My family and I, who have been living in Tucson for the past four years, went on a European vacation this summer to visit friends and family. We visited two countries – Germany and Switzerland. We visited cities like Frankfurt and Heidelberg in Germany, and Zurich and Lausanne in Switzerland. My favorite part of the trip was paragliding with my parents in Murren, Switzerland. Located a few miles south of Interlaken, Murren is a village that is only accessible by cable car and located above the town of Stechelberg in the Lauterbrunnen Valley.

At the Tucson JCC, nine boys and girls from Israel performed many dances in front of an audience. Their names were Ranen, Amit , Hadar, Noa, Alon, Ofri, Oria, Shr and Mai.
They performed many Israeli
dances. About halfway through
their performance they played a
knowledge-based game called
Kahoot. The winner was Tea
(tea-ah) with 4,178 points and all
five questions correct.

We all know about Ben Franklin, although we could never meet him because he lived in the 1700s. That’s why we were surprised to have his wife, Deborah Read Franklin, come to our school.

Karen Hall, an experienced actor and educator, brought Mrs. Franklin to life, English accent and all. She told us all about Benjamin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

At Sunrise, the teachers are offering Chinese immersion. I think it is fun to learn a new language!

The teachers do an excellent job teaching. Sunrise is one of the many schools that have Chinese in the Tucson area. Sunrise also offers Spanish.

Last year the second grade immersion took a field trip to the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center. Every year, starting in first grade, the immersion classes take a field trip to the cultural center to perform a Chinese song.

There is an amazing camp in Tucson for girls going into 5th, 6th, and
7th grades. It is called the Colors of Nature Academy, and it teaches
girls science through art. The camp is organized by researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, and the University of Washington Bothell. The camp lasts two weeks and is actually a study funded by the National Science Foundation. The Colors of Nature Academy is held at the University of Arizona campus. There is no cost to attend the camp, but girls must apply.

I loved the book “My Favorite Pets by Gus W. for Ms. Smolinski’s Class” by Jeanne Birdsall. It’s all about Gus, who lives on a farm with 17 sheep. The sheep are like his best friends, but they don’t talk and even though he has tried, Gus can’t get them to climb a tree, or ride a skateboard. Gus does fun things with the sheep like using one as an umbrella and he tries to get his little brother involved, but he doesn’t like it and cries a lot.