                   
For more ideas
visit our 2006-2007
class project page
...and our
for individuals
and small groups
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"Finale in Florida
Beach Party"!
The Whooping Cranes and
ultralight airplanes we tracked on migration, since October, FINALLY
reached their Florida destination in late-January. The migration,
which was plagued by weather issues throughout, took a month longer than
expected... making this the most protracted trek in the ultralight-led
migration’s seven year history.
To celebrate the
completion of the southbound migration, more than 160 Rama Central
students signed a banner congratulating Operation Migration on their
perseverance.
We mailed our banner to the Operation
Migration Office, in Port Perry
Migration
Project members also threw a big "Finale in Florida Beach Party."
"Party Central," ready to rock!
There were
about 40 Grade 2-7 students attendance at the party. Most were members
of "The Migration Club" from September to present. A few were
enrichment students and other Special Education students who studied the
migration, with me, as part of their coursework.
Mrs. Black, with a Grade 6 student and a
Grade 2 student
Our party
itinerary included:
-
Rowdy long
distance phone calls from "party central" to:
Operation Migration, in Port Perry and Florida; Lori Trout's class,
in Louisville, Kentucky; Nadia Studnicka and family, in Illinois (Nad.
is the ten year old who created 1,500 origami cranes to raise money
for Operation Migration); and Mark Chenoweth, in Florida (Mark, who
runs the podcast site "Whooper Happenings," has e-mailed
us many crane photos; the photos we used on our cake were his).
Apparently, our joyful hooting, hollering and party horn sounds
carried all the way to the library, at the opposite end of the
school!!! :-)
Party-people MAKE SOME NOISE for Mrs. Trout's
class,
in Louisville, Kentucky!!!
Some of the girls pose with their
"symbolic cranes"
The big guy is #607. We made him during
last year's migration.
The crane on the right
"migrated" to Illinois, by mail, after the party!
-
"Crane-Race
Reading Challenge" Certificates for students who "beat
the cranes to Florida." The reading challenge was voluntary and
had to be done above and beyond any homework that classroom teachers
assigned. The goal was to complete 1,250 minutes of home
reading before the cranes flew 1,250 miles from Wisconsin to
Florida.
About 25 Migration Club kids signed-on to the program and 17
students, from Grades 2-6, "beat the cranes to Florida."
Between them, the reading challenge participants did almost 40,000
MINUTES OF EXTRA-CURRICULAR HOME READING!!!!
One student completed a "round trip" from Wisconsin
to Florida, and was on his second trip to Florida when the migration
wrapped; two others completed an amazing THREE round trips to
Florida and were on their FOURTH southbound trek at the end of the
migration!!!
Our new principal, Mrs. Clark, came to the party to present
certificates to all those who "beat the cranes."
"Early-birds," waiting
for more students to arrive for the presentation
Mrs. Clark presents the certificates
The seventeen students who "beat the
cranes to Florida"!
Three of the youngest students to win the
challenge!
-
"Migration
Project Awards" for several people associated with the
migration. These
award winners will receive their certificates by mail:
-
Dedication and
Endurance Award: Joe
Duff, Operation Migration CEO and Pilot
-
Poet of the Year
Award: Brooke Pennypacker, Operation Migration Pilot
-
Extreme Parent
Award: Bev Paulan,
Operation Migration Supervisor of Field Operations
-
Worst Weather God
Award: Chris Gullikson, Operation Migration Pilot and Amateur
Meteorologist
-
Intern of the Year
Award: Megan Kennedy, Operation Migration
for crane-sitting over Xmas and creating a slide show for Journey
North, in addition to regular
duties)
-
Hardest Working
Woman in Migration Award: Liz
Condie, Operation Migration COO
-
"Home
Alone" Award: Chris Danilko and James Popham, Operation Migration Office
Staff
-
Journalist of the
Year Award: Jane Duden, Journey North Crane Writer
-
Most Inspiring Kid
Award: Nadia Studnicka, Fund-raiser for Operation Migration
Students holding the nine "Migration
Project Award" certificates
Emma, holding a Journey North booklet
about Nadia
and a string of origami cranes Nadia sent to us;
Laurel holding the certificate and "symbolic crane" we
mailed
to Nadia, at her home in Illinois
Students also signed notes for ten-year-old Nadia
and for ten-year-old Taylor Richter
(who flew "top cover" with the cranes, in Fall 2006).
They read about Nadia and Taylor on Journey North.
The notes we mailed to Nadia and Taylor
Other
party events included food, games and the movie "Fly
Away Home."
Half-slab cake decorated with a picture
of the "Class of 2007" training in Wisconsin
and pictures of Bode and Ohno, 2006 cranes that live at the Jacksonville
Zoo.
Thank you to Mark Chenoweth for all of these photos!
Students helping themselves to snacks
Students watching the movie "Fly
Away Home"
A Grade 2 student taking on a Grade 7
student at air hockey
Grade 3 classmates "performing
surgery" ;-)
A Grade 6 student and a Grade 2 student
try their hands at chess
A Grade 5 student and a Grade 6 student
square-off at "Connect 4"
And.... what party is complete without
"Twister"???
As you can see, a GREAT
time was had by all!!! :-)
HUGE THANKS go
out to the folks at Operation Migration and the educational website
Journey North, and to all of our other "craniac" friends and
acquaintances across North America, for another wonderful experience
watching history in the making, as Operation Migration seeks to
reestablish a migratory flock of Whooping Cranes in Eastern North
America. The completion of
the “Fall 2007” migration adds 17 to that flock... bringing
the total number of wild Whooping Cranes in the Eastern Flyway to
70+!! GO, CRANES, GO!!!!
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