The hobby blog is open!

Do you play football? Or do you ski or skate? Are you interested in athletics or other sports? Or do you prefer playing some instrument or reading books? Do you have a pet or do like horses? Or what is your hobby?

The wikiwaterworld hobby blog is now open. In the hobby blog you can introduce your hobbies. You can write short messages and add also pictures to introduce what you are interested in.

If you want to write to hobby blog, ask instructions from your teacher! You can find the hobby blog here: http://wikiwaterworldhobbies.blogspot.com

Water Song Festival - Poland

It was a rainy day outside... but not in our school.
Joyful atmosphere during the Festival and lots of fun gave the Water Song Competition. Each class prepared one song about water and presented in front of the audience: students, teachers, parents and H2Olunia who joined the activity. Spontaneous applause and cheering plus involvement of the students caused that the day was one of unforgettable ones.

Continuing stories in Poland

The students in class IVA were inventing the follow -up of the water drop's adventures. There were many different ideas and it was so difficult to decide on just one conception. Last week Poland finished the activity so we wish the rest good luck with the writing. It was a great fun for us!
We can't wait to see the endings of all four stories:)

Polish watery legend

On 7th March the students in our school had a chance to see a puppet show prepared by the other students. The show was based on Wanda Chotomska’s legend about Wars and Sawa. You will find the legend below.
The stage design and puppets have been made by the students in their free time.
During the show the audience was taken in a legendary world of magic, mysteriousness and personalized nature.
For the whole work put in preparing the show the students were awarded by certificates.


WARS AND SAWA LEGEND

Once upon a time there was a noble king of Poland named Kazimierz Odnowiciel ("Restorer"), and each year he journeyed from the then-capital of Poland, Krakow, north to Gniezno. The King would journey up the Vistula River to the north, and on the second day of his trip he was already tiring of the dried food prepared for him in Krakow. Craving a fresh meal and dreaming of fresh fish and milk, he noticed smoke coming from the shore, and soon he saw a small house. The King ordered the ship to dock on shore and the King carefully made his way towards the house. As he and his company approached it, they could see it was a common fisherman's house. As was common in Polish custom, the hostess gave a very warm reception to the unexpected guests; she offered the King fresh milk and told him her husband, Piotr Rybak ("Fisherman") would be home soon with fresh fish. Soon, Piotr came home with a basket of fish he'd just caught, and soon his wife prepared them and they all sat down to a delicious meal. As they were feasting on the well-prepared fish, the best the King had ever tasted, Piotr told him about the newest addition to his family, a pair of twins who had recently been born. The family was having a really hard time christening them, however, as there was no church in their village and the neighboring village was seldom visited by a priest. In fact, the priest had been there right before the twins' birth, so no one expected him to be back anytime soon. The King had been very moved by the poor fisherman's hospitality and his story, and as he was leaving he put gold coins on the hosts' table. The fisherman would not accept, as it was old Polish custom to welcome all guests as family. But before his departure, the King requested to be received again on his way back from Gniezno, and to be honoured to as the godfather of the twins. He also decided to help the fisherman arrange a christening ceremony. Two months later, as the King was making his way back to Krakow, he landed ashore at the small village accompanied by several boats. Piotr and his wife happily received them again. The King had kept his promise, and with him was a priest and gentry to perform the christening ceremony, and who bore gifts for the King's godchildren. On an alter made on a hill, the boy twin was christened Wars and the girl, Sawa. After the ceremony, amongst food and drink and merrymaking, the King declared that Piotr Rybak will be now called Piotr Warsz - the royal fisherman, the father of Wars and Sawa, and the owner of the vast forest in the vicinity. And as a settlement would arise in the surrounding lands, it would bear his name. Years passed, and a village grew around Piotr's homestead, called Warszewa ("belonging to Warsz"). Whether the resulting name Warszawa came from Warsz or from the twins Wars and Sawa, no one knows, but eventually that village grew into our beloved city of Warszaw.

Continuing Stories have started!

One of our activities for this spring are continuing stories. All four stories started two weeks ago and there are two parts ready to read in every story. Stories will be ready in the middle of May. By then every school has writen one part to every story.

You can follow how the stories are developed from the wiki.

Click here to read the Continuing stories

Poland - lesson about water

Last week class 1 (seven year olds) with the class teacher – Agata Gut had a lesson about water.

The topic was: “There is no life without water – water is a priceless dower, use it carefully”

The main aim of the lesson was to show the students the great importance of water in our everyday life, as well as in our cultural heritage.

The students learnt about water characteristics such as: colour, taste, smell and about different states: rain, snow, fog, ice, hail. They tried to find differences between running water and thermal water we have in our area.

They were shown different water basins like: a river, lake, pond, sea, ocean.

Then they were discussing how to save water, what to do for the environment, how to clear up lakes, rivers, seas.

As the classes for children aged 7-9 follow integrated approach, the students worked with a poem, solved some mathematical problems, did a crossword and in the end they made some nice paper boats.

RO _ reading penpals' letters

The children have received letters from their penpals by post, by email or brought by the teachers who participated in the Comenius meeting in Turkey. Writing and especially receiving letters is one of the favourite activities.

H2Ounia's adventures in Turkey

Our mascot- H2Ounia was really excited about the trip to Turkey. But first she had a lot of things to prepare...

...she packed some cards and letters for the Turkish students and some small gifts for the partner students...

...then she checked if everything was OK with her passport...

... so she said goodbye to the Polish students and left for adventure...

...she was extremely happy to travel by plane again so she sat by the window to admire the views...

...visiting Behcelievler Ilkogretim Okulu school was the most exciting experience for her....

...as she could meet lovely Turkish students...

... it was an honour for her to meet the head teacher - Fatih...

...and the deputy head - Remziye...

...she spent a few nice days in a Comenius Corner at school with a great company of the other mascot friends...

...she had a lovely time, lying under some exotic palms, sunbathing a bit in order to get some sun before coming back to cold and snowy Poland....

... she was very sad leaving sunny and friendly Turkey but with nice memories she left for Poland...

... taking with her some nice gifts for the Polish students....

...she was asked by a flight attendant to fasten her seatbelt and got a packed lunch on the board...

....she was the most popular passenger on the plane, all flight attendants loved her and hearing that she would have to travel from Warsaw 500 kilometres more, she was given extra lunch...

....she is really looking forward to the next trip to the Azores so....

SEE YOU SOON!

After the visit in Turkey

The today's lesson was almost like travelling. We visited Turkey once again! The students were so excited seeing the things which we have brought from Turkey.They asked me a lot of questions about the country, the school and the Turkish students. They were jealous to hear that a class in Turkey lasts 40 minutes instead of Polish 45:). And they enjoyed Turkish coffee, of course:)
Then we read the letters we got from our project partners. I was so surprised when they asked me to prepare the reply letters immediately. It means that the travel was successful. Thank you! Greetings from Poland.

Romania: snow, snow, snow

 As everybody knows, snow is the solid aggregation form of water. Snow is usually the reason for children's joy, a symbol of purity, a blessing for the future crop.

Yet, it can also be a terrible danger for people's life and everyday life if the quantity depasses certain limits. This happened in the south of Romania where there were (maybe still are) houses in the villages burried under the snow for six, seven days.

There is now a solidarity campaign for helping these people with food, water, burning wood, clothes and any kind of assistence. The most difficult is to get to them digging into the thick snow. Everyday we see and hear very touching stories about the rescuers' victories and sometimes about their defeats, too.

Latest news: it is snowing and will keep on snowing for another two days. There's no way to get to Bucharest by train or car but we still hope to attend the project meeting in Turkey.

Water experiments in Romania

Older students of our school under the guidance of Biology teacher Viorica Calugaru analised the water samples with the help of monitoring kits. They could establish and compare the smell, the clarity, the quantity of dissolved oxigen in the water and the pH.

The water experiments ... UK

We had a great afternoon finding out about the water from our partners' countries. We carried out the suggested experiments very carefully as follows:

a) Physical aspects: colour, smell, clarity, pH response.

b) Observation under a microscope

c) Adding violet ink and placing a flower in the water.

d) Mixing the water with salt, sugar, flour and oil, and observing the results.

The children were most amazed by the pH reaction: they found that the water from Lake Puula was acidic! Is this true? And the water from Cyprus appeared to be slightly alkaline. Is this also true?