October

The beginning of the project. Bruce spent October in Poland, showing students from different country Polish school, some of the places most willingly visited by Polish students. We also learnt about the partner countries, what to visit, what to eat and do.

First part of the collaborative story was written by Polish students.

Students from abroad filled in the survey about Bruce's adventures in Poland and the results were perfect. It means everybody is following the Bruce, wherever he goes. Poland and Portugal met during videoconference and they introduced each other.

November

Bruce arrived to Lithuania on the 2nd of November. Bruce spent all month in Joniskis. He attended lessons, Art School and differest clubs. He visited famous places in Joniskis and other towns of Lithuania. Bruce learnt about Lithuanian customs, traditions, food , music and etc.

Bruce became the best friend of more than 50 students. He visited more  than 20 host families.

Bruce gave 5 lessons of Lithuanian language.

The second part of collaborative story was written by Lithuanian students.  Bruce wrote  his diary. Bruce helped our students to improve their writing skills by writing a diary. Collaborative writing was a great task for our students to revise English grammar , sentence structures and vocabulary.

Bruce prepared a survey for students from abroad. The results will be published in the beginning of December.

On the 25th of November Bruce left Lithuania and went to Portugal.

On the 27th of November my colleague Simona Jacienė and I presented the project aims, activities and results at parents' meeting.

Twice a month we had meetings with our students for visiting twinspace and following Bruce's adventures in other countries.

December

Bruce in December was missing....but fortunately in January arrived to Portugal safe and sound...

January

 

Bruce's trip to Portugal was very loooooonnnnnggggg! It took 35 days. He arrived to the school on the 30th December but the school was closed by that time. That means that the welcome party was only on the 4th January, the first day of school after the Christmas break.

The project was lead at school by the Moral and Religious Education teacher, that worked with 3 classes, one form the 5th grade (10 years old), and two from the 6th grade (11 years old). Our classes are small, but we have some students with special needs (disabilities and learning difficulties) and other students that are institutionalized, by order of the court.

Since we started the project, all the students always showed lots of enthusiasm. It could be seen in their eyes. We only have classes once a week (45 minutes), but there were always some minutes to learn more about Bruce's adventures. We started to learn where the countries of the project were, then we even manage to have an online meeting session with the polish students.

During the preparation stage, we introduce ourselves and we decided who would take care of Bruce during his stay... in December!!! As it was our Christmas Holiday, we asked the parents to help us, so that we could take Bruce to each other's home. When he arrived we January, we did that again, now it would be easier, but the coordinating teacher wouldn't be at school for a week, because he was in a pupils exchange of an Erasmus + project. Anyway, the students took good care of Bruce, with the help of the Portuguese Language Teacher. They were always very happy about the activity. The most impressive part was the way that the institutionalized kids reacted to Bruce. They are almost teenagers, but they were great.

The day we should send Bruce to Spain was a sad day to the students. But, at the same time, they were very happy because other students would have the same opportunity they had.

Now, they want to see Bruce again, in Poland, for a new Online Session!!!

February

Bruce arrived to Spain on the 4th of February. It was Carnival time and there were parades and dancers everywhere on the streets. He wore a fancy dress and enjoyed the beautiful parades. He did different activities during the month (and an extra week) he stayed here: he went to the shopping centre, to the park, to the public library… He also was the main actor in a play met other teddies, he played with cats and dogs, he went to drama lessons, he did karate, he ate chocolate, and he enjoyed the Spanish meals.

 

There were 48 students waiting for his arrival, but he only was with some of them. Some of the students were sad because they cannot stay with Bruce for a whole day, but they were with our dear teddy in the different lessons at school (Bruce did his homework, he read stories, he participated in Acrossport as a cheerleader, he studied English, and he was in shape…)

 

Children liked the time Bruce was with them and they talked to him in English language (Spanish students start speaking English when they are 3 years) and they kept several conversation in that language. It was an unforgettable experience. Bruce enjoyed his time in Spain and its weather (it was always sunny) but he had to go to Italy and meet Elisabetta’s students.

March

Bruce arrived to Italy on the 22nd of March. He spent 3 weeks with 24 students of class 4^B Italo Calvino primary school. He attended lessons, he played with them, he ate at school canteen. He also visited famous places in Vignola and other towns in Italy. Bruce learnt about italian customs, traditions, food, music, sport.

He visited 18 host families.

Our part of collaborative story will be written by Italian students. Bruce wrote his diary about the adventures in Italy, day by day.

He attended a special week: the English City Camp with many native teachers and he learnt so much in English.

On the 15th of April Bruce left Italy and went to Turkey.

It was a fantastic experience for Italian team and their families… Bruce will be missed…

 

April

Bruce arrived to Turkey on 21st April but, unfortunately it was impossible to withdraw him. So he was send back to Italy and then returded to Poland on 20th May.

May

A certificate for the commitment of students was created.