Still waiting for Portugal-Nýjustu fréttir

Hello, lovers of tales.

(Íslenska útgáfan er hér fyrir neðan)

Now Finnland and Iceland have aldready been for ca. one month at school, Italy started 12th Sept. But we are still waiting for an answer from the Portuguese National Agency. They have not been able to decide whether Maria's school should get a grant for continuing the project. Hungary, alas, failed to get a renewal. Tamas the school coordinator tells us that Hungary as a country got less money from the European funds than usually. Therefore the National Agency had to cut down their budget and Deák Diák Iskola was not elected. We are sorry about that, but hope to cooperate with the Hungarians on another level. They will always be our friends.

The theme of the autumn term in Tales of Europe is CHRISTMAS - YULETIDE. Each school is supposed to compile a portfolio about their Christmas traditions - including songs, tales, and all the things that we will teach the others. Deadline for this portfolio is 15th Nov. (must arrive by that time).

Another, separate task was a cartoon of a FOLKTALE (= joint product).

The fact that Hungarians are not with us creates a problem: The next project meeting was supposed to be in Budapest in October and then the partners were supposed to come with their cartoons. Now it seems that the project meeting must either be postponed, while we are looking for a new place - or the meeting will be on line. The cartoons must simply be mailed by ordinary mail or scanned and send in a digital form, which I think is the easiest way.

Best wishes to everyone. Let the parents know about the blog and do write yourselves in your native language. Put photos of pupils' work to show the other partners.

Marjatta from Digranesskóli

Icelandic version:

Comenius 1 verkefnið Tales of Europe eða Sögur frá Evrópu hefur fengið framhaldsstyrk fyrir næstu tvö árin og mun því halda áfram. Á þessu ári reynum við að vinna aðeins öðruvísi en í fyrra og reyna að fá alla bekkina að vinna að sameiginlegum verkefnum. Á haustmisseri ætlum við að búa til "möppu" með efni sem tengist íslenskum jólum og eru þarna jólasveinarnir efstir. Kennararnir hafa valið kvæðin eftir Jóhannes frá Kötlum og Þórdís tónlistarkennari ætlar að æfa söngva sem tengjast efninu. Eins og í fyrra þá verður allt efnið fært í tölvutækt form.

Þegar verkefnið hófst þá vorum við fimm lönd, Ungverjaland, Portúgal, Ítalía og Finnland auk okkar. Nú hefur skólinn í Ungverjalandi því miður fengið neitun og dettur því úr verkefninu. Ennþá hefur ekki borist svar frá Portúgal en bæði Digranesskóli, skólinn á Ítalíu og skólinn í Finnlandi hafa fengið staðfestingu á framhaldsstyrknum.

Þar sem breytingar hafa orðið á kennaraliði Digranesskóla hefur það einnig haft í för með sér breytingar á því hverjir eru með í þessum verkefnum. Á þessu ári eru það bekkirnir 1G, 1K, 3I, 3S, 5J, 5S, 6A og 6Á.

Ég hvet ykkur á fylgjast með vefinn. Hér verða birtar fréttir af verkefninu, myndir o.fl. Eldri börnin geta jafnvel notað enska textann til að æfa sig að skilja málið, en samskiptamál verkefnisins er enska.

Með kveðju

Marjatta verkefnisstjóri

New Tales-year starting

Hello everybody,

Sabina from Cordenone sends her regards to everyone. Italy has got the two-year grant for carrying out the Tales of Europe project. We are very happy about that. So far I have not got any news from the others. Portugal and Hungary are still having there summer holiday, but the schools in Finland and here in Iceland start in August. The schools in Cordenone do not start until Sept. 12.

As soon as I get further information I shall let you know in this page.

We all look eagerly forward to a new school-year with the tales and musical heritage of the five participating countries!

With all the best from Digranesskóli, Iceland

Marjatta, the project coordinator

Visit from Finland and happenings in Italy and Hungary

Hello, everybody!

Now most of the partner schools have either closed or are about to close for the summer season. Italy has had a nice exhibition, which Sabina writes about. Tamás from Hungary has also told me that their school had a two day fair on 10-11 June with shows and exhibits of Comenius activities from all partner schools.

I have myself finished the paper work, both the activity report and money side of it and have chosen exhibits of the work we did to our National Agency.

During the last schooldays we had two visitors from Finland: Matti Piirainen, the headmaster of Hakarinteen koulu in Tammisaari and his wife, Anneli, who is a classteacher in the same school. Anneli taught the 5th grade this schoolyear, but next year she will be with the first grade and is going to lead her new pupils to our Comenius project.

Matti and Anneli visited our classes and the students were eager to show what they knew. Class 5.Á. was with a presentation of Iceland ...in English!!! They were very proud of themselves. Thordis welcomed the visitors with the "Comenius songs" in Icelandic, Finnish and Italian...which reminds me that we have not got any good and simple song from Hungary and Portugal for our students to learn. So, please, hurry up! We want to learn them before the next meeting.

I shall put some photos of the visit here. - Hope that Tamás writes about their exhibition and how it went. Perhaps some photos, too!

Wishing you all a very nice summer and many thanks for the cooperation this school-year, both you, children, and all the staff members

Marjatta and all the Comenius people from Digranesskóli

" NOW I KNOW "

NOW I KNOW..

Questo è il titolo della rappresentazione alla quale sono stati invitati i genitori degli alunni delle classi quinte della Scuola Primaria di Cordenons, Duca D'Aosta a conclusione del primo anno di attività del progetto Comenius.Il risultato finale di questo primo anno è stato un percorso didattico interdisciplinare che ha visto gli alunni coinvolti nello studio della lingua italiana, dell' inglese, della geografia, della storia, nell'utilizzo delle nuove tecnologie per la ricerca dei dati e per la stesura del lavoro stesso, della musica e dell'educazione all'immagine.

This the title of the exhibition of our 5 th grade pupils of the primary school Duca D'Aosta, Cordenons, for their parents, within the conclusion of the first year project .The outcome of the schoolyear activities was a cross curricular research in Italian and in English of the four country involved in the project. The pupils had the opportunity to show their parents how they managed to study different subjects as History, Geography, Italian and English and Arts illustrating it through the New Technologies.They also performed the music learned and composed for the project "Bussame al me Friul", by teacher Sonia and Alessandro.

A questo lavoro di verifica finale è stato dato il titolo "NOW I KNOW.." proprio per la volontà di sottolineare il percorso di conoscenza svolto dai bambini durante tutto l'anno, e la poosibilità offerta dal progetto di avvicinare gli studenti a culture, lingue e tradizioni diverse da quelle di appartenenza, ampliando i loro orizzonti. La documentazione di questo lavoro, insieme alla Leggenda di Cordenons, sarà offerta agli altri paesi durante l'incontro di progetto a Budapest.

This conclusion represents a positive ostensive evaluation of the project for the teachers, for our students and for our community because has given a real choice approaching different cultures and traditions within Europe, widening our students' horizon and getting more aware of their own identity.The documentation of this work, together with the Cordenons Legend, presented during the evaluation meeting of May, will be ready as a DVD for the next meeting in Budapest.

published by Sabina

The new logo of the project

Now we have finally got all the votes in the finals of the logo competition. Many have complained that the finalists did not meet all the criteria set for the logo: It was supposed to symbolize the contents of the project: Tales in the widest sense (i.e. told in words, drawings and music), connecting countries and nations AND it should be designed in the way that it should be easy to diminish it - logos are normally small!

Well, even so, the pupils have spoken! According to the rules of the competition it was the votes of the pupils that counted. This is like Eurovision competition: Quite a lot of people did not agree that the Serbian piece was the best one, but it got the most votes and it is the rightful winner! In the same way in this logo competition only five propositions got into the finals and the winner was the one that got the most "twelves".

CONGRATULATIONS, ITALY AND CORDENONS!!! May we now have the name of the winner????

Intercultural dialogue in Venice

One of the topics of the project Tales of Europe is intercultural dialogue, both between the students and the teachers. In connection with the evaluation meeting in Cordenons (May 2-5)the teachers of Circolo Didattico di Cordenons wanted to show their European collegues the perhaps most famous cultural heritage of the region: The old city of Venice, which lies about one hour's way south-west of Cordenons.

The photo shows the team of Sabina (fromleft), Viviana, Sonia and Gladys discussing what to show next.

Drama and other entertainment in Digranes

The town of Kópavogur celibrated its anniversary this week offering all kinds of entertainment for the public. This year Digranesskóli took part in the program by arranging the annual school exhibitions and performances, a.o.th. drama for parents and media.

Comenius 1 project was, of course, part of the whole arrangement. Among the items were folktales that classes of the 5th and 6th grade staged. The pieces will be later taken on a video and edited for the usage of our Comenius partners.

Here you can see pictures of the folktale "Móðir mín í kví, kví", which class 6.G. staged. This is a well known story, supposed to take place in the old times, and a song accompanies it. (Many of our best-known and most appreciated singers have recorded this song. ) The class-teacher Guðrún Hvönn Sveinsdóttir directed and Þórdís Sævarsdóttir, the music teacher, arranged the music, both song and instrumental part of it. Every pupil had a role, since part of the story is dances (in Icelandic called vikivaka). Boys wore typical Icelandic pullovers and most girls were in the national dress.

The Comenius wall with photos, drawings and stories and the show-cases with cd /dvd and story-books drew the attention of pupils and parents.