the teachers and students during my time at Windsor. It was fun being welcomed by Mr Kaye, the Windsor Principal, and having this shown to all the classrooms on the internal video system. I loved receiving my gifts from Mr Kaye and I have shown the students at my school what I was given. I hope you are able to read or look at some of the books I gave when I visited.

My visit to the Year 2 and 3 Assembly was a lot of fun and I thought all the students were very well behaved. They sat very well whilst they watched the DVD I had brought from our Year 2 students in Australia. There were many questions about Australia and my school and we could have stayed there for hours, but I knew that the teachers and students were so keen to get back to class and finish their work. Thank you to everyone at Windsor Elementary School for making my visit so fanbtastic - I would love to come and visit again!! In fact when my wife arrived a few days later,we did comeand visit again and I even read a book to a class in the Library.

My school has been back for two weeks after a three-week vacation and all the students are working hard as we have only seven weeks left of our school year.

Have a wonderful rest of this year Windsor!

Beef-A-Rama in Minocqua, Wisconsin

2007-10-17T08:11:00.000-05:00

Beef-a-Rama is an event that brings tourists to the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Minocqua has a year-round population of 3,200 people and this event draws over 12,000 people. In the morning there is a 5K Rump Roast Run. The merchants and private citizens roast a rump roast on the main street in the parking stalls. The roasts are judged for Best Chef, Best Appearance, Best Taste, and Spirit Award. Mr. Whittle's daughter worked at Camp Agawak. Camp Agawak has entered in the competition for the last three years. The chef, Ducky, won Best Chef, Best Taste and won Best Appearance this year. People dress up in costumes and they close the main street, Highway 51, for the parade. The parade goes to Torpy Park, where over 3,000 sandwiches are served. The awards are given out in the park. Notice Mr. Whittle on the sidewalk wearing a cow hat. Mr. Whittle's daughter and two other Australian counselors were dressed as Ducky's chicks. Congratulations to Ducky and Camp Agawak!

Dinner ..... Finally

2007-10-16T13:20:00.000-05:00

We went to dinner at a nice restaurant, Wildfire, in Glenview, another suburb about 8 miles from Arlington Heights. We ordered a family style dinner. Our waiter loved the Australian accent and kept coming by to see if we needed anything. After dinner, it was back to Arlington Heights for the Metra train to Chicago. The train arrived a few minutes late, which gave us a little extra time to visit.

LMCs of the Future Meeting

2007-10-16T11:55:00.000-05:00

Mr. Whittle participated in a meeting with the LMC Directors, Principals, and the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum & Instruction, and the Director of Assessment and Technology. The focus was on LMCs of the Future and 21st Century Skills. We asked Mr. Whittle to share how the LMC, library, and computer labs are set up at Knox School. We learned about your green room and multimedia presentations. How exciting!

On to Patton Elementary School

2007-10-16T11:30:00.000-05:00

Mrs. Costa invited Mr. Whittle to share facts about Australia with her 2nd grade class. They study Australia in the Spring. Mr. Whittle gave them the book Wombat Stew and a Wombat in a travel carrying case. He even gave the Principal a box of Australian Milk Chocolate covered macadamia nuts. She loved that! YUM!

Global Perspective

2007-10-16T11:18:00.000-05:00

After lunch, Mr. Whittle and Mrs. Komarek went to South Middle School to meet with the Global Perspective class. Mr. Whittle created a PowerPoint presentation about Australia. He shared interesting facts about the climate, drought, and history of the continent. We learned about money and the government.

Assembly for 2nd and 3rd Grade Classes

2007-10-16T11:09:00.000-05:00

Mr. Whittle met with our 2nd and 3rd grade students and staff members in our Commons. It is also our lunch room and stage for presentations. He talked to us about similarities and differences in our schools. Knox School students wear uniforms. Windsor students are in casual clothes every day. Knox School teachers dress professionally every day, while Windsor teachers have casual Fridays. We discussed the length of our school day. Knox School starts at 8:50 AM and Windsor starts at 9:05 AM. The students had a lot of questions for Mr. Whittle. One question was about the Yakalt Factory in Australia.

Mr. Whittle's Visit To Arlington Heights, IL

2007-10-16T10:40:00.000-05:00

Mr. Whittle was busy from morning to night! He had to be on the 7:15 AM Metra train from Chicago to Arlington Heights. He arrived in Arlington Heights at 8:05 AM. Mrs. Komarek brought him to Windsor School, where he had a quick bite to eat before participating as our guest on the morning video announcements. Mr. Kaye, Windsor's Principal, and Mr. Whittle exchanged gifts for each school. Mr. Whittle brought his Opportunity Knox bag filled with pens, pencils, keychains, and erasers for classes. He presented us with an Aboriginal piece of pottery and some wonderful book about Australia. Mr. Kaye presented Mr. Whittle with an engraved plaque with the date and message "Global Partners in Education." Mr. Whittle presented us with a plaque from Knox School.

Windsor Welcome to Mr. Whittle

2007-09-11T09:39:00.000-05:00

Welcome back to Windsor for our new school year! The students had their first day on September 4th. Your second grade friends are now 3rd graders. We received your postcards in June after school had ended. What a great idea!!!

Mr. Whittle is going to spend a day at Windsor with the students on September 20th. We are excited to show him around the school and to have the opportunity to share a day of activities with him.

This is a picture of a black bear that I saw in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan this summer. He was about 10 feet away from me in the forest. The bear was looking for berries to eat.

HOLIDAYS FOR WINDSOR

2007-06-10T08:16:00.000-05:00

We wish you all a very happy holiday time over your Summer vacation. For us, it is Winter in Australia currently. In Melbourne we are experiencing some cold weather - certainly nowhere near as cold as it can get in Chicago, but cold for us. We have three more weeks of school and then we have a two week vacation for the end of Semester One. All students will receive a written report at the end of this semester. I am sure that Grizzly will have some wonderful experiences during this time, travelling to new and exciting places.

Brad Whittle

Last Day of School June 6

2007-06-05T12:34:00.000-05:00

Today we went to school for a half-day of school. We cleaned out our desks and received our yearbooks. Tomorrow is a short day, only 45 minutes. We will get our report cards and say farewell to our teachers and friends. Some of our friends will be attending different schools next year. Windsor's attendance number was higher than the other schools and the attendance area has been redistricted. We will miss our friends and wish them the best of luck at their new school.

Thanks for sharing with us and we look forward to continuing learning about Australia in the Fall.

Mrs. Komarek will continue monitoring the blog and answering any questions you have during our summer.

More of Grizzly in Sydney

2007-05-28T19:51:00.000-05:00

Grizzly tries to get a better view of the sights around Sydney, from the Skytower.
It's lucky Grizzly doesn't mind heights!
Time for some sunbaking at one of Sydney's famous beaches.

2007-05-28T19:35:00.000-05:00

Grizzly spent the weekend in Sydney with Adrian. Here is Grizzly outside Sydney Hospital
We're sure you can recognise where Grizzly is in this shot - that's the Sydney Opera House behind him.
Grizzly with the famous Sydney Harbour bridge in the background.
More shots to follow soon.

Australian Friends

2007-05-24T09:05:00.000-05:00

Thank you for the wonderful assortment of Australian books, souvenirs, and stuffed animals. We have read the stories and enjoyed the language difference with vocabulary words. Thank you for giving us the definitions. Fluffy and Gumleaf are having a good time in America.

Great photos Windsor School!

2007-05-24T00:13:00.000-05:00

We loved looking at Gumleaf and Fluffy exploring your school. It seems quite different to our school - Mr Whittle will be able to tell us even more about it when he goes to visit you later this year. You'll be pleased to hear that Grizzly has just set off to spend the weekend in Sydney, with Adrian, one of our classmates. If he takes some photos we'll try to get them on the Blog for you. We need to stop now, as it's time to pack up our bags. We'll add more news for you soon.
Best wishes
Year 2 & Mrs Mattison

GREAT TO SEE OUR GUMLEAF AND FLUFFY VISITING YOUR SCHOOL

2007-05-23T06:58:00.002-05:00

It is so good to see diffrent parts of your school - very exciting indeed. I am really looking forward to coming over and visiting in September. Over the next few days I will take some more images around our school and publish them on this blog.

Brad Whittle

Visiting with the Mascot

2007-05-22T11:17:00.001-05:00

Chicago Bears and Windsor Wildcats!

Bilingual Classroom

2007-05-22T11:14:00.001-05:00

Windsor is the only school in our district with a Bilingual program. Mrs. Swedo teaches the children in Spanish and in English.

Support Staff and Mobile Classrooms

2007-05-22T11:07:00.000-05:00

Windsor School loves Mr. Frank! He keeps everything running smoothly and always does it with a smile.

We needed to take a nap after touring the school, so we stopped into the Nurse's office for a rest.

There are two mobile classrooms. One is used as our conference room and the other is used by the PTA.

Playground and Lunch

2007-05-22T10:58:00.000-05:00

Look at all the equipment! The children have extended P.E. for a half-hour after lunch.

Speaking of lunch, take a look at the waste-free lunchbox.

What is lunch without a cold glass of milk? Got Milk?

This sculpture of Windsor students hangs in our Commons where we eat lunch in three shifts.

Let's Visit the Fine Arts Programs

2007-05-22T10:45:00.001-05:00

ABC/25 Foundation donated the climbing wall. What a fun activity! Mr. Gember, the Physical Education teacher, is off camera spotting us in case we fall.

Mrs. Ziemann is a fantastic music teacher! Every grade level produces and presents a musical performance for the school and gives an evening performance for their families.

The Art program is wonderful here! The walls are covered with Grant Wood's American Gothic works.

Mrs. Olson, the Art teacher, is so creative. She teaches the children to express themselves and love art. The children make their own projects with clay. The kiln gets very hot!

Stories and computers in the LMC

2007-05-22T10:24:00.000-05:00

We stopped in the LMC for a story. The Parent Teacher Association bought the new benches and the rug for the children.

A parent painted and decorated it, then donated this bookshelf to the ABC/25 Foundation Gala and Raffle. This bookcase was purchased and then donated to the LMC by Windsor family.

There are 30 computers in the lab. New eMacs are coming over the summer!

It is a beautiful day, so we went outside to the courtyard for a little sunshine.

This statue was donated in memory of a Windsor student, Ema. It represents the joy of childhood and the friendship she shared with her siblings.

The Day Begins Officially at 9:05

2007-05-22T10:14:00.000-05:00

1. The Before and After-School program, C.A.P., let us join them for some breakfast!

2. We lined up with the children and waited for the bell to ring.

3. Every morning we have live video announcements. Each day we start with the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.

A Day at Windsor School

2007-05-22T09:49:00.000-05:00

We are getting off the bus with the kids. What a fun ride!

Isn't this a big bus? Some have a white roof to reflect off the heat of the sun so the bus doesn't get too hot. We have 2 busses at Windsor.

Fluffy, Gumleaf and their friends stopped in the Office to chat with Mrs. Rozanski, the Administrative Assistant.

We are waiting to meet with Mr. Kaye, the Principal, and Mr. Dutton.

They just had a team meeting. There is so much to do at the end of the school year.

Some more images from The Knox School

2007-05-21T08:33:00.000-05:00

Here are a few more images taken around the school so you can have an idea of what our school is like.

PICTURE 1: Grizzly is visiting the Health Centre just to make sure that all is well.

PICTURE 2: Grizzly is visiting our Primary Library and meeting another bear, perhaps a distant cousin, from the North Pole.

PICTURE 3: Here Grizzly is outside the main entrance to our school.

PICTURE 4: Grizzly is at the main Reception area for our school. You can see our crest in the background on the wall.

We are close to the end of our Autumn (your Fall) and we will be starting Winter. It actually snowed today on the mountains, about 3 hours drive away. It certainly rarely snows in Melbourne.

Brad Whittle

Greetings from Grizzly in Australia

2007-05-21T08:12:00.000-05:00

Here are some images of your bear, we call him Grizzly, looking around our school - The Knox School. He is having a great time and enjoys spending time with students in their homes also.

PICTURE 1:
Grizzly is with Claudia, my Executive Assistant, in the Junior School Office.

PICTURE 2:
Grizzly is taken in Mrs Mattison's room near her computers. You can see the work these students have been doing on The Human Body.

PICTURE 3:
Grizzly checking out what is happening in the classroom.

We hope our koalas are enjoying their time at Windsor.

Brad Whittle

Mrs. Malinowski's Class

2007-05-16T14:38:00.000-05:00

Hello,

We were so happy to get the package with all the great books and animals. We want to use the boomerang and might have to use it in the gym.

Our school is named Windsor and our mascot is a Wildcat. Do you have a school mascot? Do you have spirit wear ? Do you have to wear uniforms every day. Do you have sales at the beginning of the year to buy school clothes?

Did you get any rain yet? We had a little rain yesterday and today we are supposed to get a storm with some hail, but it sure doesn't look like rain is coming since the sun is shining. We are learning about the rainforest and everyone made an animal in the rainforest. A girl in the class made a bee. It is hanging from our ceiling. We have a string coming down from the ceiling. Some of the animals are displayed on the ground and some are on a tree we made from paper. Our whole grade went on a field trip to the zoo last week to see the real animals. We had a perfectly warm and sunny day!

Our class has a lot of moms that come in to help us. Every week we have a special center time and while our teacher reads with us, different moms volunteer and come in to help us with our other activities. Some of our moms get to help us in our library too, by reading to us or helping us in the computer lab. We also have a mom volunteer to teach us a little bit about art each month. And, we had a lot of moms help out at the zoo. Parents also volunteer to help plan parties for our class, on Halloween and Valentine's Day. Even some of the dads get to volunteer at our school too! Do your parents ever get to come to your school to help out?

Do you celebrate Halloween or Valentine's Day?! What are your favorite holidays? Independence Day (on the 4th of July) is coming up soon and it's a big day in our country. There are parades all over in every town, carnivals during the week, and fireworks at night!

We'll all be home for summer vacation by then. We only have a few weeks of school left! Most of us will do things like go to camp or go on a family vacation. For vacations, many kids travel to different states within our own country, but some kids will get to go further, like Mexico or Canada. Some kids are going to Disney World! (Have any of you ever been to Disney World?) All of us are doing some kind of extra activity like swimming lessons, baseball, soccer, dance, or even performing in a play! Otherwise it's just fun to have extra time to ride bikes, play in the yard, or go to the local pool in town to swim. We have 6 different pools in our town that we can go to!

Have a G'Day Mate.

Mrs. Wilson's "Wilsonite" News

2007-05-16T10:05:00.000-05:00

Have you ever heard of a dog sled race?! We have! It is called the Iditarod. The Iditarod is held in the State of Alaska (49th state), every March. They start the race with 16 dogs and travel 1,049 miles from Anchorage to Nome. To learn about the race each student researched and tracked a different musher and their dogs throughout the 3 week race. A musher is a person who stands or sits on the sled and guides the dogs throuhout the race. If you would like information about the Iditarod go to http://www.iditarod.com

Last week we conducted research about 8 different habitats at the Brookfield Zoo. We learned all about the Rainforest, Forest, Tundra, Ocean, Ponds, Arctic, Grasslands and Desert. We are now beginning to write our 5 paragraph essay. Boy are we working hard, but having fun and learning a lot along the way!

We also finished writing our Wilsonite News newspaper. We all contribute to include a fun page with jokes, news about sports, classroom happenings, weather etc.

Our Author of the Month is Candice Fleming. She came to our school and talked about how she finds inspiration for her ideas and how she writes and edits. Like us, she always has to revise, revise, revise. Do you?

Thank you for your wonderful Austrialian kit you sent us! We are enjoying learning all about you, and hope you enjoy learning all about us!

Mrs. Kertz's News

2007-05-15T15:08:00.000-05:00

We had a great time at the zoo. We saw a giraffe. We did not see a koala, but we wished we did. We saw Emus and camels. We saw a lot of bats. We did see a wombat. We saw a baby polar bear. It was so cute. The mom was doing a dance! We saw sea lions, zebras, lions, hippos, monkeys, and tigers. It would be interesting to be in a smaller school. Even with 3 buses, many of us had to sit 3 kids to a seat. We had a lot of moms come with us on the field trip to help lead our groups.

We are looking forward to many end of the year activities. 2nd grade is going to have a "beach day" in a couple weeks. We get to go ouside and bring bubbles, beach blankets, chalk, and many other things to do outside. On that day, the older kids in our school get to go to the park and pool down the street from the school.

Looking forward to your next post.

Your friends in America.

Miss Christiansen's Class

2007-05-15T09:53:00.001-05:00

Good Day Mate,

We are going to try and answer your questions. We call felt tip pens, "markers." When we went to the zoo and looked for Australian animals. We saw koalas, wombats, emus, and kangaroos. We just finished reading Wombat Stew, the book you sent us and we wondered what some of those words mean. What is a billybong and what is a billy?

We have Character Counts in our school district. There are 6 pillars, Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship. Do you have Character Counts pillars at Knox School?

What do you call ice cream? What kind of brands do you have? What is your favorite snack? Are you allowed to have a snack at school?

Do you have a library in your school? How many computers are in your computer lab? We have 30 in the lab and 2 or 3 in each classroom.

Have you ever been to the Sydney Opera House? What does it look like? Have you ever seen a Tasmanian devil?

Do you get an allowance? How much money do you get and what chores do you have to do? What is your favorite toy?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Your firends.

Ms. Kertz's Class Comments

2007-05-08T15:18:00.000-05:00

G'Day Mates,

We saw a movie about Australia today with Dark Marker, Buzz, Penny, Atonio, Flo and Mr. A.R.T.I.S.T. It was about punctuation using periods and commas.

In our room we have Koala Roo. Our Koala has a backpack that he wears. He sits on a beanbag on our teacher's desk. We work to earn coins and on Friday, we count the coins and if we have 60 coins, we get an extra recess on Friday. He gets a new outfit each month and right now he is wearing sunglasses, a hat, a short-sleeved shirt, and shorts for the warmer weather. Today is around 80 degrees fahrenheit.

We are learning about habitats and one of them is the rainforest. We are writing animal reports. We get to pick the animal.

We are going to Brookfield Zoo tomorrow. Our class will be going by bus. All five 2nd grade classes will be going in 3 buses. We are packing our lunches.

After school some of us have soccer, baseball, or running club to go to. One of us has tennis lessons today.

I hope you get some rain. LOTS OF RAIN!!

From your friends

Mrs. Conway's Class comments

2007-05-07T09:40:00.001-05:00

We have a Writing Club that started this year. Close to 60 students participated. It was after school on Monday's once a month. Students in 2nd through 5th grade participated.

Our class is reading Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. Mrs. Conway is almost done reading it to the class. It is a read-aloud.

May 18th is Olumpics Day at the school. We rotate to different athletic competitions and get a lot of exercise. PTA, the Parent Teacher Association gives up a popsicle as a treat at the end of the day.

We celebrate Memorial Day on the last Monday of the month of May. We do not attend school. There is a parade in town that many of us will be marching in as part of the Cub Scouts or Girl Scouts or Indian Guides or Indian Princesses. Memorial Day honors the memory of all who have died for our country.

Our last day of school is June 6th, 2007. On July 4th, we celebrate America's independence from England. There are parades, picnics, and fireworks.

Package from Australia!

2007-05-02T09:53:00.000-05:00

We are so excited! Your package arrived safe and sound. What a surprise to see that the koala brought her friends, platypus and wombat, along for the trip to America. Fluffy and Gumleaf are going to enjoy Springtime in the Midwest.The grass is green and the flowers are all blooming. We have had rain which helped everything to grow.

The Wildlife Encyclopedia of Australian Animals has beautiful pictures and great information. We are going to read the stories together as a class. The postcards and the travel map will help us to locate any towns that we read about or you mention to us. Next week, we are taking a trip to the Brookfield Zoo. Now we will have to look for koalas, wombats, kangaroos, and playtpus!

Many of you mentioned the drought that you are in. Have you gotten any rain yet? We get our drinking water from Lake Michigan. It is one of the five Great Lakes. They are all fresh water lakes. Any easy way to remember them is to think of the word HOMES. Lake Huron, Lake Ontario, Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, and Lake Superior.

MAP Testing

2007-04-26T19:14:00.000-05:00

Second graders take a Math Survey test and a Reading Goals Survey test on the computers in the LMC lab. The tests are Measures of Academic Progress, or better know as the MAP tests. They take these tests three times a year. Once in the Fall(September), Winter (January), and in the Spring, (April and May). Do you take computerized tests at your school?

What kind of clubs do you have at school? We have Running Club and Chess Club. Both of them are held after school.

Do you learn a second language in school? If so, what language is taught? We have a chance to learn another language when we are in 6th grade.

It has been rainy here for the last few days. We have indoor recess on rainy days. Do you have a recess?

We are watching the mail everyday and looking forward to receiving the koala.

A photograph of a real Koala sitting in a gum tree.

2007-04-24T23:41:00.000-05:00

Way to go!

2007-04-24T20:15:00.000-05:00

Gail,

I think the Comic Life is fantastic. Great use of technology! I'm excited about the opportunity to connect with a school in Australia. Before the end of the year we should arrange for a live video conversation via the internet. Thank you for making the project come to life for our second graders.

Brian

Compare, Contrast, or Research an Interesting Topic

2007-04-24T10:58:00.000-05:00

The second graders used books from the Windsor Library and from the Arlington Heights Memorial Library to research a topic. They were asked to compare, contrast, or learn about an interesting topic that related to Australia and the United States. They were given a storyboard template to organize their ideas onto. Then they came to the computer lab and used a program, Comic Life, available to Apple users. I created a sample for the students to see. I am attaching a picture of it. Mrs. K

Scavenger Hunt

2007-04-20T06:31:00.000-05:00

The Scavenger Hunt questions at Open House were:

1. What continent is second grade learning about?

2. What island is in the Southeast corner of Australia?

I bet you know the answers to those questions!

Open House

2007-04-19T06:39:00.000-05:00

Spring is trying to give us a beautiful day. The daffodils are in bloom. The forsythia bushes are open and showing off their yellow leaves. The hyacinths are blooming in pink, purple, and white. The little anemone flowers are turning their white, pink, and purple heads to follow the sun. We are expecting to reach 54 degrees F. today.

Tonight is our Open House from 6:30 - 8:00 PM. The school is open to the community. All of the staff is present and we showcase the children's work on our bulletin boards. In the LMC, an Australian map is hanging. A fourth grade class is using it as part of a scavenger hunt. They have to find out what island is in the Southeast region of Australia. We will be displaying our compare, contrast, and items of interest Comic Life project. Comic Life is a program available on Apple computers.

Have a G'Day!

Black Bear Adventure

2007-04-18T18:14:00.000-05:00

Our five second grade classes have written notes to our Australian buddies. We sent them in the package with the black bear and some books to Australia. Did you know that a customs form had to be filled out since the package weighed more than 4 pounds? It took one week to get to the Knox School. We are anxiously awaiting our koala bear package.

Australian Connection

2007-03-09T14:40:00.000-06:00

We are taking part in a "Teddy Bear" project with Knox School in Australia. Second graders are packing up a black bear and his honey to send with books about the bears of North America.