Rödebyskolan, Rödeby-Karlskrona, Sweden
Short-term exchange of groups of pupils
2nd-8th October 2022
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Sunday, 2nd October 2022
Teams from Croatia, Greece, Italy and Spain arrived in Sweden. They are ready for the following week's programme!
Monday, 3rd October 2022
The meeting of five countries at Rödebyskolan started with a welcoming musical programme by the pupils of the host school. The headmistress and the representative of the Karlskrona Municipality greeted the guests. The hosts guided the pupils and teachers from visiting countries for a tour of Rödebyskolan.
After the tour around the school, there were two engaging workshops for pupils: creative writing led by teachers Emma and Camilla and Story Jumper workshop, led by teacher Madeleine from the host school. In the first workshop, the pupils practised working with a fairy tale and creating a story's beginning, middle and end. To help, the pupils had to use a series of pictures. They worked in groups or pairs. They came up with a beginning that fitted the picture, after which the following picture was the continuation of the story. The pupils wrote a fairy tale using the pictures provided as support. In the second workshop, a very useful web 2.0 tool, Story Jumper was used to teach pupils to create interactive e-books. At the end of both workshops, pupils had to present their work. In both workshops, pupils increased their ability to create stories using a series of images (printed and digital), developed their fluency in oral and written narration and practised cooperating with each other.
In the afternoon, the participants went for a guided tour of Karlskrona. They found out that Karlskrona is spread over 30 islands, Trossö (the city centre) being the main one. The pupils and teachers visited Fredrikskyrkan church, the central building of the city, built in the 1690s, Amiralitetskyrkan, the statue of Rosenbom, made famous by the children's book of Selma Lagerlöf, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils and other sights on the island of Trossö. They learnt a lot about Karlskrona's rich history as Sweden's only baroque city, largest naval base and the headquarters of the Swedish Coast Guard. Significantly 1998, parts of the city were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Tuesday, 4th October 2022
On the second day of the programme at the host school, the pupils and teachers from the visiting countries visited the school library. The librarian presented them with the literature found there and the activities organised regularly, such as the reading corner. Special attention was given to the design of this interior: furniture, comfortable chairs, carpets, toys and other objects are there to make the children's stay at the school library pleasant.
After visiting the library, everybody enjoyed sports games at the school swimming pool.
Next, the pupils participated in theatre workshops, where they learnt how to dramatise some most famous stories for children: The Three Billy Goats (a famous Norwegian folk tale, The Frog Prince by Brothers Grimm, The Story of a Pancake, The Three Little Pigs. You can see the results below.
All the teams held presentations of their local project activities at school, pointing out examples of good practice.
In the theatre workshop, pupils worked in groups of five. Each group was assigned one famous story for children. The pupils created the dialogues of each tale and dramatised them using their hand-made puppets. The pupils worked in groups to encourage cooperation, reinforce social skills and respect pupils' abilities and language levels. All pupils contributed by reading and playing one of the characters or being narrators, creating puppets, making the scenery, and participating in the puppet theatre.
The programme finished with a walking tour of Rödeby. The participants learnt that Rödeby is a small place with approximately 3000 inhabitants and part of Karlskrona Municipality. The group visited the most important landmark, Rödeby Church, built in1877 at the exact location where a former medieval church from the 1200s stood.
Wednesday, 5th October 2022
The fourth day of the programme was dedicated to expanding knowledge about the history and culture of the host country. The pupils and teachers visited the Naval Museum of Karlskrona. On the guided tour, they learnt many important facts about the history of Sweden and Northern Europe. They explored the museum and the surrounding area overlooking the harbour entrance and the archipelago.
On this tour, the pupils and teachers saw a real submarine, which had to be placed there before the museum building started. The pupils enjoyed several interactive activities designed especially for children. They explored the underwater tunnel to the bottom of the Baltic Sea, where you can see a shipwreck. Indeed, this was an occasion for everybody to expand their knowledge about stories made by history.
In the evening there was a bowling competition for all the pupils.
Thursday , 6th October 2022
The fourth day of the programme was dedicated to famous Swedish writers. The pupils saw a presentation and checked their knowledge in a Kahoot quiz.
Swedish Fika is an integral part of Swedish culture - a custom of enjoying cake and coffee or tea with friends. Therefore, the host organised a cookery workshop, where each group prepared a cake according to a typical Swedish recipe.
Teacher Michael from the host school led a dubbing film scenes workshop, where the pupils expanded their knowledge about dramatisation.
At the coordinators' meeting, plans for the rest of our project were discussed, as well as monitoring and evaluation of activities behind us.
The afternoon was dedicated to fun, adventure and games at Boda Borg, a venue with quests, where the participants learnt about cooperation, teamwork, and problem solving and had fun.
Friday, 7th October 2022
The last day of the programme started with a motivating activity - Escape Room. The pupils could check their knowledge about legends, rhymes and riddles, including everything they learned this week.
In the Twinspace workshop, the pupils and teachers were made familiar with the new platform - ESEP, which is a place where we access eTwinning from the beginning of this school year.
The evaluation showed that all the learning, teaching and training goals had been successfully fulfilled. The week ended with a lovely farewell party with the staff of the host school.
Saturday, 8th October 2022
The pupils and teachers are leaving full of positive impressions: they learnt a lot, made new friends and expanded their horizons. They will remember the trip to Sweden forever!
