Winter in Tapa

15.02.2011 morning - minus 29 degrees Celsius, sunshine!
10.12.2010 morning - storm Monica, 40 cm snow by one night.

A little picture gallery about our winter time.

Estonian team

Comenius group is smarter now!

Last week the environment specialist of Tapa Parish, Krista Pukk, visited us at school. It was necessary to find out more about current environmental problems in our town and also about the tasks/daily job of the environment specialists and how they tackle the problems.

So, the issue we discussed in more detail was. She asked us about the variety of dustbins around our houses/homes and told us about the redemption centers in our town. We talked about waste management firms and the nearest landfills, also about the waste scheme that is drawn up for Tapa parish.

Then we went on talking discussing burning trash on our own and we realized that it is quite dangerous even if you do it in a fireplace or furnace because it may cause poisonous gases to.

In addition, she told us about wells and how often affect the quality of groundwater or cause it to disappear form. Fortunately, we don’t have these kinds of problems in our parish yet.

Pukk then told us about regular monitoring that is conducted  in the factories and companies that produce a lot of industrial waste. Surveillance is also conducted on the river Valgejõgi and many other natural objects.

During Pukk’s visit we got a lot of information about the circumstances of our surroundings. We hope that we can do something ourselves to help solve some of the problems or at least take notice of them. Special thanks to Krista Pukk.

Eco-Experiments Romania

Our children tried to combine ecology with other subjects taught in school, so they managed to do some physics experiments using recycling materials. They demonstrated some physics laws (Archimede's law, Paschal's law, light reflection, driving force) using plastic bottles, cans, disposable cups, cardboards and other materials. Watch then!

Christmas Workshops Romania

1. Christmas Cards
Our students started their work with some Christmas Cards: they used a few recycling coloured paper and a lot of creative imagination. Just watch!

2. Christmas Decorations

They followed "the Christmas Spirit" and they made lots of eco-decorations: snowmen from paper and polystyrene, Christmas balls from newspapers, many types of stars and other tiny toys, Christmas trees and garlands, all of then made of ecological materials. Click here!

3. Contest: The most beautiful classroom!

In the end, the students participated in a contest where the most beautiful decorated classrooms in school received prizes. They did their best to win. Look!

Chimney Roses

We made chimney roses from old carton egg boxes and half - burnet candles. They could be given to your friends as Christmas presents for litting fire. Making them is really funny and relaxing.
Just have some time and follow.

Welcome to Spain in February 2011

Hi you lot, we are very proud of having you as our guests in Spain next february. We hope we can treat you all as well as we have been treated here, and you enjoy our country as much as we have enjoyed Estonia.

The Spanish team.

Comenius broadens the mind

Having joined the Comenius project, our school was responsible for hosting guests from five different countries – we had young people from Spain, Portugal, Italy, Romania and Turkey. It was all very interesting while they were here, because it demanded a great deal of responsibility from us, it made us more self-confident, also it was a breath of fresh air  in our everyday life, and what is most important – it gave us a lot new friends.

Why did they come here? In addition to raising awareness about the environment, the two-year project called Immediate Surroundings also gives the students a chance to meet new people, practice their language skills and find out more about other cultures. For this reason, during these two years trips will be organized to all the above-mentioned countries. All participants in the project in our school (there are around 30 of them) will not go on every trip – the students are divided between the trips. Visiting Estonia was the first trip in the project. We took our guests to beautiful places, showed them the nature and culture of Estonia, and the life in our little hometown Tapa.

The students from abroad began to arrive on October 16th and 17th. While some of them were yet to come, those who had already arrived stayed in a hotel in Tallinn. The last guests arrived on Monday evening, October 18th. On Monday morning four or five of us went to Tallinn to welcome them and so our program started. The excursion in Tallinn included a bicycle trip through the town. Because the subject of the project is environmental awareness, we drove through the district of old factory buildings. Of course we also walked in the Old Town and enjoyed the views of the town.

In the evening we came to Tapa where the hosting families were waiting for the guests – about a half of the children involved in the project hosted someone in their home. Although it was rainy, the welcome was cordial and everyone became friends easily.

The next day, after spending some classes together with the guests and introducing the foreign partners to the whole school, we went to Lehtse school and then to Albu school. These two places are connected because they are both manor schools and part of our project also deals with economic renovation. After visiting Albu manor school we went to the museum of Tammsaare, one of the best known writers in Estonia, where we had a thorough tour.

We started Wednesday with hiking in Viru bog, which is an impressive example of the unique nature of Estonia. After that we spent some time in Sagadi manor where we also had an interesting program.

On Thursday our teachers held workshops where students had a chance to make something for themselves as a souvenir.

In the evening our traditional Playbox took place and youngsters had fun watching this because all performances of our classes were excellent.

In the evening there was also a banquet for all the parents of the hosting students, all pupils, guests and teachers who had taken part of the project. Everybody was thanked – the school board, people who had helped us arrange all this and of course those who had taken on themselves the tiresome but very special task to host a foreigner. After the banquet all students were invited to come to our school disco.

In the next morning we accompanied the guests to the train station to leave for Tallinn. As we had assumed, saying goodbye was emotional for everyone. Really, the week passed quickly and leaving new friends was hard because they live so far away. Now we can of course communicate over the Internet but it is not the same thing. These students also became close with their host families. In some cases there was of course a small language barrier which was compensated with generosity and warm smiles. Some children were older, some were younger (ranging from age 14 to 18) and older students were more experienced in the English language, but this week was very good for everybody’s skills in speaking English.

Children really liked it here, they did not want to leave so soon. Now we just have to accomplish our new errands and tasks in the project and we hope very-very much that on our trips in the future we’ll meet these friendly young people again. We will be waiting for them here too – with warm hearts in this cold land.

Mai-Liis Volmar
Anna Kivisild

More photos about this event.