Over the last few days, we have been in Iowa and Illinois where we visited two classes – Mrs Krebs in Granville, Iowa and Mrs Allen in Joliet, Illinois.
In Iowa, Miss W gave a talk to classes, the students asked lots of questions but as yet don’t have their own blogs. While we were there we also had a lunch in the school cafetaria – spaghetti bolognaise, salad, and apple crumble. The students have a lunch provided at their school each day. After lunch we visited the grade 9 class. Carli was a student who took part in last year’s challenge and she wrote a great post about visiting her state which was one of the reasons for coming through Iowa this trip.
Miss W asked the grade 7/8 students in Iowa where was the one place we would have to visit that was close by. Many said the ice cream shop in Le Mars which was about 30 miles away. So we headed there and you can see, Miss W and I shared a delicious banana split at the Blue Bunny ice cream shop. Le Mars is known as the ice cream capital of the world.
It was the lady at the ice cream shop who told us a nice drive to get to Waterloo where we were staying the night. So off we went to Pocahontas then south through Hiawatha to the main freeway and onto Evansdale near Waterloo. Just the names of the two towns made it interesting.
The next day we visited the Herbert Hoover National Historic site at West Branch. A very interesting documentary about Herbert and his parents, then a chance to walk around his original birthplace, his father’s blacksmith shop and then to see his grave on the hillside.
Near Davenport, we crossed the Mississippi River which is the divide between Iowa and Illinois. Onward we drove to Joliet where we stayed the night in Harrah’s Hotel and Casino.
The next morning we headed to St Raymonds school to visit with Mrs Allen and her students. This was a full school day inside a room that also contained the library and art area. I think it was one of the only rooms without air conditioning and Miss W kept going red in the face (matching her jacket) and needing to drink more water. The students again asked lots of questions and left many comments on my blog. Some of the students had taken part in the blogging challenge last year as well. I noticed they have left lots of questions about Australia, so I am hoping some readers can answer them in the next few days.
We spoke to students in grades Kindergarten (who then used art pad to create some pictures), grades 4 and 5 (who were taking part in a global moon project) and some grade 8 students (who were learning about blogging ready to take part in the March challenge in 2012).
After school, we followed Mrs Allen back to her house. Inside was a huge boxer dog who loved to lick and smell Miss W’s feet. He was very quiet but Mrs Allen put him in the cage when he kept annoying Miss W.
Out to tea or supper at McBrody’s where Miss W had an excellent chicken wrap with tater tots or what we call potato gems in Australia. Tomorrow will be an early start to get to Cleveland Ohio, so Miss W was in bed pretty early.
Please leave a comment about a time you have had a visitor in your classroom. What did they talk about? What did you find interesting in what they told you?