Next steps: completing tasks

We are at the last weeks of our project and today we had a big variety of tasks to complete:

-first of all, we watched the Spanish dance (jota) and Spanish song (Soy una taza) that other schools performed.

-then we also created a short basic dictionnary of main vocabulary and structures. Each school will create it in their own language, so that at the end we will have a English-Spanish-Turkish-Greek-Italian-Portuguese dictionnary of basic words and expressions.

-finally, we worked on creating some slogans about peace and tolerance, which will be useful for the end of the project, to complete it:

Peace and tolerance are the keys for a better world.

Tolerance can't be paid with money. It can't be bought nor sold, it is a gift.

There are many paths to come across, but only one will guide you.

Handwritten letters from Turkey!

After our break of "crèdit de síntesi" and Easter, we were back today to our eTwinning class with a surprise... we had received handwritten letters from our Turkish mates! They wrote them and posted in individual envelopes, addressed personally to each of us.

We read them at class, clarified doubts, talked about how to write a letter and the topics to talk about, and then each student got down to answer. First, just a draft, and in two weeks time (because next week is 1st May) we will revise them and post them in envelopes too.

Progressing on our popplet shared account

Today we started watching some of the dances and songs that our colleagues from Norway and Turkey performed. It was funny to watch them singing or dancing other countries' folk songs and dances! We are looking forward to seeing the Spanish ones.

Right after we have been working hard in the IT room with the shared account of the Popplet. There all students from the different schools will add their skills and opinions about Europe, etwinning,culture and so.

Greek dance performance: Syrtaki

Fun day for students today! Two weeks ago some students sang a Norwegian song and today other students from both classes performed a Greek dance: Syrtaki. We were rehearsing a few days during the previous weeks and today we brought specific clothes to be dressed conveniently.
Below you can see a picture of both groups!

It is good to get to know music and dances from other European countries, they are so different from ours!

You can view us performing below:

Norwegian song:

Greek dance:

In the meantime, the rest were progressing on their popplets diagrams in the IT room.

Popplet and transnational teams

Today Núria explained us how to use a new software: popplet.com.
It looks very interesting, since with it you can create a sort of online mural which is very usual, and it seems easy to use.
With this software we will have to work in transnational teams. This means that we will get in touch with some of our colleagues from Greece, Turkey, Portugal, Norway and Poland and will work together in a specific topic, such as technology, great writers and thinkers, our thoughts about Europe, etc.

Later we went to the IT room and got in touch with our transnational team through the eTwinning portal and commented about the assigned topic.

Then at the end of the class we recorded the Norwegian song. It is a very difficult language, but we think we managed pretty well!!

Rehearsing a Greek dance and Norwegian song

Big challenge for the Spanish etwinning students!!! In the next few weeks, we have to become familiar with a Greek dance and Norwegian song and be able to dance it or sing it, record it and send it to our colleagues!! In their turn, they will have to learn some dances and songs from other countries and we all will get to know better other European dances and musics.

Greek dance
For the Greek dance we were advised to choose the very famous Sirtake (The Greek Zorba dance):
http://youtu.be/gFpwA33JylE
A team of eight (4 boys and 4 girls from each class) volunteered to practise the dance. It was fun!

Norwegian song
For the Norwegian song, we asked fo advice to our partners and they advised us this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHbLrZpFe6I
It is pretty difficult, but we manage quite well and we think we will be ready to record us next week!

On the other hand, students also contacted their colleagues from other countries to form the transnational teams, since shortly we will start a transnational task (teams formed across countries).

Writing a joint story

Our next task in this year's etwinning project is to write a joint story between all involved countries. First Chapter was done by our Turkish colleagues and now it is our turn.

Today we read together in class the first paragraphs of the story:

Once upon a time there was  an immense etwinning  land far far away.In this land there were innumerable etwinners... 

Then each student proposed his/her own continuation. We will choose the one we like the most as Second Chapter and then we will pass it on to the next school, Poland, who will be responsible for writing the Third Chapter, and so, until the end.

We are looking forward to reading the final story after the six schools!!

Videoconference with Norway

This morning we had a new experience: we had a group videoconference with our Norwegian colleagues. Last week we prepared some topics, such as hobbies, food, sports, habits, and today we made them some questions and explained about ourselves. It was very interesting, since we found out things like most boys and girls play football as a hobby, they do volleyball at school, and they speak many languages: Norwegian, very good English, some Spanish, and they are learning French or Portuguese too!! And, finally, they showed us with their webcam that it is snowing today in Norway!!!

Learning about other cultures

Now that we explained about our culture to Askeladden and the rest of our colleagues, this week we concentrated ourselves on learning about other countries' cultures and writing some facts about them. For example:

Turkey:
-On the 23rd April they celebrate the National Children's Day (just the same day we have Sant Jordi!)
-They practise a sport riding horses called "Javalin"
-In their country it is very important the extended family and the oldest person is the authority

Norway:
-Most people have evangelical religion.
-Their traditional houses are made of wood.

Portugal:
-Feijodas is a typical food from Portugal.
-The popular monuments are Palacio da pena, Convento de Cristo and Torre de Belém. 

Here in this link below you can view our final efacts book:

http://issuu.com/karlaradan/docs/the_facts/32?e=10382845/6662889

Explaining our culture

In groups, we have been working at class during November and December about many topics concerning our culture: social life, food, religion, traditional games, celebrations and festivals, sports, cultural life, daily routines, and so.

First, each group gathered some information by creating a questionnaire and asking to some people. Then they decided how to present this information: either in a prezi presentation, or in a video recording their image or voice, or in an online visual poster... and here you have the outcomes!!

Askeladen is here with us!

With the help of our Arts & Crafts teacher, Manel, we finalised our Norwegian puppet: Askeladen. We finally made it with dough, clothes, a stick, some paper, glue, etc.!! And this is the result!

He will be our guest visitor for the next few weeks and we are now preparing much information about our country to let him know better our culture!

Creating a puppet of the Norwegian hero

Askeladden, the Norwegian hero, has travelled all the way from Norway to our country by flying balloon!! We are now creating a reporduction of this hero as a puppet. We will use many materials: clothes, plastic, wood and clay.

Then in groups we will teach him many things about our culture: literature, theatre and music, food, traditional games, sports, religion, celebrations, our daily routine, our social life... We hope he can learn a lot about us!

Presenting our national hero

We started a new topic: each country selected a national hero who represents our own culture (see the page "Our national heroes"). We chose Sant Jordi! Altogether we tried to explain the legend to our colleagues from other countries:

Once upon a time there was a dragon near a village. The dragon was very hungry and in the beginning ate animals from the village. When it finished the animals, the dragon started eating people. The king of the village talked to the people and they decided to feed the dragon with one person every day, and they draw lots to decide who.

One day the person that they decided was the princess. The king and the queen were very sad. But they had to accept the decision and they took the princess to the dragon. When the dragon was about to eat the princess, a knight called Sant Jordi appeared, with a white horse and a spear, and went to rescue her. He threw the spear against the dragon in the heart and the dragon died. Some blood came out to the floor and a rose was born from there. The Sant Jordi took the rose and gave it as a present to the princess and they fell in love with each other.

And now our Sant Jordi will fly by balloon to another country to teach them about our culture: Turkey!!!

Video conference with Turkey

Today we had a new experience: we connected through Skype with our students' colleagues from Turkey. It was a great and unique experience, we sat down in pairs in front of the webcam and the computer, and we introduced ourselves and talked for a bit, and then made some questions about them or their country. They also did the same. This way we got to know each other better.

Creating a motto and a poem for the project

Today, after watching the logo's votations and some city presentations, we worked in pairs creating a slogann and poem for the projects regarding peace and tolerance. Some of there were very beautiful, here you have some examples:

SLOGANS:

Together we can create a peaceful and tolerant world

A peacefull world we will have if we get hand with hand

Helping us for a better world

Peace and tolerance make the world better

POEM:

Peace, love our own country, our world, our environment

Love each other and peace will born on our hearts.

Pau , amor en el nostre propi país , en el món , en el nostre entorn,

Estima l’un s l’altre i la pau naixerà en els nostres cors.

School and city presentations

Besides the logo proposal, some others in the class are working on preparing some presentations about our school and our city, Barcelona, so that our colleagues get to know us better. Below you will find an example about our school and another one about our city:

Click here to view the prezi presentation: 

http://prezi.com/sajjig8sqjee/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share 

Project's logo proposals

It is time to agree a project's logo! In pairs, we used many softwares to create what we think it should be the ideal logo for the project, considering the topic and the countries involved. The rest of the schools are also doing the same and then we will vote them. Let's see which one is the winner!!

Starting this year's project

With this year's project we aim at creating a better, peaceful world where people are more tolerant, understanding differences, perceived as the richness of all humanity.

And the first step will be getting to know better each other by creating our own avatar thanks to voki.com. But, to start with... an initial message of welcome to all 1st ESO students:

Click here to view and listen the message