October 2003 Week 1 Observations

Participants are listed by latitude and longitude, starting from the northernmost latitude. <54:52N-40:00N | 39:59N-29:27N | Firsts | Map | Quest [54:52N 6:17W] UNITED KINGDOM Northern Ireland, Ballymena P6/7KS Ballymena Primary School, Ms. Simpson & Ms. Lee's fourth graders Ballymena Primary School is in Co.Antrim ,Northern Ireland. We are a town school with 350 pupils aged 4 to 11 years.We care about the environment. Our school is an eco-school for life. We have done lots of work in our grounds. We have a pond,an orchard,willow beds and a wood land walk. Our school is beside a public park. Ballymena is a large market town.The River Braid runs through Ballymena. Slemish mountain is nearby. St.Patrick(the patron saint of Ireland) looked after sheep and pigs on Slemish. We are in the season of autumn where the days are getting shorter although the weather is still quite mild. Day temperatures are approx.14(Celsius) but it is a lot cooler at night. Season's First The leaves are already changing colour from green to brown,red and yellow. Some leaves have fallen off trees. Swallows have migrated to hotter places. [53:31N 113:19W] CANADA Alberta, Sherwood Park New Horizons School, Ms. Mouallem's first graders Well, fall is clearly underway here in Canada. Our class consists of 22 students; 11 girls and 11 boys. We have been observing many changes happening around us. For many weeks we have been hearing the Canada Geese migrating south. The sky has been a beautiful blue and the weather wonderfully mild. The trees have a more brilliant hue to them this year because of the milder weather. The plants that grow each year are dying off and need to be trimmed back. The flowers have all frozen as we have had 2 hard killing frosts. The squirrels have been busy gathering nuts and seeds. We even saw a rabbit with some white fur beginning to emerge! All of the people around us have put on warmer clothes. The only problem is it is cold in the morning but by lunch time it is t-shirt weather. We hope this lasts a long time! [53:00N 00:00W] UNITED KINGDOM England, Waltham The Leas Infants School, Ms. Smith's second graders The Leas Infants School is in the village of Waltham in North East Lincolnshire. Waltham is near to the east coast of England and is about 170 miles north of London. We have a windmill in the village which has 6 sails. The windmill is our school logo. There is also an old church in the village. The children in our school are aged 4 - 7 years old. When we are 7 years old we transfer to the Junior School which is next door. We have 8 classes in our school. In our school grounds we have some oak and beech trees and in the village there are some large horse chestnut trees. We have noticed that the leaves are already changing colour and are falling off the trees. We will be using our Jubilee Garden to look for signs of autumn. We planted sunflowers before the summer holiday and when we came back to school they were enormous! We have picked lots of runner beans from our runner bean plants and we have also picked marrows, pumpkins and tomatoes. Up until last week the weather was very dry, sunny and warm. Now it is getting colder and we have had a little rain. We are looking forward to seeing what happens in autumn in other countries. [45:19N 75:40W] CANADA Ontario, Ottawa Elizabeth Park Public School, Ms. Chartrand's first graders We are a grade one class from Elizabeth Park Public School in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Even though the calendar tells us that autumn has just begun, the temperature recently has felt more like winter! It is supposed to get down to the freezing point tonight; people will have to cover their plants or they will die. Hopefully, we will have an Indian Summer later this month. Autumn in Ottawa is a very beautiful time of year. The leaves turn lots of different colours. Sometimes it looks like the tops of the trees are on fire! We like to rake the leaves into big piles and jump in them. The maple leaf is one of the symbols of Canada - it is on our flag. There are lots of maple trees around our school and we like to collect the leaves at recess. Our class has discussed the Signs of Autumn Project many times and we are really looking forward to taking part. We all like Science and have been studying the seasons so we think this will be lots of fun. We are also anxious to learn about autumn in other parts of the world. [43:07N 79:01W] USA New York, Grand Island Kaegebein Elementary School, Ms. Hartman's third graders Hello to everyone from Grand Island, New York USA! We are a third grade class at Kaegebein Elementary School in Grand Island, New York State, USA. Grand Island is a suburban town on an island in the Niagara River. The Niagara River is actually a strait on the Canadian border that connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. Grand Island is located between the larger cities of Buffalo, New York, USA and Niagara Falls, New York, USA. We are fortunate to live near the beautiful Niagara Falls, which are actually 2 different falls called American Falls and Canadian Falls. Our climate is temperate; it changes greatly from season to season. Our winters are famous for all the snow everyone thinks we get, but there really isnât snow on the ground all winter, although it is often cold. Winter temperatures can get down to 0 degrees F, with wind chills of 40 degrees below zero. Schools may close for a day when it is that cold or if there is a heavy snowfall. Springs are rainy and cool, although . Our summers are generally sunny with temperatures ranging from 60 degrees F to a few rare days in the 90âs F. Our autumns are beautiful with trees changing colors. One of our first signs of fall to report is the migration of large flocks of Canada geese as they have been spending some time in our playground! This year our class has 31 students and 2 teachers. The boys and girls in our class are 8 and 9 years old. We have been learning how to read and locate places on maps and globes. We would also like to learn about how people live in other places. We are very happy to work together on this project and are looking forward to hearing news from other groups about their autumns. [42:54N 90:56W] USA Wisconsin, Bloomington River Ridge Middle School, Ms. Miller's students A Place of Beauty Imagine there is a place where in autumn the leaves change into magnificent colors and in the summer the leaves are the most luscious green. The winters are very chilly, but not unbearable. Wild flowers blossom in the spring with the most beautiful yellows and purples ever seen. Well there is such a place. Nestled among cornfields lies a place called Bloomington, WI. This is a place where in the summer you can stay out and catch fireflies at nine oâclock and it is still light enough to find your footing. Surrounding the main part of Bloomington are many farms. Cows roam the pastures and dogs frolic and play. Tractors plow fields and combines harvest the main crops of soybeans, oats, barley, and alfalfa. In the summer there are cornstalks as high as an elephantâs eye. Also in the small town of Bloomington are rows of houses. These houses are generally well kept and have yards large enough to have a game of volleyball or basketball going. For baseball games you can go to the park. It contains a stream that runs through it. The park is where you can hold a picnic or just view some of the different kinds of birds and small rodents that live in this area. To the north of the main part of town lies the River Ridge Middle School. Here kids in grades five through eight are educated. In this school kids are offered the chance to participate in many extra-curriculum activities. One of these groups is called Signs of Autumn. This group consists of kids in all four grades, who are interested in the environment where they live. These students along with many others of this wonderful community can save the world and environment that we live in. They can save the wild wilderness and the gentle chirping of the birds. They are the future and our lives depend on them. [42:44N 73:41W] USA New York, Green Island Heatly School, Ms. Kirch's second graders Heatly School is about 15 minutes north of Albany, NY on the Hudson River. We are a K-12 school with a total of 315 students. There are 25 students in our class. Many of our parents and grandparents went to school at Heatly too. We are an older community with families living in a flat above grandparents. Henry Ford used to camp on the river shore. He built a radiator plant here but it has closed with all production now in Michigan. Many of us play soccer or bowl in the fall. We also like to play at the park after school. We all walk to school because there are no buses in our district. Green Island is about 2 square miles in area. We like to watch the birds and boats outside our classroom window. [42:43N 71:11W] USA Massachusetts, Methuen Marsh Grammar School, Mr. Lawton & Mrs. Beauchesne's third graders Let us introduce ourselves! We are 22 excited and eager learners in Mrs. Beauchesne's Third Grade Class at the Marsh Grammar School in Methuen, Massachusetts. WE are a class of 13 boys and 9 girls. Our school is located in the west end of a butterfly shaped town. Our school building is only 5 years old., and we have students in from pre-school to grade 8 -- about 1416 students in all. We are proud of our school as it is a great place to meet friends, have fun, and learn all that we can. The first month of our new school year has flown by. We have been busy establishing routines (learning the ropes) and working to 'jell'a our class together. We usually have a colorful autumn in our northeastern part of the United States and are anxious to learn about how fall arrives in your part of the world. Autumn Greetings from Methuen, Massachusetts, USA! We are the students in Mr. Lawton's Third Grade Class at the Marsh Grammar School and we are very excited about participating in the Telecollaborative Project "Signs of Autumn." New England is famous for its "Fall Foliage" and we are pleased to show you the changes that will take place around our school. We have already begun taking pictures, making sketches, and collecting information about the weather. Summer seemed to change to autumn overnight with temperatures in the upper 70's on September 21st to this morning's chilly 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Further north of Methuen, in New Hampshire, trees are already experiencing changes in foliage. We are just beginning to notice these changes around our school. Also, many of our friends in school are starting to participate in common autumn activities. This week the Kindergarten students went apple picking and we have had to put our short sleeve shirts and shorts away to make room for our sweaters. We look forward to sharing more information about the changes we see and learning about the changes from around the country and the world. [42:32N 71:31W] USA Massachusetts, Littleton Shaker Lane School, Ms. Smith's kindergartners We live in Littleton, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston. We are six years old, and our teacher is Miss Constantine. We are learning about signs of fall in school. Our weather has been warm, but today was cool, sunny, partly cloudy and a little breezy. Our leaves are starting to change color and fall, and it is beginning to get cold. [42:07N 88:16W] USA Illinois, Carpentersville Sunny Hill School, Ms. Grande's third graders We are a third grade class at Sunny Hill School in Carpentersville, Illinois. We are part of the Barrington Unit School District 220. Carpentersville is a northwest suburb of Chicago. In our classroom we have 26 Apple Computers. They are built into our desks. Some students have just began to learn about the computers and how they work, and other third graders who know something about computers are helping. We are taking keyboarding and hope to be able to journal on our computers soon. We can also visit different Internet Sites - but our teacher provides the links for us to share. We are trying to use sites that our educational. We have used some sights to learn about the continents and oceans. We are going to be studying the Great Lakes next. Each reading group in our class is going to be doing a week of observations on the seasonal changes. We will then discuss the changes with each other. We have taken a picture of a tree outside of our room, and will be observing the changes. [42:02N 88:17W] USA Illinois, Elgin St. Mary School, Ms. Gilbert's third graders INTRODUCTION: We are a class of 20 third grade students at St.Mary School in Elgin, Il. We have 230 students in Kindergarten- 8th grade. Elgin was founded in 1835 along the banks of the Fox River, about 35 miles northwest of Chicago. The founder James Gifford built his log cabin home in the neighborhood where our school is located. Many of the historic homes around our school are over 100 years old. The dairy industry and the Elgin Watch Company were the main industries in the 1800's. Elgin pocket watches were sold in countries around the world. Today people work in businesses that range from high tech industry to family owned businesses. Today our population is about 90,000 people. Elgin is expanding to the west as more people move into the area. Many new businesses are moving to Elgin as our city continues to grow. The weather is beginning to drop to the 60's and the leaves on the oak trees are beginning to change. We are excited to read about other schools around the world and how the weather affects our activites. [41:53N 88:28W] USA Illinois, Elburn Kaneland North Elementary School, Ms. McGowen's second graders Our class is consists of nineteen seven and eight year old boys and girls. We live in Elburn, Maple Park, and Virgil, Illinois, USA. We attend Kaneland North Elementary. Elburn is a small village of about 3,000 people, 48 miles from Chicago. Our area is mostly farm land. Corn and soybeans are grown on our flat, black soil. The climate changes with the seasons. We have cold, snowy winters and warm, humid summers. [41:46N 80:51W] USA Ohio, Austinburg Austinburg Elementary School, Ms. Gray's second graders Hi from Austinburg, Ohio, USA! Austinburg is a Pre-K - 6 building with about 350 students. Austinburg Elementary is part of the Geneva Area City School System. We are the multi-handicapped building for our school system. We even have an elevator in our building for students who use wheelchairs and walkers. We have 23 children in our class - 12 girls and 11 boys. We live in Austinburg, Geneva, Geneva on the Lake, Jefferson, and Ashtabula. Cleveland is the closest large city. We also live about ten miles from Lake Erie. Because of Lake Erie, we receive lake-effect snow in the winter. Lake-effect snow is unique to only a few areas of the world. Areas downwind of large bodies of water often receive more snow than the surrounding region because of the interaction of the cold air and the warm lakes. Water in the lakes store up high amounts of heat energy from the previous summer. This heat is released through evaporation. The cold air blows over the warm waters of the Great Lakes and picks up the evaporated moisture. As the air rises up over the higher elevations of land downwind of the lakes, it cools further and can't hold the moisture it has picked up. That moisture condenses, forming clouds and snow over what we know as the "snow belt" areas of Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. We live in the primary snow belt. The primary snow belt gets anywhere from 60 to 110-plus inches of snow per year. Last winter we had over 100 inches of snow. Lake Erie influences the local climate throughout the entire year. Winter snows help the local skiing/snow industries. At other times of the year the moderating effects of the marine climate allow for the cultivation of excellent fruit and vegetable crops, and the cooling effects of the lakes during the summer months provide a natural air conditioner to the region. Austinburg is named after one of its founders, Judge Eliphalet Austin. Austinburg is a rural area. We have a bank, a small grocery store, a post office, fire department, pizza shop, several restaurants, a nursing home, a dance hall, several gas stations, Flying J Travel Center, McDonald's, Burger King, a lumber yard, a nursery, a feedmill, several churches, an industrial park, private schools, and several hotels. Every year we have Austinburg Country Days at the beginning of September. We have a parade, horseshoe pitching, vegetable and sunflower contests, antique car show, antique engine and tractor show, a pet show, garden tractor pulls, a slow bike race, and country music. We are part of the Geneva Area City School District. There are five elementaries, one junior high and one high school in the Geneva Area City School District. You may find out more about Geneva Area City Schools at this web site: http://www.genevaschools.org/ In the summer we like to go swimming, boating and fishing in Lake Erie. We also like to visit the Strip at Geneva on the Lake where we can go on rides at the Adventure Zone and Erie View Amusement Park, slide down the giant slide at Wild Water Works, play games at Woody's World Games Arcade and Edwin's Games Arcade, and eat lots of great food at Eddie's Grill and Dairy Queen, Mary's Kitchen, Capo's Pizza, Bev's Dairyland, and Madsen's Donuts. We also like to go to the State Park at Geneva on the Lake to swim in the lake, play on the beach, eat picnic lunches, and hike in the woods. In the fall we rake leaves, pick apples and grapes, and make jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. Ohio is the third largest wine producing state after California and New York. Most of Ohio's vineyards are along Lake Erie. Every year Geneva has the Grape Jamboree the last week-end of September. It is two days of parades, rides, contests, and lots of fun! There are lots of grapes and things made from grapes. You can even stomp on grapes to make grape juice. In the winter we like to build snowmen and snow forts, slide down hills on our sleds, have snowball contests and play in the snow. In the Spring it starts to get warm and everything starts to grow again. We fly kites and plant our gardens. It is a fun time of the year. We have lots of trees and woods. A farm is next door to our school. When we look out our classroom windows we can see the 10 horses and 8 goats in the pasture next to our building. Sometimes the horses and goats get through the fence and come over to our playground. We have a woods behind our school. We have many wild animals in our area. Some of them are rabbits, raccoons, skunks, black snakes, groundhogs, sea gulls, cardinals, goldfinches, blue jays, wrens, owls, hawks, herons, crows, sparrows, robins, possums, deer, wild turkeys, Canadian geese, quails, moles, mice, foxes, muskrats, and rats. Our favorite school activities are reading, math, science, and working on computers. We have five computers in our room. Each of them is connected to the Internet. We work on various programs and/or projects on the computers every day. [41:42N 74:22W] USA New York, Ellenville Ellenville Elementary School, Ms. Sharoff's second graders Greetings from Ellenville, New York! We are a 2nd grade class made up of 20 students -- 10 girls and 10 boys (and 4 hermit crabs named Hermey, Lucky, Spike, and Sammy). We are a large K-4 school, with a total of 36 classes and about 730 students. You can easily find Ellenville on a map, even if it is not marked. Follow these steps: 1. Locate the continent of North America. 2. Find the country of the United States of America. 3. Look at the east coast and find the state of New York. 4. Put your finger on New York City. 5. Follow the Hudson River north until you reach Kingston. Ellenville is right below Kingston. Once a day we have one of the following classes: Gym, Art, Library, Music, or Computer Lab (where we are learning to use MS Paint). Our day begins at 9:00 and ends at 3:30. We are the proud host of the Traveling Techno Teddy project. Check it out at http://www.geocities.com/travelingtechnoteddy Our favorite activity is "Beat the Teacher" where we make words with letters and for every word that the class can make that Mrs. Sharoff didn't we get one point. If we beat last year's class score of 325 points Mrs. Sharoff will host a pizza party!!! We are working VERY hard at beating that score. [41:38N 87:36W] USA Illinois, Dolton Youth For Excellence, Ms. Day's fifth graders Hi All, Our school's name is Youth For Excellence and it is a Home School. There are two students - one 5th grade level and one 1st grade. This is our fourth year of home school. In addition to our regular class subjects we also have co-op support classes with other home schoolers such as Spanish, Science projects, Swimming and Gym. We visit a museum once a week. We also take Gymnastics, Tumbling and TaeKwonDo. We are located in Dolton, Illinois which is 41:37:45N and 87:35:55W. This is about 15 miles south of Chicago. Illinois is nicknamed the Prairie State and there is a lot of Prairie land here. It became the 21st state and is known as the state where President Lincoln lived although he was not born here. Our winters are usually very cold with lots of snow. Our summers are very hot and humid. We are looking forward to participating in this Project and learning about the places where you all live. [41:14N 80:49W] USA Ohio, Warren Garfield Elementary School, Ms. Culver's fourth graders Our school is one of 10 elementary schools in Warren, Ohio. Garfield has grades 2 through 4, five classrooms of each grade level. The land area here is relatively flat with some hills. We are very close to the Pennsylvania border so there are mountains nearby. Lake Erie, one of the five Great Lakes,is about 60 miles away. The winters here are snowy and cold with warm summers. This year our summer was very wet and our fall is unusally cool. [41:14N 84:07W] USA Ohio, Holgate Holgate Elementary School, Ms. Wagner & Ms. Burkhart's second graders Welcome! This year Mrs. Wagnerâs Sensational Second Grade Class has 16 students. Six of the students will collect and enter the weekly data. The complete class will explore the Signs of Autumn site and watch for Autumnâs Firsts as well as bring data in for Weather Data Day. With Ohio being one of the 50 states in the United States of America, the small village of Holgate is found in Northwest Ohio. Holgate Local Schools is considered a rural school in which grades K-12 are housed in a series of building which are connected at one site. 590 students from Holgate, New Bavaria, Pleasant Bend, and the surrounding area attend our school. The original part of our school building was constructed in the early 1800s. In August of 2005 we hope to be in our new school which is currently being built. Weather has been very different in Northwest Ohio this past summer and autumn. It has been cooler and wetter than normal. Because of this, the crops have not progressed as quickly as they should, putting harvest later in the season. Usually our summers are hot and dry with spring and autumn being cool and wet. Winters bring snow with lots of wind and sometimes school delays! Temperatures may vary as much as 30F degrees in a 24 hour period. So, if you donât like the weather in Northwest Ohio just hang around for a few days because it will probably change! The land in our area is very flat and good for farming. Crops grown around our area are corn, soybeans, sunflowers, and wheat. You can see for miles and miles after the crops in the fields have been harvested. The closest river runs through the town of Napoleon which is located north of Holgate. The people in that town get their water from the river, we get our water from wells deep in the ground. The closest large city is Toledo, Ohio where the waters of the Great Lakes help bring goods to our area of the United States. [41:01N 73:45W] USA New York, White Plains George Washington Elementary School, Ms. McPartlin's third graders Hello Everyone! We are so excited to participate in this collaborative project! We are located in New York State. We are about 25 minutes north of New York City. We are a third grade class from White Plains, NY. Our elementary school is one of five in the school district. There are over 700 students in our school. White Plains is a very special city. It is located in the southeastern part of New York, on the Bronx River. White Plains has an elevation of 207 feet. It is 25 miles north of New York City. It was founded in 1683 and became a city in 1916. There are about 50,000 residents in White Plains; however during the day there are many people who come to work and shop. White Plains is a big place to shop. There are also many businesses in White Plains. There are 3 large shopping malls in our city. The Westchester is one of the largest malls in Westchester County. It contains many stores including Nordstroms, Warner Brothers, and Crate and Barrel. White Plains is also known for its historic contributions. On July 19, 1776 the residents of White Plains were the first to hear the public reading of the Declaration of Independence. The document was brought to White Plains from Philadelphia, Pa. Moments after the reading it was ratified. The Jacob Purdy house was used by General George Washingtonâs headquarters between 1776-1778. It was built in 1720 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. White Plains enjoys all four seasons. In the fall the temperatures are about 50-60 degrees F. In the winter it can get as cold as 10 degrees below 0. The winter almost always has snow. Last winter we had quite a bit of snow and had to close school for a few days during the winter. In the summer the temperature reaches in the 90s. It can be very hot and humid! That is when we like to go to the beach or pool! We have noticed some changes already. There are a few leaves on the trees changing. Most of our trees though, still have green leaves! The temperatures are getting cooler at night as well as day and the sun goes down much earlier than it used to! We look forward to reading all about you all and learning all about your world! [40:40N 73:57W] USA New York, New York Trevor Day School, Ms. Guarnieri's first graders Hello from Room 33 at the Trevor Day School in New York City! We are a first grade class with 18 students, 11 boys and 7 girls. Our teachers are Ms. Guarnieri and Ms. Herron. We go to school in an urban neighborhood in New York City. Some of the languages spoken here are English, Spanish, German,, Italian, Greek, Chinese, French and Japanese! We travel around in cars, taxis, buses and subways. Many of us walk everywhere! There are about 750 Students at Trevor Day School in grades Nursery-12th. Our school is on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, on an urban street between a church and an apartment building. There are many famous museums around our school, and and it is a block away from Central Park. Central Park is an 843 acre park that is celebrating it's 150th anniversary this year! We are going to be studying the park all year long in Science and Social Studies, and this is where we will be going to look for Signs of Autumn each week!! There are 26,000 trees in Central Park, and we are so excited to watch their leaves change color! In NYC we have 4 very different seasons. In Summer it is hot and sunny and very humid. Autumn is beautiful, cooler and breezy. Winter in New York is COLD and windy and sometimes very snowy! In Spring it is warmer and rainy. New York, with a population of approximately 17 million, is the sixth largest city in the world and is the most populated coastal region of the United States. Most of the land in Manhattan (our borough of NYC) is very flat. The streets are arranged (in most areas) in a grid and they are straight and flat. There are some hills in Central Park and in certain parts of the city, but our school is on a very flat street. The most commonly seen animals (by US at least!) in NYC are pigeons, rats and squirrels. In the park there are also 275 of the 800 species found in North America and 102 kinds of invertebrates, as well as other animals. We just discovered that there are 16 Peregrine Falcon couples, or 32 falcons total, that live year-round in unique places throughout the City such as on top of bridges, church steeples and high-rise buildings! We are excited to be learning about YOUR communities! We'll be looking everywhere for signs of Autumn :) Good luck! Check out our website at to find out more about us! OR, check out our "Signs of Autumn" page! [40:28N 80:03W] USA Pennsylvania, McKees Rocks Sto-Rox Elementary School, Ms. Raymond's first graders Hello!! We are a first grade class of 21 students. Our teacher is Mrs. Raymond. We are the only elementary school in our district. Grades 1-5 are in our building. We live in the city of McKees Rocks. This is very near the city of Pittsburgh. We will be observing signs of Fall in one of the gardens the fourth grades had planted. See the picture. [40:24N 80:11W] USA Pennsylvania, Oakdale Donaldson Elementary School, Ms. Huling's first graders , , , Hello from Miss Hulingâs Class! We are one of three first grade classes at the new Donaldson Elementary School in the West Allegheny School District. We are located in Oakdale, Pennsylvania. We are a mostly suburban school district located about 15 miles west of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There are approximately 380 students in our building. Our class has 15 girls and 7 boys. In addition to our classroom studies, we have special classes on a 6-day rotation-Music, Art, Physical Education, Swimming, Computers and Library. We are looking forward to watching and reporting the weather this year. The view from our classroom windows is tremendous. We are having colder than usual temperatures for early fall here in southwestern Pennsylvania. We had a rainier than usual summer, too. Today the low temperature was 30 degrees, which broke a record. We had frost both yesterday and today. Please visit our classroom website from time to time. [40:22N 80:32W] USA West Virginia, Colliers Colliers Elementary School, Mr. Bennet's third graders Our school is a k-4 primary school. We have 150 students in our school. We have two classrooms of each grade. Our class has 16 students this year. There are 8 girls and 8 boys. We are a writing school. We have written 4 stories so far. One was about our summer, another a mad scientist story, one about ourselves, and presently working on one about our pets. We are located in the northern panhandle of West Virginia. We are 50 miles west of Pittsburgh. Our landscape is rolling hills. Our climate is cool in the winter and warm to hot in the summer. Our nearest river is the Ohio River. Our main industry is Weirton Steel. Our school had a tug of war competition with other elementary school's for our Apple Fest. Our school won the competition. There were boys and girls on each team. Congratulations Sara for a great job. [40:17N 74:03W] USA New Jersey, Eatontown Harbor School, Ms. Greebel's students We are students at Harbor School. Harbor School is located in Eatontown, New Jersey. Our school is only a few miles from the Atlantic Ocean. There are no mountains in our part of New Jersey, but we do have many streams and rivers. The temperature has been cooler than usual for this time of year, but we have not seen any frost yet. Mr. Butera's second graders Mr. Butera's class of seven will be tracking the many changes of Autumn. Each student will be working together as a team to chart the many changes they see. [40:07N 75:20W] USA Pennsylvania, Norristown Paul Fly Elementary, Ms. Foedisch's first graders Greetings from Norristown, Pennsylvania. Paul Fly first graders, on this chilly October afternoon, write this as they anxiously await the start of this learning adventure. We live in the eastern part of the state, very close to the city of Philadelphia. We have had a lot of rain, so we should have a beautiful "fall". In our picture you can see the front of our school and one of the trees we will focus on as we watch for signs of autumn. Every morning as part of our announcements, the temperature is announced. This morning it was only 55 degrees. Brrrrr..... Well, that is all for now. We look forward to hearing from you! Until next week...stay warm :) [40:04N 74:12W] USA New Jersey, Brick Brick Community Primary Learning Center, Ms. MacDougall's students Hello from Brick Twp. New Jersey! It is a glorious fall day today, made even more beautiful because the teachers have professional day and the children have the day off! There is an incredible blue sky, although the temperature is a cool 55 degrees. We are happy to be participating in our fourth Signs of Fall/Signs of Spring project. We have 850 kindergarten students in one school. I have the pleasure of teaching every kindergarten child in the science room each week. We started September raising monarch caterpillars as part of the Monarch Teacher Network program. We have tagged and released 7 monarch butterflies and have one chrysalis to go. These butterflies will fly to Mexico to overwinter. We are wishing them great fall weather for their trek. Looking forward to reading everyone's observations. This is a great project to get children to notice what's happening in their neighborhoods and schoolyards. Have a great October! 54:52N-40:00N | 39:59N-29:27N | Firsts | Map | Quest