Dear friends of b8,

We are in Egypt and we are having fun. Today we are making our names in hieroglyphics. Hieroglyphics is an alphabet that Ancient Egyptians used a long time ago. They would write messages on rocks. 

Our names that we wrote in hieroglyphics

The 

hieroglyphics were kind of hard to make. Mrs. Thompson gave us a translator sheet so that we knew what symbols to use. First we wrote our rough copy in pencil so that we could erase it if we made a mistake. Then for our good copy we traced the pencil with black marker. 

One thing that we learned was that it took us way longer to write like this than in English. We think that Egyptians would probably be faster because they would have more practice. 

      Can you read this
       secret message?

Sincerely,

Waylon, Megan and Danielle

Dear family and friends,

We are in Peru and have been learning a lot about the country.

One thing we have done here is made frogs just like the tree frogs all over Peru. We took a piece of paper with half of a frog on it and folded it in half and cut it out. Then we folded the paper back open and had the shape of a frog. After that we coloured. Some people used frog colours like green and other people did cool designs like polka-dots. When we were done we stuck them up to the ceiling and some of them have started to hop down into our classroom.

All of the funky frogs that fell from the ceiling.

Some of the surviving frogs still remaining on the ceiling

Yesterday we read a book about a Peruvian boy named Thomasino that came from a poor family that wove clothing out of string. Today we started doing some weaving ourselves using yarn. We like doing the weaving because it is fun.

The weaving we are doing in class.

We are having a great time in Peru and are excited to do more activities here.

From,

Olivia and Cooper

Irish Potato Stamps and Soda Bread

Dear everyone,

We are in Ireland!!! They used to eat a lot of potatoes here.

We used potatoes to make potato stamps. The first thing we did was get a potato. Next we cut the potato in half. Then we got a three leaf clover cookie cutter, turned the potato over, and pushed the potato into it as hard as Ms. Thompson could to make a print. Next we cut around the cookie cutter using a  knife. After we took the cookie-cutter out, we made a handle in the back of the potato to make it easier to hold.

The handle on the back of the potato

The next step was to paint the clover using white, orange, and green, the colours on one of the Irish flags. We got paper and began to make a design using our stamps. Our artwork was very good and we had a great time making it.

A Irish flag made with potato stamps

We also made Irish Soda Bread. Irish Soda Bread is a bread that uses lots of butter milk that is very popular in Ireland. Instead of the yeast they used baking soda as a rising agent and that's how it got its name. It was very thick and yummy and tasted sort of like pancakes.

A green potato stamp that we made

We had a great time there and would love to go back one day.

Sincerely,

Lili and Cole

Burning Red Rock in Australia and Didgeridoos

Dear family and friends,

We are in Australia now and it is really hot outside. It is the biggest "island" in the world and there's lots of cool stuff to do here.

Australian art of kangaroos in front of Ayers rock, made out of dots.

We made didgeridoos out of paper and we used the colours that most represent Australia, like white, brown, and red. A didgeridoo is a long hollow branch from a tree and they decorate them, and perform music with it.

How to play a didgeridoo

In Australia there is a big rock called the Ayers rock. It is a big rock in the middle of the desert. It is really red when the sun rises and the sun sets. It looks really cool and we would love to visit it.

A big red rock in the middle of the dessert, seen from above.

The Great Barrier Reef is bigger than you expected. Blue starfish live there. People use pollution that is warming up the water and killing the coral on the reef. We are trying to help sea turtles because lots of people are killing them. We made new turtles out of tin foil, cut them out, and stuck on out ocean paintings. Check them out!

Thanks for reading!

From,

Dylan and Emma

Dear family and friends,

We are in Australia. There are koalas here. Here is a picture of a baby koala bear. It is really cute and furry. They like bamboo.

There are also kangaroos. Kangaroos have big feet and they jump high. They have pouches on their tummies where they can carry their babies. Here is a picture of two kangaroos jumping.

The weather in Australia is really hot. We are having a good time here.

From,

Kayla and Victor

Chinese Cherry Blossoms and Pakistani Food and Dresses

Dear everyone in the world,

When we were in China we made a cherry blossom tree. The trees bloom in the spring there and they are very skinny and the petals are pink and red. They are very pretty.

Chinese Cherry Blossom tree we made in class

Our guest Sarah wearing a pretty dress

This afternoon we left China and we are now in Pakistan. We just ate some soft Simosas. They are really good but a bit spicy and crumbly.  We have a guest Sarah that is teaching us about the country and she is wearing a Pakistani dress. The dress is pink with flowers and it has a big diamond in the middle.

From,

Gemma and Noah

Dear everybody,

We are in Beijing, China and we are making fans. The fans we are making are used in China to cool Chinese people off. To make the fans you get a piece of paper and then you draw pictures and Chinese symbols on them. Then you fold it like an accordion. Then you get popsicle sticks and you glue them on and wait for one minute and then you have your fan! We are going to now put them in our paper suitcases and take them with us to our next adventure for a souvenir. 

Thanks you for reading and please leave your comments to tell us what you think.

From,

Kiki and Jake