Comenius Corner For The First Meeting In Italy/Türkkonut Emel Önal Primary School/Turkiye

We have been displaying all the project material in our hall comenius corner at Türkkonut Emel Önal Primary School , in Turkiye. According to our project, every partner school  set up a corner  where all products  developed  throughout the project and every important information connected with our project are displayed.In this way, every student  knows what is happening. Our first meeting  was in Italy.  All students can see the photos of  Italy trip in the corner.

Our comenius corner has some samples of our works that have been done by the students in the project. For example, models of Colosseum and Pisa tower, posters about Italy are showed. Parents  also   follow the project  and outcomes from the corner.   Here are our posters  which were prepared by our pupils. All posters were done during English class by students.

Aslı Altan Altundal, English Teacher of Türkkonut Emel Önal  Primary School/Turkiye

Italy Evening in Poland

On 16th November 2011 teachers, students and parents from 47 Primary School in Białystok prepared together an Italian Evening. At the beginning the presentation of the pictures taken during our first partner meeting in Italy took place. Everyone was delighted and fascinated by the wonderful views and listened carefully to the full account of the first Comenius visit. Then, our students divided into six teams consisting of three people each, took part in the quiz about Italy. Since our students’ knowledge of this country is wide, there was a certain amount of friendly rivalry between the teams. After the quiz a long-awaited moment finally came:“ tasting Italian specialties, like pizzas, pesto, tiramisu, risotto, etc. prepared by our students and their parents. We all talked, ate, admired posters about Italy made by our students, and listened to Italian music. Everyone liked the meeting very much and now cannot wait for the next!

Bozena Gobcewicz, English Teacher of Szkoła Podstawowa nr 47 im. J.K. Branickiego/Poland

Italy Days in Türkkonut Emel Önal Primary School -Quiz About Italy/Turkiye

On the 15 th, 16th and 17th November days , some activities were studied and a quiz about Italy was given in Türkkonut Emel Önal Primary School in Turkiye. 30 students, aged 10 , participated the  different activities consisting to learn some informations about our partner country Italy in English lesson. Each of students worked with their partners. At the end of   all activities, they filled out the quiz.

Our first activity was about the location of Italy. We started  our work by answering this question: Where is Italy in the world? Students found the  location of Italy on the earth. They were surprised that Italy is a boot -shaped peninsula.

Students completed the map worksheet. They coloured the map and read  about the location of Italy.

As a second activity, students  learned  about Italian flag .They coloured the flag worksheet with red -white  and green to make an Italy flag.

We  also talked about the meaning of the colours of Italy flag. Red  part  of flag means the blood in the independence war   like Turkish flag. Our students realised that we have similarities between the meaning of  colours of  flags. Both , Turkish flag and Italian flag,   have   same meaning in the red colour.

How to say some Italian words? They learned "Hello","Thank you", "Good morning " and "Good evening" in Italian. Students greeted their partners in Italian words. It was very fun.

Another activity was to learn an Italian song. The song is a traditional child song" Giro giro tondo". They learned easily with its English meaning.
Giro giro tondo--------turn turn around
Casca il mondo--------The world is falling down
Casca la terra--------The earth is falling down
Tutti giu per terra-------Everybody's sitting down

On second day, some students cooked sphagetti at home and brought to the classroom. Before tasting, we talked about Italian food that they know and they coloured the pizza  and sphagetti worksheets.

They tasted the sphagetti together as a classroom activity. We disscused about how to cook sphagetti and how its shape is.

Students learned about the Roman Colosseum and the leaning tower of Pisa .They answered the questions:How does it look like?Where is it?

They tried to make a model of colosseum and the leaning tower of Pisa from sugar. Then,  they learned the capital , population , religion and  famous musician of Italy.

On third day, students took the quiz about Italy.

All 8th,7th, 6th , 5th and 4th grade students and all school staffs were informed and showed photos about Italy and our partner school in Italy by the powerpoint presentations.

Aslı Altan Altundal, English Teacher of Türkkonut Emel Önal  Primary School/Turkiye

The First Meeting-Visit a Fascinating Country: Italy

Let's join hands and hug Europe!
Türkkonut Emel Önal Primary School from Turkiye started the comenius project "Join Hands and Hug Europe" in September 2011 with the partner schools from Croatia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Italy.Our first meeting was in Italy , La Spezia /Vezzano Ligure  between the dates, 26th September  and 30th September.We got   very warm  welcome when  we arrived there.

In the first day , It was a pleasure to meet  our European colleagues and friends and our students also knew pleasantly each other. We tasted delicious National Cuisine of Italy and had fun  at dinner.We loved "Sgabei" ,the special dish of Vezzano Ligure Village. It has very close taste to our meal "Pişi". All people were quite friendly, kind and hospitable.We explored our similarities between Turkish and Italian cultures. 

Italian students greeted us with songs and flowers. After that , We strolled to the partner school's classrooms and participated the some activities.

Our smart student, Selim Can Kılıçaslan performed the piano recital.

Talented Italian students and their music teacher presented us a musical banquet.

The headteacher of Türkkonut Emel Önal Primary School , Kenan Karlıdağ made the national instrument, "Saz" show for kids.

In the second day  , we went to the medieval castle of  Fosdinovo near Sarzana which still belongs to the noble family , Malaspina.Dolphins are the symbol of the family. It was very interesting to learn that Dante Alighieri was hosted at the castel and his room has been protected.

Some legends are surrounding the castel even now. It is belived that the original bed of the Marquis Ippolito who died from drinking poison  breathes  and you can hear his heartbeats  from the knobs  of  the bed .We tried to hear the heartbeats ,it was an exciting experience. Another story was about  a girl, Bianca who was loved  by a young  man.But her family didn't accept their marriage. She was closed a tower with a dog and ate only bread and water. It was told that  she and her dog are still moving room by room in the castle. We managed to see some images as a water stain on the ceilling  which recognized Bianca and her dog.

Our last day activity was a trip to a very attractive region,Cinque Terre that is formed by five villages,Riomaggiore, Corniglia, Manarola, Vernazza, Monterosso. We were surprised that there was no car road. We could  reach the villages by train and by boat. People have been living there for 1000 years.Bright coloured buildings of villages are very caracteristic. The  magnificient scenery is  impressive. At night , We had a farewell dinner in Vezzano Ligure together.

We  have great memories.Bye Italy! Bye kind and hospitable  people !

Aslı Altan Altundal, English Teacher of Türkkonut Emel Önal  Primary School/Turkiye

Quiz About Italy / Czech Republic

Barbora Hejtmankova, English Teacher of Základní škola Bělá pod Pradědem/Czech Republic

The Unforgetable Moments From a Partnership Meeting in Italy

A new Comenius Project named „Join hands and hug Europe „ started in Vilkaviskis Primary school this September. The partnership consists of six European countries-Croatia(the coordinating country), Italy, Poland, The Czech Republic, Turkey and Lithuania. It‘s the first Comenius Project in our region where not only teachers of a primary education are involved in the mobilities but the students as well. The first meeting was organized on the 26th-30th of September in Vezzano Ligure, Italy. The coordinating teachers, the members of Project teams and school headteachers took part in the meeting. Our school was represented by Irada Miltiniene, our English teacher, our brave and smart fourth year students Miglena Mikuckaite and Juste Bunikyte and me, the headteacher of this primary school.

Italy welcomed us with evegreen cedras, proudly looking palm-trees, ripening bunches of grapes and olives. The Vezzano Primary school is situated in the same way as our own –in several different buildings in different places. We were met with sonorous Italian songs performed by talented Italian students and their Music teachers. The first days of our arrival were dedicated to present our schools and countries, plan the forthcoming activities as well as  enjoy the first achieved results. We also looked around the neighbourhoods and came to know the Italian culture,  traditions and cuisine. We visited the town of Serzana and the famous castle of marquize Malaspina. The first record on the castle dates back to the twelfth century. It was visited by Dante Alighieri, who supposedly envisioned the descending circles of Hell, that inspired the corresponding part of his Divine Comedy. According to the legend, Dante saw the great funnel-shaped cave lying below, surrounded by a series of ledges with the slopes converging to the stream.

 On Thursday we went to the paradise on Earth, the Cinque Terre, which is a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera. Clear as crystal the Ligurian Sea water, pebble beaches and rocky dot landscape, lovely villages left an indelible impression on each of our hearts.

When we came back to Vezzano Ligure, we had the last project meeting, a wonderful dinner together, exchanged our contacts and said goodbye to each other. The next April everybody is coming here, to Lithuania, to the Primary school in Vilkaviskis.

Asta Strazdiene, The Headteacher of Vilkaviskis Primary School/Lithuania