Introduction from Havergal College Junior School, Toronto, Ontario CANADA
Hi water project pals,
Here us our introduction
(written by Mrs. Thom's and Mrs. Siatkowski's
Grade Two classes)
Please visit our website to see the pictures:
http://www.hccommunity.havergal.on.ca/btaylor/waterproject.htm
Our City
Toronto is a big city. It is the biggest city
in all of Canada. It has three million people living in it. It is located
on one of the five Great
Lakes, which are the biggest fresh water lakes
in the world. Our city, Toronto, is famous because the C.N. (Canadian National)
Tower is
the tallest structure in the world. Other interesting
places to visit here are the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and the Ontario
Science Centre.
Toronto also has many great sports teams. Here
are some of them: The Blue Jays play baseball - they have won the World
Series twice; the
Maple Leafs play hockey; the Raptors play basketball;
the Rock play lacrosse and the Argonauts play football. What is the tallest
structure
that you have in your country? Do you have any
sports teams?
Our School
Our Junior School is a big building that is on
two floors. It is a new building which we moved into only two years ago.
There are
six grades in this school -and two classes of
each grade. We also have both a Junior and a Senior Kindergarten class.
We have a
tall clock tower at the front entrance of the
school. Our Senior School is on the same property but in a different building.
We start
each day in the gym with a group assembly which
we call "Prayers". Usually, the principal of our school tells us a story
or talks
to us about a special idea like friendship, kindness
and so on. We also sing hymns since our school was founded on the Anglican
tradition.
Our Class
There are 38 girls in the two Grade Two classes.
Our teachers are Mrs. Thom, Mrs. Siatkowski and Mrs. Goldstein. Our classrooms
are side by side at the end of the primary hall.
We have learned about a lot of things so far like animals and simple machines
in science;
sorting, adding and subtracting, time and money
in math; and mapping, traditions and celebrations in social studies. Right
now we are learning about pioneers, which is
really fun and interesting. Soon we will begin our study about water.
Our Weather
We are near a very big lake, Lake Ontario, so
we normally get lots of precipitation. We want to tell you about our seasons.
We have
four of them in all. First is winter. Toronto
has lots of snow in winter. Sometimes, we have storms called blizzards.
We have fun making
snowmen and snow angels. Next comes spring. We
have wonderful flowers in spring like tulips and daffodils. Next comes
summer.
In the summer, we can swim in pools and lakes
outdoors. Last, we have the season of fall or autumn. Many of our trees
have leaves that
change colour and fall off. The trees stay bare
until late spring. Some trees, like evergreen trees, stay green all year
round.
Introduction from Payson Seymour Elementary, Payson, Illinois, USA
Hello from Payson Seymour Elementary in Payson,
Illinois USA.
Our class is Mr. Smith's 5th grade (ages 10-11)
and we're ready to get involved in the International Water Project.
We are a small community near the western border
of Illinois. Our neighbors of Missouri and Iowa are just across the Mississippi
River.
Most people in Payson make a living from farming,
but many also drive to nearby Quincy to work. Weather in this part of the
state can
vary drastically. Most winters are mild with
very little snow, but this winter has brought long periods of sub-zero
temperatures,
windy conditions, and lots and lots of snow.
As a result, students have already had five days off for bad weather. This
week
promises temperatures in the 40's F and we're
all quite looking forward to the change.
Notable happenings in our part of the state include
visits by President Clinton and Vice President Gore this year. Long ago,
another would-be
president visited our area: Abraham Lincoln debated
Steven Douglas about 12 miles from here.
We are currently studying water ecosystems so
it should fit nicely with our project involvement. We took a poll
in class and we think
this project will be a great way to learn how
other students around the world study about water. We have a website at
www.dstream.net/tksmith
and we hope to display some of the concepts we
encounter about water.
So long for now,
Introduction from Colonel Light Gardens Primary School, Adelaide, South Australia
Hello everyone,
We are Miss Weekes year 5 class
from Colonel Light Gardens Primary School. Colonel Light Gardens is a
suburb of
Adelaide, South Australia‚s capital city of just
over 1 million people. Our school was built in 1926 and is named after
Colonel
William Light, our state's main Founder. The
things that make our school special are that we have over 500 students.
During World War 2 Colonel Light Gardens Primary
School was a combined Primary School and High School. They had
about fifty students in each classroom. We have
thirty-one students in our class.Here are some special facts about South
Australia.
It was founded as a colony for European settlement
in 1836 though Aboriginal people have lived here for many thousands of
years.
It used to be very poor but then they found copper
in 1845. For many years the state was mainly agricultural and it
still grows most
of Australia's barley plus a lot of wheat.
South Australia is a very dry state with
big desert areas in the north, which make our climate very hot in summer.
We wish we could have
days off school like the students in Paysonville
ˆ but we want them when it is over 40 Degrees Celsius! We are having a
very hot summer.
They make a lot of wine in South Australia in
the Barossa Valley and around the River Murray. Our State fish in is the
leafy sea dragon (a
kind of seahorse), our State animal is the Hairy
Nosed Wombat and Our State flower is Sturt‚s Desert Pea (we will send pictures
later on)
The main sports played in SA are Australian Rules
Football (Our two teams are the Crows and Port Power), soccer, Basketball
(The Œ36'ers
have one the national championships), cricket
and tennis. Ice hockey is not played much here as we do not have snow and
ice in the winter!!!!
We are enjoying reading everyone's
e-mails and have maps in the classroom with pins to show where each school
is.
Introduction from School No.
217, St. Petersburg Russia
Hello Everyone. We are students of the 5th grade
of school No.217, St-Petersburg, Russia. And we're glad to greet
all, who is
participating in Water Project.
We live in a large city - St-Petersburg. It is
the second largest city in Russia. Our city is situated on the southern
coast of the Finnish Gulf.
For more than 200 years St-Petersburg was
the capital of Russia. And at the present time people call it "Northern
capital"(because Moscow
is capital of Russia for the last 80 years).
The population is about 5 million. A lot of world-famous museums,
palaces and monuments are
situated here. The town of fountains -
Peterhoff is one of the oldest and the most beautiful places to visit here.
Our city was founded 300 years ago on the bog.
And now the territory of our city includes 8 islands. We have a lot
of canals and rivers in our
city. That's why very often people call
St-Petersburg as Northern Venice. Around our city we have many lakes.
The climate of St-Petersburg is very humid. Very
often the level of humidity is about 98%. We have only 40 sunny days
during the year.
It is very often rainy here. And for the
last 5 years the weather became much warmer here. The winter is very
warm in this year. We had
only 5 days when the temperature was below 0.
Today it is 37 outside. Which is very warm for us.
Ecological problems are very important for us.
Because such a large city with a lot of factories and plants needs
in a huge amount of water.
And it is very interesting for us to know
how other students in the world study and take care of water.
We are waiting to hear from you soon,
The 5th grade, Tatyana Shkarina and Oleg Siidra
School No.217, St-Petersburg, Russia.
Introduction
from Pinehurst Primary Cape Town, South Africa
Dear Water Pals
We are a Grade 4 class from Pinehurst Primary
in Cape Town, South Africa. We are looking forward to the project
and
hearing from you soon. We have two grade
4 classes in our school and we have decided to combine our research this
year,
so in all there are 65 children working on this
project. Our teachers are Mrs Tuck and Miss Bergset.
Here is a little about Mrs Tuck's class:
We are a class of 33 children and we are between 9 and 10 years old.
Group 1: Blue Whales
Our names are Tammy, Daniella, Joshua and Bonny.
Bonny enjoys collecting Tazzo's; Joshua's hobbies are collecting
Pokemon cards; Daniella's hobbies are art and
baking, and Tammy enjoys swimming and running. We all enjoy some
form of pasta, especially pizza's. We have
just over 400 children in our school. The area in which we live
has lovely mountains.
Group 2: Leopard Colours
Our names are Andrea, Andrew, Charlotte and Sebastian.
we enjoy stamp collecting, playing music, game ranging,
cricket, ice skating, netball, hockey and gymnastics.
Our favourite foods are pizza, chicken pie, chinese food, pasta,
bacon and eggs and fish fingers. In South Africa
we have animals such as the buffalo, lion, elephant and hippo.
In the town where we live (Pinelands) there are
many pine trees and cute squirrels.
Group 3: Killer Whales
Hi! Our names are Ashleigh, Richard, Kareesha
and Patrick. We enjoy sony games, collecting Pokemon cards,
swimmng and horse riding. Our favourite
foods are pizza, and lasanga. We have an awesome Theme Park
called Ratanga Junction where we go on many scary
and exciting rides. It is such fun!
Group 4: Cobra Mania
We are Emma, Angela, Mark and Glenn. We
enjoy collecting Tazzo's, reading, suntanning and making things.
Pizza's, hamburgers, hotdogs and hot chips are
our favourite foods. There are 11 official languages spoken in South
Africa.
Most of them are African languages.
Group 5: Dolphins
We are Sarah, Faheem, Taariq and Dalene. Sarah
enjoys art, chocolate and Macdonalds; Faheem enjoys playing soccer,
eating Big Mac burgers and Steers burgers. Taariq
likes swimming and eating Saddles' burgers; and Dalene enjoys horse riding,
eating chocolates and big Mac's too. We
enjoy our school and our country is really beautiful.
Group 6: Anything Under The Sun
Nabeelah, Michelle, Peter and Benjamin belong
in this group. Our hobbies and interests are cricket, swimming,
birdwatching and dancing. Our favourite foods
are pizza, chops and hamburgers. For the past 3
months in Pinelands, where we live, there have
been water restrictions.
Group 7: White Tigers
Our names are Penny, Christy, Kwakhona and Sarah.
Our hobbies are gym, swimming, rugby, judo and horse riding.
We love eating pizza's, fish and hot chips.
Our school has a swimming pool, tennis courts and a computer room.
We have many tourist attractions in Cape Town
such as Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch Gardens and wonderful beaches.
Group 8: Black Panthers
We are Thomas, Matthew, Zuko, Samantha and Tamryn.
We enjoy spending time suntanning and going to the beach,
playing cricket and swimming. We are busy preparing
for Sports Day so we have spent most of our school day outside of the
classroom. It's been fun.
We hope that you have enjoyed getting to know
us personally. We look
forward to learning from you all.
Until the next time
Grade 4 T
Introduction from Ray Miller Elementary School, Kirksville, Missouri, USA
We live in Kirksville, Missouri, USA. It
is a small city of 18,500 people. We are almost in the center of the USA;
the
Mississippi River is about 60 miles away. Kirksville
has four seasons. Our winters are cold and snowy, this year we
have been out of school 5 days because of snow
or freezing rain. Spring brings warmer weather and frequent rain;
sometimes we have severe thunderstorms and tornado
watches. In the spring flowers start to bloom. Summer in Kirksville
is hot, sometimes more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit,
we have high humidity, too. In the fall our trees have beautiful
leaves,
orange, red, yellow, and brown. It sometimes
frosts at night.
Kirksville is the home of osteopathic medicine;
we have a medical college here. We also have a four-year liberal
arts university,
Truman State University.
We have a large lake at Thousand Hills State
Park. Many people go hiking, swimming, boating, camping, or fishing
at this park.
Kirksville also has a new aquatic center with
both indoor and outdoor pools. In the summer many people play on
city baseball
or softball teams.
Our third grade class is at Ray Miller Elementary
School; we have about 600 students in third through fifth grade at our
school.
Our class is part of a state project. This
project provides a computer for every two students, a Smartboard and LCD
projector,
we are connected to the Internet, and we have
a phone in our room.
In our class we have 8 girls and 12 boys.
Our class has been studying fractions, division, subtraction, multiplication,
deserts,
Pilgrims, cursive writing, Columbus, Abraham
Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Hobbies in our class include:
kickball,
running, swimming, sports, reading, playing video
games, riding bicycles, collecting baseball, football, or pokemon cards,
and
horseback riding. Our favorite foods include:
pizza, candy, chocolate, ramen noodles, pickles, pumpkin pie, and Mexican
food.
We look forward to learning about all of your
schools. Please check out our web page, we are still working on it.
http://schoolweb.missouri.edu/kirksville.k12.mo.us/bowers/
Introduction from Rosenwald-Dunbar Elementary, Jessamine County, Kentucky USA
Greetings from Rosenwald-Dunbar Elementary, Jessamine
County, Kentucky. Two fourth grade classes from our school are
participating in this project. Here’s our
Introduction.
Our Community
Jessamine County was formed in 1799. Nicholasville
is the county seat. John Michael Montgomery, a popular country music
singer,
was born in Jessamine County. Our Jessamine
Jamboree is an annual fall festival, celebrated with a parade, food, crafts,
music and street fair.
Jessamine County is also the home of Camp Nelson
( a Civil War site), Asbury College and Seminary, and High Bridge (once
the tallest
wooden railroad structure). High Bridge
Spring Water is also bottled here. We are 8 miles from Lexington,
the "horse capital of the world".
Lexington is the home of the national champion
University of Kentucky Wildcats, Kentucky Thoroughblades hockey team, and
soon the
Lexington Legends minor league baseball team.
Our School
Rosenwald-Dunbar Elementary is 9 years
old and in the shape of a large L. There are 650 students, in kindergarten
through 5th grade,
and 48 teachers in our school. We have
library, music, gym and art programs in our school. We really enjoy school-wide
activities like
Field Day, the Spring Fling, Jump Rope for Heart,
the Christmas Program and Talent Show.
Our Classes
Mrs. Bernard’s fourth grade class has 14 boys
and 9 girls. We like to have fun. We like sports, pizza and
nachos. The "Comfy Chair"
in our room is a favorite spot. You can
read or play games there. We like computers and science experiments. Lots
of our students like to draw.
"Brain Breaks" are fun and come before or after
really hard work. We have a chance to choose things to do for 10 minutes
to rest our brains.
Hammy, the hamster, is our class pet. He
likes to run in his wheel, sleeps most of the day and sometimes bites.
But we love him anyway.
Mrs. Pridemore’s fourth grade class has 15 boys
and 9 girls. We enjoy video games, watching TV and playing sports.
We play soccer and
playground tag at recess. Our teacher is totally
into animals!!!! We have a mini zoo in our classroom. We take
care of hamsters, fish,
turtles, guinea pigs, salamander, birds.
We also have an outside animal center that has a fish pond for fish and
a turtle, bird feeders, and
bushes and trees. We can watch the animals
from our classroom window.
Mrs. Barnes is the Technology Integration Specialist
at our school. She is working with five students from each class on this
Internet
collaboration project. Each team will report
to the participants and back to their classes during this project.
Teaming together, Mrs. Bernard’s and Mrs. Pridemore’s
classes have been studying water and the environment all year. We have
visited the
local water and sewage treatments plants. We
also visited Jessamine Creek (a local stream that provides water for some
residents)
to study water quality and animals. We took a
field trip to Martin County, Kentucky, to study runoff from a coal slurry
and its effects
on the environment. It was the biggest
environmental disaster in the eastern United States. Our studies and field
trips have been the
subject of several local newspaper articles.
Introduction from Pettisville Elementary School, Ohio USA
Dear Water Pals,
Our School:
Hello from Pettisville Elementary School in Pettisville,
Ohio. We are a group of 25 third graders in Mrs. Walsh 's classroom.
There are 11 boys and 14 girls in our classroom.
Our school is a K-12 building. The elementary includes grades 1-6,
and there are two sections
of each grade. There are two gyms in our school,
two computer labs, and a library and media center that we love to visit
as often as we can.
Our Community:
Pettisville is a very small community located
in northwestern Ohio. About 40 miles directly to our east is Lake Erie,
one of the Great Lakes
which is the largest fresh supply of water
in the world. Most of the land surrounding our community is very
flat, and is used for farming.
Fertile soil is an important natural resource
for farmers in our area. Farming is a very important industry in
Ohio. Corn, soybeans, and
wheat are the major crops grown around us. Farmers
also raise livestock such as beef cattle, hogs, and dairy cows.
Even though we live in an agricultural area, there
is also quite a bit of industry in northwestern Ohio. In nearby Archbold,
Ohio Sauder Manufacturing
Company is the largest producer of ready to assemble
furniture in the U.S.A. There are also quite a few factories near
us that make parts for the
automotive industry, which is the major
industry of the midwestern United States.
If you ever travel to our area you might
want to visit Sauder Village. It is an historical village that tells the
story of life in the Great Black
Swamp of Northwestern Ohio in the 1800s.
Cedar Point, a large amusement park in Sandsuky, Ohio is about 2
hours away from Pettisville,
and a favorite summertime visit.
A Few of our Favorites:
We love to play outside at recess, because we
have a large playground with lots of fun equipment. Tag, kickball,
soccer, basketball, and football
are some of our favorite recess activities.
Other favorites of ours include pizza, tacos,
chicken nuggets, lasagne, and a favorite lunch at our school is haystacks.
Can you guess what they may be?
Kids in our class enjoy collecting stamps, rocks,
sportscards, marbles, buttons, and Beanie Babies.
Last week we celebrated Right To Read Week in
our school. The theme was Find the Magic in Books! Our favorite part of
our school day is
independent reading time. Some of our favorite
authors include Beverly Cleary, Joanna Hurwitz, Gail Gibbons, Laura
Ingalls Wilder, and
Gertrude Chandler Warner. We also enjoy Junie
B. Jones books, because Junie B. is so funny!
Our Weather:
Our weather this year has been interesting. A
record snowfall for one month was recorded during December, with 26 inches
of snowfall.
Then, during January we hardly had any
snow at all. We have missed 4 days of school this year due to bad
weather. We sometimes get a
lot of fog here in northwestern Ohio. In fact,
school was closed 2 days due to foggy conditions.
We are looking forward to working with each of
you during this project. Water is very important to our community
because of the impact it has
upon agriculture.
It has been fun to receive your letters, and
to learn about each of your communities and schools. We hope to soon
have some pictures up on
our school's homepage for you to view.
Have a great week-end,
Third graders from Pettisville, Ohio
Introduction from Fairfield Elementary School, Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA
Hi from Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA
We are in the fifth grade at Fairfield
Elementary School. Virginia Beach is in the very southeast corner
of the state of Virginia.
Virginia is on the east coast of the U.S. (about
in the middle). To our east is the Atlantic Ocean. To our north
is Chesapeake Bay.
To our south is the state of North Carolina.
Our latitude is about 36-50 N. Our Longitude is about 076-10 W. Our
school is about
10 miles from the ocean and 6 miles >from Chesapeake
Bay.
Our school has kindergarten through
5th grade. We have about 530 students. Our mascot is a Falcon.
We have a big variety of weather. We have
4 seasons and we are in winter now. Wednesday (2 days ago) it was 67 degress
Farenheit (F) and sunny. Yesterday we had
2 hours of snow - really big snow flakes - while we were in school.
It was enough to
turn everything white. Then the snow changed
to rain and we had a cold wet mess. Last night it got down to 26
F and all of the
wet stuff froze. Today we are supposed to warm
up to about 40 F. Sunday we may be back up to 65 F.
Some of the foods we like are:
- pizza (especially
from Papa John's)
- hamburgers
- pancakes
- ice cream
- chinese food
- spaghetti
- most of the
stuff from McDonald's (that is a fast food chain that does a lot of hamburgers
and other stuff)
- fried chicken
- tacos
Some of our hobbies / sports are:
- soccer
- drawing
- roller skating
- skate boarding
- basketball
- football
- cheerleading
- baseball
- bicycling
- horseback riding
The area we live in is sometimes
called Tidewater because there is so much water around here that is affected
by the
ocean tides. We are looking forward to hearing
from all of you.
Have a good week - Fairfield Falcons
Introduction from Compton Primary School South Australia
Mt Gambier is a lovely little city. It has lots
of bush and a mountain with centenery tower on top and our famous blue
lake. Justine's hobbies are
water skiing and basket ball and mel's hobbies
are reading and horse riding when I get a stock horse. Justine's favourite
foods are lollies, noodles,
and white Mud cake. Mel's favourite foods are
pizza, noodles, and fish and chips. Compton is a area just 5km out of mount
gambier.
From Justine & Mel
Introduction from Cowell Area School Cowell, South Australia
Our Country
Our country is Australia.
Our country is big, about the same size as the
USA.
Our country is covered in wild flowers, trees
and bushes.
Our country is surrounded by the sea and islands.
Our country has seven states and two territories.
Our country has climates from rainforests through
to deserts.
Our country was created in 1901 through a vote
not a war.
Our countryís first Prime Minister was
Edmund Barton.
Our countryís capital is Canberra.
Our country is sometimes but soon it will be
Autumn.
Our country has a lot of wild animals.
Our country is a continent.
Our country is a big island.
Australia was called New Holland by the first
Europeans to discover it.
Our State
Our state is South Australia (SA).
Our football teams are the Adelaide Crows and
the Port Power.
Our state capital is Adelaide.
We live on the Eyre Peninsula.
Our state is at in the bottom and in the middle
of Australia.
The bottom of our state is the southern coast.
South Australia and the other states used to
be separate colonies.
Our state is very hot and we use a lot of electricity
for air conditioning.
Our Town
Our town is Cowell.
Our Town is small and beautiful.
Cowell is near the sea and the Spencer Gulf.
There are about 600 people in or near Cowell.
Cowell is on Franklin Harbour. There is an island
in the Harbour called Death Adder Island because there are snakes there.
We also have a boat ramp and a very old jetty which used to have a rail
track.
Most people in Cowell like to go fishing.
The main industries in Cowell are oysters, sheep
and wheat farms. We also have a Jade mine.
Most mums and dads work.
We donít have many shops but we do have
two pubs and two ovals.
Our School
Our school is Cowell Area School. We are a medium
sized area school with about two hundred students and twenty teachers.
We have students from Reception to Year Twelve (ages 5-18). Our Principal
is Mrs Burton.
Some people come to school on a bus (up to 35km
away), some come by car, some ride their bikes and some walk.
Our school has an aquaculture focus. We have
lots of sea animals, a working oyster lease and an oyster shed.
We have a Fauna Park and a Flora Park at our
school. We also have a swimming pool.
Some mums and dads come back to school to learn
new things.
We have a weather station at the back of our
school.
The school used to be on Main Street. That building
has been turned into a house.
We learn Indonesian.
Our school colours are blue and gold.
Our Class
Our class is Year 3/4. Our teacher is Mr Rogers.
Our room is very comfortable. We have pet called Trev, he is a marron,
which is a type of freshwater crayfish. Last year we had green tree frogs
and black bream. We have a Star of the Day each day. There are 24 people
in our class, 8 boys and 16 girls. Seven people live on farms. We have
swimming lesson twice each week and spelling every morning after we check
the rain gauge.
Sorry we're late.
---
Malcolm J Rogers
Cowell Area School
COWELL SA 5602
www.cowellas.sa.edu.au