Animals Around the world

Texas (Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran School (San Antonio)

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 00:33:42 -0800

Hola, from first graders in San Antonio, Texas, USA!
Before we created our hands we read several books about armadillos. Here is what we learned about armadillos. The nine-banded armadillo is the state small mammal of Texas. The word "armadillo" means "little armored one." Armadillos are in the same family as anteaters. The nine-banded armadillo is about the size of a cat. It's hard outer "armor" is made of bone and is called a carapace. Armadillos are omnivores, but they mostly eat insects. They have a long sticky tongue which they use to slurp up insects like ants. Each time a female armadillo has babies, she has four identical babies! Many people think that armadillos can roll up into a ball, but, the nine-banded armadillo can't do this. Besides reading books about armadillos, we learned to draw them by following Jan Brett's directions. If you'd like to try drawing an armadillo, click on the following link: http://www.janbrett.com/learn_to_draw_an_armadillo.htm
Mrs. Miller's 1st Graders
Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran School
San Antonio, TX

Pennsylvania - Pittsburgh Montessori (Pittsburgh)

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 00:31:52 -0800

We are a small class of 2nd to 5th graders at Pittsburgh Montessori school. We are learning about the external parts of the frog. The external parts of a frog are its head, ears, forelegs, hindlegs, and feet. As an extension to our parts of a frog, we researched different types of frogs in our state (Pennsylvania). We placed the facts we learned on frog feet to share with everyone. We researched the Northern Leopard Frog, Eastern Gray Tree Frog, Eastern Spadefoot Toad, Fowler's Toad, and the Bullfrog. We found it interesting that frogs are more colors than green and some are very tiny! We also learned that there are three different types of frog feet. Tree frogs have sticky pads on their feet to help them climb trees. Other frogs have webbed feet to help them swim in the water. Toads have shorter feet with pads to help them walk on land. Spadefoot toads have a claw-like spade to help them dig burrows in the ground. We are excited to learn more about other animals through your hands/paws!
Jennifer Salzmann
Pittsburgh Montessori School
2nd - 5th Graders
Pittsburgh, PA

Pennsylvania - Hazelton Elementary Middle School (Hazelton)

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 00:30:24 -0800

We live in Northeastern Pennsylvania and go to school in the Hazleton Area School District. We are familiar with the wonderful wildlife creatures that can appear right in our backyards! From beautiful little chipmunks to a sleek white tailed deer. We are blessed with the ability to see these animals up close. People from major cities get quite overwhelmed when they come here. Animal life thrives in the wilderness country of the mountains here. For locals of NEPA finding a deer in your backyard or big brown bear is a common occurrence. These animals thrive in this area. We have several nature conservancies and the wildlife game commission to keep up on safe areas for these animals to thrive in. Here are some of the animals you might find when coming to Northeast Pennsylvania: porcupine, deer, black bear, field mouse, squirrel, chipmunk, grey fox, red fox, raccoon, skunk, beaver, opossum, rabbit, otter, muskrat, horse, mink... these are just to name a few. We hope you can visit us here in Pennsylvania and enjoy the beautiful animals just as much as we do!!
Sharon Sharp
Hazelton Elementary Middle School
Hazelton, PA

Pennsylvania - Resurrection Catholic School (Lancaster)

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 00:28:19 -0800

Our class studies Pennsylvania history as part of our Social Studies curriculum, so we were excited to do this project to learn more about the animals of Pennsylvania. We looked at many pictures of the animals found in our state on the Smart Board and found out five facts about each of them. Our official state animal is the White-tailed deer. We also have black bears, beavers, raccoons, and squirrels. Other animals include red foxes, muskrats, opossums, bobcats, skunks, rabbits, and moles. Have you ever heard of a skink? They are lizards found on every continent. We have those too! Many birds exist in PA too, like the Ruffed Grouse which is our official state bird. We are looking forward to receiving hands and learning about other animals. You can learn more about our class, school, city, and state by visiting our class website at: http://www.myteacherpages.com/webpages/buller
Sylvia Buller
Resurrection Catholic School
Fourth Grade
Lancaster, PA

Our class decided we should use paw prints of the larger animals found in Pennsylvania. The bobcat, mountain lion, gray fox, black bear, white tail deer, and coyote are all found in our state. The white tail deer is found all around our area: we see them a lot right now due to hunting season! Though not common, all of these animals have been sighted in areas not far from our school even though we live in a heavily populated area! In general, most of these animals are usually found in the far northern part of our state – in the mountains! We hope that you enjoy the paw prints from Pennsylvania!!
Kim Ingram’s 5th grade class
Resurrection Catholic School
Lancaster, PA

Missouri - All Saints School (St. Peters)

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 00:22:09 -0800

As we began our adventure into the animal kingdom we decided to each pick an animal we wanted to learn about. We chose not to necessarily investigate animals from the Midwest United States because we were familiar with those. We all got a non-fiction book and began our investigations. We wanted to know its size, average weight, habitat, and group to which it belonged. We tried to draw our animals in the habitat that they would be so as to make them more real. We are going to continue our research and present our findings as a Smartboard lesson for the rest of the class. We can't wait to get hands from other people around the world.
Karen Richau
All Saints School
Third Grade
St. Peters, MO

California - St. Edwards the Confessor (Dana Point)

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 00:12:32 -0800

Hello, my name is Mrs. Mildrew and I am a Technology Coordinator at St. Edward the Confessor Parish School. I am so happy to be part of the Imagiverse exchange. I have been working with Mrs. Rices second grade class using the computer to create our animals for Hands across the world. Our school has 620 students and we have 34 in our second grade class. We have a few more boys than girls. Our school is located in Southern California about 2 miles from the ocean. Our school sits high on a hill and we can see the ocean and the beautiful harbor in Dana Point. The weather is always nice and it is a wonderful place to live. St. Edward the Confessor school has classes from kindergarten through eighth grade. My second grade class loves to work on the computer. They come in once a week for 30 minutes. We have 20 apple computers in the lab. We used a software program called Pixie to make or hands. We started by making a list of our favorite California animals. In the next step we learned how to find pictures and put them on our hand template. The best part was using some of the pixie software tools to decorate. Because we live near the ocean, we included some of the sea life we see every day. All the students in the class have seen dolphins jumping up and down in the ocean near by. We also see all kinds of different fish and seals. Only a few of us has ever seen a shark! Our school also takes field trips to the Marine Institute in the Dana point Harbor. Students get to touch starfish, squid and study whales. Our sixth grade students went on a science trip and saw a black bear. Several second grade students have seen bear in the mountains. Some students have even seen mountain lions. California is full of all kinds of animals. We hope you enjoy our hands showing many other animals we have in California. We tried to include as many animals as we could. My class loves animals and especially their pets. We hope to hear from you soon.
Julie Mildrew
St. Edward the Confessor School
Second Grade
Dana Point, CA

Canada - Haultain Community School (Regina, SK)

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 00:12:02 -0800

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Austria - Volksschule Liebhartsgasse (Vienna)

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 00:03:12 -0800

Hi from Vienna !
Hello, we are students of a second grade class in a public primary school in Vienna, Austria. When Michelle came to visit us in October we were really excited! We showed her what we had done with the material we had received from former Imagiverse exchange projects and then Michelle offered to let us to choose the topic for this Fall’s “Hands Around the World” project ! We were so excited and came up with so many ideas for that exchange. So we sat together in a plenum (circle) and each of us presented their ideas for the topic. There were so many ideas that we finally had to do a voting and we decided on “Animals Around the World”. On the same day we already started tracing our (and Michelle´s !) hands and drawing our favourite animals. We did not only draw animals that live here in Austria but also animals from other countries and continents as well. This really was a fun day ! We hope you like the topic and enjoyed doing this project just as much as we did!
Andrea Ploc´s 2nd Graders
Volksschule Liebhartsgasse
Vienna, Austria, Europe