Christmas Holiday!

Today it is the last day of the term! The teachers beat the 9 graders at "topsboll" topz ball. It is a game that is about the same as indoor hockey, but you play with a stick that looks just like one of those small plastic topz you have to scratch the inside of your ear with. But of course, the stick is as big as a hockey stick. You can imagine that it is very difficult to hit the ball with such a stick.

Well, to make a long story short -we -the teachers won BIG!

Before the topz ball, all students danced some traditional dances (I danced the same dances when I was a student at school -a long, long time ago! Most of the students join in the dances and have a good time.

Two girls from grade 7 entered the stage and sang a song each. Well done!

Then it was time for lunch and today it was as our tradition at Tanumskolan: "Julgröt" -which is warm rice pudding served with sugar, cinnamon and milk.

Then all classes met up in the classroom with their teachers and we had a cosy time with lit candles, Christmas songs on the cd-player and then we handed out the grades.

After that, it was time to go home and most of the teachers have a tradition, at last day of the term, to follow the students to the schoolbus -and wave to them when the busses leave.

We hope you all have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year! We are looking forward to get going with the blog again after New Year. Now most of the blogs are up and running and it is going to be very interesting to see what we can do together in 2009.

Yesterday I spoke to an old student of ours, Nicolina, who came with us to Policka in November 2007. She still keeps in touch with some of the Czech and Italian students at least once a week! I think we have a great way to keep up the good work we are doing! After working together, for some of us up to 5 years, we ARE a Comenius family -just like Peter says!

So, to all of the members of the Comenius family, both students and teachers: MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

/Anna, teacher at Tanum

At Christmas

I woke up on the 24th December. The Santa had come on the night and it hangs a Christmas-stocking on the end of my bed. It is presents and sweets in the stocking, so I eat it. When I have got out of my bed I eat breakfast. It is very many things on the table, so I eat a lot of things, like “Christmas-ham”, eggs, tea, coffee, and lots of more things.
Then I’m going to my aunt and eat even more.
All my family is there, and we have fun, and laugh.
At 3 a.m. we watch Donald duck which is one of our traditions.
On the evening comes Santa Clause and gives us Christmas-presents.
When all gifts are delivered, we go home.

That is what who happens on my Christmas // Ida

Yes! At last!!! Towards Salerno

At last we have managed to upload our video "Towards Salerno" The video was shot at Hornbore by, an open air Viking museum, near Hamburgsund, Sweden. The story was written and performed by students at Tanumskolan as a part of the project "Learning in a European Classroom, sponsored by Progamkontoret and the EU.

The story is about some Vikings who are getting ready to sail towards Salerno, Italy to pillage and plunder. The daughter of the clan leader is a very special girl and she wants to come along, but as a female she is not allowed to join the men. She is very angry with her dad and .... Well, have a look and see what happens!

Some facts about Sweden

I was thinking that those who are coming to Sweden next year maybe want to now some facts about our country. Our big city, the capital of Sweden, is called Stockholm. The population in Stockholm is about 1 million of people. The National Anthem name is “Du gamla, Du fria”. In English that mean “Thou ancient, thou free”. The King of Sweden name is Carl Gustav. A traditional meal is meatballs, with brown sauce, lingonberry jam and boiled potatoes. In Sweden live 9 millions of people. The bigger cities are Malmö, Stockholm and Göteborg, in English called “Malmo, Stockholm and Gothenburg.” In Sweden we shop with SEK, “Swedish Krona”. The Swedish flag is blue with a yellow cross. Want to now more about Sweden? Search for it on wikipedia.
/Rebecca

Kubb

Kubb has been played since the Middle Ages here in Sweden, most people think that kubb comes from the biggest island in Sweden, it is called Gotland. Every year there is a world championship at Gotland. Here are the rules:

There are two teams. Each team has its own line with bowler pieces. There are five bowler pieces in each line. The team will throw down the other team’s bowler pieces with wooden sticks, you have to stand behind your own team’s bowler pieces when you throw it.
After you've thrown down the other team’s bowler pieces, it is time to throw down the king. The team that first throw down the king wins! But if you throw down the king by mistake you lose.//Anna Clara