Greetings from Pittsburgh!

Hello class! Well, it's time for Proud Panther to start his trip home to Jacksonville. Before he got ready to leave, I wanted to show him my new city. This is a view of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from a Mt. Washington lookout. Pittsburgh was founded in 1758. It was known as the Steel City for all of its steel mills. It has three rivers that run right through downtown. The Allegheny River and the Monongahela River merge to form the Ohio River. Pittsburgh is the home of several sports teams: Steelers (football), Pirates (baseball), and Penguins (hockey). It is also the home of Heinz Ketchup! Pittsburgh sits in the Allegheny Mountains (part of the Appalachian Mountain Range). I hope you all have enjoyed the adventures of Proud Panther and I through England, Wales, Mexico, and Pittsburgh. I also hope you learned lots of fun facts along the way! Enjoy your last day of school and have a great summer!! Good luck next year! I miss you all very much!

Me and Proud Panther

Heinz Field (Home of the Steelers Football Team)

An Adventure to Mexico!

Hello Class! Since Proud Panther and I spent our Spring Break wearing scarves and gloves in England, we decided to take a nice, warm trip to Mexico together! We had so much fun! We saw lots of different kinds of sea life. While taking a walk on the beach we spotted a purple jellyfish, several sea turtle nests, and almost stepped on some sand color crabs (ouch!). Can you find the crab in the picture?

Then we went snorkeling. When snorkeling, you have to wear goggles, a life vest, and a tube that sticks out of your mouth. The life vest helps you to float, the goggles help you to see the coral reef under the water, and the tube sticks out of the water so that you can still breath while your face is under water. The coral reef is where the fish live (like in Finding Nemo). We saw lots of very bright blue, yellow, and multicolored fish. We even saw a starfish, a stingray, and a barracuda!!

After our water adventures, we took a trip to see the Mayan ruins. This is where the Mayans lived hundreds of years ago. The reason that none of the buildings in the photos have a roof is because they were made out of palm branches. The palm branches weren't sturdy enough to stay in place all of these years, so all that is left now is the stone part of the buildings. The Mayan village was built right on the edge of a cliff, next to the ocean, so that they could not get attacked by enemies and so that they could have access to boats. The building that has the most steps was the most important building. This is where they performed their important ceremonies and sacrifices. A sacrifice is when they would offer valuable things to the higher power they worshipped. The biggest house in the village was located next to the most important building. That's because only the most important person in the village could live close to it.

While in Mexico, we also discovered that their lizards are much larger than the lizards in Florida! Proud Panther became pretty good friends with some of them!

Proud Panther and I also spent some time shopping. Most of the items being sold were handmade, so they were all a little different than the rest. They were selling lots of clay pottery and blankets. There were also some items made of wood. Almost everything was painted with very bright colors.

After all of our exploring, Proud Panther and I still found some time to relax and enjoy the beach!

I think his favorite part of the trip was the towel animals that housekeeping left for us everyday!

Well, I hope that you all enjoyed your virtual field trip of Mexico! I hope you found it as interesting as Proud Panther and I did. Proud Panther will be back in your class shortly, but I will still be missing you all from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania!

London!

Proud Panther and I had the adventure of a lifetime in London! We marched with the guards at Buckingham Palace, we took a tour in a double-decker bus, did some shopping at Harrod's (a very expensive store that famous people enjoy shopping at), and walked through Westminster Abbey (the same church that Prince Charles and Princess Diana got married in). We also saw the London Tower, London Bridge, London Eye, St. Paul's Cathedral, and Big Ben. We squeezed a lot into one weekend, but we had a blast! Take a look at our photos to see some of Proud Panther's new friends!

Phone booth

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

Changing of the Guards

Buckingham Palace

London Police Officer

Another Adventure!

Proud Panther and I will be on our way to London tomorrow. Another exciting adventure for us. We will take lots of pictures so that we can share the experience with you! So far, it looks like it is going to be a very cold weekend for us!

Wales

Proud Panther and I decided to take a trip to Wales this weekend. First, we rode on the train for about three hours. We saw lots of sheep and countryside! Once we arrived in Cardiff, we went to see the Cardiff Castle. Each room in the castle was decorated with a different theme (no pictures allowed-sorry!) and time period. There were even blankets on the beds that were made of gold thread! I think proud panther liked the tower the best! It was a very cold and wet day, but Proud Panther didn't seem to mind. The streets were very crowded, because there were two big rugby games. People here love rugby, like we love football. After the castle, we did some shopping! We also took a tour bus through the city so that we could learn some of the history. It was a double decker bus, but we were too cold to sit upstairs! We had a wonderful trip to Wales and learned a lot about Cardiff! We are having a great time exploring and we love sharing our adventures with you!

Lovely Plymouth!

Proud Panther and I would like to share some of the sights we have seen with all of you. England is very beautiful. It rains a lot, so the plants are very green and healthy! Although it is usually cold, the sun has been out a lot these last couple of days (I guess to make us feel more at home)! It is a very old city with buildings that are over 1,400 years old! There is also a very old Naval Base here with lots of ships. I hope you enjoy the pictures and we will continue to share our journey with you as we go!

First Day At Goosewell Primary

Today was our first day at Goosewell Primary School. Proud Panther and I are in a Key Stage 1 Year 2 classroom, which is six year olds. Everyone was so nice to us. The students wanted to know what it was like in Florida and they thought that I talked funny! I was trying to explain to them how hot it gets in Florida, because it is very cold in England! They loved the "This Land Is Your Land" book that we created and also enjoyed Proud Panther being in the classroom. All of the students in my school wear uniforms and get a whole hour for lunch, can you believe it! Proud Panther and I miss you, but we are slowly learning all the answers to your questions!

*New Word: The dot at the end of a sentence isn't called a "period" in England, it's called a "full stop." This is our classroom (they are studying Germany and Mexico).