Today we met Ms. Jeleniewski’s 4th grade class from Partin Elementary School which is located in the Sunshine State. They have about 750 students from K-5 in their school. We learned that Florida has hurricane season from June to November. Their weather can get well over 100 in the summer and their winters are usually warm but it does sometimes get down to 30. Their record low is minus 2 degrees which is very cold even for us Northerners! Florida is also sometimes called the Lightening Capital of the World.

Some famous places in their state are Wet and Wild and Busch Gardens. Actress Whoopi Goldberg was born there. Their state flower is the orange blossom. Some crops they grow are oranges, lettuce, tomateos, watermelon, squash, celery and more. They border Georgia, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Animals from their state include jack rabbits, armadillos, the red tailed deer and the endangered manatee.

One of their students was originally from Philadelphia and he was wearing a Phillies shirt during the Skype. He moved to Florida at the age of 5. We chatted about our favorite books and who we wanted to win the Super Bowl. Our class is split- half for Patriots and half for the Giants but most of their class is voting for the Giants, our rivals.

After the Skype we read a book called J.Rooker, Manatee by Jan Haley that our first grade teacher lent us to learn more about this endangered animal.