Benni the Bear - Hamilton Central school-Hamilton, New York

This activity ended in 1997. For information only.

BENNI THE BEAR

Hamilton Central School
Hamilton, New York, USA
March 31-April 11, 1997

Date:         Fri, 28 Mar 1997 15:14:00 -0600
Reply-To: KIDLINK KIDPROJ Coordination 
From: Barbara Hunter 
Subject:      Benni's on his way
To: KIDPROJ-COORD@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU

Dear Friends,
        I did not want Benni to stay still so on Thursday, March 27 he
left Mt. Belvieu, Texas headed for Hamilton, New York as Jeanne Rose
there was the only one to reply in the last week.

        Jeanne - Take good care of Benni!

        MamaBear....Benni got warm in Texas so he will not catch a cold ;-)

        Warm regards,
        Barbara Hunter

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Barbara Hunter                        Barbers Hill Intermediate
bhunter@tenet.edu                     Mt. Belvieu, Texas USA
jghunter@gte.net                      29  50  51  N
TENET Master Trainer                  94  53  26  W

Benni's Visit

by Carolyn Godfrey

Students in Meg Rose's fifth grade class at Hamilton Central School said "goodbye" to a very special guest last Friday. Benni, a stuffed bear from Iceland, had been making his home in the classroom for the past ten days.

Benni came to Hamilton after visiting students in Illinois, California and Texas. Along the way his traveling box was filled with mementos, videos, and photos of the new friends he had made. Mrs. Jeanne Rose, Enrichment Coordinator, first learned of Benni and his travel plans, by an Internet message from Rosa Gunnarsdottir in Reykjavik, Iceland. According to Rosa, known as "Momma Bear" on the Net, Benni was planning to take a year to travel around the world and was looking for places to stay during his trip. Mrs. Rose sent a message back to Momma Bear saying that Hamilton "would love to have Benni visit" for a few days. Soon Hamilton's name appeared on the list of host schools. Keeping in touch with Momma Bear on the Net, the students kept track of Benni before he arrived in Hamilton. When Mrs. Rose sent a message to the students at the last school he visited saying that he had arrived in Hamilton, although in the middle of a late winter snowstorm, the Texan students quickly suggested "Give him a blanket. When he left here it was 80 degrees."

Teaching Benni's visit has been educational as well as fun for the students. At each school, the students must meet with teachers and make plans to visit classrooms to talk to fellow students about Iceland. Extensive research is done before a program is prepared and presented.

Another task for the host students is to decide what souvenirs of his visit should be placed in Benni's box before he leaves. Among other things, the students at HCS have decided to include post cards from the area, Hamilton Central School pencils and a videotape they prepared about the school. Benni, himself, was kept quite busy during his stay. In addition to attending classes each day, he helped in the making of the movie, attended assemblies, and traveled with the class to Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute in Utica for a field trip. Next stop for Benni is a school in Missouri. He will also make stops in Seattle and Maryland before returning home in mid-May. After spending a few days with his friends at his home school, he'll travel to Italy to continue on his trip. The students at Hamilton are planning to keep track of Benni as his journey continues, according to Jeanne Rose, "Hopefully they can keep contact with the students in Iceland and the other schools as well. This has really sparked their curiosity," she commented.

One thing about Iceland that continues to interest the class is the custom of removing shoes when entering a building said Mrs. Rose. "They noticed in a picture from Iceland that the students don't wear shoes in class. Now they want to know what people do in stores, movies, or restaurants." "This has been a good use of the Net," she added. "It's been educational and fun."

Jeanne Rose
Hamilton Central School
Hamilton, NY

Benni Home
Next Stop

KIDPROJ Information Contact: Patti Weeg, Title 1 Computer Teacher, Delmar El. School, Delmar, Maryland, USA. Home Page: http://www.globalclassroom.org

KIDPROJ WWW Contact: Grant Dougall, Educational Consultant: Technologies, Saskatoon Board of Education, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, CANADA. Web Site: http://198.169.140.21/

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