Virtual fun with our ePALs (Penpals) from California

Well, we had a neat time this week, doing a little bit of a different week, as we did a virtual experience with our penpals in Ms. Schmidt's class from California, in addition to all of the birthday fun.

Our pen pals have been doing letters of the week activities and for this week, and have been focusing on the letters B and C. Mostly, they were doing "C is for Camping".

For this year, Big Bro and Little Bro are studying biomes. Since we have started our school year in August, we have been focusing on learning about life in and around oceans.

So, as a way to tie in both themes, we read the book, Bats at the Beach by Brian Lies.
This book has won a variety of awards for its illustrations and story content.
Big Bro compared real and make-believe stories about bats.

Little Bro got to help make some camping snacks:

S'mores, Deconstructed:
Recipe:
2 tablespoons whole grain cereal
1 tablespoon mini marshmallows
1 tablespoon mini chocolate chips
Directions:
Spoon ingredients into a bowl or baggie.
Mix ingredients, if in a bowl, or shake ingredients to mix, if made in a baggie.
Share equally with a friend.
Explain to your child that since four tablespoons of ingredients went into the recipe, to share the snack equally, each one gets two tablespoons of the snack.

We plan to share our photos about camping, bats, and beaches through exchanges both online and through the mail. We also plan to share information about making special birthday boxes to keep from year to year. We hope that our pen pals will enjoy learning about some of our family birthday traditions.

Our pen pals are working on putting together an " All about California" package for us while we are working on putting an " All about Florida" package for them.

It is so neat to learn about other children through the ePals pen pals program!

In addition to Ms. Schmidt's class in California, we are also working with another class from California, a homeschool family in Kentucky, as well as classes from Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the U.K.

We love getting to know others through this program!