Around the World from Z to A ... FINAL Day!

Hello my Apple-eating Academics,

This is Bart - your traveling Blogger. I can’t believe it’s your final day of school! Wow! Well, I have had the “awesomest” time with you, my electronic pen-pals from the other side of the world.

I am going to be joining you back in North America very soon. My final destination is Alaska. That is where my home is located. When I am not coasting around the world and writing to you, my job is to study Alaskan bears. My favorite is the grizzly bear!

I am going to be celebrating my birthday two days in a row! That’s right, I’m celebrating my birthday twice this year. Remember when I taught you about the International Dateline? Well, do you recall what happens when you travel across it going east? That’s right, you go back in time. So even though today is my birthday, when I leave Australia and travel east toward Alaska I’ll cross over the International Dateline for a second time and it will be my birthday again. I know it sounds a little confusing, but how many people in the world can say that they had two birthdays back-to-back? I feel pretty special!

I am not posting any links because I know you will probably have an end-of-year party. I always had those when I was in school. And I am positive Mrs. J will throw you one because she sounds like an AMAZING teacher.

I am sad for the 2nd graders who have to leave, but I know you will all do an A+ job in 3rd grade. I will miss all of you very much. I hope all of you have a wonderful summer and get into all kinds of trouble, no I mean fun!!!

I am bummed that I could not video blog with you. I will be in a plane flying over the Pacific Ocean while you guys are at school. I felt bad about that, so I wanted to give you all one last gift before I leave. It’s a very special picture: Me! Yes, that is me in the picture above. I am hanging out with my friend, Matilda. Don’t worry. She’s a friendly bear.

I’ll never forget you guys and our wonderful 26 days Around the World in the Alphabet Countdown!!!

Your Adventurous Friend,

Bart

Mrs. J's cheerful, beautiful and amazing lads and ladies!!

Hello Bart!!!
WOW, we loved the pictures and links you sent us from the Great Barrier Reef!! We can't wait to go on a virtual trip of Australia tomorrow. We also want to wish you a very happy birthday!! What are you doing to celebrate your birthday? Where is home for you? Are you going to eat cupcakes or cake for your birthday?

We had a pretty crazy couple of days at school. Yesterday was day C and we ate carrots and celery and we were very cheerful with our friends. Today was day B and we ate bananas and were bouncy during water day. Water day took place near our schools greenhouse and we got the choice to run around in the sprinklers, play with bubbles or do a relay race. We had so much fun!!! We also watched a movie called, "Finding Nemo." Have you ever seen that movie? It is a great movie and Mrs. J's favorite part is with the cool turtle Dude Crush. He makes her laugh really hard!!!

We are happy and sad about tomorrow being the last day of school. Some of us are really excite for the summer time and some of us are really sad because it is our last day with our multi-age friends. Multi-Age is a program where we get to stay in the same classroom all three years until it is time for third grade. Some of us will be staying at Littlewood again next year but some of us are going to different schools and we will miss our friends and our teacher. We will be making autograph books tomorrow and having a picture slideshow for all our parents to see. We can't wait to show them all the fun things we did this year!!!

Well, Bart, we hope you have a Beautiful Birthday tomorrow and we can't wait to read your next blog!!

From the friends in Mrs. J's bouncing, beautiful and banana-eating class

Around the World from Z to A ... B Day!

G’day my Beautiful, Bubbly Mates,

This is Bart - your traveling Blogger. It’s B day and I am traveling down under in search for sea creatures. Did you guess Australia? If so, then you are right! I landed in Brisbane, on the eastern coastline of the continent. Check me out on the Map Link. As you can see from the map the Great Barrier Reef is not too far north from where I am staying.

Did you know that Australia is the only continent that is also a country? Pretty cool, huh! Have you ever wondered why they call it the “land down under”? Well, it’s because Australia falls below the equator. It is in the southern hemisphere. That means that the seasons are opposite from ours. Instead of summer they are getting ready for their winter.

Even though Aussies speak English they have different words for some things. They call sweaters jumpers. Candies are lollies. A diaper is a nappy. And cotton candy is called fairy floss!

Along with Australia’s coastal habitat it also has a dry, desert-like habitat in the middle of the continent. They call this habitat “the outback”. There are two unique animals that make Australia their home…the kangaroo and the koala bear. Both are marsupials. Do you know what a marsupial is?

Well, I am off to do some diving in the Barrier Reef. It is 1,250 feet long. And I'll have to be careful and watch out for sharks like the one in the picture above! Here’s a link for you to explore. You can learn some interesting things about some of the animals in the reef.

Well, I missed your blog yesterday. But I know you are all so busy learning many wonderful things. I hope you liked China!

I’m off to my next location. I’m heading home for my final destination. Oh, and I forgot to tell you…tomorrow’s my birthday! Post a blog for B day and I’ll sign on and check it out as soon as possible.

Your Bodacious Blogging Bud,

Bart

Around the World from Z to A ... C Day!

Ni hao my Cute, Carnivorous Friends,

This is Bart - your traveling Blogger. It’s C-day and I am in one of the oldest and largest countries in the world. Did you guess China? If so, then you are right! I landed in Beijing, the capital of China. Check me out on the Map Link.

Ni hao means “hello” in Mandarin Chinese and is pronounced “knee-how”. Here’s a website with other useful (and hard to learn!) Chinese phrases. Can you pronounce any of the other phrases?

Bejing is a beautiful city with many colorful and cultural sites to see. It was the home city to the 2008 Olympic games. Did you get to watch any of the games on television?

My favorite site was the Forbidden City. It is the best preserved imperial palace in China. It is recognized as one of the most important five palaces in the world. The Forbidden City was home to 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The construction of the grand palace started in 1406 and ended in 1420. In ancient times, the emperor claimed to be the son of Heaven. The emperors’ residence on earth was built like the Purple Palace where God was thought to live in Heaven. Such a divine place was certainly forbidden to ordinary people and that is why they named the place the Forbidden City. Here’s a link to a virtual tour of the Forbidden City.

Well, I really enjoyed your last blog. The picture was very creative. I am so happy you liked the Taj Mahal virtual tour. I didn’t mean to deceive you. I wanted to send you a picture of me, but you know how camera shy I am. I thought that it was a good compromise for both of us.

I’m off to my next location. I’m going down under to check out some sea anemones. See if you can figure out where I’m headed. Post a blog for C day and I’ll sign on and check it out as soon as possible. Oh, and tell me how the carrots and celery tasted!

Your Cool, Chillin’ Cat,

Bart

Mrs. J's dancing, ducky, doodling dudes and dudettes!!!

Dear Bart,
Happy D day!!! We had a super DUPER day today! We loved looking at the pictures you sent us on the blog and we loved the virtual tour of the Taj Mahal! Our teacher, Mrs. J, even talked to us in her little Indian accent! It was DELIGHTFUL! One of the teachers in our Multi-Age family let us take her classes place in Music today. We would not have had a special all week so she offered the special up to us. We loved going to Music today and were so thankful to Mrs. Harner! Hey now, Bart, that picture you sent us was very DECEIVING!! We thought we would actually get to see you!!!! You were being very sneaky and we really want to see a picture of you in color but we understand if you don't want to because we think you are still really cool!

Tomorrow is day C and we are going to eat carrots or celery. We are also going to clean our tables with shaving cream. Some of our friends are even going to bring a camera tomorrow. We might read some Eric Carle books and clap really loud for our cool classmates and teacher!

Today during our reading block, our second grade friends got to go on a tour of the third grade classes. They had tons of fun and can't wait for third grade, although, they are still going to miss all of their multi-age friends. We did lots of dancing today with Spanish music and this funny little song called the "La La song." Maybe we'll sing it for you sometime!! Or better yet, we'll take a picture of us all putting our fingers in the same of an L!

We hope you have a COOL and CRAZY C day!
From the DAISY, DIZZY, DOODLING dudes and dudettes of Mrs. J's class

Around the World from Z to A ... D Day!

Suprabhaat my Ducky, Doodling Friends,

This is Bart - your traveling Blogger. For D-day I traveled to Delhi, India. I am staying in the Dallupura Village. Check me out on the Map Link.

Suprabhaat means “hello” in Hindi. Hindi is only one language that is spoken in Delhi, India. Delhi is kind of like a melting pot of languages. Punjabi, Urdu, and English are also spoken in Delhi.

I visited one of the most famous landmarks in the world…the Taj Mahal located in Agra. The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum. A mausoleum is kind of like a tomb or the tomb may be inside the mausoleum. Building began around 1632 and was completed around 1653. Thousands of artisans and craftsmen worked on the Taj Mahal. It is considered one of the finest, most beautiful pieces of architecture in the world! The emperor, Shah Jahan, built the Taj Mahal in memory of his wife Mumtaz, who died. The white marble mausoleum at Agra has become the monument of a man's love for a woman. Take a virtual tour of the Taj Mahal with this link.

I also took a very dangerous elephant ride. Here a picture of my group. I am the middle person on the elephant on the right. Asian elephants are different than African elephants. You can tell by the shape of their large ears. African elephants have ears that are shaped like the African continent. Can you tell the difference?

Well, I really enjoyed your last blog. I loved hearing about all of your adventures at the zoo and surfing through the butterfly garden site you sent me. Cool stuff! What did all of you think of the links I sent you for Egypt?

I’m off to my next locale. This country is one of the largest and oldest in the world. See if you can figure it out. Post a blog for D day and I’ll sign on and check it out as soon as possible.

Your Daring, Dancing Dude,

Bart

Mrs. J's Entemann cookie eating elegant pEEEEEEEps!

Buenos Dias, Bart!

Wow, we have so much to tell you and we loved looking at all your pictures and links! We had an amazing time on the field trip. Natalie, a second grader in our class, loved the show at the planetarium because it took us to the surface of some of the planets. Katherine, another second grader in our class, liked seeing the alligators in the zoo. The friends in Mrs. J's group actually did the gator chomp when they were by the alligators!!!! Mrs. J is a CRAZY gator fan!! Connor, one of the little guys in our class, liked the planetarium because it used a projector to show us beautiful images of the planets. One of the alligators at the zoo was hit by a truck and lost it's leg which is very sad, but our friends Zoe and Mark thought it was very good to see him staying safe. Finally, Savannah, one of our second graders, saw a peacock showing off for the ladies. It was really cool!!

So, today is day E and we have already had a very EXCITING day! August, one of the little guys in our class, brought in a cocoon of an Eastern Swallow-tail butterfly and it hatched right before our eyes!!! In our town of Gainesville, we have a museum for the butterflies. Here is a link for the Butterfly Museum. The butterfly hatched and then we let it dry its wings and we put it outside to fly away. It thought the yellow table we have outside was a flower, so he was hanging out their for a little while. He was sure pretty!!! We are also going to read to our pre-K friends for the last time today. We will make sure to read EXCITING and EXCELLENT books to them. For snack, we are going to eat Entemann's cookies and do lots of exercise.

Tomorrow is day D and we are going to eat Dorito's for snack. We are also going to doodle and dance. We could also act like ducks at recess and play dominos in math. These next couple of days are going to be pretty crazy, Bart. We have three half days on the last three days of school. We will be having a water day on Thursday and we are going to have a big party on Friday. On Friday, we will watch all our videos and pictures from the whole year with our families. Mrs. J also says she has awards and surprises for us!! We can't wait for Friday!!

Well, Bart, we are off to read to pre-K and our other friends are going to be working in the classroom. We hope you have a EXCELLENT, ELEGANT, and EXCITING E day!!

From the ELEGANT, EXTRAORDINARY, EXTRA-SPECIAL, EATING ENTEMANN'S pEEEEps