Finnish language and TV6...

First, we heared more Finnish music. Children liked Finnish pop singer Jenni Vartiainen but hated young teen pop star Robin, who is very famous among young children and teens in Finland.

Jenni Vartiainen - Suru on kunniavieras

Robin - Frontside Ollie

Today we learned some Finnish words through a website called Digital dialects - Finnish language. The website is a really good place to learn some Finnish words and phrases because you can hear recordings of the words.

Also, TV 6 was with us today, interviewing and filming us, both teachers and students, for local news! To read the news, click here.

Back to business!

We had a loooong weekend because of easter and last Thursday's snow day. Today we had a look at traditional Finnish days like Shrove Tuesday and Christmas. We also started to go through the most famous Finnish musicians and listened songs of theirs.

Here are some of the songs we listened:

Jean Sibelius - Finlandia
Hurriganes - Get On
Rauli "Badding" Somerjoki - Paratiisi
Rölli - Itsensäpelottamislaulu
Jari Sillanpää - Satulinna
Nightwish - Nemo
Darude - Sandstorm
Lauri Tähkä ja Elonkerjuu - Pauhaava sydän

While listening hard heavy metal band, Rotten Sound. Not so pretty music.

Presentations and gym.

At the first lesson the children presented their findings about Finnish towns. The other hour flew by at gym, where children had some games and floorball. Those were good exercise for them! We'll definitely play floorball again!

Children were fast! It was difficult to get clear photos.

Finnish towns.

Children searched information about Finnish towns via internet. Eight towns, Helsinki, Turku, Tampere, Jyväskylä, Kuopio, Vaasa, Oulu and Kuusamo were under investigation. It was a bit hard for children to read text where Finnish words were included, but children were persistent and coped with the task very well! We had no time to present the results but we'll do it tomorrow.

Movie time.

The second week has started! Today we watched the movie Heinähattu ja Vilttitossu (Hayflower and Quiltshoe) and children liked it a lot. After the movie they had to answer to some questions:

1. What is similar or different in Finnish children's lives compared to yours?

    "They have different candy bars." 
    "Start a new school year in the fall just like 
     us."
    "They have teddy bears and we don't speak
     Finnish."
    "They have weird police cars."


2. How did Hayflower feel about going to school?

    "Sad for Quiltshoe."
    "I think she felt worried."
    "It's hard."
    "She's worried because her sister is going to be lonely."


3. Who was your favourite character in the movie? Why?

    "The dad because he kept thinking the potatoes." 
    "My favourite character is Quiltshoe because she is funny and cheats!"
    "Quiltshoe because she is always MAD."
    "I like Hayflower because she fought."
    "My favourite character is the fat lady because she gets stuck in the window."
    "The dad because he likes science and he's Finnish."
    "The police because they are silly."
    "Hayflower because she is just like me but I don't run away or rip up books."


4. How many stars (1-5) would you give to the movie?

     "Will give the movie 4 stars."
     "5 stars."
     "2 stars."
     "I loved that movie. 5 stars."

Exciting Kalevala and awesome cookie puddings!

Our lessons today were 2 x 45 minutes, the class had a whole schoolday scheduled like Finnish schoolday. Kids really liked it! (Well, of course, they had more recess time...) One theme we told about was the school system in Finland and we watched a video about it. Another theme was Kalevala, Finland's national epic. We read through the story and children kept it interesting and exciting.

We had a birthday girl today - Kiia (Kiana)! Her mother had brought some delicious cookie puddings and they were super good!

The Moomins!

Finnish art and literature were our themes today. We showed the most famous Finnish paintings and told about Finnish writers - even though we had to improvise because technology failed again... (We have had some problems with a memory stick.) But no worries, everything went okay! 

We also watched one episode of The Moomins, famous Finnish children's animation series. It was fun!