at school we celebrated Christmas. We performed the christmas story with the children, decorated christmastrees and had a christmasparty in our classes! We enjoyed it a lot! Enjoy our pictures!
In Belgium we celebrated
St. Nicholas! Here you can read what this means exactly! Who is he? Why do we
celebrate him?
Who is St. Nicholas?
Nicholas was born as Nicholas in the year 270 in Pataras (a region
in southern Turkey). Turkey was called Asia Minor. Nicholas was the only child
of wealthy parents, who died very young. The young Nicholas inherited
everything. The money he did not for himself, but he gave it to them to poor
people. When he was older, Nicholas was bishop of the city of Myra. Because of
his many good deeds was Nicholas on 6 December 342 canonized. From then on he
was called St. Nicholas. Over the centuries it has become Santa Claus.
Why
does Santa Claus look like a bishop? Saint
Nicholas was a bishop of the Greek Catholic Church in the place Myra in Asia
Minor (now Turkey). A bishop is the head of the Catholic Church in a particular
area.
Does Saint Nicholas come from Spain? How is
it that everyone thinks that Saint Nicholas comes from Spain? He's in his
lifetime probably never been there, but it could have something to do with
history. From 1568 to 1648 there was a war between Spain and the Netherlands. Yet
there was much trade between the two countries. The Dutch traded gold and
silver for spices and oranges . Spain at that time was a rich country where
many luxury items and goodies came from. So people thought that St. Nicholas
himself came there. Moreover, St. Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors, who
then of course with their boats the merchandise from Spain shrugged and thus
were protected by him.
Why
does Santa Claus ride on a fungus? The
Germanic god Wodan rode a big white horse. Therefore, In the old days,
important people also rode a big white horse. As St. Nicholas also was an
aristocratic person he also had a fungus
Why
do St. Nicholas and zwarte (black) Piet walk on the rooftops during the night? St.
Nicholas didn't want everybody to see that he brought gifts and goodies to the
children. So that is why he brought everything during the night. Zwarte Piet
climbs down the chimney into the living room. Also the god Wodan rode high in
the sky and at the end of the year he paid everybody a visit o reward or punish
them for their behavior. Perhaps there lies the origin of this use.
Where
do "zwarte piet" 's clothes come from? Zwarte
Piet wears the clothing of a 16th-century page. Pages were the personal
servants of important men like dukes and princes. So what zwarte piet is wearing
is actually a "pagepak" or a pages costume.
Why
does Piet always carrie a bag and a wand with him? Piet
often climbs down the chimney to bring the presents to the children. With his
wand he wipes the chimney so that the presents won't get dirty. The bag is very
practical to carry the presents and sweets.
Why
do children put a shoe with a sugar or carrot beside the chimney? For
centuries a shoe was used to be a shoe to receive special items. Because each
child has his or her own shoe, Piet can never go wrong with handing out the
gifts.
How
old is St. Nicholas anyway? St.
Nicholas was born in the year 270. So now, in 2012, he is 1744 years old!!
Why does St. Nicholas get help of a Zwarte (black) Piet in stead
of a white or yellow Piet? Because of all the years that zwarte Piet has been
climbing down chimneys he became black. So noone knows exactly what colour
zwarte piet originally had. But actually that doesn't matter anyway!! The
colour of your skin is not important!
Money raising for the UK charity at Bowburn Infants en Nursery school
The children at Bowburn Infants & Nursery School have raised money for the UK charity, Children in Need, by giving a donation for taking part in a non uniform day. Rudis enjoyed the special assembly and taking part in the afternoon activities!
Here are some of the photos from the very successful visit to Bowburn. Jolanta and Ilze wore their national costume to teach a traditional Latvian folk dance. Diana, Anna and Alex were from Dusseldorf and of course, you know Elly, Marcella and Eliane! My Brian Stobie, our local authority International Officer, Councillor Mac Williams and Councillor Jan Blakey and several members of Bowburn's governing body, joined the visitors and staff for a buffet lunch. You will see the photograph with everyone. Bowburn School's International School Council presented the visitors with a traditional Christmas cake to bring home for their own staff to share. All the visitors and Rudis, Benjy, Helmut, Theodore and Frida visited Dance City in Newcastle and took part in a dance session. They then visited Stowell Street which is Newcastle's Chinatown. Our children were very excited to meet all our visitors.
Frieda en Theodor preparing for their visit to Bowburn
Hello everybody
In october Frieda and Theodor prepared themselves to go to Bowburn. They were very excited to begin their next trip to all the comeniuscountries! Enjoy the pictures!
last week we went to the forest with all the children! We went by bus and Helmut went along of course! When we arrived at the forest we met professor Comenius. Earlier that week he payed us a visit in our classes. He showed us all the flags of the different comeniuscountries. He made a lot of notes and promissed us that he would study a lot to remember all the flags! When we saw him at the forest he told us that he didn't study and that he had a big problem. All the flags we gave him were broken, so the children had to make the puzzles! During our walk the children saw the nice colours of the leaves and we also saw a lot of different kinds of mushrooms. But we also found pictures of all the mascottes! Every time we found a pictur of a mascotte we learned a new song about that mascotte! Helmut enjoyed his time with the children in the woods! At the end of the walk the children succeeded in making all the puzzles and got a nice "thank you" gift! They all got a lolly, made of belgian chocolate! Take a look at the pictures en see for yourselves! lots of love!!!
I've added some links to our blog. Take a look at the left side of the blog and scroll down. There you will find the links of all the partnerschools. You can also see a link to a dictionary. If you click on this link you can start learning all kind of words in all the different languages! Be sure to take a look over there! Special thanks to Kristina for creating this dictionary!!
Rudis is enjoying a nice, colourful Autumn. Last week he took part in the cycling event in Priekuli. He together with approximately 100 children and 50 adults went on a bicycle trip of 6km, the youngest kids went 2km. After the trip all ate porridge with jam, took part in lottery - Rudis picked lucky number for one of the kids who won a bicycle, all children got soft drinks from sponsors.
News from Germany! Theodor celebrated Erntedankfest.
Hello everybody,
Here some pictures of us celebrating Erntedankfest. We thanked for the fruit and vegetables in our church. Theodore lay down the harvest, special about this was the celebration "SUKKOT". Sukkot, in german Laubhüttenfest is a jewish tradition. It remembers the jewish people leaving Egypt and living in the desert. For one week you live in a simple barn which is placed in a garden, a yard or a bacony. The barn has no roof, so the people reminded, that God watches over them.
the first month of this newschoolyear has almost passed. It's about time we start updating this blog again! This year is our second year of our comenius project. This year we will be paying attention to all kinds of festivities we are celebrating in each country. In september there was a fair in Diepenbeek (Belgium). Our dear Helmut went to this fair with one of the children of our class! Allysia had a lot of fun with Helmut!Look at the pictures and see for yourselves! Bye for now!
Rudis celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II
Hello everybody!
Rudis was very lucky to be with us during our special day to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. He joined in assembly where all the staff and children wore red, white and blue clothes. He also enjoyed our lunchtime street party!
Helmut is doing very good... the children missed Benji, but now helmut has really arrived they are glad to have hime and he has visited a castle with the sun group. Look at the pictures.
We have just spent a very busy International Week at Bowburn. As well as learning more about Latvia, Germany and Belgium, we have also had a visiting chef giving Healthy Eating workshops with foods from your countries. We also had a musician and artist working with the children sharing traditional songs from the North East of England. He helped the children write a song and then recorded them singing which he will put on a cd.
Benji arrived safely in Belgium! He is enjoying himself very much! When he first got there he gave the children the cookies they brought back from Latvia! The children loved the cookies! Finally the sun has been shining a few day in Belgium, so Benji has been playing outside with the belgian kids! He loved it! Here you can see some pictures where they are blowing bubbles! Benji has a lot of fun with the crazy children! We'll take good care of him!
from monday the 30th of april till friday the 4th of may several people of all partner school went to Latvia! They had a great time over there. Everybody was happy to see their own mascotte again. In Latvia they had a wonderful stay! First they did sightseeing at Riga and then everybody met in Cesis to take a look at the school in Priekuli! The Belgians were very surprised that the children were so quiet! And they were amazed because of all the space they have in Latvia! Our classrooms are a lot smaller! Our collegues won't forget about their trip any time soon! Enjoy some pictures of this nice trip! The Belgian people brought Rudy's cat back to Latvia. At one of the pictures you can see Rudy in his hotelroom! He was a bit tired of his trip from Belgium to Latvia. He loved being in the aeroplane!
it's spring time in Belgium, and allthough the weather hasn't been that good, we have been planting flowers and we went to a flowershop!Rudy joined us. We went there by bus. Afterwards we knitted flowers on a card in class! Enjoy our pictures!
One of the Children in Miss Lieve's class took Rudy home one day. It was Rudy's lucky day because he went out with Nelle to eat French fries! And since Rudy has been in Belgium he became addicted to this! So when he gets back, make sure you make him French fries once in a while!
Every Friday a group of our oldest children goes to the swimming pool where they get swimming lessons and get used to the water. Rudy could go with them one friday! He enjoyed it very much! You can see that when you look at the following pics!
the past few months Rudy stayed in Belgium. I'm gonna post a few messages with pictures of all kind of activities Rudy has done here! First you can see some pics of Rudy going to the doctor. He was weighed and measured, the doctor tested his ears, his eyes, looked in his throat, and so on! Rudy wasn't afraid of the doctor at all! He was a brave cat!! Enjoy the pictures!
