PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS
2009-2010 Year Long Projects
*Postcard Project - USA and International
2009-2010 Short term Projects
Fall Projects
Spring Projects
Why participate in projects?They are exciting and fun!They'll help us learn our geography and improve our communication skills.How can families help?* Talk to your child about the projects throughout the year* A USA map and a World map at home is an excellent idea!* Donate New York State postcards or other small (light) souveniers that we can send to other classrooms (if your second grader finds it interesting, other K-3 students will as well) - anything free you find!!* Volunteer to "host" a travel buddy on a night or weekend - your responsibility would be to help record the "adventure" in the journal - digital photos are wonderful, but not crucial. If you have a special event planned and would like to bring a travel buddy, please ask in advance so that children are not disappointed if someone else has already signed up for that day. * A postage donation would be welcome * If you or a member of your family travel during the school year, you could send us a picture postcard.
* USA Postcard Project
We will mail postcards to each of the other participating USA classrooms and receive postcards in return. This project begins in October and ends December 15th. We're hoping that all 50 states will be represented but some states are hard to find volunteer classrooms from. We'll keep track on a map in our classroom and also keep a checklist online.
* Flat Stanley
Flat Stanley is a book written by Jeff Brown. In this book Stanley Lambchop is sleeping in his bed one night when a bulletin board falls on him and he becomes flat! He has many adventures in the book including being able to be mailed to friends in California.
Participants in the Flat Stanley project make flat people and mail them to other classrooms around the United States and world. The flat people return with entries in their journals about the "adventures" in the other schools and possibly a souvenier. This will be St. Thomas' fifth year participating in this project. We will read the story in late October and begin our journals then. Our Flat People will not be mailed until early Spring. We will "host" Flat People from other classrooms throughout the year whenever someone needs us to volunteer.* Traveling Buddies Projects
This year Miss Miller's second grade class will participate in more than one Traveling Buddies project
Objective: Participating classrooms will learn about other areas of the country through the exchange of class mascots, journals, photo albums and some links related to different areas of the country. The St. Thomas second grade will have web pages for each mascot so that students and families can keep track of the mascots. The projects will begin in September and end in May. Each of our mascots will start the year in the classroom. Digital pictures will be taken of our classroom activities and included in a journal to be mailed to other classrooms along with a description of the school and community. Throughout the year we will host mascots from other classrooms adding digital photos and journal entries to their scrapbooks. Responsible families will have the opportunity to "host" at night and on weekends. (Look for an interest form to go home in September.) This will be the third year St. Thomas has participated. Journals from other years are available in the classroom.Each summer the buddies hang out with Miss Miller!
August 2007 - Curious George, Tommee the Tiger, and Skye the American Eagle spent the summer
getting acquainted. They travelled with Miss Miller
to York Beach, Maine in August! They helped her
make a sand castle and met a new friend, Madison
visiting Maine from Florida!
August 2008 - A new Curious George, Betsy Bear, and E. Pluribus Unum the American Eagle met in York Beach,
Maine and became friends. They had a chance to
make a sand castle with Madison who was again
visiting from Florida!
August 2009 - For this year's trip to Maine Curious George, Betsy Bear and E. Pluribus Unum were joined by a new American Eagle, Douglas. Madison is a year older but still enjoys building sand castles with Miss Miller and the buddies. this year Miss Miller's siter, Lynn, came onvacation also.Where will our buddies travel this school year?
E. Pluribus Unum and Douglas will spend the year in Scotland.
Curious George will travel to classrooms in the United States.
Our Travel Buddies 2008 - 2009
Curious George traveled about 7897 miles and visit:
Thomson, Georgia Clearwater, Florida
Clearwater, FloridaNatchez, Mississippi Centralia, IllinoisBattlecreek, Michigan Temecula, California Minot, North DakotaWest Palm Beach, Florida Dothan, Alabama
Dothan, AlabamaNapleonville, Louisiana Joplin, MissouriOklahoma City, Oklahoma Layton, UtahSedalia, MissouriOur Travel Buddies 2007-2008:
Our Curious George traveled about 8830 miles to:
Thomson, Georgia Clearwater, FloridaGladewater, Texas Shawnee, OklahomaPaducah, Kentucky Temecula, CaliforniaMinot, North DakotaWest Point, Ohio (Unfortunately Curious George never made it home. He was lost somewhere between Kentucky and California.)Our Tommee the Tiger traveled about 6,763 miles to:
West Palm Beach, Florida Dothan, AlabamaNapleonville, Louisiana Joplin, MissouriOklahoma City, Oklahoma Abita Springs, LouisianaSlater, Missouri Developing International Friendships is also important to Us
American Eagle, E Pluribus Unum
September - May 2009
E Pluribus Unum and his twin brother Douglas will spend the year as exchange students in Mrs. Parfact's classroom in Scotland. Her dogs will spend the year at St. Thomas! It will be up to us to make sure they receive lots of Tender Loving Care. We'll make sure that we take lots of photographs to send to their class and write about all of their adventures.
American Eagle, E Pluribus Unum went to Australia
September - December 2008 E Pluribus Unum made his first trip out of the USA Werribee, Victoria, Australia. He stayed at the Westgrove Primary School under the supervision of Mr. Lindsay Paterson, the music teacher. Their Sally the Music Monkey came to visit St. Thomas.
Our American Eagle, Skye went to Australia.
September - December 2007 - A Primary Teacher at St. James Lutheran Primary School in Hervey Bay, Queensland, Australia sent us her Lucky the Lizard. Lucky arrived at St. Thomas on September 21, 2007. We sent Skye to her class on Saturday, September 29! Skye returned to us in December with a journal full of entries!* Pen Pals from Egypt 2007 - 2009
For two years Miss Miller's class exchanged pen pal letters with Ms. Yasmine's class in Cairo, Egypt. Ms. Yasmine teaches 7-8 year olds at the Green Valley School. More Information
