Twitter & Skype - making the world a smaller place

Yesterday my class had a Skype snow date with my friend's children in Drayton Valley, Alberta, Canada.  They'd just had a huge amount of snow in a 24 hour period and all of my Canadian friends and family were posting pictures and statuses on Facebook about it.  I contacted my friend to see if she'd be able to share her kids playing in the snow with my students.  We sorted out the best time and were so happy that it actually worked!  There were a couple of false starts with Skype as there often is, but eventually we got to see her kids go through the whole process of getting dressed in snow pants, winter coats, mittens, boots, hats and scarves.  My students were surprised to realise that children in Canada have to go through that process every time they go outside - to go to school in the morning, to outside at morning tea and lunch, to go home after school - what a lot of work!

Then her children went outside and threw snow in the air, made snow angels, buried each other in the snow and got very red, rosy cheeks from the cold!  We even got to see their small white dog navigate his way through the snow.

When her children came back inside my class showed them how children in New Zealand get to go around in bare feet most of the day and how they wear school uniforms and hats.

It was fun for the children on both sides of the world to get to spend a few minutes together and learn from each other.

I put a screenshot of our Skype snow date on my twitter feed and hashtagged Skype.  Today I got a comment back from them!  I can't wait to tell my children that Skype actually tweeted us!