* * * BULLETIN * * *

NOTE . . . . . . . The itinerary for Looney Lobster is completed with Looney on the way to new challenges and adventures in classrooms across the United States! Our original project announcement, described below, has all the participants we can handle! We welcome you to follow Looney's adventures vicariously at "Looney Lobsters on the Loose". (December 31, 1996)

Looney Lobsters of the Lee on the Loose - 1996 - 1997

Would you be willing to show hospitality for a school week to one of our traveling cuddly crustaceans, Looney Lester Lobster or Looney Larry Lobster of the Lee School in Boston, Massachusetts? Would you be willing to receive him by mail, to care for him with cuddles and pets for that school week, to show him the sites of your town or city, to take a few pictures with him at the sites you select, to let us know by electronic mail what he has been doing with you, and to send him to another class by mail as he continues on his travel agenda?

Our 4th grade class is organizing a traveling buddy project. We would like to learn virtually while our Looney Lobsters travel in the United States. Our class is always taking field trips in downtown Boston to historic and cultural sites. We have begun to take Looney Lobster with us. But we felt, wouldn't it be great to learn about the places other classes visit near where they live? Wouldn't it be interesting to learn about other localities? Wouldn't it be interesting to receive pamphlets of tourist sites from other states?

What we will send:

A small box which will include:
1. a small pouch with Looney Lobster, a small, cuddly, stuffed lobster
2. a photo-album showing our class members - - on our travels around Boston and in our classroom
3. a single-use camera
4. Looney Lobster's itinerary
5. a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) for you to place: the front page of your local daily newspaper, a cancelled postmark and stamp from your town or city, a tourist pamphlet/s from your city or town

What we ask that you do:

1. Take care of Looney Lobster showing him kindness, compassion, and teaching him about your city or town. Let him accompany you on trips and experience new learning situations.
2. Look at our photo album to get to know us.
3. Use the single-use camera to take 5 pictures of your group with Looney Lobster. One picture should be of your group showing the front page of your local newspaper. Another picture should be a closeup of your state's license plate. The other 3 pictures should be of whatever new experiences you feel Looney might learn from - - visiting a local historic, cultural, or civic site with the name or place visible in the picture or Looney learning a new sport, or participating in a new endeavor.
4. Send us an electronic mail message when you receive Looney Lobster. If you have a digital camera, please send us a picture of your class members.
5. While Looney Lobster is with you, send us electronic mail messages that document his new experiences. We will place them in Looney's online electronic journal for participants to read.
6. Remove one of the self-addressed, stamped envelopes from the box. Inside the envelope, place the front page of the newspaper you used in the picture you shot of your class members; a canceled postmark and stamp from your town or city; a tourist pamphlet from your city or town. If you have a photograph of your class members that you won't miss, put that in the envelope too.
7. Following Looney Lobster's scheduled itinerary, rewrap Looney Lobster and mail him to the next school group who is waiting for him.

What we will be doing:
1. Calculating the mileage that Looney Lobster is building up as he travels from city to city
2. Locating the latitude and longitude of each city that Looney Lobster visits
3. Becoming aware of the daily time zones for each school that Looney Lobster visits
4. Recording the length of day where Looney Lobster is and comparing it to our daylight hours.
5. Keeping track of the weather where Looney Lobster is and comparing it to our weather
6. Receiving the SASE information that is sent back to us as Looney Lobster moves on to his next host school

How we will let you know about Looney Lobster's travels:
1. We will have a webpage which acts as Looney's online electronic journal. It will keep participant project classes aware of Looney Lobster's travels and adventures.
2. We will place the electronic mail messages that each school sends to us documenting Looney's location and his new experiences in Looney's online electronic journal OR we will create a link from our webpage to another school's webpage if they would like to document the project on their homepage.
3. Optionally - We will arrange to forward all electronic messages we receive to any participants who would prefer the actual messages rather than referring to the messages on our webpage.

If you are interested in hosting Looney Lobster and participating in this project, please respond to:
us including in your message your school's name, address, and your grade.

The 4th graders of Marjorie Duby
Joseph Lee School
Boston, Massachusetts


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Last modified: September 15, 2005
Copyright © 1996 - Marjorie Duby. All rights reserved.