And we're off!

Here we go!

Our first steps around the world are put onto earth. Wednesday we started our project that will last for 248 days...

Kick off:

One of the nice things of living in a city like Diyarbakır is, you never know when the electricity decides to cooperate or not. And on Wednesday morning it decided to take a rest for a couple of hours...

All materials tested and ready to use. But computers, sound systems, photo copy machines, lights,... don't work without the magic of electricity.

Then we got lucky and the electricity started working again. We kicked off the day, a little later as planned, but with as much enthusiasm.


The teacher told the children a little about Europe and it's languages. The children knew already quite a lot of languages spoken in Europe. They didn't even forget their own languages. But when we asked them how many languages are spoken all over the world, they came up with answers as 1, 4, 100, ... 

After the information we told the children we were going to teach them a song in Japanese. And of course they were very enthusiastic to learn this song. We put on the music and danced and sang together on the song.

After this we told something about flags in Europe. As an example all European flags were hung in the hallway. The children got their own paper flag, and coloured it. The result was beautiful.


We did a lot of things on the European Day of Languages. The children and teachers really enjoyed it.

The founder of the school heard about our project 'Around the World in 248 Days' and decided to come and take a look to what we've been doing. The children demonstrated the dance they learnt and showed  him the posters and flags they made. (The children are secretly singing the song all day long in the hallway and the classroom).


The next step in the project will be the start of the 'World Citizen Ship lessons' and the 'Language Club' lessons. We're looking forward to these lessons cause the children showed already much interest.

Almost ready... for the kick off!

The countdown has started...

Tomorrow it's finally the day. Our kick off of the 'Around the world in 248 Days' project. The European Day of Languages. And yes we're very excited about it!

The window at the front door has gotten a lot of colour. We made a big picture of a world on it and all children around it holding hands. Around the children there is written in many languages 'Welcome'. Are you curious about the result? Come and take a lot tomorrow or one of the next days. The paintings will stay for a while cause we want to remind everybody of this big day...

And tomorrow it's the turn of the children. With their colours, scissors and glue, they will make the most beautiful hand craft. we prepared some stencils to make colourful paper puppets and the different flags are ready to be coloured. There are much more activities ready to get a day full of pleasure and fun.

We also put on our dancing shoes tomorrow. On the tones of Multi Cultural Music we'll begin to greet the day.

After this we'll learn how to say 'Hello' and 'How are you' in different languages.

Looking forward to tomorrow? We too!

For more information about the 'Around the World in 248 Day' project go to this page.

Around the World in 248 Days: A Multi Cultural Multi Lingual Project we'll release this year with the support of the European Council as the European Day of languages

Abstract                                   

Students from 4 – 6 years old

26^th  September 2012 – 31^st  May 2013

Context:

1.       English language Lessons

English lessons in school which includes working in the course books, cultural lessons and lessons in children’s culture in English Speaking countries all over the world.

2.       Multi Lingual Language Club

A club after school hours for children who want to learn more. There will be 5 languages and cultures briefly taught. English, French, German, Dutch and Italian. Lessons include information giving, story reading, playing of games, singing of songs, performing theatre and much more. The lessons are given in the focus language.

3.       World Citizenship Lessons

Lessons during school hours to all children. The children learn about different cultures all over the world through information giving, story reading, playing of games, singing of songs, performing dances and much more. The lessons are given in Turkish.

4.       Sports Lessons

During sports lessons the children learn dances, games and sports from all over the world, including Turkish and Kurdish folk dances. 

5.       Music Lessons

On special occasions like The European Day of Languages and New Year the children learn a non- Turkish song. They also learn a special multi cultural multi lingual song further in the school year.

Events

1.       Kick-Off

26^th September with songs, multi lingual greetings, language activities, dance movement and loads of handcraft activities.

2.       All year long

Learning of: different cultures all over the world, different habits and dances in the world, different languages, different songs and games, sports from other countries,  and simple language structures to help them start conversations in those languages.

Making of a language Portfolio: Children choose what materials to collect in the language portfolio. At the end of the year students present this portfolio to their parents.

3.       Olympic Day

A day full of sport and games from in and out the country. 

4.       The end-of-the-year show

Perform at the-end-of-the-year show:  multi cultural dances, songs in English and other languages taught, theatre play with the learnt language structures.

Do you like our Project? Please vote for us at :

http://edl.ecml.at/Events/EventsDatabase/tabid/1772/language/en-GB/Default.aspx