Miss Jaster's Adventures: Part 2

Check your mailboxes, I sent you all postcards today! :) 

Before heading to Scotland I visited the ruins of this old church, Wenlock Priory. It was built in the 1100s! 

I ventured up to Scotland all by myself. An hour by bus and  4 more by train to Edinburgh. 

This statue called "Greyfriar's Bobby" is famous. It's in honor of a dog who sat outside the cemetary where his master was buried for years. The cemetary is behind the pub, also named after the dog. 

Here's the cemetary, I thought it was pretty cool. It's supposedly one of the most haunted places in the world! I didn't see any ghosts though. ;) 

I also visited the place where JK Rowling wrote most of Harry Potter. Here's the view from the window where she sat. That's Edinburgh Castle on the hill. I visited that too! 

I went to this cool museum called Camera Obscura. The top of the building has a room that is a camera (an old camera) that you can stand in and see the city. Each floor had cool exhibits about illusions, and there was even a mirror maze. My favorite was the view from the roof. 

Then I went up to the castle. There were guards in kilts. Like the Queen's Guards at Buckingham Palace they are very serious, but I did see a few of them smile... So maybe not quite as serious. 

The castle is still used by the military today. Here are some pictures inside the castle grounds. 

This was a cemetary for soldier's dogs. 

After Edinburgh I took another 4 hour train trip to Fort William, which is the most beautiful place I have ever been! I took a boat ride around the loch (lake) here & yes, I ate Haggis!! It was really good, like peppery sausage. Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the UK is found here. It's the one with snow on it. 

We even saw some cute seals!

Haggis looks pretty gross... I really liked it though. 

The next day I took a ride on the steam train they used in the Harry Potter films. I even crosses the viaduct (bridge) in the movie. More pretty scenery! 

The train stopped in the tiny town of Mallaig, on the coast. 

Then I stayed one more night in Fort William before heading back to London. (9 hours by train!) 

Back in London I caught the sunset. 

The next day I went to the top of the tallest skyscraper in Europe, The Shard. You can see it in the left of the sunset photo above, it's the pointy one. 

It's 800ft high, you could see all of London! 

Tower of London. 

St. Paul's 

The London Eye & Big Ben. 

Then I rode a boat down the Thames, under the Tower Bridge... and walked in the foot path tunnel under the river! 

We hiked up the hill in Greenwich, to stand in two hemispheres at once. 

On the flight back to Arizona I took this picture, over Hudson Bay Canada. That's ice! 

I can't wait to see you in the fall, and share more pictures with you at recess ( if you want to come in & see them). If you have any questions, leave a comment below! 

Cheerio!

Hey kids, Miss J here, enjoying my vacation, or as they would call it here, a holiday.

So far I have.... Visited Harry Potter....

Saw the sights in London we spoke about in class... 

 Saw an awesome musical! 

 Every girl loves shopping! 

I visited a 13 century castle, surrounded by hills dotted with sheep! 

Then off to Wales, to visit The Doctor (thought of you there Kaitlyn! )

Back to England, all those white specks are sheep! 

 

Another old castle, Ludlow. Remember King Henry? His first wife was sent here after he divorced her. 

Pretty Little Snow People

 We made these to go with stories we're writing about our snowmen coming to life.
These 3 girls did an amazing job on their happy little snow people. :)

GRACE

EMELY

ELENA

I'll share some of the stories soon, they just need to be polished up a bit first. ;) 

The Old Phone

Recently we learned about the invention of the telephone and I mentioned to my students that Alexander Graham Bell would be very surprised at how far his invention has come. They were shocked to learned about how the first phone looked many of them thought it was the "Big chunky one with an antenna" (aka the first Satellite/cell phones) or "the one with the wheel" (rotary phones) , so I had to bring in the antique phone that used to reside in my great grandparents' farmhouse in Canada.  It weighs about 40 lbs (that's without the batteries!) My phone was a slightly newer version of this one, it had a regular handset.

The children were curious as to how it worked. Instead of telling them right away I made them guess. Here are some of the best responses. (I used the phone pictured above, as it was older than mine, for their directions.)

"I believe that you spin the handle and pick up the piece to listen with. On the other end someone will ask you who you want to call. Then they hook you up with that person. Then you can be talking with the person you wish to call. When you talk you have to talk through the thing in the middle of it. You still need to keep the phone handle spinning while you talk to the person. That is how you work an 1877 phone, or at least how I think you use it." ~Emily L.

"How to use the telephones push down on the pumpymijiger (in the middle of the phone) as many time for the phone number you need. After each number take a break so the phone knows when to put a spec in the number. When you are done with phone number you twist the crank and it would call the person that you want to call, but you have to have a phone number in first!" ~Kaylee


"Here's how to work one of these...
1. Plug it into the wall.
2. The little thing on the side is twisted around  and the bells ring and it makes energy.
3. The phone is on the left side but the phone is like a smoke garden. Speak on the top and then put it to the ear to hear what they are saying.
4. The very last part is the board that sticks out , it is to write something on like an address or something else. You can put a pencil & paper there.
5. I forgot to say, the thing sticking out of the center is where you speak.
You can open it too!"

~Nick