Wishing Everyone a Warm, Sunny Summer

Now that the 2016-17 school year is officially over, we would like to wish everyone a relaxing summer.

It is time to say goodbye.
Our year is at its end.
We’ve made some cherished memories
And hopefully some friends.

We’ve had a chance to learn and grow
And develop from day to day
For sure, all the things we’ve done
Have helped in some small way.

It is with happy memories
That we send you out the door
With great hope and expectations
For what next year holds in store.*

*adapted from a poem found on Pinterest

School begins again at 9 a.m. on Thursday, August 10th. We hope that all the readers of our English Class blog enjoy their summers!

Spring Promotion 2017

Everything went according to plan at the annual Spring Promotion at Cygnaeus School. The gymnasium was packed with parents of sixth graders as well as pupils and teachers. All of the sixth graders made their entrance by participating in a stately Polonaise procession.

English Class sixth graders Tekla and Jakub narrated the programme which included singing the Satakunta song, the traditional summer hymn, Suvivirsi, and the farewell song, Jäähyväislaulu. Sixth graders from classes 6B and 6C gave memorable speeches. Headmaster Arto Suni spoke and announced award recipients. The sixth grade music class sang a beautiful rendition of Climb Every Mountain in Finnish and English. The promotion ended with sixth graders receiving roses from their class teachers and walking an honour aisle composed of the school’s second graders. Below is a video clip showing English Class sixth graders receiving roses from their class teacher, Ms. Anneli.

Good Citizenship Awards

Every school year the English Class Parents’ Association sponsors awards for a pupil from each grade level. These awards are given to pupils who have been selected by their class teachers. The children who receive the award have, among other things, demonstrated strength of character, good manners and overall good citizenship. The awards are gift certificates to a local bookstore.

This year the recipients of these awards are (from left to right): 5th grader Luca Koskenkanto, 6th grader Stella Manninen, 4th grader Mari-Leen Liivat, 3rd grader Iiris Huhta, 2nd grader Lelia Deutschmann and first grader Eeva Kilkku. We offer heartfelt congratulations to each and every award recipient!

Sandcastles

Walk in the rain,
smell flowers,
stop along the way,
build sandcastles,
go on field trips,
find out how things work,
tell stories,
say the magic words,
trust the universe.
~Bruce Williamson

Wednesday of this week was neither warm nor sunny, even though May is almost at its end, but that did not matter to the English Class first and second graders and their teachers when they went to Yyteri Beach for their class trip.  Dressed in weather-appropriate clothing, the children brought along their imaginations, as well as pails and shovels, to create sandcastles along the shoreline.

The sandcastles had proper moats and turrets and were decorated with small shells and reeds found along the beach. The children worked in small groups with intensity and interest. There is something almost intoxicating about the joyous experience of making sandcastles!

 

An Action-packed Night School and Field Trip for Third Graders

Although it was not quite 24 hours long, the English Class third graders and their teacher, Ms. Anu, managed to cram an awful lot of amazing experiences into one night and one day. Beginning on Thursday evening of last week, the third graders gathered in their classroom for a sleepover at school. After breakfast the next they headed to the island of Reposaari to explore the defense fortress park that dates from the 1930’s and the rocky shoreline. Back at school on Monday, working in four groups, the pupils wrote about their experiences. The text accompanying the photo collages below is the result of their efforts.

On Thursday at 18:00 most of us came to night school. Some of us came later to night school. When we came inside, we dropped our bags and went outside to play. Outside the girls were practicing cheerleading and boys were playing football. When we came inside most took out their phones and started eating candy. After we had played with our phones enough we voted for the movie that we would watch. The movie, “Mulan” won the voting. We started watching the movie and in the middle of the movie one of our classmates came to night school.

When the movie stopped most of us were crazy and some took their shirts off. Most of our classmates were arm wrestling. Some were doing push-ups and running circles in the hallway. After that we came to the class and had our evening snacks. Then we brushed our teeth. Even though we were told not to, we started telling horror stories. One of the stories was the licking dog. After a long time of fidgeting, we finally fell asleep. (by Maxi, Ayyoub, Benjamin, Oska, Antti, Thomas)

After we woke up we got ready for breakfast. Our breakfast was in the cafeteria and we ate yogurt and sandwiches. We drank Trip juice.

After the breakfast we walked to the bus station. The bus took us to Reposaari and we were allowed to play with our phones. When we got to Reposaari we walked to the forest. (by Siiri, Santi, Thomas, Otto and Sophie)

We were at the Linnakepuisto. It was a sunny day. Some boys were playing war and some were recording a video. Some of the girls were playing war nurses.

There was a trench, rooms and a bird (lookout) tower. There were bunkers as well. And then we started to walk to a beach. We took pictures of the waves. Anu took pictures of us. We had fun. (by Lilian, Iiris, Karl and Onni)

From the beach we started walking to a restaurant called Merry Monk. At the Merry Monk we first washed our hands. Then we went to our seats and the server came to ask what we want to drink. After we got our drinks we waited for the food.

Then we got our food which was French fries and meatballs. After we ate we got to choose if we would take vanilla ice cream or strawberry ice cream. But most of us took the vanilla one. 

We went to Reposaari School and we took a couple of pictures of our cheerleading. After that we walked to the bus station and we danced at the bus station to warm us up. The bus came and we went to the bus. The bus ride was normal and it took 1 hour. We got to go to school already 20 minutes early. And then we rode home. It was lots of fun! (Ida, Amelia and Amelie)

 

 

Shadow Drawing

On a sunny Monday English Class first and second graders paired up to create drawings of shadows that they each cast. The poses were quite expressive, but throughout the playground admonishments of, “Stay still!” could be heard. (Our first and second graders seem to have lots of energy when it is warm and sunny!)

Some of the children coloured in the clothing on the shadow figures. Others added sticks, stones and plant material to add details like hair and facial features.

A few pairs bonded to create a disco of dancing shadow figures. The disco had walls, a floor and even a disco ball drawn above the dancers! (See the photo in the upper left of the photo collage above.) The figure in the photo in the lower right of the collage is wearing a sturdy necklace made of wood!

By far the best part of the experience was listening to the first grade and second grade shadow artists as they participated in the process of creating their shadow folk! All sorts of descriptions and stories unfolded as they worked!

Bird-watching in the Park

The third week of May was National Bird Week for children, which is organized by Finland’s Nature League and Bird-Life Finland. With a few sets of binoculars and their camera phones, English Class second graders set off to do some bird-watching in a nearby park.

The children quickly found several nests. Some nests were abandoned and some were very much occupied.  One fieldfare (räkettirastas) in particular, set up quite an alarm when a couple of children and Ms. Sylvia approached its nest to take photographs. Ms. Sylvia used a special lens on her camera to get some of the pictures included in these photo collages.

Among the birds that we saw were a black crow, chaffinches, common wood pigeons, wrens, pigeons, fieldfares, a European magpie and a couple of wagtails. The second graders were very enthusiastic about their bird-watching experiences. They found a total of four active bird nests and two inactive nests. Although some birds were already hatching their eggs, other species of birds were still in the stages of building or repairing their nests.

All in all the children were surprised by how much bird activity there was in a local park. Another surprise was how much fun it was to stand still and quietly observe!