Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Rohan R.'s Post

My Weekend Trip
by Rohan R.


    Over the weekend, My family and friends went to Lake Tahoe. My mom bought sleds for us so we parked at the side of the road near the Bear Valley Ski Resort, and went sledding on a nearby hill.  We had a fun time sledding down the hill, and once, I accidentally did three somersaults coming down. Also, the view of the mountains from there was fabulous.
After that, we went to a river which had many rapids. Then we went to our cabin in the Dorrington Lodge, to eat dinner and sleep for the night. After dinner, my friend and I played Monopoly and Uno, for a long time.
The next day, we went to the town of Murphy to visit Mercer Caverns. The stairs, we walked on, in the cavern were very steep, and there were many awesome sites, with stalactites and stalagmites, that the tour guide showed us. There were many low hanging limestone formations which we had to duck so as not to touch the rocks. Our guide said that if we touched a part of the cavern, that part would die, and not continue growing. Finally, we reached the end of the cavern, and we exited it. Then we went to a restaurant to eat lunch, and after that we left for home. What fun thing have you done on the weekends?

Thursday, May 5, 2011

30 minutes away

We just crossed the Sunol grade and are 30 min. away. Our ETA at school is about 8:35/ 8:40. Groups 2&3 are about 5 min. ahead of us. See you soon!

Leaving Sacramento

DVD in? Check. Full stomach of starches? Check. Sleeping kids the whole way home?....fingers crossed! :0) I'll update when we are over the Sunol grade, about 30 min. away. See you soon!

Very tempting....

So hard not to jump in!

So hot!!!

Ok, now we're feeling the heat! Our stop to Sutter's fort was interesting, but we cut it a little short. It was our only outside visit today and happened to be in the middle of the afternoon. We peeked in some of the rooms to see what life was life for the blacksmith, cooks, basket weavers, coopers and guards. Life was very different and seemed very hard, especially on hot days like this. We waved goodbye to Sutter's fort and anxiously greeted our air conditioned bus! We are headed to Old Town for a stroll through some old historic buildings on our way to the highly anticipated Italian dinner. The kids are looking a little old and tired. This seems like a marathon day for them. I have a feeling after this pasta dinner there will surely be some snoring on the way home!! By the way, our tourguide, Beth, is outstanding!!!

At the capital building

We are fully enjoying this gorgeous weather by having a picnic on the capital lawn. We've worked up a good appetite and I can't even describe to you how fast these lunches disappeared! We slowly made our way inside the capital and took a picture in front of the Governor's office, visited the assembly room, and learned a bit about our previous governors and their workplace. The heat is kicking in now- definitely feels like 90! We are now on our way across the street to the History Museum, a welcomed air-conditioned building! Kids are doing great and being such good listeners to their tour guide. She is so impressed with the history they already know!!

First stop...

The Railroad Museum! Students had a great informational session with their tour guide where they learned about the Big 4 founders, the golden spike, and the struggles of creating the railroad system back then. Now they are off to wander about the museum going in and out of the railroad cars and drooling over shiny, golden spikes!

On Our Way!

We've got all the excited kids, chaperones, and teachers on our way to our state capital. Things went so smoothly this morning getting all the students here on time and loaded up on the buses. Once we hit the freeway we put the DVD in the player and the bus immediately became silent. I think I've even heard some snoring already! Sacramento here we come!!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Book Discussions

Decided to get into groups this morning to not only read, but to discuss their thinking and to introduce new vocabulary. Some great, lively discussions! They are doing such great job understanding this book and picking up on all the funny parts.