God Jul och Gott Nytt År!

We in Cronhjelmskolan, Larsmo, wish our American and Canadian friends in Greenville, Oregon City, West Dundee, Bowie and Quebec City a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2017!  

Here are some pictures from our last school day in 2016, December the 21st.

Sankta Lucia in Cronhjelmskolan, December the 13th

We have in school today, December the 13th, celebrated an old Christian feast day called Sankta Lucia (Saint Lucy's Day). This is a Scandinavian Lutheran tradition and the celebration comes from stories that were told by monks who brought Christianity to Scandinavia a long time ago. Lucia was a young Christian girl who was martyred and killed for her faith on the 13th of December 304 AD. She brought light in the midst of darkness.

We had a very solemn and beautiful candlelit Lucia procession this year at Cronhjelmskolan. There was a very special atmosphere in our gymnasium this morning when the lights were dimmed and Lucia, her handmaidens and star boys, all dressed in white, entered the gymnasium, singing the Lucia song and also other songs together.

Tradition has it that Lucia wears light in her hair. Our Lucia had a crown of candles in a wreath on her head. Each of her handmaidens carried a candle, too. The star boys carried stars on sticks and they had tall paper cones on their heads.

At school we also got gingerbread cookies and saffron-flavoured buns which we call Lussekatter. The buns are shaped like curled-up cats and they are decorated with raisin eyes.

Oregon City celebrating Finland's Independence Day.  We really went all out!

Oregon City was getting ready to celebrate Finland's Independence Day on December 6th when we decided that we needed to challenge our friends to a Mannequin Challenge. We did our challenge in one take.  We have a blast. We are excited to do more mannequin challenges with our other Bridging Culture Groups.  Just you wait!

Mannequin Challenge from Cronhjelmskolan in Finland

LOTS OF GREETINGS TO OUR AMERICAN FRIENDS!

A newspaper article in Swedish about our global collaboration

This article about our SMART collaboration project was recently in one of the local papers here in Larsmo! It's written in Swedish, because in Larsmo most people speak Swedish as their mother tongue.

A winter picture of Cronhjelmskolan

We have wintry weather also in Larsmo, Finland! The temperature is a few degrees below zero (Celsius) and smaller roads are quite slippery, so everybody riding a bike or a moped to school needs to be careful.

Mannequin Challenges from Pennsylvania

Pictures Outside Our Windows

Here are pictures outside our classroom window!

Winter has finally arrived in Pennsylvania USA 12/9/2016

Finland celebrates its 99th birthday

Today has been a very special day in Cronhjelmskolan in Larsmo. We have celebrated our country's independence day which was December 6th. There was a big celebration for students and staff in our school's gymnasium. Since the Finnish flag is white with a blue cross on, the decorations were in blue and white.

Finland has now been independent for 99 years! Today's celebration contained glimpses from past and present and we sang of course our national anthem!

The program consisted of music, poems, a short theater performance, a short movie about Finland's history and then in the end we enjoyed traditional Finnish Christmas food!

West Dundee, Illinois

Let's Learn about Larsmo

Greetings from Illinois

Hello from Illinois from jabernethy

Thanksgiving

The Mighty Moose from Pennsylvania made some SMART amps to explain to our collaborators about Thanksgiving. We know that some of our friends celebrate it and some do not. If you have any questions, please post them in the questions below!

Finnish Swedish Heritage Day (Svenska dagen), November 6th

Today, the 6th of November, has been a special day for Finland and especially for the Swedish-speaking Finns (or Finland-Swedes as we are also called). The name of the day is Finnish Swedish Heritage Day and during this day we celebrate Finland's bilinguality.

About 5,5% of Finland's population is Swedish-speaking and we are part of this minority! Most Finland-Swedes live on the west coast and in southern Finland. Finland has two official languages: Finnish and Swedish.

Finland was between 1150 and 1809 (for almost 700 years) part of Sweden, so we share a long history with our neighboring country in the west. From 1809 to 1917 Finland was an autonomous part of the Russian Empire, but since 1917 Finland has been an independent republic!

Halloween in Pennsylvania

Do you celebrate Halloween in your state or country? These are some of our halloween costumes from Greenville, PA. (We had a little fun with green screen!)

Greetings from Finland!

Class 9E in Cronhjelmskolan in western Finland has made some SMART amp workspaces about their home country Finland. There are quite a few things that Finns are known for! Read and enjoy! :)

Greenville, PA, USA

Here are some SMART amps, 5th grade students, who call themselves the Mighty Moose, created from Greenville, Pennsylvania. Hope all of our collaborative partners enjoy them. :)

About this Project

Last summer. a group of educators met at the annual SMART Exemplary Educator Summit in Calgary Canada. We came up with the idea to bridge the cultures of our classrooms from different regions around the world, so that our students could get an up close and personal world view of other's world cultures. We plan to do this through social media, Skype, SMART products, traveling mascots, and other ideas the students may come up with along the way.

Follow our journey from Oregon to Chicago to Quebec to Pennsylvania to Maryland to Finland and back to Oregon!