Bonjour! Au revoir! These phrases canbe often heard in Mrs. RochelleEggebrecht’s fourth-grade classroom atGreenville Elementary as studentseagerly read their letters from their newfriends in France.

Students have been using electronicmail since the beginning of the school yearto exchange letters with students living inVitry sur Seine, which is a suburb of Paris.

Trevor Sabourin, a student of Mrs.Eggebrechts, stated, “Having Epals is agreat learning experience. I like havingEpals because we can learn about newcountries without using our textbook.”

Another student, Josie Skalla, shared,“This is such a fun project! You get inter-ested right when you hear that their letterhas come. You just want to read it rightaway!”

Mrs. Eggebrecht initiated the Epalproject with her students since 21stCentury Learning Framework andDistrict Professional Growth initiatives

stress the importance ofstudents gaining tech-nology skills anddeveloping global aware-ness.

“I want my studentsto learn about culturesother than our own andto directly communicatewith children in variousparts of our world inorder to help them feellike a part of our globalsociety,” Eggebrechtexplained.

Her students sharethat desire.

“I think it’s important to know aboutglobal awareness because it helps merespect other cultures,” Caleb Derga-Prinz stated.

Ellie McIntosh added, “It increases myglobal awareness by making me noticeeven though we have differences, we have

a lot of similarities.” Students are also improving their writ-

ing and technology skills. “It helps me learn how to type faster

and just helps me learn my way around thecomputer,” informed Madeline Quinn.

Students discussed the similarities anddifferences between our culture and theirEpals’ culture.

Fourth-grader Carissa DeLain shared,“I thought every country was totally differ-ent before Epals, but France is moresimilar to us than I thought. Having anEpal has made me really want to try newthings and to learn more about other cul-tures.”

Mrs. Eggebrecht’s class discussed howboth groups of students enjoy the samerecess activities, eat at McDonald’s, playthe same sports, and celebrate many of thesame holidays. They also discovered thatboth countries are led by a President.

While there were plenty of similaritiesbetween cultures, students were surprisedat differences in names and foods.Common names in America, such as Mike,Jake, and Zach, are not so common inFrance. Students were perplexed withtheir Epals names, like Aicha, Ouarda,Kahina, Rabah, Numidia, and Safinati.

Even though both fourth-grade classesenjoy eating hamburgers and pizza,Greenville students learned that theFrench have regional dishes: choucroutein Alsace, crêpes and galettes in Bretagne,cassoulet in Toulouse, and foie gras in thesouth-west of France. “They eat food likeYule Log,” expressed Greenville fourth-grader Isabella Nelson.

Perhaps the most shocking differencethat the students found, though, was witheducation.

Mrs. Eggebrecht’s class discoveredthat the name of the grades is different: 1stgrade is CP (cours préparatoire), 2ndgrade is CE1 (cours élémentaire 1èreannée), 3rd grade is CE2 (cours élémen-taire 2ème année), 4th grade is CM1(cours moyen 1ère année) and 5th grade isCM2 (cours moyen 2ème année). The stu-dents at Ecole élémentaire AnatoleFrance go to school from September toearly July and have five breaks during theyear: Autumn break (10 days), Christmasbreak (two weeks), Winter break inFebruary (two weeks), Easter break (twoweeks), and Summer break (two months).

Greenville student Maya Gorgessummed it up best when she said, “If wewere all the same we would have a boringworld!”

Making friends across the globe

Fourth grade students at Ecole élémentaire Anatole France pose for a picture in their classroom.

Page 7

Were you paying attention to theweather when you were in third grade?Students at Greenville ElementarySchool are — not just Wisconsinweather — but weather around theworld.

Mrs. Marian Moberg’s third gradestudents and Mrs. Paula Resop’s ELLstudents have been collaborating tocompare and contrast our Wisconsinweather to conditions in other placesfar from and near to us.

Fatima Leon, one third-grade ELLstudent commented, “It is fun to workwith Mrs. Moberg’s class and otherclasses across the earth.”

Utilizing the website www.glob-alschoolnet.org, Mrs. Moberg’s andMrs. Resop’s students are able to lookat graphs and pictures to analyzeweather data from some of the follow-ing locations: Seattle, Washington, LosGatos, California, and even Ashgabat,Turkmenistan.

According to Emily Cliver, anotherthird-grade student at GreenvilleElementary School, “The programWeather Around Our World is amazingbecause we get to see the kind of cli-mate in locations all over the planet.When it’s sunny here you would neverknow if it would be rainy or cloudysomeplace else. This program helpsyou get the chance to actually see dif-ferent places in the world and compare

those places to where we live.”In order to participate in this

weather study, students are asked totake pictures and observe the weatheron four days throughout the year:October 15, January 15, March 15, andMay 15. Students focus on cloud cover,precipitation, wind, and temperatureas they observe the weather outside.The participants submit their data andpictures to the project coordinator whoposts them on a map and graph for stu-dents to compare, analyze, andevaluate.

“I couldn’t believe how warm itlooked in Turkmenistan on October15,” said one of the third-grade stu-dents.

“Learning about weather in thismanner definitely makes it more rele-vant for the students. They are nowable to associate particular weatherpatterns with another school or class,and they are becoming more globallyaware at the same time,” Resopexplained.

The information collected by thestudents can be viewed on the follow-ing web address:http://sites.google.com/site/weather-outourwindow/.

Check it out, “weather” you want toor not.

Students from Marian Moberg’s and Paula Resop’s classes were getting ready to go out-side to observe and record the weather on January 15. Moberg’s third grade students andResop’s ELL students have been collaborating to compare and contrast Wisconsin weath-er to conditions around the world.

Students in Rochelle Eggebrecht’s fourth-grade classroom at Greenville Elementarypose for a picture sent to their friends in France.

Third graders watching the world’s weather