Hurricane News

Map of Puerto Rico Image from MacGlobe 1992 Broderbund Software

On the day that the hurricane was going to reach Puerto Rico, we sent an email message to our school friends. We were thinking about them and wanted to know if they were going to be OK.

First, we talked about what we wanted to say in our email message.

Second, we wrote the sentences we wanted for the email message on the whiteboard in English. We read our message aloud in English. Third, our Spanish teacher, Senora Rivera, helped us write our email message in Spanish. Senora Rivera is from Puerto Rico. She helped us read and practice saying the messages in Spanish.

Fourth, we wrote the message on the computer in English and Spanish. Then we sent our message as email.

Senora Rivera helps us write our message in Spanish.

Here is our message in English and Spanish:

Monday, Sept. 21st 1998 English: Dear School Friends, We hope you are fine and safe. We hope the hurricane won't hurt you or family or friends. Please send another email when everything is passed and tell us if you are okay. Sincerely, Mrs. Rennebohm Franz's Class Espanol: Querida Amigos, Esperamos estes bien y segura. Esperamos el huracan no te haga dano a ti o familia o amigos. Por favor envia otro email cuando haya pasado y cuentanos si estas bien. Sinceramente, Mrs. Rennebohm Franz's Class

Here we are sending our message: Before we left school that Monday afternoon, we had an email reply from our school friends. Here is their message in Spanish and English:

Monday, Sept. 21st 1998 18:46 Espanol: Querida amigos, GRACIAS por preocuparte por nosotros. En estos precisos momentos GEORGES esta entrando por nuestra costa sureste. Aqui en nuestro pueblo de Arecibo (costa norte central) las rafagas de viento se estan tornando muy fuertes. Las nubes tienen un color amarillo verdoso. Es posible que muy pronto perdamos contacto con el resto del mundo, ya que la energia electrica o el servicio de telefono se vera afectado definitivamente. Te escribiremos cuando se restablesca la comunicacion. Bye. With love, your school friends and family English: Dear Friends, Thank you for worrying about us. In this moment Georges is making his entrance through the South East coast of the Island. Here in our town, Arecibo, the wind is turning very strong. The clouds have this yellow-green color. It is possible that we are going to lose contact with the rest of the world very soon. That is because the telephone and power systems are going to be affected. We are going to write back when the communication is re-established. With love, your school friends and family

The next day we learned that the Hurricane Georges had arrived in Puerto Rico and that power was lost and telephone lines were down.

Senora Rivera came to our classroom to tell us about the hurricane. Many of Senora Rivera's family live in Puerto Rico.

We were worried about Senora Rivera's family and our school friends. We had to wait until we got email to know that they were OK.

Senora Rivera found websites that showed the eye of the hurricane and its path across Puerto Rico. She found the weather maps of the hurricane at INTELLICAST.

We also read a Scholastic Big Science book called Stormy Weather (1992) to learn more about hurricanes.

While we were waiting to hear from our school friends that they were OK, we decided to do something to help the children in Puerto Rico. We decided to make and send them a comfort quilt. We hoped that the quilt would make them happy and feel better.

On Tuesday, September 29th we finally got an email message from our school friends saying they were OK. Senora Rivera helped us translate each part of the message from Spanish to English.

Date: Tuesday, Sept. 29th 1998 19:40 Subject: Re: Hurricane Espanol: Bueno... paso el huracan... finalmente nos podemos conectar al mundo electronico... English: Well, the hurricane already passed... finally we are able to be connected with the electronic world again... Espanol: el pais a sufrido vastante con el evento... hay mucha destruccion (www.endi.com) pero afortunadamente solo 2 muertes por el evento en toda la isla. English: The country has suffered a lot because of the event. We have too much destruction, but fortunately just two deaths caused the event in the entire island. Espanol: Estamos recuperando los servicios de agua y luz poco a poco... English: We are recovering the water and power services back slowly. Espanol: Gracias a Dios, nosotros estamos bien y no paso nada por aca...saludos a todos... Los Vega Hubertito y Jackeline English: Thankfully we are fine and nothing happened here. say hi to everyone. With love, your school friends and family

Click here to learn more about making the comfort quilts and sending the comfort quilts to children in Puerto Rico.

Classroom Index | 1. Hurricane News | 2. Making the Quilts | 3. Sending Quilt Email | 4. Sending Quilts | 5. Thanks from Puerto Rico | 6.Hurricane Exhibit at Children's Museum

***All documents on our classroom web pages are copyrighted. The text and images are for educational use only. Please honor the integrity and original ownership of all text, design and images. We request that you not replicate the webpage designs nor publish the images and text without permission. For permission contact Kristi Rennebohm Franz at kfranz@psd267.wednet.edu