Hälsningar från Finland! Hello from Finland! :)

Here Finnish students in Larsmo are looking at some amazing SMART amp workspaces that have been shared with us across the Atlantic. They are about favorite books. Thank you sixth-graders in Gardiner Middle School in Oregon City! You have done a great job in SMART amp!

Our collaboration made our news!

Our class was spotlighted in a few newspapers around Portland, Oregon. We were able to share our blog and some of our smart amp workspaces. We definitely had fun talking about our Bridging Cultures Collaboration Project and our upcoming Hackathon. See our news article and pictures!  Click the link to read.

Kids Master Technology, Share it with the World!

TREVLIG VÄNDAG! Happy Valentine's Day!

Class 7D in Cronhjelmskolan in Larsmo is writing Happy Valentine's Day greetings in SMART amp to their American friends! Have an amazing day across the Atlantic!

Lots of hugs from Finland!

A presentation of Cronhjelmskolan

The English conversation group in the 8th grade has made a SMART Notebook presentation about their school Cronhjelmskolan. Here are some of the pages from that presentation.

Cronhjelmskolan is located in Larsmo in western Finland, about 500 km from Helsinki.

Groundhog Day

The United States has a very odd tradition to determine when spring will begin. We use a groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil who lives in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to tell us. Phil the groundhog lives approximately 100 miles from our little town of Greenville.

Punxatawney Phil even has his own website:  http://www.groundhog.org/

Here are some SMARTamps we made to teach you a little more about February 2, Groundhog Day.

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.