The students from Oulu, Finland, and the students from Janesville, US, have written letters to each other during this Spring. Because of the long distance and delivery time, students signed into Edmodo and continued chatting there.

For Finnish students being penpals with students from US it have been very exciting experience. They think that they will learn a lot of about America, different culture and people while chatting with their penpals on Edmodo and by using other Social Media Apps. Also Finnish students will learn English skills and they will understand why they study English – not only for school, but also for communicating. For us as teachers, it was nice to hear one student saying that maybe when she is old enough, she will fly to Janesville to meet her penpal. We teachers hope that she will make her dreams come true someday.

As a communicating tool Edmodo has been a great choice. It’s easy to use for students and also we teachers see all what students are writing to each other. After summer holiday students will continue collaborating with their penpals on Edmodo and also they will send each other paper letters and some small gifts. A few of them decided to send to their penpals euro coins, because they got dollars from them this Spring.

– Jaana, Petri and their 53 students –

Greetings from 53 eager students from Metsokangas Comprehensive School!

Jaana’s and Petri’s students on 4th Grade have built bridges by using marshmallows and tooth sticks. While building they studied by themselves information about triangle structures and how to build a strong bridge that won’t collapse. Many of them used their own mobile phones to find information on the Internet about building bridges.

After building a bridge or bridges students created the idea and the rules of the game. Then they planned and made the game boards including a river, the starting point, the finishing point and they made also some obstacles which would slow down the players’ race.

While a few students of all groups were working with the game board, other students planned and created panda-look-a-like pawns for every group member. As a material they used bigger marshmallows and marker pens. For pandas’ ears students used smaller marshmallows, but they had to invite, how to combine the head and the ears together. A few groups used the clue and other the tooth sticks. After getting ready with pawns some groups made also a dice by using one big marshmallow.

When every group had finalized their game boards students got a possibility to play their games in groups of four and five. For the last lesson of the school year, it was cool to see how motivated and eager all students were even on the last school day!

– Jaana, Petri and 53 students –

We went to the zoo on a spring trip. The weather was great and we had a wonderful day! There was no panda but at least one of his relatives. Can you find it in the pictures?

We have 6 more days of school left before summer holidays so have a great summer everyone!

Jalavapuisto school, class  3K, Finland

One aim of the Global Educational Community is that children, their parents and their teachers can learn from, and teach each other as they are welcomed into a community where all can become more competent as global citizens. I decided to welcome parents to join our panda project by creating a game night for the whole family.

I used a game platform by Smartfeet (http://www.smartfeet.fi/?lang=en) It’s an online platform for educational games. I used the map from our school’s surroundings. The map I got from Google earth. Gamification is an easy and motivating way to get children to learn things when they don’t even realize that learning is happening. 

The game night started by the students, sisters, brothers and parent coming to school. I gave brief instructions on how the game works and then the teams were off.

The story behind the game was:

Panda rescue 

Great news! Ähtäri zoo has finally been given the ok from China and are getting a panda. And not just one panda but an exceptional panda twins! All the hard work has payed off. But there now lies a huge problem! Ähtäri has been collecting money for only one panda and is now lacking the missing 1 000 000 $ for the second panda. You have to help! Otherwise the twins might be separated. Or even worse -there might be no pandas coming to Finland!

By completing exercises on the blue checkpoints in the map you will be able to collect money for the panda. One checkpoint exercise can give you up to 200 000 $. The team that collects the most money for the panda wins! Go -quickly!

Each blue marker on the map marked an exercise. I stayed at school controlling the game and scoring the exercises. 

In the exercises the teams had to work for example with math, gaining data, problem solving, teamwork, orienteering and drawing. The answers were sent straight to the teacher from the iPad or the mobile phone they were working with. Some selfie exercises were included.

All in all a fun night! The parents said they especially enjoyed working outside in the fresh air with the kids. And what’s best? We did save the panda twins!

Class 3K, Jalavapuisto school, Espoo, Finland

One day our teacher walked into class with a green blind and we were like WHAT? She said that we were going to be reporters and were going to produce our own panda news. The first thing was to do research and write the news. Nawal even wrote a song! Then we watched a film on how to use the Green Screen by Do Ink app and started working. It took a long time especially because there was so much other stuff going on but it’s finally ready. Enjoy!

Class 3K, Jalavapuisto school, Espoo, Finland