IES Menéndez Pidal,

Avilés, Spain

Gymnázium V. Mýto,Czech Rep.

St Brigid´s College, Derry, Northern Ireland

The Aims of the Project

• The students worked in groups and looked for information about different aspects of their lives: family, likes and dislikes, school, their city, history, traditions and so on.

• Each group wrote about one aspect and then gave short speeches in front of their classmates about their work. They also included photos to illustrate every aspect.

• Then they sent all the information to their e-partners and compared each other’s lifestyles, origins, culture and customs, paying attention to the things in common and also the differences they found.

• Each school also designed a presentation about their e-partners. Teachers encouraged tolerant and open-minded points of view.

• Finally there was a conclusion that included the things they had learnt about each other, the most surprising details. This common Power Point presentation might be used in future projects or school exchanges as a way to introduce themselves to their new partners.

03 Our Environment

04 Your Questions are welcome!

05 Answers to the questions of our Irish and Czech friends

06 Looking forward to your answers! (Czech R.)

07 Looking forward to your answers! (Ireland)

08 Quizzes

09 Final stage

10 QLabel

11 Getting Closer display: photo gallery

12 Evaluation

(E) Evaluation

(F) Our School

(G) Our Display

03 Season Greetings – WINTER

04 Our Environment I

05 Our Environment II

06 Questions from our Spanish & Irish friends + Our Answers

07 What we have asked / learned about our friends

08 *Do you feel like a quiz or game?*

09 Season greetings - SPRING

10 *Getting closer* - Evaluation of the project

Introducing Ourselves

presentations in which the students introduce themselves

a guessing game "Who is who in the photo?“ a short VIDEO

MY WORLD AND ME

My name, nickname, home name.

Age, birthday

School:Like /don´t like school, favourite subjects, why

My hobbiesMy pet / pets:

Mame, age, how long I have it

My father:(name, age), job, hobbies

My mother:(name, age), job, hobbies

My home:House or flat, where?

My likes and dislikes:Food, colour, favourite

singer, favourite book,…

My brother or sister:Name, age, hobbies

Klára K.

David

Zuzana

Klára J.

Tomáš

František

Jan

Kristián

Žaneta

EliškaVladimír

Štěpánka

Jakub Č.

Jakub Ch.

Denisa

Štěpánka

Zuzana

Klára K.

I’d like to write you something about myself. My name is Susan. I am 11 years old. My birthday is in August. I like chocolate and sweets. My favourite singer is Ewa Farna.

And now I’d like to write you something about my family. Our family have four members. My mum is a doctor. Her name is Zdenka. She likes spinning. My father is an engineer. His name is Petr and he likes tennis. My sister's name is Hana. She is 7 years old. She goes to the first class of primary school. She has many diaries. We have a nice dog. We live in a house.

Please, write me something about yourself. Bye-bye, Susan

I’d like to write something about myself. My name is Stefanie and my home name is Stefi. I’m 12 years. My birthday is in September.

We are a family of four. My mum is Markéta and she is a secretary. She likes spinning. My dad is Honza and he is a plumber. He likes mushrooming.My sister is Andrea and she goes to kindergarten. She likes dolls. We live in a house. We have two cats and fish.

My hobbies are: playing table tennis, playing the guitar, dancing, and drawing. Write me something about you and your family, please.

Bye, bye Stefi

My name is Klára. What is your name? I am eleven. I like animals. My favourite colour is blue and yellow. My hobby is Art. I am from the village of Javorník in the Czech Republic.

My family : My mother‘s name is Eva. She is 34. Her favourite colour is orange and brown. She works with computers. My dad is Václav. He is 37 He is a bricklayer.

I´d like to learn something about you.

LOL, Klára K.

1) Which of us is older, Susan or Stefi?

2) Which of us doesn’t live in a town, Susan, Stefi or Klára?

3) Whose sister is younger, Susan´s or Stefi´s?

4) Which of us lives in a flat, Susan or Stefi?

5) What pets do we have?

• František is sitting in the middle.• He is sitting between Klára J. and Denisa. Klára J. has got dark

hair.• The boy standing behind František is Kristián.• Zuzana is the tall girl at the back.• Štěpánka is between Zuzana and Klára K. – all three of them are

standing at the back.• The girl standing in front of Klára K. is Žaneta.

1

• František is sitting in the middle.• He is sitting between Klára K. and Denisa. Klára K. has got dark hair.• The boy standing behind František is Kristián.• Zuzana is the tall girl at the back.• Štěpánka is between Zuzana and Klára J. – all three of them are

standing at the back.• The girl standing in front of Klára J. is Žaneta.

2

FrantišekDenisaKlára J.

Žaneta

Zuzana Kristián

Štěpánka

Klára K.

Our EnvironmentPresentations about the school, the city, the region etc.

Does every one stop eating meat for the whole duration of Lent?Does it hurt the girls when they are whipped by the boys?

Where do the girls get whipped?Who gets the Easter eggs, the boys or the girls?

Do Czech children believe in Santa Claus like Irish children?Can you tell us more about the Pardubice sign?

Who is MUDr. Emil Holub?What is the story of the castle in Slatinany?

What is a decanal church?Does anyone still live in the chateaux?

What kind of sport is floor ball? How do you play it?How long do lessons last in your school?

• Does every one stop eating meat for the whole duration of Lent?

• No, they don’t.

• Does it hurt the girls when they are whipped by the boys?

• Yes it does but only a little.

• Where do the girls get whipped?• They get whipped on the bottom and legs usually.

• Who gets the Easter eggs, the boys or the girls?• The boys do.

• What is Vltava?• Do teenagers in your country usually

have a mobile phone? At what age?• Why do you like spinning? So much

in your country?• What colour is your school uniform?• How many computers do you have

at school?

• Q1: What is Vltava?• A: The Vltava is the longest river of the CR. It is

also the river on which Prague is situated.• Q2: Do teenagers in your country usually

have a mobile phone? At what age?• A: Now we are 11/12 years old and nearly

everybody in our class has a mobile phone. It is good to be in touch with our parents and friends. Calling is a bit expensive but text messages are ok and so we send a lot of them.

1) We found the old Spanish traditions very interesting – how old are they, when did they originate?2) What exactly is there in the photo illustrating the Filandón?3) How many computers do you have in your school?4) What subjects do you study at school?5) How tall are the mountains in your region? How many metres is the highest mountain?

ad 5)How tall are the mountains in your region?

The tallest mountains in Asturias can be found in Picos de Europa, a mountain range that is a natural frontier between three different Spanish regions: Cantabria, León y Asturias. Torrecerredo, Naranjo de Bulnes or Peña Santa are some of the tallest mountains, over 2600 metres high.

Quiz Fun11.04.2009 19:30

From the twinblog - author: Brid Ui Uait• We have just had a great lesson's fun doing the CR

quizzes. We had two teams called Aftershock, made up of only boys and Dolly Sisters made up of only girls. Dolly Sisters won and were given prizes. Jordan from Aftershock got a prize too being the best boy in Aftershock. Thomas from Aftershock accused Dolly Sisters of cheating as they had some assistance from Mrs. Mayse, the Learning Support Assistant! We get our Easter holidays at lunchtime so Happy Easter everyone.

Season Greetings - AUTUMN• Students send their partners e-postcards

with best wishes.

Dear friend,

I am sending you greetings from Choceň. How are you? I am fine. I don’t like autumn because of the rain. What is the weather like in your country? It is rainy here. I am looking forward to working on the project.

Bye, Tom

Season Greetings - WINTER

Students send their partners postcards with best wishes.

Hi,We have the first snow. I like Christmas because I get presents but it is cold. I like winter sports. I like snowboarding and snow battles. We often have snow battles. I am looking forward to the new Year’s party. What is the weather like in Spain? Bye, David

Season greetings - SPRINGStudents send their partners spring postcards.

Dear David,I am sending you this postcard because the spring starts. There is a very cold weather in CR but sometimes the sun shines. I am looking forward to warm, sunny days.There are my dogs Ron and Dora in the picture. They are also waiting for sunny days because they love swimming in the lake.Do you have a pet at home? What about weather in your country? LOL, Clare J

Evaluation of the project

Students write / speak about why they found working on the project useful / interesting

1) What colours are there in the Spanish flag?

A. Red and white

B. Red and orange

C. Red and yellow

2) What colours are there in the Irish flag?

A. Green, yellow and white

B. Green, orange and white

C. Green, red and white

3) What colours are there in the Czech flag?

A. Blue, red and white

B. Blue, red and yellow

C. Blue, red and orange

What we have learned

about our

friends

What we have learned

about our

friends

The people in Spain have different interesting traditions. For example we haven‘t got the filandones, the amagüestu or the esfoyaza. We haven‘t got the sea but we have many ponds. Our school is very small compared to the Spanish school.

We haven‘t got wild bears in CZ.

Officially we don‘t celebrate Halloween.People don‘t often go to church in CR.We don‘t celebrate the Feast of St.Brigid.The Irish have got whisky while beer is very popular in CR.

• All three of us would like to continue working on the project. It was a pleasure to have the Spanish and Irish students as partners in the project because they taught us a lot about their countries and cultures. We hope that we will go on exchanging letters with them and that we will keep in touch in the future.

LOL.Clare,Denisa,Clare

REGIONS

TRADITIONAL FOOD

SCHOOLS

TRADITIONS AND FESTIVALS

TOW

NS

About Gymnázium Vysoké Mýto:- They have a beautiful old school building.- In the school there are two gyms. We have only got one.- The names of the Czech subjects are: English, History, Geography, Maths, Physics, Art, Biology, Civics, PE - and Music. We don’t have Physics, but French and religion instead.- They have to stay at school for lunch, but they don’t wear uniforms.- The most surprising thing for us is the fact that the Czech students have to change shoes at school.

About St. Brigid's College:- The Irish students wear a uniform but do not like it.- In the school there is one PC in every classroom and there are 4 ITC suites. We have only got one, but we are working on a second one.- We have learned about new sports for us, such as astro football or floor ball.- The students have classes in the afternoon from 1:10 pm to 3:10 pm, so they have lunch at school, like the Czechs.- St Brigid’s College held a High School Musical show. We are sure it was great fun.- The students from the three countries have similar summer holidays.- The Irish school offers a lot of different and interesting activities. 

- The Spanish and Irish schools are named after a saint or important person but the Czech school isn't. However, Gymnázium is situated in the square of Otmar Vaňorný, a former Gymnázium teacher and an important linguist and translator (e.g. he translated Illias and Ulisses from Greek into Czech) and  just now there is a discussion about calling the school after him.

- Both IES Menéndez Pidal and St.Brigid's College are big schools with a lot of students while Gymnázium Vysoké Mýto with its 350 students is a small school.

- The students of St.Brigid's College wear school uniforms but the students of the other two schools don't. Unlike the others, the Czech students can't wear "outside" shoes in the school - they have to change shoes when they come to school in the morning and leave them in the lockers.

- The Irish students can attend many afternoon classes and clubs - the choice is really big and the topics are interesting.

- The students at Brigid's College study a lot of subjects that we don't have, e.g. TD, HE or RE.

- Neither our Spanish nor our Czech friends have to wear a school uniform but we do.- Like our Czech friends, most of us stay in our school to eat our lunch at lunchtime. Our Spanish friends do not eat in school at lunchtime.

- We seem to have access to more I.C.T equipment in our school than either our Czech or Spanish friends.

- Like our Spanish friends but unlike our Czech friends, we study Religion at our school.

- L.L.W is taught in our school but not in Spain or the Czech Republic.

- After School clubs are more common in our school than in our friends’ schools in the Czech Republic or Spain.

- Our school building seems to be a lot more modern than our friends’ schools in Spain or the Czech Republic.

Information at www.gvmyto.cz

www.getting-closer.webnode.cz

Guest Book

• Date: 14.05.2009• From: Mercedes• Title: Thank you• I am the mother of one of the Spanish pupils and

I'd like to thank Mirka , Carmen and Brid for the great project in which our kids are involved. They're learning a lot and I'm sure they are also having a great time. So, congratulations to all (pupils and teachers). Greetings from Spain

Visits to www.GETTING CLOSER

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Quality Label (NSS CR – 06/04/2009)

Quality Label (NSS Spain – 19/05/2009)

Quality Label (NSS UK – 28/04/2009)

European Quality Label

3rd National Prize (NSS UK – 15/06/2009)

1st National Prize (NSS CR – 24/03/2010)