City/Country Skype Date

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As we were studying the regions of the United States we discovered that it is easy to go from an urban environment to a rural environment in just a matter of hours. This is especially true here in the Northeast. We are just a matter of hours from cities like Boston, Montreal, New York, and Philadelphia where life is very different from the quiet pace of Vermont.

Our class decided to take a closer look at what life is like in a city. We chose Philadelphia because Mrs. Eaton used to live and teach there before moving to Vermont. We read books, looked at pictures and watched a video about life in Philadelphia. Then we developed questions that we were wondering about Philly and sent them to a second grade teacher at the school where Mrs. Eaton used to teach. St. Peter's School is a small private school in the heart of downtown Philadelphia. The second graders at SPS also had questions for us to answer about what it is like to live in Vermont. All of the students spent time answering the questions and them we got to hear the answers live on Skype on Thursday morning!

We found out that there are many differences in our lives. The students at St. Peter's School wear uniforms and eat lunch in their classroom because they don't have a cafeteria. They play in parks because their yards are very small and they couldn't imagine having a snow day because it was too cold! We also had a lot of similarities like what we are learning about in school and especially the types of games that we like to play at recess.

As the students said, it was "awesome" to be able to see the students live in front of us with the help of Skype. What an amazing learning tool for the students and teachers too! We can't wait to chat with more people near and far in the months to come!