Mme Green's Classroom: Skyping with Iowa

Today we started Skyping with a classroom from Southeast Polk in Pleasant Hill (near Des Moines) Iowa, USA. They are studying Canada and want to learn more about us. I thought it would be a good way for us to learn about them as well. We are studying ecosystems right now in our science class and it would be great to know about another part of the continent, their natural resources, and anything else we can think of.

http://www.southeastpolk.org/

See them on Google Maps HERE

See their teacher, Mr. Redmon, HERE

EDUCATORS - Please see Skype in the Classroom to learn more about signing up to Skype with other classes, professionals and guest speakers. All free!!

They asked us about the weather and we told them all about our long and cold winters and tried to show them a photo of what it is like outside today. We even showed them a bucket of snow! It is -17C (about 2F) today and they thought that was so cold! I guess we Canucks are pretty tough ... or crazy! We also added about how much sunlight we get in the summer and that it gets quite hot here too. No igloos or dog sleds here though.

The view outside my classroom today. Sunny but cold.

They asked us about our school and we explained how we are a public school (with optional religion) with both English and French immersion programs. We have second language options available to kids from elementary school on and our community is quite bilingual and even out street signs are in both languages. It was interesting to see that they live near "Des Moins" which is a French term for for under, less, lower, or even "of Moins" but they don't have a French community like we do. I forgot to tell them that Beaumont (Beau Mont) is French for Beautiful Hill because our town is built on a hill with our big church on top.

They also asked about our local crops and our kids explained that wheat and canola are common. They crow a lot of corn and beans and even have apple orchards, although they are less common.

My daughter in a field of canola

They also asked about amusement parks and if we have any. We told them to look up West Edmonton Mall as it is quite impressive to have all of that fun and shopping under one roof.