Elementary Schoolers Cheer Up Troops With Cards

The students and a local business owner partnered for the project.

Elementary Schoolers Look to Cheer Up Troops With Cards

Third graders from Seminole Heights elementary are expressing their gratitude to America's soldiers.

In the eyes of the average third-grader, America being at war probably seems pretty normal. Throughout the lives of the kids in Sarah Wright's third grade class at Seminole Heights Elementary, the country has been embroiled in conflict overseas. It's a fact that is not lost on the kids, who this week sent 250 donated cards with well wishes scrawled on the inside to soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. "They understand that mothers and fathers are over there fighting, too," Wright said. "With it being third grade they don't have a handle on the realities over the war but we talk about the war and how men and women serve our country. I have one student in the class whose father is in the military and she really enjoyed making cards …

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Cheetah-Dog Duo Visits Seminole Heights 3rd-Graders

Third-grade teacher Sarah Wright and her Seminole Heights Elementary class earned a visit from Busch Gardens' canine-feline duo, Kasi and Mtani.

Snapping instead of clapping so as to not excite their potentially dangerous visitors, an ecstatic crowd of third-graders welcomed a crew of Busch Gardens handlers and their animal friends, Kasi and Mtani, to Seminole Heights Elementary on Monday. Kasi, a cheetah abandoned by her mother and adopted by Busch Gardens last year, has been raised alongside a golden lab puppy, Mtani, that the facility attained last year. Students at more than 40 Florida elementary schools followed the growth of the two animals over the last year as a way of learning one of the hardest things for teachers to teach. "One of the things teachers have told us is really difficult to teach is change over time," Busch Gardens education specialist Amber Wisler said. "So …

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