Hello Again, First Graders!

 

Sunday, November 25, 2012

My Thanksgiving in Florida!

Hi Kids!

Guess where I am?  I am in Florida with Mrs. North and Dr. Appelgren and their family.  They invited me to spend Thanksgiving with them.  Isn't that nice?  I am having so much fun!    When you get this letter, you will be back in school after Thanksgiving vacation, so I hope that you had a great Thanksgiving with your families.  Did everyone eat lots of turkey?  I did!

Here is a picture of me at Thanksgiving dinner

 Yum yum!  Does my dinner look like yours did?  I bet that we had a lot of the same foods!  A lot of you asked me about if the foods and traditions are the same in Florida as in Rock Hill.  As you can see, the food is the same. Have any of you been to Florida before?  Can you find it on the map?  When you find it, you can see that it is another state in our country.  There is only one state between South Carolina and Florida.  Do you know what it is?

Four of you asked about a beach. When you look at the map, you can see that Florida must have a lot of beaches.  Some are on the Atlantic Ocean like the beaches in South Carolina, but some are on the Gulf of Mexico.  Can you find the Gulf of Mexico on the map?  I am in the middle of Florida so there is no beach here but there is a pretty lake!  Here, I will show you a picture:

 We took a boat ride on this lake. It is called Lake Padgett.

 

Ellison asked, "What kind of things grow in Florida?" It is much warmer in Florida than in South Carolina.  It never even snows at all here!  So, the sorts of plants that they can grow are different.

Look at the picture of the trees by the lake. Do you see the long green-gray things hanging from the branches? That is not part of the tree. It is another plant that grows on the tree. It is called Spanish Moss. I picked some to bring back so you can see it.

 

This morning, you might have had a kind of juice that came from fruit trees in Florida.  Can you guess what kind of fruit trees they have here?

 

 

That's right!  They have a lot of orange trees!!  I took a picture with one of them so you could see


Ty'daja and Jayden  asked about animals. Since there is so much water, they have a lot of animals and birds that like the water.  For example, sometimes in the lake they see alligators!!!  I didn't see one though- it would have scared me!  I did get a picture of a heron.  It is a kind of bird that gets its food from the marshes and lakes.

When I saw it, it was in a marsh and it caught a snake to eat!!!  They had a big fight- here is another picture:

Can you see that the snake wrapped itself around the bird's head???  The bird won, and eventually he ate the snake.

I even saw a fake animal!  This flamingo was in someone's garden. I knew it wasn't real, because when I got close to it, it didn't fly away.

Well, that's about it. I hope you enjoyed this letter. I can hardly wait for my next trip!!!

 

Your friend,

Flat Stanley

 

 

 

 

 

Hola from Spain!!!

¡Hola amigos!

Do you know what language that is?  Do you know what it means?

It is Spanish for "Hello friends!"

I am learning to speak Spanish and I am getting plenty of practice here in Spain!  Do you know of any other countries where they speak Spanish?  I hear that you are learning Spanish, too.  Isn't it fun?  I like learning new languages because it helps me to talk to different people and make new friends!

You guys ask such good questions!  Thank you for sending them!  Someone asked about the food they eat here.  They eat many of the same foods that we do, but they especially like ham and special kinds of Spanish sausage.  Here is a picture I took of a store all full of ham and sausage!

They also eat a lot of olives and olive oil because there are many olive farms here.  I even saw some plants where olives grow!

Do you see the rows of smaller trees with lighter leaves?  They are the olive trees. 

You guys must really love animals because I got a lot of animal questions!  Some people asked if I had seen any bull fights or people running from the bulls.  Bullfighting is a very old sport that has been in Spain for many years, but I didn't go see one because it would make me sad if a bull get hurt.  I did see cows though!  They were walking down the road with their owners- the cars had to stop and wait for the cows to pass!  I took a picture:

Mrs. North asked if we have the same kind of money here.  No, it is different!  They use Euros instead of dollars and have Euro cents instead of pennies.  In fact, there are many, many different kinds of money in the world!  in most other countries you have to change your US dollars for a different kind of money so that you can buy things, so that is what I did in Spain!

Finally, people asked if I am having fun.  I sure am!  I like Spain a lot.  Everyone here is really nice but I think that now I am ready to come home.  See you soon!

Your friend (or in Spanish "tu amigo")!

Flat Stanley