Curious George Goes to New Zealand

Curious George was bored. He knew where everything in Ms. George's 3rd grade classroom was and what it did. He went to look out the window, maybe he could see something interesting out there.

A green pick-up pulled up and Ms. George's friend, Joanna, got out. She had lots of bags in her truck. George wondered what was in the bags. He went outside and climbed up into the truck and looked inside the biggest bag. There was something shiny way down at the bottom so George leaned waaaaaaaaaaaaay over ... and fell into the bag! George was stuck. In the dark at the bottom of the bag he felt the truck start up and drive away.

George fell asleep in the warm, dark bag. When he woke up, Joanna was pulling him out of the bag and exclaiming, "George! What are you doing here?" He was in Los Angeles International Airport, far away from Anchorage, Alaska. He had even slept through changing planes in Seattle, WA. He sat on Joanna's bags going through the check-in line for the next flight, to Aukland, New Zealand! Everything was new here. People from every corner of the globe were walking past. Announcments were being made in many different languages. At the gate George looked out the window at the big planes.

George slept all the way to Christchurch, NZ. He liked the city, it was easy to get to many interesting things by walking. The botanical garden was especially beautiful, George didn't know that it would be spring here when it was fall in Alaska. George wonders what strange things he will see next.
(to be continued...)

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Several Anchorage classes that I met with before leaving were curious about how far I would travel going from Anchorage, Alaska to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. My guess was 10,000 miles, but I think a lot would depend on the routing used.

Cami Dalton's class created routes on a globe and estimated. These totals were between 8,000 and 12,000 miles.

Mrs. Schimschiemer's class also estimated, then made a table with their predictions on it. They calculated maximum, nimum, range and mode for these predictions. Then they used string on the globe to determine the exact number of miles from Anchorage to the closest point in Antarctica = 9,680 miles!

How would you solve this problem? Send me your answer and technique for getting it!