Description

Our project is aimed at upper primary school classes. Springtime in Scandinavia offers a variety of new beginnings. With these new beginnings we will introduce the students to traditions and Scandinavian culture in English. The students will not only introduce themselves, culture and traditions but also the Scandinavia which is familiar to them. This project will combine intercultural dialogue (presentations in English and exchange of Danish and Finnish vocabulary), IT and take the national curriculums into consideration

Aim

Focusing on springtime and presenting it to students (both on a teacher and a student level) is a different way of getting familiar with another European (focusing on Scandinavia) county and culture; including geography, religion and history. At the same time the students will improve their oral and written English skills via TwinSpace - and obtain intercultural skills.

Work process

The teachers will make a plan for the collaboration and a time schedule. All parents will be informed about the project and the use of TwinSpace (eTwinning). Photos – both still and live – will be part of the project. Scandinavian Springtime -
The students are presented to eTwinning and their TwinSpace.
The following tasks will be completed:

• Using Google Maps; find the country, the city, number of inhabitants, special areas / atrractions etc.
• Each student makes a short presentation of him-/herself on TwinSpace.
• Students introducing themselves via Skype - and sing a springsong (i.e. I like the daffodils….)
• Each class will make a brainstorm via padlet.com. These brainstorms will be presented to the classes.
• The students form groups and make a questionnaire. What do you want to know about Finland / Denmark?
• The groups make short presentations about: the weather (and the changes), the holidays/breaks in spring, the spring traditions, the history connected to the spring traditions. The presentations include various web 2.0 tools.
• The groups make a short dictionary in English/Finnish/Danish of the vocabulary connected to i.e. Easter ( in order to facilitate the Scandinavian cultural awareness)
• The students find differences and similarities in Scandinavian springtime traditions of Finland/Denmark. These differences/similarities are to be presented to each other (i.e. a Skype conference - or a padlet). The teachers contact each other via email / eTwinning. All information will be exchanged via TwinSpace but other websites will also be included.

Expected results

The students will get familiar with another Scandinavian/European country - in springtime. Differences and similarities and cultural awareness will be visible. Everybody will get familiar with TwinSpace / eTwinning and more familiar with web 2.0. All students will able to practice their English skills - and become more confident in using English as a second language. Furthermore the students will experience genuine conversation through Skype conferences and chat. They will have to cooperate in order to solve some of the tasks - cross border cooperation. Hopefully the collaboration between the partner-classes will continue in order for the students to further the awareness of - not only Scandinavian/European but - global citizenship.