The students in Mrs. Saul’s 5th Grade homeroom had the the opportunity to video conference with students from Haultain Community School in Regina, Canada today.

Although nervous at first, the students from these two countries chatted for 24 minutes and learned that they aren’t so different after all. They shared common interests in sports, hobbies and reading and students from both classrooms were surprised that they’d studied several of the same novels this year! They wore similar clothing and liked the same music.

There were differences, too. Haultain Community School, some 1500 miles from Roanoke, has less than 100 students in grades K-8.  Temperature and snowfall totals are very different, but since the metric system isn’t our standard unit of measurement, some figuring had to be done!

Mrs. Saul’s other classes are collaborating with students from other countries as well, but since time zones can create conferencing problems, these classrooms have shared Voicethreads with students in Beijing, China and Bullcreek, Australia. Their friends in Bullcreek were unable to respond to their Voicethread and shared this flickr show instead.