Mrs. Figdore Is Back!

Mrs Figdore Is Back!!

Mrs. Figdore has come back to visit us and talk about the places she visited. One of the places she discussed was New Guinea, which is in the South Pacific Ocean. In New Guinea younger children do not wear any clothes because it is very hot and the people are too poor to buy any. Americans help them out by donating clothing to them. The babies do not wear diapers like we know diapers. They use towels as their version of diapers, which they usually use over and over again. The children use bamboo sticks to make music and they make instruments from palm leaves, which are either shaken or hit. They use these to put on shows when guests come to the island. They make some of the clothes from palm leaves when they are going to have celebrations.  While Mrs. Figdore was there the principal of a Kindergarten class asked if the children could visit on the ship. While they were there they saw ice cubes and coca cola for the first time. No one drank it because they were afraid of it. While there, she visited lots of other South Pacific Islands which were very much the same. In some of the schools in the islands they wore uniforms. On some of the islands she saw men called “firewalkers”. Those people were not as poor as most of the other people because visitors pay to watch them walk across fire.

The second place Mrs. Figdore discussed with us was Nibia, which is in Africa. There she saw lots of babies under umbrellas to protect their skin against the glaring sun. She told us about Coconut Crabs, which are crabs that eat coconuts. They are very, very large. The people there eat the Coconut Crabs. They grew a vegetable garden outside the village. When they harvest the vegetables they carried them on the back of their heads so they could keep their hands free. Traditionally, the mother teaches her children how to this. Married women put mud on their braids to keep them in place.

She also visited Baja Beach in Mexico. This is mostly a desert island, with lots of sand. They watched a small boy who had made toy of nothing but tubing and string. They do not have things like video games and must make their own fun.

Mrs. Figdore also visited a village in the Amazon. The village was flooded during that time. The water was so deep it almost went into their houses and they had to leave their houses by canoe. They even used the canoe to get their food. While she was there she saw a young boy who got a Coati, which is a relative to the anteater and racoon.

Another place she visited was Viet Nam where she saw Vietnamese students visiting the post office for a field trip. Everyone in Viet Nam rides motorbikes for transportation, which can be very dangerous.

In Cambodia she saw children weaving mats that are sold to tourists and other places in the world. The children wanted to be paid for having their pictures taken by the tourists. They could not use any money with wrinkles or tears in it. This got very expensive for Mrs. Figdore when the word got out that she was paying for the photos. In Cambodia there are no refrigerators or ice so mothers have to go shopping every day for food.

These are facts about the places Mrs. Figdore visited. We found her trips very interesting to all of us. She made us want to travel to lots of foreign countries.

Mrs. Figdore & Penguins

Mrs. Figdore was a teacher who wanted travel all around the world and at one point she retired and started to pursue her dream. Mrs. Figdore has been to all 7 continents. She is a very adventurous lady!

She came to Mrs. Musone’s 3rd grade classroom to talk about Antarctica. She went in their summer because she wanted to spend Christmas on a different continent. The temperature was cold but there wasn’t a lot of snow. On Christmas Day there was enough snow to play in for an hour and they made a snowman.

While she was there she stayed on a boat and even went canoeing in the ocean! It was important for her to stay away from the icebergs so that no animals that might be on the icebergs would sneak up on her.

Mrs. Figdore saw lots of penguins and showed the class her many pictures of them. There are many kinds of penguins. The ones she showed were Adelie penguins, King penguins, Gentoo penguins, and Chinstrap penguins. However, she did not see any Emperor penguins, the biggest of all penguins. Penguins eat krill, lantern fish, and small squid. When they nest, they nest very close together.

There are three kinds of birds that live there. They nest close to the penguins and one of them eats the dead penguins. She had a picture of a bird that had a wingspan of 142.5 inches, almost 12 feet. That is HUGE! In order to land, it had to hold its large wings into thirds.

The third graders thought her visit was cool and it was interesting to learn about Antarctica but they are not sure they would want to visit there.

Miss Kay & Miss Ruby Visit From The SPCA

Mrs. Kay and Miss Ruby from the SPCA visited Mrs. Musone’s class on Friday, March 7. They came to visit so that the class could learn more about how they can volunteer to help the animals that have been put into the care of the SPCA. They showed a video about how dogs should be taken care of and how dogs can take care of their humans. A stuffed dog named Spot came along for the visit.

Volunteers can help by making toys for the animals, creating decorations for the cages, providing pillows and blankets, and making dog treats and foods. Dogs are like people - they have their favorite things. Some like certain types of toys, or some like to sleep on a nice bed.

Dogs and cats can be great friends but there are things that you should be cautious of doing when you are with them. Do not grab at them or reach into their cages. Do not tease them and go to pet them at their face. ALWAYS ask the owner first if you can pet the animal. Some dogs can be mean or a therapy dog and they should not be petted unless the owner gives permission.

The SPCA is responsible for keeping animals safe. If they know of animals that are neglected or abused they can possibly take the animal away. They only take animals away if they absolutely have to. Animals should stay with a loving family that treats them just like any family member. They will also help people provide for their animals if they do not have enough money or if they need help due to an emergency.  A responsible dog owner not only takes care of their animal but also teaches them “dog manners”, like sit, down, stay. They also can have a chip put in them in case they get lost. There are so many animals without homes so it is also important that they have the surgery so they cannot have puppies or kittens.

Students learned a lot from this very interesting presentation. From it, they will make sure to help others become good, responsible pet owners.

Mrs. Bowman Visits Third Graders

Mrs. Bowman is an accountant ,and part of her job is writing and presenting proposals to companies that her company wants business from.. She does business with Metro Bank and  Hershey. She usually writes about five proposals a year. She volunteered her time to help a third grade class make proposals.

She makes sure she knows who she is talking to when giving a proposal. It is helpful to know your audience because you know what to say better. She wants to make a personal connection with her audience. She told the third graders making connections can help companies trust the presenters more. She said to make a connection with Mr. Miller, who they are presenting to.

She told the third graders to practice, practice, practice. She reads her proposal thoroughly to make sure it makes sense. If she finds a mistake, she’ll edit it and make sure it makes sense. She told the third graders to practice in front of a mirror or to their group members.

On the day of the presentation, you should have your teeth brushed and clean your face. Dressing formally helps show that you are serious.

After the proposal, she shakes everyone’s hand and thanks them.  She also makes thank you cards thanking companies. She said that was a good idea for third graders too.

Jean Pennycook, Studying Penguins In Antarctica

Jean Pennycook is a scientist who lives in Antarctica from November through January. We recently Skyped with her on Tuesday, January 7. We learned that it is now summer in Antarctica, just the opposite of us.

Even though it is summer, it is still very cold. Ms Pennycook lives in a heated tent and has to wear at least three layers of clothing. There is no plumbing so she has to use a bucket for a toilet. Her water arrives by helicopter so that she has good, clean water to drink and wash her hands. She keeps bottles of soda and water available in case the helicopter is late or cannot make it through bad weather.  She does also have warm food to eat and lots of things she likes such as candy and cereal.

Why is she there? She is there to observe the lives of penguins. During the time she lives in Antarctica the penguins, which are birds, change colors from black to brown or lighter shades of blonde. They only lose their feathers when they get older. It is the feathers that keep the penguins warm. They have so many feathers that you can fit 100 of them into a space the size of the circle in an OK symbol. Penguins only live on ice. Once things get warm and the ice breaks up, they move to another location. They need to be close to the water so they can find the fish they have to have for food.

Ms Pennycook bands each penguin so that she can identify each one as she learns more about them. The bands can stay on the penguins for many years. While she is there, Ms Pennycook does not touch them except for when she has to weigh them, and when she does that, she wears rubber gloves. She also wears those gloves to protect herself from getting sick if the penguins has a disease.

We really enjoyed talking with Ms Pennycook and learned a lot about so many things.

Mrs. Bieber & Carson

Mrs. Bieber and Carson

Mrs. Bieber, technology assistant at Central High School, holds an after school club for coding. Carson is a 10th grade student at the high school in the club. Carson has been coding for five years. He became interested in coding when he got a Leap Frog.

Coding is the instructions that tell things to do something. For example, you might code a robot to move a cup two times. In the club Carson is coding a drone to fly around the high school to take pictures with a camera inside the two pieces of the drone. Mr. Stauffer’s class made the drone. The instructions for the drone come from Carson’s phone.

Most of the time the drone does what it is supposed to do, but sometimes it crashes. So, they put foam around it to protect it. Even then, occasionally it crashes on landing so duct tape is needed to mend the drone.

We learned a lot by interviewing Mrs. Bieber and Carson. One more interesting thing we learned is where the word “debugging” came from. A woman was having problems with her computer and they found that it actually had a real bug inside. Isn’t it interesting where some words come from?

Coding is fun to do, can keep you busy, and helps you learn! We really like coding.

Mr. Caufman

Mr. Caufman

             Roundtown honored our military people with a great assembly for Veteran’s Day to learn more about our service people. We interviewed our own Mr. Caufman, principal at Central High School.  Mr. Caufman is in the Army. He has been in the Army for 13 years and counting. He was stationed at Jordan and Kuwait for 2 years. He was an Intelligence Officer. That means he couldn’t tell anyone any information about what they see or do on a mission for the Army. He thinks it is cool being in the Army because he got to go many places like Europe, and Jordan. SWEET!!!