Dear Friends in Florida,
We are a Grade 1/2 class at Stephen Central PS in Crediton, Ontario, Canada. There are 21 kids in our class and we are between 6-8 years old. There are 12 boys and 9 girls. We have 2 teachers – their names are Mrs. Cassell and Ms. King. Mrs. Cassell teaches us literacy and social studies in the morning, and Ms. King teaches us math, science, gym and health, art, drama, and dance.
There are almost 200 kids in our school. It is a fairly small school. Our playground has swings, monkey bars, slides, climbers, and sand boxes. We also have lots of nature trails in the forest and we often see different animals on nature walks. We might see snakes, birds, frogs and toads, lots of insects, spiders, bunnies, and maybe even a fox or a deer. We love going on nature walks!
We are very excited to get to know you. We have some questions for you:
1. What is the name of your school?
2. How many kids are in your class?
3. What grade are you in?
4. What does you school yard look like? Do you have nature trails?
5. Do you have iPads that you use for learning?
6. What season is it in Florida? Do you have different seasons?
Please reply to our post. We are looking forward to learning with you!
Your Friends,
Busy Bees
PS – We would really love to have a video conference with you if possible before the end of the school year. It would be great to meet you face to face!
Leigh Cassell Consulting 
Hi Busy Bees!
Thank you for sending us a letter. We too are very excited to learn and chat with you! We live in Florida and have 18 students in our class. We are all 3rd graders, but are almost 4th graders! Our school year will end in 11 days.
The name of our school is Chasco Elementary. We study and learn in a portable classroom that has a big football field and running track behind it, a PE court and playground to our right and a Pre-K playground in front of us. Our school is connected to a Middle School also called Chasco. Our school has grades Pre-K through fifth. We have a beautiful courtyard with small trees and picnic tables for families to eat at. We have a big cafeteria with a traffic light that tells us how loud we are. We do not have any nearby nature trails.
Our school has Ipads that we share throughout the year. We do have Mac computers that we use for research and learning. Some of our favorite sites are Canvas, ABCYa, Blendspace and Google Docs.
It is Spring now, but it feels like summer! We do have different seasons but the weather in Florida is mostly warm or hot all year. The winters get about 40-60 degrees, but this last winter we did get a day under 32 degrees! It never snows here.
We have a few questions for you:
1. What does your town and school look like? Do you have a lot of nature or is it city like with lots of buildings?
2. What types of websites do you use?
3. Do you go on nature trails as part of school or just for fun with families?
4. What do your homes look like?
5. How cold does your winter get? Do you get ice or snow in the Spring?
6. Do you have other teachers except your two teachers? Like Specials teachers?
7. What is it like to have both 1st and 2nd graders in your class?
We look forward to hearing from you again!
~3rd Grade Treehouse
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Dear Grade 3 Treehouse,
We really like that you commented back to us on our blog. We have copied your questions below and written our answers to them! We will create a new post with pictures of our school and send you the link so you can see what it looks like here.
1. What does your town and school look like? Do you have a lot of nature or is it city like with lots of buildings?
Our town is surrounded by nature and farmland. Our town is very small, but we are fortunate to have a big school yard. We will share some pictures with you soon!
2. What types of websites do you use?
We use Google, Google Earth, Raz-Kids, Edublogs, PebbleGo (for science),
Some of our favourite apps are:
Coding games
Pic Collage
Book Creator and iBooks
Edublogs
RecordingLite
Poplet
News-o-matic and Hooked on Phonics
and a few others . . .
3. Do you go on nature trails as part of school or just for fun with families?
We use our nature trails for both. We go on nature walks during the school day and on the weekends with our families.
4. What do your homes look like?
Our houses have 2 stories with bedrooms upstairs and living rooms and kitchens downstairs. Our houses are made of brick, wood, and sometimes houses have siding instead of bricks.
5. How cold does your winter get? Do you get ice or snow in the Spring?
Our winters can be very cold. Some days we can’t outside because our skin would freeze within minutes. The temperature in the winter is usually between -15 and -30 degrees Celcius, but with the wind it can get even colder. We often have snow beginning in November and the snow can last until April. Winter can be very long!
6. Do you have other teachers except your two teachers? Like Specials teachers?
Yes – we have a music teacher named Mrs. MacLeod. Sometimes when our teachers are away we have a supply teacher.
7. What is it like to have both 1st and 2nd graders in your class?
It can be difficult sometimes because our teachers have to keep track of who is in what grade. We think it is the same are being in a straight grade because we are all friends and we are always learning.
Now we have some questions for you!
1. What do you houses look like? Are they open and do they have basements?
2.What do you use your track for? Do you play football or other sports?
3. Do you have track and field?
4. What do you do at recess on your school yard?
5. Do you have a Family Fun Fair?
6. What kinds of animals do you have in Florida? Do you see whales, sharks, and dolphins?
We would love it if you could email us some pictures that we could post for you on our blog!
Chat soon!
Mrs. C, Ms. K, and the Busy Bees
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Hello Busy Bees!
Thank you for writing back to us so quickly. We live in houses and apartments. Our houses are usually one story without basements. They are often many different colors like, pale orange, pink, green, white and blue. The sun often makes these colors fade throughout the year. People have to paint their houses every few years. The same happens to our cars!
The track belongs to our middle school next door but we are allowed to use it for recess and games like Wizards, Elves, and Giants. This is a game our guidance counselor made up. It is much like Rock, Paper, Scissors. We share the track with the middle schoolers often. We play Keep Away, Football, Soccer and tag. We do not have Track and Field in Elementary school but will have the opportunity to join in middle school.
We do have something like a Family Fun Fair, we call it Fall Festival. At this festival we have music, food, games, and fun activities for the students, teachers and family members. We even had a bouncy house this year!
Florida is rich with wildlife! We have dolphins, sharks, many types of fish, arthropods, whales, birds, manatees, stingrays, panthers/cougars, octopuses, lobsters, crabs, jellyfish, Sandhill Cranes, turtles and anoles that race across the ground.
We will take pictures this week and post them soon! We look forward to hearing from you again.
Questions:
1. Do you guys play sports? If so what kind?
2. Do you have a guidance counselor?
3. Does you school have multiple levels?
4. How long are your school hours?
5. What is the name of your national anthem?
6. What games do you play during recess? Or Specials?
7. What is your national symbol?
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Dear Friends in Florida,
Thank you for writing back to us on our blog! We are enjoying learning about Florida and we can’t wait to video conference with you later today! We would really like to see pictures of the animals that live in Florida. We have never seen or heard of manatees or anoles. If your teacher would like to email us those pictures we can post them on our blog for everyone to see. Here are our answers to your questions:
1. We play lots of sports like baseball, hockey, golf, soccer, basketball, tennis, tag, ping-pong, volleyball, track and field, cross country, curling and bowling. We don’t play all of these sports at school. At school we play baseball, tag, soccer, volleyball, basketball, track, and cross country.
2. We do not have a guidance counselor in elementary school. Can you tell us what a guidance counselor does for you?
3. Our school is only one level and it is shaped like a horseshoe. You can see a picture of our school here: http://stephencentral.amdsb.ca/
4. We start school at 8:45AM and we end the day at 3:05PM. At 3:05PM all students board the buses and go home. We don’t have any kids that walk to school because our school is out in the country.
5. The name of our national anthem is O’Canada. You can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwDvF0NtgdU
Here is another link to one of our favourite songs about Canada: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHO8xAe-FKs
6. At recess we play games like soccer, tag, basketball, and skipping. We also play on the playground equipment, in the sandbox and on the swings.
7. Our national symbol is a maple leaf. Maple trees are special in Canada. We are famous for our maple syrup. It is yummy on pancakes. Do you eat maple syrup from Canada?
We know today is your last day of school. Thank you again for writing to us about what it is like to live and go to school in Florida. We hope to learn again with you next year!
Your Friends,
Mrs. Cassell, Ms. King, and the Busy Bees
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