VoiceS - Integrated competences for European Teachers. Giving voice(s) to professionalism and citizenship in school networking.
TuNeCa Catalonia
Serraparera School
School house
Our is a public school in a working class neighbourhood of Cerdanyola del Vallès. We are involved in a PELE project on Art and Crafts (levels 5 and 6), to develop the children’s ability to express themselves and to communicate in artistic and visual language, providing them with communicative competence. The school language is Catalan, although we have a linguistic plan adapted to the necessities of a plurilingual society; we want that they achieve communicative competences in Catalan and Spanish and also in English, that starts in Pre Primary education (4 years old). We organise every year, a cultural week with activities around the school as well as performances in which all the school community participates; for this course the topics were related to Languages and Maths.
Sant Jordi's Day
Sant Jordi's Day
The great spring festival is Sant Jordi, dedicated to Saint George, Catalonia’s patron saint. On this day both friends and lovers give each other gifts of books and roses.
Sant Jordi's Legend
There was a dragon attacking the kingdom. Scared to death, the inhabitants decided to give two lambs every day to the dragon to satisfy its hunger and prevent attack on the village. But when the animals became more demanding it was decided to sacrifice a person. One day the princess was chosen. On the way to the cave of the dragon, the princess found a knight called Jordi and he killed the dragon and rescued her. From the blood of the dragon was born a red rose which the knight handed to the princess. Therefore, in Catalonia, on 23rd of April, men give roses to women, like the knight who saved the princess. The women give the men a book, remembering the death and burial respectively of two great European literary personalities, Miguel de Cervantes and Shakespeare.
Sant Jordi in Serraparera School
Parents
Parents dress up as the characters of the legend. They display some books, roses and bookmarks in order to sell.
Love of reading
In order to increase the love of reading, students should read a book and make an Art and Crafts project related to it.
Storytelling
The 5th and 6th grade students prepare some stories in Art and Crafts classroom to tell to the younger ones. They tell the stories in English.
24 hours of reading
Our school participates in the 24 hours of reading in the City Council Square. This year the readings are dedicated to a famous Catalan writer called Joana Raspall.
Literacy Contest
All the school community participates in a Literacy contest (poems, stories, caligrama, comics and the like). On the 23rd of April afternoon, the winners get a prize (a certificate a rose and a book).
Literacy contest
Catalonia Traditional Dance Project
Our village organized a traditional dance project and students from 3rd grade participated with other schools.
Traditional dance
Patatuf
It is a Catalan traditional dance. Children should arrange in two concentric circles of couples faced: one member of the couple inside and the other outside.
How to dance the Patatuf?
- Clap three times and clap three more times with your partner,
- To the right a tap, to the front a tap.
- A left tap then a front tap.
- Then through the window give a little twirl.
- Then through the window give a little twirl.
- Then turn round.
- Change partners.
La Bolangera
It is a Catalan traditional Catalan dance.Children should arrange in one circle.
How to dance the Bolangera?
- Make a circle. One boy, one girl, and then gallop.
- Boys stand up clapping hands and girls move clockwise. First they pass in front of the first boy, and then behind the next. Until they arrive at their position.
- Girls stand up clapping hands and boys move anticlockwise. First they pass in front of the first girl, and then behind the next. Until they arrive to their position.
Live-connection
On Monday 2nd of June we made a live-connection with project partners in Turkey and the Netherlands and we sang and danced together. We sang the achosen multilingual song in our own language and we heard our partners from The Netherlands and Turkey. We all sang and danced "Happy" at the same time.
Live video stream
Multilingual song (Old MacDonald)
We found that we have a lot of songs in common, so we chose "Old MacDonald", and sang it in our own language. Then the children from 1st and 2nd grade can hear the known song in their own but also in another language. Because they knew the song, they could understand it.
La Granja d’en Jepet
A la granja d’en Jepet, hi trobem molts animals, /cada dia en Jepet en treu algun a passejar. (La vaca, l’ovella, el cavall, la gallina i el porc.)
"Happy" by Pharell Williams
Our students from 4th, 5th and 6th grades have learnt the lyrics of the song and we have devised a coreography for it.
"Happy" from Pharell Williams
"Happy" from Pharell Williams
Evaluation
Result of the evaluation
First of all we are going to comment how we have organized the evaluation. The first two items were developed by children from 1st 2nd and 3rd grades. The other items were developed by 4th 5th and 6th grade pupils. As it is reflected in the graphic, all the students enjoyed the participation in this enjoyable project. They have learnt the dances, the lyrics of the songs but the most important for them was the collaborative work with Turkey and the Netherlands. We specially value memory of our pupils’ faces when they saw their partners in the live-connection. They are looking forward the next project. Our school community was very proud of our children's work in this project.
As teachers we can tell that participating in this kind of projects with different countries encourages our motivation to carry on doing more international projects.