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 Festi-

vals. 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 dis-

cussed and the logo winners were chosen. Following the visit, teach-

ers 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.

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

March 2009 Newsletter number 1

Here are the most important festivals we celebrate in Hungary. We also took and

collected lots of photos. (Class 6)

Hriszto Botev Általános Iskola and

Egry úti Körzeti Óvoda

Advent Here is our school advent calendar:

First a competition was held among

6-10 year-old children to draw win-

ter pictures. The best ones were

put on the calendar. One of the lit-

tle windows on

it was opened

every day.

Saint-Nicolas Day, 6th December Children in Hun-

gary polish their

best boot and put

it on the window-

s i l l . Mikulás comes with a big

sack full of pre-

sents. 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 their shoes. Luca Day, 13th December In old times women weren’t allowed

to work on Luca Day. Men started to

make the “Luca Chair.” It was fin-

ished on 24th December. There is

also a say-

ing :"You are prepar-ing it as slowly as Luca Chair!” Men used

to take the

stool to the midnight mass. They

stood on it and they were able to

see the witches with big horns. Af-

ter that they had to run home and

put Luca Chair on fire.

Christmas Before Christmas our parents were invited

to see our Bethlehem Play.

In the old tradition, a week or a few days

before Christ-

mas, carol sing-

ers appeared in

the streets to

announce the

coming of the

festival. Then

groups of boys

made the rounds from house to house, per-

forming the nativity play, carrying the

Christmas manger with them.

1

When Carni-

val 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 called "Palotas". The

party starts

with their

performance

every year.

The most

spectacular

of the folk-

f e s t i v a l s

in Hungary is

t h e

'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.

Celebrating Christmas at Home On 24th December families are to-

gether. 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 din-

ner. On 25th and 26th we visit our rela-

tives, go to church or play with our

new toys

a n d

games.

Classroom and Christmas tree decorations

In Craft and

Drawing les-

sons or in

workshops in

the after-

noons—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 little

surprises for our

parents at

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Winter festivals in the Kindergarten (Edited by Class 4a.and.b and Pumukli group)

Cooperation through Christmas Activities 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 grand-

parents. 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 Christ-

mas songs, we all ran to the Christmas tree and opened

our presents. Everybody could take home one of the pre-

sents. All the other toys stayed in the kindergarten group

to play with.

Why are we happy to be with our schoolfriends? ’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.”

Christmas food Lots of families eat fish soup, stuffed cabbage

and beigli for Christmas dinner. Beigli is a cake

filled with wal- nuts or

poppy seeds.

We decorate the Chr istmas

tree with honey cakes.

3

E d i t e d 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

Told Lilla - 6.A

Iványi Noémi—6.B

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 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.

Winter holiday If it is snowy, we skate, ski or

go sledging. We spend a lot of

time with our parents, sisters

and brothers.

4

Ecole Mme René COTY

2 to 5 years old Ecole Jean CHARCOT

8 to 11 years old

ACTIVITIES

The children from the nursery school are on the process of painting Christmas trees or co-louring in their Santa. The week prior to the Christ-mas holidays the real Santa comes to visit the school and distributes books and sweets. The parents association with the help of the town hall orga-nizes this visit.

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CHRISTMAS STORIES

Some pupils from Charcot p r e p a r e C h r i s t m a s stories to be read to the children from Coty. The lit-tle ones lis-ten with at-

Epiphany

It is on the 4th, 5th or the 6th of Janua-ry. 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 their King or Queen. We can cele-brate the Kings until the 31st of January.

6

Mardi-gras

We celebrate the carnival at school with all the clas-ses. We eat pancakes, and we dress up.

We make a parade on the streets of the town with a percussion group, throwing confettis on the passers-

by. At the end, we burn the «carnival majesty».

7

The recipe for pancakes

Ingredients - 6eggs - 200g of sugar

- a pinch of salt - 1 litre of milk

- 500g of flour - 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 mixtu-

re 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 Co-menius 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.

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9

WHAT DO WE DO AT CHRISTMAS

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

display it in our homes during

Christmas.

On December 31st, Spanish

families gather and

celebrate with a big lunch. We eat

“embutidos” like cheese, ham,

loin...and afterwards some typical

sweets like “mantecados”,

“turrón” (a kind of nougat made of almonds..)and chocolate.At

midnight we drink

champagne and eat 12 grapes.

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.

Nativity scene

Christmas lunch. December 25th

Cavalcade on the street

We put students into groups so that they could

create the following text

ACTIVITIES AND DECORATIONS

“ We all talked about the photos and

answered the questions……..”

We drew a tree and

Christmas balls.

We also made snowmen and

nativity scenes….

We decorated our Christmas tree

with little balls and lights. We display

it on December 20th.

We prepared some

performances in the theatre,

Christmas carols, and con-

certs: we played the flute...

Snowmen….

Christmas tree.

Pupils singing on the stage

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WE EAT ON CHRISTMAS TIME….

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, le-

mon, and orange Blossom water. We decorate it with

some crystallyzed fruits and surprise figures. In most houses it´s bought in sweets-

hops and the one who finds the surprise has to pay the “Roscón”, just as a fun tradi-

tion.

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

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 .

The “Roscón de Reyes”

Lucky grapes.

Side dishes….

We begin viewing all the photos we had collected. We

chose just 3 and afterwards a group of 4 students wrote

the text.

3rd level. 9 years old.

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OUR FAVOURITE PRESENTS

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.

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 pa-

rents. They are not toys but they like them

very much.

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.

The 3 Wise Men

Gifts are waiting….

Gifts for the whole family

Text has been written in Assembly.

5 years old students.

12

We have presented the project to stu

dents, teachers, p

arents and

the whole school community. Everybody is e

xcited to keep on

working side by sid

e:)

Presentation on the school walls and on Culture Day in Njardvikurskoli

“Hello from Iceland”

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/

13

The project has been well taken in our school community.

We have focused on interaction between different

ages and between primary school

and kindergarten

Every Tuesday children from Gimli visit

Njardvikurskoli in a small group with their

teacher. When they arrive their friends in 2-

5th 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.

What do you like most about the visits?

Question asked to children in 4th and 5th

grade

• I like very much everything in Gimli, i like to build with forms and paint

• To get to know new friends

• I learn how to take care of the young ones

• I like to train my reading skills

• I like how well the kinder gar-den children behave, they really know good manners

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Christmas tim

e

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 Christ-mas stories, enjoy Christmas dinner and more and more...

We

bake

cookies

Gimli

Actors put on a play

in our school

The parents organize a

We put on a

play

in our church

We decorate

our school

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.

Icelandic Santa

Icelandic 13 15

Christmas

time

Christmas ball in Njardvikurskoli

Christmas play in the towns theatre

The school band played Christmas songs

Enjoying Christmas Cookies Decorating the

classroom

Jesus born 5th graders in a

Geledileg jól Mery

Njardvikurskoli

Children making Christmas ornaments

Christmas dinner

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R.E.A.L. NEWS from Italy

This is the guided tour around the

“Istituto Comprensivo” “A. Gramsci” 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 secttion 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

sono: ginnastica, artistica e musica, ...meditate, gente,

meditate!!! Beatrice e Chiara, 12

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 experi-

ence 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.

Students during their kayak

course, a wonderful

experience on the Venetian

lagoon

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Hand made “frittelle

alla veneziana”. They’re

delicious!!!!

These are “galani” or

“crostoli”.

Don’t forget to visit our

fantastic blog with all

the activities, pictures,

videos:

gramscicampalto.blogs

pot.com

Children from Nursery

School are preparing

cakes with the help of

their grand-parents.

ARNEVALE

MANGI MO LE

F ITTELLE E I

GALA I E POI

N MASCHERA ci

TRA ESTIAMO E I

CORI NDOLI

ANCIAMO

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

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!

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The true story of the crib

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”. Presepe in terracotta, preparato dai bam-bini, durante il laboratorio di ceramica.

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

partecipando 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 the visit of the Holy Places at

Bethlehem., Francesco met the noble-

man Giovanni that asked him the way

to follow the Christ’s teaching. Gio-

vanni, inspired by the Saint, made a

representation of the Nativity.

During the Christmas night of the year

1223 the inhabitants of Greccio, being

present at the celebration mounted in

that place, saw a beautiful sleeping

baby in Francesco’s arms .

This miracle was remembered in the

following years repeating the rite in the

same way.

Classes 4 Primary School “G. Pascoli

9-year-old students

This char-

acter: "the

Befana", is

a tradi-

tional Ital-

ian 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 chil-

dren have hung near beds

THE BEFANA COMES AT NIGHT TIME/ HER SHOES ARE FULL OF HOLESSHE DRESSES LIKE A ROMAN / HURRAH FOR THE

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La novità di quest’anno è il progetto Comenius che

ci ha permesso di interagire con altri paesi

europei. 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 have painted some masks, we have written

some receipts: galani e frittelle. We’re going to

send everything to our partners in France and

Hungary.

Alessia, 12 e Chiara, 13

A Carneval ogni scherzo val

At Carnival, every joke is permitted

These are the masks we have drawn and painted during our lessons. There are funny and

original masks, also with Venitian pictures.

E’ stato divertente preparare le maschere, alcune, tra le migliori, sono state esposte ad una

mostra presso il Centro Polifunzionale di Campalto.

Ten-year-old students of primary school Pascoli

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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!!

To launch the Comenius project we held a Euro-

pean 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 suc-

cess with the children having fun

making flags. They got messy

with glue and felt pens, and when

they were finished they waved

them everywhere!

Year 2 had a blast

making around the world

friendship chains.

Flag making.

Making badges and

learning how to say

hello in different

languages.

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Christmas at Ysgol Gymraeg Caerffili,

Wales.

The junior department’s play

was called Bethlehem.com and

saw the media chasing the new

number one (Baby Jesus) and

Herod trying to banish him.

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.

Years 1 and 2 compared

Christmas in Bethlehem

with Christmas 2008.

We put up a beautiful

tree which is covered

with baubles, tinsel

and lights.

Siôn Corn (Father

Christmas) visits our

school every year.

He brings a present

to every class.

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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.

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.

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Christmas dinner consists of sliced roast

turkey, carrots, roast potatoes, peas, broccoli,

roast parsnips, sprouts, stuffing, pigs on horse-

back (sausages wrapped in bacon) and gravy.

We then have Christmas pudding with brandy

sauce and then we have a lazy afternoon in

front of the television.

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.

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 l ike

art, stories, handwriting, recita-tion and much more! At the end of the competition we have judges to decide which house wins. The house with the most points win a shield.

St . David is the Patron saint of Wales and we celebrate on March 1st.

Calennig

The children in year 4 made ‘calennig’

apples/oranges and went around the class

rooms singing goodwill ‘penillion’ verses.

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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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