Archive for March, 2009

Over the weekend I went to the Adventure Aquarium with the Hainesport Girl Scout Troop #24077. They had the honor to sleep over at the local aquarium located in Camden. Camden is on the other side of the Delaware River, directly across from Philadelphia. One of the girls decided to bring me with them. You may have noticed that my appearance is different. As with the other post, I had decided to welcome the spring season with a change of clothes and some fresh flowers. I like this outfit so much, I might wear it a little more often!

When we first arrived at the aquarium, we had to wait in a hot room for a while until we were allowed to go see the fish. Then we saw a big, green crocodile.  It was scary!  Then the Girl Scouts and I took an adventure into the rain forest!  I saw a sea turtle that looked a lot like a human.  After I saw the sea turtle, one girl and I got eaten by a shark!  He spit us back out, so I guess he doesn’t like the taste of gnome.

After my bad experience with a shark, I saw a sea snake!  He had a flat, oar-like tail to help him steer through the water.  After I saw the sea snake, I met the famous Nemo from Finding Nemo.

Then, the scouts and I moved on to the sea star touch tank.  Do you think Girl Scouts are nice?  They’re not.  They held me over the touch tank, right above a scary red sea star.  It was so scary!  After they put me down and said they were only messing with me, each scout touched a sea star.  I even touched one.

After yet another scary experience, we saw some sharks in a really big tank.  One of the aquarium employees taught the scouts and I that you can tell if a shark is a boy or a girl by seeing if it has claspers.   Claspers on a shark  are located  between the front fins and a pair of fins in front of the tail.

There was a really cool diagram of a shark’s body.  It was informative, but it had a couple of humorous features, too.  After I saw the diagram I posed with some girls in front of giant shark jaws.  Then, I saw a hammerhead. Did you know that there are only two hammerhead sharks in aquariums around the world?  The Adventure Aquarium just happens be one of the two lucky  aquariums to have one.

If I learned anything from my aquarium experience, it is that 1) Girl Scouts are mean, 2) sharks don’t think gnomes taste good, and 3) Nemo looks cooler in person!

On Saturday, I went to Westminster County College of Rider University for the New Jersey Music Piano Festival. Isn’t that a mouthful? You’ll see I look different because I decided to welcome in spring by going through a change of clothes for a few days. I even picked a basket of flowers! Anyway, one of the students from my host teacher’s class was in it. Judge #20 (the girl from our class’s judge) was really nice. She let me stand on the piano and touch some of the keys, even though I couldn’t make a sound, no matter how hard I jumped! The student played two pieces, Sonata and Song of the Lark, and she got an excellent on both of them. The four ratings are Excellent, Very Good, Good, and Fair, but actually I think Good is Fair and Fair is Bad. Don’t tell anyone!  When the pictures are posted, you will see that this same student was Hainesport school’s spelling bee champion. What a gifted student!

Greetings,

I am alive and well. Sorry for the lack of communication. I think my head is still spinning from the county spelling bee I attended recently. One of the students in my host’s  class represented Hainesport School in the bee. It was quite impressive to listen to 5-8 graders spelling words I did not even know existed. And I thought I was pretty smart!  After about 3 1/2 hours, there was finally a winner. She is a 6th grader and will head to Washington, D.C. in May for the national bee. I am sad to say it wasn’t Hainesport’s representative, but she is to be commended for her hard work. Here are just some of the words the participants had to spell: philanthropy, pneumonia, eythromycin, mercurial, duenna, boudoir and flavescent.

Yesterday, being March 2nd, the birthday of Dr. Seuss, was suppose to be a fun day at school. Mother Nature changed all that by dumping up to 10 inches of snow across the area. Needless to say, we had a snow day. I was very cooperative and helped my host teacher shovel her long driveway and sidewalk.  

Dr. Seuss Day went on as planned today at school. The students and teachers were able to wear pajamas and slippers. The highlight of the day was the pie throwing contest in honor the students reading a total of 6,344 books in the past month. The entire school was witness to the winning classes’ teachers creaming other staff and administrators all for the sake of helping to promote a love of reading. It was quite enjoyable.

I am pictured here with one of the gym teachers. She was a good sport.

I couldn’t believe my hears when I heard what sounded like babies crying. It was babies! Actually, they are not real but are part of the 7th grade health curriculum. Every student has to take a baby home and take care of it. I feel sorry for the students who have to take one home over the weekend. It could really wreck their social life.

                          Luckily none of the babies started crying during the Talent Show. They were on their best behavior.

Hainesport’s  Talent Show was very… how do I put it talented.  Many kids sang or danced. We even had a song and dance from the middle school’s play, Seussical  Jr.   A child from kindergarten  sang   the  Star Spangled  Banner and probably knew more of the words than most adults do. It took a lot of nerve for kids to get up on our stage and perform. Everyone had a fun time! I know I did. I had my picture taken with some of the performers and in front of the camera.