Workshop for refinishing headwears
November 26th, 2018
Aim:
to refinish the old headwear
in order to notify the theme of the global day called Buy nothing day
Recycled and reused materials:
old hats, woolly hats, caps and other headwears,
yarn, buttons, pearls, fabrics, felt, feathers, glue
The schedule of the day:
All children in Koijärvi school-kindergarten took one old headwear to school / kindergarten with them. The school provided a headwear to those who didn´t have any.
In the morning all children and adults gathered together into the gym and one teacher gave the instructions. The aim was to refinish his/her old headwear with yarn, buttons, pearls, fabrics, felt, feathers and glue. The children and adults were divided into 8 groups. There were 8 children from kindergarten, 8 pupils from all different grades and 2 -4 adults in each group.
Children collected the materials they wanted and needed into small boxes, went to their own working space and started to design their headwears. They had 60 minutes to finish their hats. The children worked with enthusiasm and they were diligent.
After working in the workshop, all children presented their refinished headwear in the fashion show in the gym. There was music and 3 pupils as hosts in the fashion show. A group of pupils notified some of the most fabulous headwear. Everybody was happy and all of the refinished headwear were fantastic.
The workshop was documented by pictures.
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The Opening Ceremonies of Christmas Time in Koijärvi School-Kindergarten
November 30th, 2018
Aim:
To celebrate the beginning of Christmas time with different type of activities
all together children, staff, families and neighbouring inhabitants in the school yard
Activities:
- principal´s speech following lightning of the outdoor Christmas tree with Christmas carols and dancing
- a quiz about Finnish Christmas Carols in 8 different spots in the school yard
- completing a knotted-pile carpet hanging with Christmas theme
- glögi (warm spiced berryjuice) and ginger bread served in the lean-to
- a children´s playhouse decorated as a Christmas house
- the school building was already decorated for Christmas time
The opening ceremonies were held in the morning starting from 9.30. The activities were done in small groups. There were lots of happy participants and there was already some snow on the ground!
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Little Chickens Growing up in Koijärvi School-Kindergarten
In the middle of March we started to hatch 14 eggs in the incubator. The incubator was located in one classroom and all children in the school and kindergarten followed the development of the chickens.
The first chicken called Pappa (grandfather) hatched April 2nd, 2019.
Children gave names to all chickens. One week after the birth, chickens moved back to the farm.
Also the local press got interested in our lovely project.
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Technology Adventure Day
April 3rd, 2019
On April 3rd the group of four teachers organized a technology adventure day for all students and preschoolers in Koijärvi school-kindergarten. There were four different workshops. In the first workshop children had a great possibility to create an own animation with iPads by using the apps Explain Everything and MagicEraser. In the second workshop students familiarized themselves with the copyright law and safe ways to use Internet and social media. The third workshop demanded students to build as solid and functional bridge as possible with the robotics set.
In the fourth workshop the students had a possibility to try apps, which combine physical education and digital tools. It was very interesting day and the children were fascinated.
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Outdoor Learning Day I
Garden and School Yard
May 13th, 2019
We organized an outdoor learning day on May 13th together with the school and kindergarten. Children planted potatoes, cucumbers, carrots, radish, yellow turnips, peas, beetroots, flowers etc. in the garden. During the spring classes had turns to wet the plants and during the summer the families of sixth grade students will take care of the garden. In the autumn children and staff of the school and kindergarten will harvest and gather the ripened crop.
After planting all children and staff cleaned the school yard. We gathered garbage, raked the ground and pulled the weeds. Now the school yard and garden are ready for sunny summertime!
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Outdoor Learning Day II
Children´s Official Hiking Day in Forests in Finland
May 23rd, 2019
On May 23rd there was organized an official hiking day in Finland. There is a new bird-watching tower in Koijärvi and we decided to hike there. Koijärvi is very famous about its history in nature conservation and that is why also the tower is very important for our region.
The bus drove us few kilometers because of the such dangerous road and then we started hiking two kilometers. The weather was perfect, a bit cloudy but not rainy. In the bird-watching tower we met a bird specialist, who told us about the animals and plants living in the bog. Children had also time to goggle with binoculars, draw the tower on the paper and enjoy their packed lunch. After that we hiked back to the bus. During the hiking millions of mosquitos decided to join us. Despite that the day was perfect!
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Eco School Sertification
Koijärvi school-kindergarten got the Eco School Sertification on May 2019. School and kindergarten organized together a nice celebration on 24th May. All weared green clothes and two students hoisted the green flag (a symbol of the eco schools) to the flagpole. As you can see our eco mascot, the black super cat, visited the celebration. After the official ceremony we all enjoyed and ate a rhubarb pie. The rhubarbs have been cultivated in our own garden at the school-kindergarten.
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Our school yard in autumn 2019
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Workshop for art from recycled and reused materials
November 28th, 2019
Aim:
to create an artwork in groups from recycled and reused materials,
children from the school and kindergarten working together
The schedule of the day:
Our Eco School Team prepared a leading presentation and introduced other pupils the aim of the day. Pupils formed the groups (planned in advance) and started to plan their artwork. Children were free to use all recycled and reused materials collected beforehand. The onliest limitation was, that all groups had a similar bottom plate for the artwork. Children worked focused two hours and were happy with the outputs.
After the workshop we organized an art exhibition for the Opening Ceremonies of Christmas Time and also parents visited the exhibition.
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The Opening Ceremonies of Christmas Time
in Koijärvi School-Kindergarten
December 2nd, 2019
Aim:
To celebrate the beginning of Christmas time with different type of activities all together children, staff, families and neighbouring inhabitants in the school yard
Activities:
- principal´s speech following lightning of the outdoor Christmas tree with Christmas carols and dancing
- the choir of the school singing two songs
- art exhibition (outputs of the workshop for art from recycled and reused materials (November 28th, 2019))
- glögi (warm spiced berryjuice) and ginger bread served in the lean-to
- the school building was already decorated for Christmas time
The opening ceremonies were held in the morning starting at 8.30. There were lots of happy participants and the weather was nice!
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Independence Day
December 6th, 2019
We celebrated Finland´s Independence Day on Thursday December 5th, 2019 in Koijärvi school-kindergarten. Next day, December 6th, 2019 was an official holiday.
In advance we organized an election and pupils voted the president for the ceremony. The president was voted from the sixth grade.
The day started with the raising of the Finnish flag on the school yard. After that we moved to the hall and the president shake hands with all the guests. The president had prepared the speech and welcomed the celebrators.
The choir of the school opened the ceremony with one beautiful song about Finland and after that we all sang together our national anthem. All classes performed their dancing programs (polonaise, cicapo and kehruuvalssi (waltz in the circle)). After that all children were free to dance waltz and some traditional Finnish dances. The ceremony culminated to the atmospheric lunch with a cake dessert. During this important day all children and staff were dressed up and behaved very appreciatively.
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Creating a big sister/brother system
- Sharing a big sister / brother from the sixth grade for all pre-schoolers
- Getting to know each other by "interviewing" and filling the sheet, colouring the sheet together
- Drawing and sending cards for Valentine´s Day
