Today we packaged up our letters to Japan and set off for the post office. Linda looked surprised to see so many people filing into the building!
Linda explained that our envelope would be loaded on the mail truck tomorrow morning and would travel to Port McNeill on the ferry. From Port McNeill our letters would head down island to Nanaimo in another truck and then would travel on the big ferry to Vancouver. Next, they would be loaded on a plane at Vancouver Airport for the long flight to Tokyo, Japan. We all wonder how long our letters will take to arrive at Christian Academy in Japan.
We thought it would be fun to make a short video for our friends in Japan so that they will be able to put faces to the names on the letters they receive.
On Thursday evening we came back to school after supper so that we could Skype with our friends in Mrs. Hino’s class. It was 6:45 pm on Thursday here in British Columbia and it was 10:45 am Friday morning in Tokyo. Almost all of the students in our class came back for the call and many of them brought their parents along too.
Both classes were very excited about getting to chat with each other live. Even though we live so far apart we found out that we have a lot in common with each other. Students in both classes enjoy playing soccer, basketball, and baseball. We also like to play on the bars outside and ride scooters in the gym. Bike riding was another activity that students in both classes were very excited about.
Even though we have a lot in common and enjoy many of the same things, we found out that there were also some pretty big differences too:
There are 14 students in our class and there are 21 students in Mrs. Hino’s class
There are 49 students in our K-7 school and there are over 400 students in the K-12 school our friends attend
A.J. Elliott only has 3 classrooms and our friends have too many to count!
The students in Mrs. Hino’s class have special teachers for art, music, PE, and Japanese
Our town has a population of about 700 and Higashikurume has a population of 116,000
The tallest building in our town is 2 stories. Their school is 3 stories tall and they have many very tall buildings in their city.
We can’t wait to work with Mrs. Hino and her students on a collaborative project. We are thinking that we might write stories together soon.
Thanks again for a wonderful call. It was great to get to know you better!
In January, we received a comment on our blog from a teacher in Japan named Mrs. Hino. We were very excited because it was the first comment we had ever received from Japan. That comment, was the start of some great conversations between our class and Mrs. Hino. She told us all about her school and where she lived. She even sent us pictures. We found out a lot of cool facts about their International School and about Tokyo.
Mrs. Watson and Mrs. Hino decided that it would be great for our classes to get to know each other better and perhaps work on a collaborative project together. The time difference makes things a little challenging (although we think we have problem solved a way that we will be able to Skype together) and so we thought we would start by making Mrs. Hino’s class a video to introduce ourselves and show them a little about our class and our school.
We can’t wait to get to know Mrs. Hino and her students better. We also hope that we will learn more about their school and life in Tokyo.
