Hamilton Middle School

3/14/00

Dear Fellow Explorer Enthusiasts,

We are third-graders of Hamilton Central School which is located in Hamilton, New York. There are two classes of us playing the game. When we aren't playing the Hunt for Famous Explorers Game, We're working on our learning units all of which pivot around the notion of community.

Hamilton is a K-12 school and all of us are in the same building. We're the Emerald Knights and our school colors are green and white. Sometimes high school students with free time volunteer to help out in elementary classrooms. It's neat because we get to see what we might be like in a few years.

The village of Hamilton is tucked away in the Chenango Valley among the rolling hills of upstate New York. It houses another Òschool,Ó Colgate University, which sits just across the road from ours. When Colgate is in session, our village more than doubles in population. Like most communities, ours has seen changes. A feeder canal leading to the Eerie Canal used to run right through the village. Back then hops were grown here. We even had a railroad in those days, which afforded the village one of its headline events, a chocolate train wreck! Hershey's Kisses went flying everywhere when the train derailed one October night. (Few people bother to go trick-or-treating that Halloween. Bet you can guess why!)