Our project in BIGY

The Course of Finnish Language at Bigy

The students of the Bishop Grammar School in Žďár nad Sázavou who are involved in the project of NAEP Lifelong Learning Programme Comenius the Partneship of Schools attended a three-day-course of Finnish language which was prepared by Mrs Alena Hanzlová from The Private Language School in Sněžné. She works as a language consultant in our project. She studied this language at the Filosophical Faculty  at Charles University in Prague and she found our partner school called Kuokkalan koulu in Jyväskylä in Finland.

She informed us about typical features of  Finnish grammar, she taught us useful phrases and gave us basic information about the country, where we went at the end of October.
We studied conjugation of the verb to be and formed easy questions and answers with this verb. We could greet in Finnish and we could also say what we liked, ask and answer questions about our names and how we were, talk about the members of our families, our homes and we could ask practical questions to get some useful information. At the end of the course we were able to introduce ourselves fluently in Finnish language.
Another part of the course was listening to the sound of  Finnish language, songs and cartoons. We listened to a favourite pop singer Anna Pua, Finnish traditional songs sung by the group Värttinä and we talked about other famous Finnish pop groups as well. We read lyrics of their songs and then we tried to sing. We really liked watching well-known cartoons about the Moommins in Finnish language.

During the stay in Finland we could learn more about the language. We could tell our partner a story or a fairy- tale well-known in the Czech Republic and spread in Finland, too. We completed the story in national languages and translated into English language.

We also sang our favourite national songs and translated to our partners.So we had several lessons of practical Finnish and English lessons in Finland again lead by Mrs Hanzlová.
We enjoyed the course in September very much and we used basic phrases in Finland.

Michaela Hermanyová, Jitka Stráská

Project EU COM- BP- 2011-002 at the Bishop Grammar school during the school year 2011-2012

There have been a lot of school activities during this year  for the students of our school which were prepared by students, teachers or project participants. All activities have one aim – our project partner is from Finland and we would like to learn as much as possible about this country from many different aspects.

.

The language of the project is English and the coordinator of the project is an English language teacher, so a lot of activities are connected with English lessons.

1. Kristiina Mäki, the former student, who lives in a bilingual Finnish- Czech family prepared in September 2011 a very nice presentation about the life, culture, geography, education and her family holidays in Finland. She presented the country  and talked to higher class students  in 6 lessons (about 160 students).

2. Regularly we present our project on school websites www.bigyzr.cz and our blog www.wirkko.blogspot.com

(You can watch the shot from TV Vysočina, see photos in the school photo gallery or read articles about our project.)

3.The participants of the project presented their stay in Finland and in Kuokalan koulu to their younger schoolmates (prima, sekunda, tercie, kvarta) at a special pre-Christmas meeting and sang together a Finnish Christmas song. The participants of the project presented our stay in Finland in English classes.

4. Also before Christmas students from prima, sekunda, tercie and kvarta prepared             projects about Joulupukki and Finnish Christmas according to the book by Finnish painter and writer Mauri Kunnas.

5. Eva Rikonen, one of our Finnish partners, visited our school before Easter and had meetings with students from different classes and answered their questions about our project, her school, town and country.

6. In French classes students filled forms about the geography of Finland.

7. In one Russian class students made a Russian and Czech and Finnish dictionary and talked about Finnish language on the European Day of Languages.

8. In  one Physics class students solved special tasks about physical laws of weight acceleration, they talked about nuclear energy in northern countries and how to measure time.

9. In Art lessons students prepared special presents for our Finnish partners –  dolls  in period costumes and now they are preparing presents again for their visit in September 2012.

10. In History classes in tercie, kvarta and 3rd class students talked about WWI and WWII and the position of Finland in both wars.

11. In Music lessons – students listened to modern and classic Finnish music ( Sibelius and Nightwish, Lordit etc.)

12. In Religious Education lessons – Mr. Záleský, the priest from the Church of St. Jan Nepomucký, prepared a special lecture for project participant classes about the differences  between lutheran evangelic and catholic church.

13. Czech language classes – students from lower to higher classes read Kalevala, the Finnish heroic epos, Mika Waltari´s books, they learned about Finnish literature of 19th century and Finnish language (language family and the system of vowels and consonants).

14.Geography classes - as a member of our project team is a Geography teacher, she introduced the geography of Finland in all classes.

15. ICT lessons – the task for students to work on their term project was Finland. Students dealt with Finnish geography, the UNESCO sites, the nature, wild animals and fish .

16. Meetings with parents

On 16 November 2011 parents were invited to a special presentation about our stay in Finland (which was prepared by students and teachers) and on 18 April parents were invited to a special presentation which introduced our project (www.wirkko.blogspot.com).

Žďár nad Sázavou   11th May 2012                                              Jitka Stráská, the coordinator

                                                                                               Alena Hanzlová, language advisor

Easter Visit from Jyväskylä in Žďár nad Sázavou

On Wednesday, 4th April 2012  Eve Riikonen visited our school. She is a Finnish student who participates in the bilateral project Comenius School Partnership COM-BP-2011-02. She spent with our language group lead by PhDr. Jitka Straská one lesson of conversation, especially about the differences between Finland and the Czech Republic. Despite of the fact that Eve is only in the 8th class, her knowledge of English is very good, and so she could not have any problems answering our questions. It was a good opportunity to learn at least something about the country  which maybe some of us will never visit. Eve was very nice and friendly and we will look forward to another visit from the country of lakes.

Jan Kysilka, II.B

Today Eva visited our English lesson. She is a very pretty girl. She taught us some very interesting Finnish words, for example earth warm is said kastemato, Easter bunny is said  pääsiäis pupu and hello is said moi…

Hanďa, PET course

Eva says: „I can say some  Czech words.“ It was funny. She was not embarrased to speak with us. It was a great lesson.

Barča, PET course    

Eva told about Finnish weather, about her favourite place and about typical Finnish animals.
She says, that she goes to school by bike.                                                                        

Dominika, PET course

Eve visited our lesson. She told us many interesting things and some Finnish words. She is staying in the Czech Republic at Easter.

Jana, PET course

Eve has learnt English for 6 years too, but she speaks English better than we can, because in Finnish people speak English more than here in the Czech republic. Thank you Eve…

 

Kurz finského jazyka

Ve  třech zářijových dnech  jsme se my, studenti Biskupského gymnázia ve Žďáře nad Sázavou zapojení do projektu NAEP  Comenius Partnerství škol v rámci Programu celoživotního učení, účastnili kurzů finštiny s paní magistrou Alenou Hanzlovou ze Soukromé jazykové školy ve Sněžném, která v našem projektu se školou ve finském Jyvaskyla pracuje jako jazykový poradce, poněvadž tento jazyk vystudovala na Filozofické fakultě Univerzity Karlovy a zároveň zprostředkovala spolupráci se střední školou v Jyvaskyla.

Seznámili jsme se se základní gramatikou finského jazyka, naučili se užitečné fráze a dozvěděli se více o zemi, do které se na přelomu října a listopadu chystáme.
Z finské gramatiky jsme se naučili časovat sloveso: být  a vytvořit otázky a odpovědi s daným slovesem. Umíme ve finském jazyce pozdravy v průběhu celého dne a také říci, co nás baví, jaké máme záliby, vyjmenovat členy rodiny, říci svoje bydliště a další základní informace, na které se umíme i zeptat. Během výuky si každý z nás vyzkoušel plynně říci základní informace o sobě a své rodině.
 Součástí výuky byl poslech finského jazyka jak formou hudby, tak i kreslené pohádky. Kromě oblíbených finských hudebních skupin, které známe, jsme si poslechli například Annu Puu, současnou zpěvačku populární hudby, ale i finský folklór v podobě hudební skupiny Värttinä. Texty písní jsme si přečetli a pak se společně pokusili je zazpívat. Výuku zpestřilo sledování námi oblíbeného seriálu Mumínci,kde jsme opět poslouchali finský jazyk.
Tyto kurzy finštiny nás nadchly a do Finska už se všichni těšíme.

Michaela Hermanyová, účastník EU projektu COM -BP-2011-002

29. 9. 2011

The Course of Finnish Language  

The students of the Bishop Grammar School in Žďár nad Sázavou who are involved in the project of NAEP Lifelong Learning Programme Comenius the Partneship of Schools attended a three-day-course of Finnish language which was prepared by Mrs Alena Hanzlová from The Private Language School in Sněžné. She works as a language consultant in our project. She studied this language at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague and she found our  partner school  called Kuokkalan koulu  in Jyväskylä , Finland.

She informed us about typical features of the Finnish grammar, she taught us useful phrases and gave us basic information about the country, where we are going at the end of October.

We studied conjugation of the verb to be and formed easy questions and answers with this verb. We can greet in Finnish and we can also say what we like, ask and answer questions about our names and how we are, talk about the members of our families, our homes and we can ask practical questions to get some useful information. At the end of the course we were able to introduce ourselves fluently in Finnish language.

Another part of the course was listening to the sound of the Finnish language – songs and cartoons. We listened to a favourite pop singer Anna Puu, Finnish traditional songs sung by the group Värttinä and we talked about other famous Finnish pop groups as well. We read lyrics of their songs and then we tried to sing. We really liked watching well-known cartoons about the Moommins in Finnish language.

We enjoyed the course in September very much and we are looking forward to Finland in October.
   

Michaela Hermanyová, the participant of the EU project, COM-2011-002

29^th September 2011

 

A short article about our presentation of the Finnish part of our EU Comenius project for students from prima to kvarta class

On the 21 December 2011 Natálie, David and Michaela met students from prima, sekunda,tercie and kvarta classes (more than 100 students) to share their experiences of our stay in the Finnish city of Jyväskylä, where we worked on our EU project with pupils from Kuokkala koulu.

David began the presentation with basic information about Finland and its capital city Helsinki.He talked about  interesting places which we had visited  and told funny stories which had happened during our stay in the beautiful northern country at partner school, at new Finnish home and while travelling there in November 2011.

Natálie went on and she talked about our flight from Prague to Helsinki Vantaa airport and journey by coach to Jyväskylä.Younger students could see pictures of our partner school called Kuokkala koulu. Natálie talked about school subjects, timetable, breaks, school canteen and afterschool activities.Which place of interest did the students really like ? The beautiful Old Church in Petäjävesi, which is the main focus of our project. The Old Church is on the list of the UNESCO World Heritage sites and our project deals with the importance of religious buildings (this church and the Church of St. Jan Nepomucký on the Green Hill) in the 21st century. Students visited the new church in Kuokkala, Suomenlinna fortress in Helsinki and Alvar Aalto´s museum  near the city centre in Jyväskylä. Natálie talked enthusiastically about various kinds of free time activities. She mentioned evenings with Finnish partners in their homes, where they played various plays and games, talked, danced and listened to music, watched DVDs and worked on computers. All students spoke English but of course, they tried to introduce and teach one another their own languages. Students met Pavel Skrbek, a Czech ice-hockey player in Jyväskylä , after a match with Helsinki ice-hockey club.

All students enjoyed Home economics class because they together  made delicious pancakes and offered them to the teachers of the school as well as the headmaster.

At the end of the presentation Michaela introduced herself in the Finnish language and younger students could see how difficult and beautiful the  language is.

 In the end Mrs Stráská thanked Natálie, David and Michaela for their presentation. She spoke about the importance of learning English as it is the  language of international communication which enables its speakers to meet different cultures, find new friends and broaden their minds. The presentation showed that Czech students really enjoyed their stay and work in Finland.

The students of lower grades liked the presentation and we hope that in the future they will participate in similar Comenius Lifelong learning programmes.

Natálie Zelinková

Jitka Stráská