Today we made our last stop on our tour of the Regions of the U.S.A.  We flew to Hawaii and visited four of the Hawaiian Islands.

Before we left we learned how to sing Praise God from whom All  Blessings
FLow in Hawaiian.

When we arrived in Hawaii, we sat down and planned a four-day itinerary.  We planned a trip to the islands of Hawaii, Oahu, Maui and Kauai.  We had to decide on four excursions for each island, but we had to budget our money because we only had $400 to spend for the four days.  Most of us were very frugal as we spent less than that on everything.

After visiting some interesting places like volcanoes and the Polynesian Culture Center, we went to the beach and watched people surf.

Some of us went to a park to see a wolphin (cross between the dolphin and whale) and other sea creatures.

We enjoyed tasting fresh pineapple and coconut.

We danced to some Hawaiian music and played in the sand.

When we got done we stopped by a palm tree to get our pictures taken.

Finally, we added our last pages to our scrapbook.

On Friday the third graders started their trip through the midwest by going to Wrigley Field to see the Chicago Cubs play the Arizona Diamondbacks.

We sang Take Me Out to the Ballgame and ate Cracker Jacks.  We had a good time!

Go Cubs!

After finishing our trip we talked about which place in the southwest that we would like to go back to. Here are our responses.

Gracia: If I can visit the southwest I would go to the Grand Canyon. It is about 277 miles long and about one mile deep. Sometimes if you stand on a cliff, you can see birds flying below. I think this is one of the best places on the world!

Daisey: If I could visit the southwest I would go to the Grand Canyon. I would go there because I like to hike. I love animals. I like to be up high.

Shianne: If I could visit the southwest I would go to the Grand Canyon because if you yell something it has an echo. I like to look down and see the river. I like birds and eagles so it is a perfect match.

Faith: I hope that someday I can visit Phoenix, Arizona in the southwest. I want to go there because in the summer it is 115 degrees. You will not die of thirst because you will bring an automobile with a cup full of water. It is the hottest city.

Morgan: If I could visit the southwest I would go to Phoenix. I like Phoenix because it is hot and sunny. I think you can live there.

Jakob: I would go to Phoenix because wince it’s so hot I would go outside with an air conditioner because I like playing outside and there would be lots of things to take pictures of.

Juana: The place I wish to visit is Phoenix, Arizona because it’s hot. It was a small town, now more people live there.

Sarah: The place I wish to visit is the Hoover Dam because it has enough concrete in it to pave a two lane road to Florida. And it was built 60 years ago.

Chance: If I could visit the southwest I would choose the Hoover Dam because I wonder what it looks like inside and what they do inside and see if I can see if it’s wide or skinny.

Alexa: I would like to visit the Hoover Dam because I would like to see the Colorado River and I also would like to drive across it. I also think it is very beautiful and high. I hope that I can go to the Hoover Dam in the Southwest Region.

Zeke: If I could visit the southwest I would go to Carlsbad Cavern in New Mexico because the biggest room can hold 14 football fields and because I like rocks.

Kirsten: The place I wish to visit is Carlsbad Caverns. I want to go there because Dad and I really like going to caves and because on the inside caves are really neat. I would like to see some bats in an underground cave. I would like to take some pictures of a cave so I could scrapbook the pictures. Also I would like it because rocks are cool because the rocks can look like things like an alligator or something. I really enjoy just walking and looking around cave and looking at all the wonderful creations.

Zac: the place I wish to visit is San Antonio, Texas because it is the home of the Alamo. It is cool because it did not get destroyed. It is beautiful because of the flowers.

Garrett: I hope that someday I can visit El Paso, Texas in the southwest because it’s close to Mexico. Also because I want to build a factory there when I grow up.

We were ready to go to the first stop in our trip tour of the Southwest Region, Monument Valley in Arizona.  We learned about the Navajo Indians and what a mesa was.  We also saw two kinds of rock that we just finished learning about in science:  shale and sandstone.  We were surprised to find out that movie makers used this very area to film some of the cowboy movies!  We were also surprised to find out that it was only 44 degrees outside here in Arizona.  We thought it would be much warmer.  Does anybody know why?

Stay tuned for more beautiful places as we travel through the Southwest Region.

We finished our trip of the West Region by flying to Anchorage, Alaska. We saw where the Iditarod Race begins.

Then we heard from Flat Zac who had just come back from visiting his aunt and uncle in Alaska. We really liked it when Flat Zac told us he saw a moose.

Then Mrs. Thorp told us about the trip that she and Mr. Thorp took to Alaska. We saw pictures of glaciers and a temperate rain forest in Alaska.

On Friday we traveled by van to Tacoma, Washington to visit a sawmill. We learned that most of the lumber used in the West Region comes from this area.

We talked about all the uses of lumber that we use today.

Do you know how much wood the United States uses a year? We use enough wood each year to make a walkway that is 30 feet wide and that would reach all the way to the moon! That is a lot of lumber.

To help us remember what we learned, we each made something out of wooden craft sticks to put into our scrapbooks.

Today we traveled to the Columbia River, which is the border between Oregon and Washington.  We learned about the importance that the river has for these two states.

The Columbia River is important because it is used for transporting goods and fishing.  Dams are built so that power plants can be made and the water can be used for irrigation.

After the excitement of Disneyland, we settled down and traveled north to the Central Valley in California.

We learned that the Central Valley is where many of the fruit and vegetables that we eat are grown.

After journaling in our scrapbooks, we tasted some of the fruit from California. Some of us tasted Sunmaid Raisins and some of us tasted Mandarin oranges (Cuties from California).

Today we arrived in California after a long drive from Colorado.

Our first stop was Disneyland!  That was fun!  We learned that Walt Disney came to California in 1923 with one goal.  He wanted to bring happiness to people.

Walt Disney made cartoons, movies  and television shows.  Then in 1955 Disneyland was opened.  14 million people will visit Disneyland this year.  Walt Disney is still bringing happiness to people.

We watched a DVD on Disneyland and listened to Disney tunes on a CD.

We finished our trip by eating fruit snacks shaped like our favorite Disney characters and reading our favorite Disney books.

We worked on our scrapbooks.

We ate our snacks.

We read our books.

Yesterday our van stopped at Yellowstone National Park. We learned that fur trappers were the first ones to see the geyser, Old Faithful. When they told people back home that they saw hot water spray into the air, no one believed them!

Now people go to Yellowstone to see Old Faithful and the Rocky Mountains that surround the park.

Today we drove southeast to Leadville, Colorado. Leadville is in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. Miners came to Leadville looking for gold but found silver.

We listened to a song about a miner who left the good life back east to live the rough life of a miner in Leadville, Colorado.

Now Leadville is no longer a producer of silver.

People come to Leadville today to fish and hike and ski and some even like to learn the history of the siver miners!