Tag Archives: epals

Bittersweet goodbyes were said on our final Skype the week before Christmas.  Our New Zealand epals graduated and headed off for summer vacation.  We said "hello" and "goodbye" all in one brief visit.  It was fun putting faces, voices, and personalities with our 2014 epal buddies. It has been a fun year of exchanging stories, interesting information, and surprise packages.  Great memories to cherish!image[7] copyimage[6]

10449734Our New Zealand epals introduced us to the Little Shop minatures that have been used as a promotional by a supermarket chain.  We were told that there are 50 miniature items to be collected throughout the promotion.  It sounds like the country has "gone a bit mad for the promo" as they have swap parties and buy and sell online.  Our epals were kind enough to share an item with each of our students.  You would have thought it was Christmas!  Such excitements as students compared and even did a little swapping of their own!

This video is especially dear to us since we are enjoying our ePals from New Zealand.  Also, the girl from Nappanee lives 20 minutes from us, and some people from our school know her and her mother.  What a special friendship!

What a fun Easter treat!  Each student received a personalized  Easter egg, picture, and letter from his/her epal.  Excitement filled the room as students shared information and photos.  We are so thankful to epals.com for helping our classes make this connection.

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We were so excited to receive handmade Christmas ornaments from our epals.  These will be cherished for years to come!  But the sad part was saying goodbye to our friends.  While we are getting ready for a 2 week Christmas vacation, they are getting ready for their summer vacation.  We skyped on their last day of school.  It was Friday morning at 8:30 for them, but Thursday afternoon at 2:30 for us!  What fun we had exchanging songs, personally speaking to individual epals, and ending with a chorus of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas!"  These will be lifelong memories!

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Our 24 students have made friends with a class near Christchurch, New Zealand through epals.com.  Not only are we having a blast getting to know our new friends, but we are learning so much about their country and culture.  They have decided to have a "Thanksgiving" after hearing from some of our students.  We had fun playing some NZ music while each student made a placemat for his/her epal's celebration.  Here are a few photos of students using a bulletin board to share information learned, making Thanksgiving placemats, and packing the box for their friends.  How fun!

As we prepare for the end of our 1st quarter and our anticipated fall break, it is fun to pause and reflect on some of our accomplishments so far:
> We have enjoyed using edmodo.com for assignments, discussions, polls, and friendly competitions. (Example:  icivics.org  for election appropriate games)
> We are in the final stages of writing our fiction stories which will be published on the blog soon.
>  We have worked hard to reach our personal AR goals (Accelerated Reading) and will be celebrating with a harvest party.
>  We are most excited to have connected with epals from New Zealand                         ( epals.com)
There is much to anticipate.  Meanwhile, we're ready for a little break!