March 2009
Newsletter number 1
Welcome to the first newsletter from the Side By Side Comenius group. Our group includes schools from Spain, Wales, Iceland, Italy, France and Hungary. We began our project work in September 2008 and have enjoyed learning about the traditions and cultures of each country. This newsletter concentrates on the work we have completed on Winter Festivals. We’ve had great fun getting to know each other!
Teachers from each school enjoyed the first exchange visit to Venice, Italy in November 2008. During the visit, project activities were discussed and the logo winners were chosen. Following the visit, teachers returned to their respective schools full of enthusiasm and raring to go. Children were shown photographs of the exchange and were excited to hear all about life in our Side By Side schools. Teachers are now preparing for the second visit which is planned for April 2009 in Iceland.
March 2009
Newsletter number 1
Our Comenius Newsletter Contents Hungary ………………………………………..….pages 1—4 France.. …………………………………………….pages 5—8 Spain…….……………………….…………………..pages 9—12 Iceland... …………………………………………..pages 13—16 Italy ………………...……………………………….pages 17—20 Wales………………………..……………………….pages 21-24 Comenius Logos …….…………………………page 25 Comenius Final Logo ……………………….page 26
Here are our Comenius winning logos. Every country held a logo design competition and the winners were selected in Venice. We now need to choose an overall winning design. Which one is your favourite?
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Hriszto Botev Általános Iskola and Egry úti Körzeti Óvoda
MARI LWYD On New Year’s Eve, the Mari Lwyd (a horse’s skull decorated with ribbons and covered with a white canvas) travels from house to house. The tradition is that people go around the houses tapping on the window with the skull. The people inside would open the door and the Mari Lwyd group would start to sing. The family would answer with a different verse and this would go on till the people in the house would invite the others in for food and drink.
Here are the most important festivals we celebrate in Hungary. We also took and collected lots of photos. (Class 6)
Calennig The children in year 4 made ‘calennig’ apples/oranges and went around the class rooms singing goodwill ‘penillion’ verses.
Advent
Saint-Nicolas Day, 6th December
Here is our school advent calendar: First a competition was held among 6-10 year-old children to draw winter pictures. The best ones were put on the calendar. One of the little windows on it was opened every day.
Children in Hungary polish their best boot and put it on the windowsill. Mikulás comes with a big sack full of presents. He comes with his helpers. They are the devils. (Krampuszok) In the morning children find candies, oranges, chocolate, walnuts in their clean boots. Naughty children find twigs painted gold in
Luca Day, 13th December
In old times women weren’t allowed to work on Luca Day. Men started to Christmas make the “Luca Chair.” It was finished on 24th December. There Before Christmas our parents were invited is also a to see our Bethlehem Play. In the old tradition, a week or a few days b e f o r e Christmas, carol s i n g e r s appeared in the streets to announce the coming of the saying :"You are preparing it as festival. Then slowly as Luca Chair!” Men used to groups of boys made the rounds from take the stool to the midnight mass. house to house, performing the nativity They stood on it and they were able play, carrying the Christmas manger with to see the witches with big horns. 1
St . David is the Patron saint of Wales and we celebrate on March 1st.
On St. David's Day our school have an Eisteddfod which is when we all compete against each other in different competitions. We all belong to different houses called Rhiannon, Pwyll, Pryderi, and Branwen. We have competitions like art, stories, handwriting, recitation and much more! At the end of the competition we have judges to decide which house wins. The house with the most points win 24
Celebrating Christmas at Home On 24th December families are together. We decorate the Christmas tree on the 24th December and we look forward to Baby Jesus. He brings presents to Hungarian children. We open the presents together late in the afternoon. We play with the new toys and games for a while, and then we have our delicious Christmas dinner. On 25th and 26th we visit our relatives, go to church or play with our new toys a n d games.
The most spectacular of the folkf e s t i v a l s in Hungary is the 'busojaras' (walk of the busos, legendary monsters) in the’Mohacs’ district. On that occasion men put on fearsome devil masks and walk through their village shouting and making noise with old tins and dishes. The local explanation of the custom is that people once made the Turks run away wearing awful looking monster masks.
Classroom and decorations
Christmas
tree
In Craft and D r a w i n g lessons or in workshops in t h e afternoons— with our parents and teachers- we made decorations. They were put on the class walls, on the windows, in our Christmas trees and in the corridors. We also made a little surprise for our parents at the
Every year we have a Christmas fair where we sell our calendars and other glorious goodies e.g. cakes , lollies , books, toys, DVDs, Christmas cards and many other gifts. We also have a big Christmas raffle draw and whoever gets the lucky ticket wins a marvellous prize.
On Christmas Eve the children prepare for Father Christmas to visit by putting a pie and milk for him and carrots and water for the reindeers. They also hang colourful stockings ready for Father Christmas to fill with treats.
W h e n Carnival comes in February we have a great fancy dress party. According to our custom, school leavers learn a special Hungarian dance for the fancy dress party c a l l e d "Palotas". The party starts with their performance every year. 2
On Christmas Day we get up really early and check our stockings to see if Father Christmas has been. We usually wake up our parents and open our stockings whilst sitting on their bed. Then we rush down the stairs, eat our breakfast and open any presents that are under the tree.
Christmas dinner consists of sliced roast turkey, carrots, roast potatoes, peas, broccoli, roast parsnips, sprouts, stuffing, pigs on horseback (sausages wrapped in bacon) and gravy. We then have Christmas pudding with brandy sauce and then we have a lazy afternoon in 23
Christmas food
Christmas at Ysgol Gymraeg Caerffili, Wales.
Lots of families eat fish soup, stuffed cabbage and beigli for Christmas dinner. Beigli is a cake filled with walnuts or poppy seeds. We decorate the Christmas tree with honey cakes. Winter festivals in the Kindergarten (Edited by Class 4a.and.b and Pumukli group)
Cooperation through Christmas Activities
Busy, busy, busy at Ysgol Gymraeg Caerffili. Everybody is practising for the school’s Christmas play. The nursery and reception have joined to do their play which shows how Christmas is celebrated around the world.
Lower primary classes and kindergarten groups are often come together. Some partner groups had lots of Christmas and winter games together. Others prepared a Christmas play for their parents and grandparents. We had a great time!
How we Celebrated in our Kindergarten Groups Most of the groups celebrated St Nicolas and Christmas with the parents and grandparents. They brought us home-made cakes. After singing Christmas songs, we all ran to the Christmas tree and opened our presents. Everybody could take home one of the presents. All the other toys stayed in the kindergarten group to play with.
Years 1 and 2 compared The junior department’s play Christmas in Bethlehem was called Bethlehem.com and with Christmas 2008. saw the media chasing the new number one (Baby Jesus) and Herod trying to banish him.
We put up a beautiful tree which is covered with baubles, tinsel and lights.
Why are we happy to be with our schoolfriends?
Siôn Corn (Father Christmas) visits our school every year. He brings a present to every class. 22
’We like doing exercise in the gym, because the older ones always help us. If school children act out something, we are happy to see them.We often join in. We feel as we were also school children. We are looking forward to come to school once. We have already found lots of friends.”
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Winter holiday If it is snowy, we skate, ski or go sledging. We spend a lot of time with our parents, sisters and brothers.
Another way of preparing for Christmas With the help of his teacher, Kristóf made an advent calendar from match boxes. On the little boxes the days were written by Braille numbers. The boxes were covered with bright paper. He found chocolates in the boxes every day. He made an advent wreath. He used different crops to decorate the wreath. The fragrance could also remind him the coming festival. “Our Christmas tree was full of bright lights. I could see
To launch the Comenius project we held a European Day, The foundation phase were stuffed with different types of food from all over the world and enjoyed listening to music!!! European Day was a great success with the children having fun making flags. They got messy with glue and felt pens, and when they were finished they waved them everywhere!
the brightest lights in the tree, and I could smell the cake from our kitchen.”
Donations In December we collected some presents for poor and special need children in the kindergarten. Parents, teachers and children in each group brought in toys, clothes and books. We sent invitations. When our special guests came, we had a Christmas programme with songs, games and poems. There were drinks and cakes as well. Our guests were very happy when they received the presents.
European Day wasn't only fun it was tasty too. Years 5 and 6 had a gorgeous French breakfast with a big long French stick, croissants and jam, orange juice and listened to European music. It was so cool and tasty!!! Bonjour! Bon appetite!! Flag making.
Edited by Kóbory Gyula Bence - 6.B (not in the photo) Szigeti Gréta - 6.B Ihász Bence - 4.A Wingli Máté - 4.B Hercsik Rebeka - 4.B Soltész Luca - 4.A Osváth Kitti - 6.A Iványi Noémi—6.B Told Lilla - 6.A
Year 2 had a blast making around the world friendship chains. 4
Making badges and learning how to say hello in different languages. 21
A Carneval ogni scherzo val At Carnival, every joke is permitted
Ecole Mme René COTY 2 to 5 years old
Ecole Jean CHARCOT 8 to 11 years old
La novità di quest’anno è il progetto Comenius che ci ha permesso di interagire con altri paesi euroeuropei. E’ stata l’occasione per noi alunni di lavorare in gruppo per produrre cartelloni, disegni, scrivere lettere in lingua straniera; di andare in aula informatica e visitare i blog stranieri. Abbiamo affrontato l’argomento delle festività invernali: Natale e Carnevale. Tutta la scuola ha prodotto del materiale che è esposto nelle varie sedi o che si può visitare sul blog. E’ stato molto bello lavorare in gruppo, collaborare e divertirsi allo stesso tempo. We painted some masks, we wrote some recipes: galani e frittelle. We’re going to send everything to our partners in France and Hungary.
ACTIVITIES
Alessia, 12 e Chiara, 13
These are the masks we drew and painted during our lessons. They are funny and original masks, also with Venitian pictures. E’ stato divertente preparare le maschere di Carnevale e alcune, tra le migliori, sono anche state esposte ad una mostra presso il Centro Polifunzionale di Campalto. Ten-year-old students from Primary school Pascoli 20
The children from the nursery school are on the process of painting Christmas trees or colouring in their Santa. The week prior to the Christmas holidays the real Santa comes to visit the school and distributes books and sweets. The parents association with the help of the town hall organizes this visit. 5
CHRISTMAS STORIES
The true story of the crib
Some pupils from Charcot prepare Christmas stories to be read to the children from Coty. The little ones listen with attention and pleasure. It is a nice experience for everyone.
Presepe in terracotta, preparato dai bambini, durante il laboratorio di ceramica. Presepio, Crib or manger is a nativity scene created and displayed in homes, churches and small towns during the Christmas season. This crib was made by children during the workshop “Playing with Art”.
Epiphany It is on the 4th, 5th or the 6th of January. We eat une galette des rois. It is made out of puff pastry, and is filled with marzipan. The youngest person hides under the table and decides who will get which part of the cake.The King or the Queen is the person who finds the bean in the cake (a porcelain figurine). He or she must wear a crown and choose somebody to be 6
This character, "the Befana", is a traditional Italian figure. The name derives from the Epiphany, when the wise men brought their gifts to the baby Jesus. During the night between 5 and 6 January the little old woman who flies on a broom, slips down the chimneys bringing presents for good children and coal for those who behaved badly during the year and puts the gifts in stockings that children have hung near beds
Dopo aver visitato a Betlemme i luoghi santi, Francesco tornato in Italia un giorno incontrò il nobiluomo Giovanni che gli chiese come seguire le vie del Signore. Il Nobiluomo, ispirato dal Santo, fece allestire una rappresentazione della Natività. Durante la notte di Natale del 1223 gli abitanti di Greccio che partecipavano alla celebrazione videro in braccio a Francesco un bel bambino addormentato. Questo miracolo venne ricordato negli anni successivi ripetendo il rito nello stesso modo. Questa è la vera storia del presepe. After visiting the Holy Places at Bethlehem, Francesco met the nobleman Giovanni who asked him the way to follow the Christ’s teaching. Giovanni, inspired by the Saint, made a representation of the Nativity. On Christmas night in 1223 the inhabitants of Greccio, who were present at the celebration, saw a beautiful baby sleeping in Francesco’s arms . This miracle was remembered in the years to follow. Classes 4 Primary School “G. Pascoli 9-year-old students
THE BEFANA COMES AT NIGHT TIME/ HER SHOES ARE FULL OF HOLESSHE DRESSES LIKE A ROMAN / HURRAH FOR THE BEFANA! 19
Mardi-gras
CARNIVAL SENSATION 2009 This is the main theme for Carnival in Venice this year, it involves the presence of the six senses as the protagonists of Sensation all over the city. Everyone will enjoy a variety of performances whose senses will be enlivened and placed in their own particular areas. Each “sestriere” is related to a particular “sense”: St. Mark’s square - the mind /San Polo - the sight / Dorsoduro - the hearing /Santa Croce - the smell / Cannaregio - the taste/ Castello - the touch
We celebrate the carnival at school with all the classes. We eat pancakes, and we dress up.
www.venezia.net/venice-italy/carnival-sensation-2009/
WHAT WE EAT AT CARNIVAL At Carnival we usually eat galani and frittelle, typical cakes for this festivities. We dress up or wear strange masks and we have lots of fun!
ARNEVALE
MANGI
MO LE
F
ITTELLE E I
Hand made “frittelle alla veneziana”. They’re delicious!!!! GALA
I E POI
N MASCHERA ci
TRA
CORI
These are “galani” or “crostoli”.
Children from Nursery School are preparing cakes with the help of their grand-parents.
ESTIAMO E I
NDOLI
Don’t forget to visit our fantastic blog with all the activities, pictures, videos: gramscicampalto.blogspot.com
ANCIAMO
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We make a parade on the streets of the town with a percussion group, throwing confettis on the passersby. At the end, we burn the «carnival majesty». 7
The recipe for pancakes
R.E.A.L. NEWS from Italy This is the guided tour around the “Istituto Comprensivo” “A. Gramsci”
Ingredients - 6eggs - a pinch of salt - 500g of flour
- 200g of sugar - 1 litre of milk - some butter
Preparation - In a big bowl, put the flour, the salt, the sugar, the eggs and the milk. - Mix them together until you get a smooth paste.
Cooking - With the help of a paper towel, spread the butter amount the bottom of the pan. - Once the pan is nice and hot, pour a good amount of the pancake mixture into the pan. - Spread the mixture around so it covers the bottom of the pan. - Leave it to cook a little bit, then peel off the eggs and flip the pancake over. Then cook the other side of the pancake a little bit.
Here the eight Comenius classes from the two schools, Coty and Charcot, gathered in order to give our friends from the five other countries the pleasure to be part of such a great project.
Do you want to know something about our school? Well, welcome to our school. We are about 550 pupils distributed in 4 different buildings. The junior section is on the 1st floor of the main building, we’re about 160 students, from 11 to 14, divided into 8 classes. We go to school from Monday to Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. except on Tuesday when we are at school in the afternoon, too. We study many subjects, but our favourite subject is …...can you guess?????...Physical Education!!! And our favourite room is the Gym, of course…!! Facendo un veloce sondaggio, le materie preferite dagli studenti Students during their kayak sono: ginnastica, artistica e musica, .meditate, gente, meditate!!! course, a wonderful experienBeatrice e Chiara, 12 ce on the Venetian lagoon
FIRST COMENIUS VISIT IN CAMPALTO Hello, we are Sara and Giulia, 12 years old. We are the “receptionists” during the first visit of Comenius partners in our school. It was a really great experience for us. Even if, at first, we were embarrassed because of the language, but then we were very happy to welcome teachers from different countries. It was an occasion to meet new people and to speak English, of course! Il giorno 6 novembre 2008 a scuola c’era un grande movimento e un’aria di novità. Noi alunni eravamo preparati a quest’incontro molto importante con gli insegnanti partner stranieri con cui stiamo collaborando per il progetto Comenius. Noi due, Giulia e Sara, alunne della classe 2^A, avevamo l’impegno di accogliere gli insegnanti partner stranieri – provenienti dall’Irlanda, dal Galles, dall’Ungheria, dalla Francia e dalla Spagna – e di consegnare loro del materiale didattico racchiuso in una busta. Abbiamo così avuto l’occasione di fare un’esperienza, anche se breve, di lingua straniera in situazione reale. L’imbarazzo, la paura di sbagliare e di fare brutta figura non ci hanno impedito di cogliere l’importanza di quest’incontro che speriamo sia il primo atto di una lunga e interessante collaborazione tra paesi stranieri. Il gruppo degli insegnanti partner ci sembrava molto curioso, interessato alla nostra scuola e alle attività che vi si svolgono e noi alunni, almeno questa è la nostra impressione, orgogliosi del nostro piccolo, grande mondo di lavoro e di studio che è la scuola.
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WHAT DO WE DO AT CHRISTMAS
Christmas time
rskoli Njardviku
We put students into groups so that they could create the following text 4th level-10 years old
Spaniards, normally set up a Nativity scene at home with little mud figures as you can see on the Photo. We also add some sand and straw, some moss, virgin Cork...etc. We Nativity scene display it in our homes during Christmas.
Children making Christmas ornaments
Christmas dinner
On December 31st, Spanish families gather and celebrate with a big lunch. We eat “embutidos” like cheese, ham, loin...and afterwards some typical Christmas lunch. December 25th sweets like “mantecados”, “turrón” (a kind of nougat made of almonds..)and chocolate.At midnight we drink champagne and eat 12 grapes.
Christmas play in the towns theatre
Christmas ball in Njardvikurskoli The school band played Christmas songs
Enjoying Christmas Cookies
Jesus born 5th graders in a
Every year , on the evening of January 5th,the famous CAVALCADES take to the streets. They are made up of Famous books or pictures celebrities. The Three wise men throw sweets, confetti and gifts into the crowds.
Decorating the classroom
Cavalcade on the street
Geledileg jól Mery
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In December we decorate our school, listen to Christmas songs, bake cakes, go to church, make Christmas cards and ornaments, decorate our classroom, sing Christmas songs, we listen to Christmas stories, enjoy Christmas dinner and more and more...
ACTIVITIES AND DECORATIONS
e m i t s a m t s i r h C
“ We all talked about the photos and answered the questions……..”
We decorate our school
Gimli
Disabled group
We drew a tree and Christmas balls. We also made snowmen and nativity scenes….
We bake cookies
Icelandic Santa
Snowmen….
We decorated our Christmas tree with little balls and lights. We display it on December 20th. Christmas tree.
We prepared some performances in the theatre, Christmas carols, and concerts: we played the flute... Pupils singing on the stage 10
The parents organize a We put on a play in our church
There are 13 Jolasveinar, otherwise known as 'Christmas Boys'. They first appeared in the 17th century and are the sons of two trolls, Gryla and Leppaludi. When stories about the Jolasveinar first appeared, they were frightening creatures just like their parents but over the years, they have become milder, gentler creatures. In the earlier stories, they would arrive one at a time, starting 13 days before Christmas. Each one would do their best to cause minor havoc on Christmas preparations. One would steal the food, another would dirty the clothes, there was one who'd steal the candles; each had their own way to wreak havoc. Today, they leave little presents for the children who have behaved all year. The children leave their shoes on their window sills and the Jolasveinarv fill their shoes with little gifts. Any children who have been naughty get a potato or some other reminder that good behaviour is essential around Christmas.
Actors put on a play in our school
Icelandic 13
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The project has been well taken in our school community.
WE EAT ON CHRISTMAS TIME…. We begin viewing all the photos we had collected. We chose just 3 and afterwards a group of 4 students wrote the text.
We have focused on interaction between different ages and between primary school and kindergarten 3rd level. 9 years old.
Every Tuesday children from Gimli visit Njardvikurskoli in a small group with their teacher. When they arrive their friends in 25th grade welcome them to the library where they read a story together. Every Thursday children from Njardvikurskoli visit their friends in Gimli together they participate in all kinds of activities.
We usually eat the “Roscón de Reyes” as a dessert on January the 6th to celebrate the arrival of the 3 Wise Men. It´s made of flour, butter, eggs, salt, lemon, and orange Blossom water. We decorate it with some crystallyzed fruits and surprise figures. In most The “Roscón de Reyes” houses it´s bought in sweetshops and the one who finds the surprise has to pay the “Roscón”, just as a fun tradition.
On December 31st, to celebrate the New year, we usually eat the 12 grapes. This tradition began in 1909 when many grapes were produced and their producers invented the legend of the lucky grapes. We eat them when we hear the clock peals Lucky grapes. •
I like very much everything in Gimli, i like to build with forms and paint
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To get to know new friends
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I learn how to take care of the young ones
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I like to train my reading skills
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I like how well the kinder garden children behave, they really know good manners
Our main Christmas feasts are on December 24th and 31st. We eat appetizers like prawns, ham, sandwiches, olives, and patté de foie-grass before the main dishes. We drink beer, wine and other refresments .
What do you like most about the visits? Question asked to children in 4th and 5th grade
Side dishes….
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nd ts a on n e ar p rs, p to kee e h c d a e it te nts, y is exc e d stu od t to veryb c e j ro . E he p munity e:) t d te id m esen hool co de by s r p i e le sc hav ng s We he who worki t
OUR FAVOURITE PRESENTS Text has been written in Assembly.
5 years old students.
The 3 Wise Men
In some houses Father Christmas leaves gifts on the night of December 24th . In every house there are presents from the 3 Wise Men: Melchor, the White one, Gaspar, the blonde and Baltasar, the Black one.They come from the Orient and come by camel and enter our houses through the Windows or the terrace.
“Hello from Iceland”
The 3 Wise men bring us the presents that we ask for in our letters. Most of them are toys and sometimes they bring us some clothes. They also bring gifts to our parents. They are not toys but they like them very much. Gifts are waiting….
Presentation on the school walls and on Culture Day in Njardvikurskoli The 3 Wise men bring us gifts on the night of January 6th . We can´t see them because we´re sleeping but we awake in the morning and there they are!!! We are also used to going to our relatives houses to pick up the gifts they have left there for us. Gifts for the whole family 12
Gimli Our school web page: http://www.leikskolinn.is/gimli/ and http://www.njardvikurskoli.is/ Other usefull pages about our town and our country : http://.simnet.is/gardarj/gardar1.htm http://reykjanes.is/
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