April 19, 2001:Tunia came to our classroom today safe and sound! She arrived by airmail. According to our students, she is "having a blast already" because the weather is great here in Langley, B.C. Today the temperature was around 15 degrees centigrade, cloudy with sunny breaks. We have a lot of flowering trees, tulips, and daffodils blooming in our community of Langley at this time. Tunia seems to be very excited to see the green plants growing and hear the noise of the busy insects. Today Tunia came to the computer lab with us and watched us make pictures of the planets and the sun. We have been studying about the Solar System. Tunia was glad to see her old friend, Snoopy, our classroom guinea pig.

April 25, 2001: We have been having fun with Tunia since she arrived last week. This is her second visit to Langley, so she was very glad to see some familiar faces and to stroll around the school grounds and smell the tulips that are blooming around the trees outside our classroom. The students have been on the lookout for ladybugs in the schoolyard and their gardens at home. They have seen several different kinds of ladybugs busy guarding the plants in Langley. The most common ladybug so far is the Southern Lady Beetle or 19 Spotted Lady Beetle. We are putting ladybug stickers on a chart whenever a student spies a friendly ladybug each day. We'll let you know how many different kinds we can see!

Monday, April 30: Langley, British Columbia, where Tunia is visiting us at James Hill School, is located in the Fraser Valley about 50 kilometers (about 30 miles) from Vancouver. The weather here can be very rainy, and in fact, that is often what visitors to southern B.C. remember the most. The winters in Langley are usually quite mild, with a small amount of snow and ice. This winter we had very little snow and that has caused some concern about whether there will be a water shortage this summer. The past few weeks the temperatures have been between 15 and 23 degrees centigrade. Many spring flowering trees, shrubs, and bulbs are blooming right now, making gardens full of beautiful colours. James Hill School is located in the Township of Langley, which still has a lot of farmland in parts. The area surrounding the school is a recently developed area, full of new homes, a new small shopping center and a new firehall. There is a pool and recreation center, a police station, and hospital all within a few blocks of the school. However, it still has a country feel because there are farms quite close by. About a five minute drive down the hill, is the City of Langley. It has an historical older part of town that has been rejuvenated over the last few years. There are also a lot of new businesses and a large shopping center not far away. So Langley is a mixture of town and country.

Tuesday, May 9, 2001: We have been enjoying our usual spring weather in Langley. The sun has been shining almost every day, but we often have some showers, clouds, and a few windy days. The petals from the flowering trees float through the air and cover the ground, making the grass look pink and white. The children planted a pansy garden outside around one of the young trees that were planted last year by our school Greening Committee. Because our school is quite new, just 5 years old, money has been given to plant trees, shrubs, bushes and a butterfly garden around the school. I think that Tunia likes the fragrant pansies, and she has already checked them out at recess in case a tasty aphid might be hiding there.

May 17, 2001: Today we planted Tunia’s summer garden in the schoolyard around our classroom tree. The weather was windy and cloudy, with the look of rain. It was a good day to plant our bedding plants, so we marched outside and started digging. The students all chose a marigold or lobelia plant for the garden. The marigolds should do well in that location because it gets a lot of hot sun during July and August, and they love the heat! Tomorrow Sports Day is planned for the school, a fun way for Tunia to spend her last day with us at James Hill School in Langley.

May 18, 2001: Well, the weather forecast called for showers today, so Sports Day was cancelled. Everyone was disappointed, even Tunia. We decided to have a special day with her, so we started off the morning by singing two of her favourite songs to her: "If You Know a Bug Named Tunia" and "T-U-N-I-A". She was smiling all the way through the songs. Then in the afternoon we read Tunia her very favourite book, The Grouchy Ladybug. She read with our classroom guinea pig, Snoopy, at Silent Reading time. I know he will miss her when she goes, because he reads with her every day. The children all said good-bye to Tunia before they went home for the long weekend. We hope she has a safe trip home, and we know that Mrs. Cafferty and the Grade 2 students at Reservoir Avenue School will be very excited to welcome her back home.

May 22, 2001: Tunia is on her way home to Rhode Island! She was a bit sad to say good-bye to us in Langley, but very happy to return home after her long journey. I know she will have many adventures to share when she finally arrives home in Providence.