At the beginning of the year we signed up to join a fun project with Lisa Davis from New York, called Bulldog Adventure, where their mascot, the “Bulldog” left Westmoreland, New York to travel the world, stopping at several places to visit and teach about previous travels.
When he arrived to us this past week, March 22 to be exact, we got the opportunity to learn about the places he has visited (through 69 slides). Every new place Bulldog travels to, he gets a few slides to share with the next group. Since he is arriving to us towards the end, we got to learn so much about our country and even about his experience in India and Pakistan. We are excited to share a few with all of you!
Back in the states, he travelled lots of places we got to learn about. We had some favorite learning moments, we just had to share. Many of us had just learned about Truss Bridges, in STEAM club, so when we saw this slide, we got excited! This is a COOL bridge, read closely.
Who doesn’t love candy and especially M&M’s? We loved getting to learn about where they come from in Cleveland, Tennessee and that it actually smells like the candy there in the town!
Because here in Alaska we have such strong ties to Native cultures, we were really into learning about Cherokee Nation and Red Clay State Historic Park. Some of us didn’t even know these kinds of state parks existed.
This next place was exciting for us to see because so many of have never seen a cactus in real life. Learning about Arizona was intriguing.
The stop right before us was Washington, which several of us had been too. They even mentioned us in their post when they talked about having salmon in both places.
Finally, we got a chance to share Bulldog’s Experience in Alaska, and about Alaska in general. This first slide shares a bit about our school and town. Bulldog got to eat free lunch, since we are a free lunch school!
This next slide, we are sharing Bulldog’s learning about the cool things we do at school. He even got to do some math and earn 3 Kick-it Math belts!
Here we love teaching about Alaska. These are what we often share about Alaska that are pretty unique. We love this time of year because every day it stays lighter longer until we reach summer solstice.
While Bulldog is here, we will spend a couple days letting him go home with students to see their life firsthand. More pictures may come! Having the opportunity to learn about the world in such a fun way has been really cool. We may even decide to send a mascot next year! Anyone know where we can find a Thundercat?
This seems like a simple but powerful way to help students learn more about places around North America and the rest of the world.
This is such a good idea with the Bulldog traveling the world, and much like others have said, very similar to “Flat Stanley” only for older kids. Being Fairview Eagles, I love the idea of an eagle exploring the world around us. Many of my students also have family members in their home countries, so it would be awesome to tie those worlds together through an animal while learning about specific geographic regions. I am super excited to incorporate this idea next year.
Love that idea!
This seems like a fantastic way to learn a little bit about a lot of different places around the country or world. It reminds a little of the Flat Stanley activity that I have seen teachers do.
Bulldog’s Adventure demonstrates a fun, fabulous geography, history, culture, writing skills project. Students showed such interest in learning even more about the places that Bulldog has been. Plus students show excitement and pride to share about their lives here in Alaska. I love the idea of sending a Thundercat out next year. I hope your school does that.
That bulldog went so many places! It makes me want to visit Michigan to walk across and across that tridge. A fun way to get to see what students think is important or interesting about where they live and how that compares with other places around the world.
It was way more revealing about places than I would have thought. Makes me want to do one for next year.
I, too, was reminded of Flat Stanley and Flat Seymour (from the “Wild About Anchorage” program). I like that it wasn’t just younger students participating, but older students as well. I’m curious to know how Bulldog was able to travel to India and Pakistan– lucky dog! 😉
Love it! I know, it seems amazing where this one small mascot can go! We should make a pact next year to send mascots around the world. It’s a great learning opportunity! I think of Flat Stanley often and tracking the traveling is an epic idea. Students of all ages enjoy watching the map. This is something that would go well with ThingLink https://www.thinglink.com/
This sounds amazing. A lot like Flat Stanley (which I will say, I sadly forgot about when my 5 year old cousin mailed me her version of herself flat). I love how it travels the world much like the gnome in the movie Amelie. What place will it go next? It might need some funding, but totally doable in an Alaskan classroom.
How awesome is this?! What a fun way to learn about the world around you! I think Tudor should give it a go with a Thundercat OR a unique Alaskan animal! It would be awesome if others could watch the journey of the animal as it traveled throughout its journey. If you have more information about how to start something like this, I would love to know!
Bulldog does seem to be a similar concept to Flat Stanley; I love that he not only travels around the world, but shares slides and information from his destinations. Another great way to get the school community thinking globally!
This reminds me of “Flat Stanley” but with a global twist that educates more than one class. Is this a project that is done every year? It would be fun if some Tudor students developed a similar project using an Alaskan animal.
This seems like a great way to learn a little bit about the world and teach others about Alaska. It was cool that you were towards the end of his journey since you could see where he had traveled, but I would assume that everyone else was able to follow along and see where he was. Can you make a Thundercat using a cat stuffed animal and add thunderbolts? I hope you do follow through with this.
What a fun idea! I’ve heard of a similar idea with a “Flat Stanley.” The idea is that he’s a simple printed out picture of Flat Stanley from the book, but whoever has him is supposed to take pictures of him wherever he has traveled to and send him and the pictures onto his next adventure. It would be so fun for students to track where the bulldog has been on a map and perhaps use it as a writing inspiration. They could write a diary or journal entries for the different places that he has been and what he did there.