Whitehouse Common Primary -

Let's Go Cultural! - Letters from Y4 at WCPS to Y4 at CEP Antonio de Ulloa

The children in Y4 at CEP Antonio de Ulloa in Cartagena sent some letters to our Y4s at Whitehouse Common, delivered by their teachers Lola, Esperanza and Rocío when they visited.

Unfortunately there wasn't time to respond in length to the messages but some of the chidlren managed to write a postcard to say hello. Lockdown means that the postcards are not going to be seen in the near future so, rather than keep the children in Spain waiting, and to cheer them up, Señora Stevens has made a video of them that we've sent to their teacher who can share it with them via their online learning platform (like we use Showbie)

Here's the video: 

Hello song - CoVid19 version!

Lots of the partner teachers had a meeting via Zoom the other day and decided to sing the Hello! song for you all as a symbol of us all being in the same situation and wanting to support one another. 

You can read all about it here but here's the video! Do you recognise anyone? And watch out for people who managed to record themselves twice - or even three times!

Let's go cultural - Looking back to our project meeting in Cartagena.

As we reach the end of Day 2 of our project meeting at Whitehouse Common, it has been drawn to the attention of Señora Stevens that she never posted the videos of our first meeting that were promised a few weeks ago. 

So here is the story of the first project meeting in five videos! 

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Let's Go Cultural! - A 'welcoming' task

This week in assembly we talked about how we can welcome our Erasmus+ visitors to school in March (9th-13th) and here are two ways that children can make sure we offer the best Whitehouse Common welcome we can!

1. SINGING  We rehearsed our two songs and the children sounded really good. With a little more rehearsal, particularly of our special welcome song, we'll sound positively angelic, and I defy anyone NOT to be impressed!

The lyrics and a link to the music for our Welcome song is here. The Hello song has been shared previously but here's the karaoke version so the children can see if they really have it memorised!

2. DRAWING   We also talked about how the chidlren in Spain had welcomed Mrs Harding, Señora Stevens and all the other visitors with smiles and flag waving. The Language Leaders suggested that children might have a bit of time over half term to have a go at making some Welcome posters or flags that we could wave and display to make our visitors from Austria, Greece, Spain and Turkey feel welcome. Images to help are at the start of the post and here's how to say 'Welcome' in the various languages of our project! 

German (Austria) - Willkommen

Spain - Bienvenido

Greece - Καλώς Ορίσατε

Turkish - Hoş geldiniz

 [The project logo hasn't come out very well on the image at the top but it is on each post on this blog so there are better versions to copy!]

Let's go cultural - Clapping games at CEP Antonio de Ulloa

During the meeting in Cartagena, Señora Stevens was beckoned into a classroom where the children were desperate to share some clapping rhymes and games in Spanish. Some are traditional and some were adapted by the children. Señora Stevens was inspired and you may see and hear some of them in a class or playground near you!

Here's a video to inspire you! Which is your favourite?

Let's go cultural - A visit to La Casa del Folclore.

During the meeting in Cartagena, Mrs Harding and Señora Stevens along with the teachers from the other participating schools were taken to visit the Casa del Folclore (the House of Folklore) which is a special building where culture and folklore is celebrated and safeguarded for the future. They saw artefacts from Cartagena's history as well as typical decoration, historical pictures and agricultural implements. They were also treated to a demonstration of traditional music and dance.

 Hope you enjoy this snapshot of the visit!

Let's go cultural - Romans and Carthaginians

Let's Go Cultural! is all about sharing our own culture and learning about the culture of our partner schools, enjoying new experiences and celebrating our similarities and differences.

The Festival of the Romans and Carthaginians happens in Cartagena every September and commemorates the 2nd Punic Wars over 2200 years ago! (You can find out more here.)

During the meeting in Cartagena, the children of CEP Antonio de Ulloa shared their work on the festival and staged a procession for the visitors dressed as Romans and Carthaginians complete with music and drumming! 

Here's a video to give you a taste!

Let's go cultural - Welcome to Cartagena!

Here's a video of how the visiting teachers were welcomed at CEP Antonio de Ulloa on Day 1 of the first transnational project meeting for Let's Go Cultural! 

Our Spanish partners have set the bar high!

Whitehouse Common - we're the next hosts so we need to match and even better this! 

Thank you - Gracias - Danke - υχαpιστώ - Teşekkür ederiz

Thank you to all those who popped into the Think Tank last Tuesday during Parents' Evening to find out about our Erasmus+ project. It was lovely to meet parents and be able to share details of Let's Go Cultural! including plans for the upcoming visit of our partners to Whitehouse Common. It was also great to hear that children have been going home and talking about our partners in Spain, Greece, Turkey and Austria, and to share some videos from the first transnational meeting held in Cartagena. 

Apologies that the opportunity was not offered on Wednesday as well; unfortunately Señora Stevens is elsewhere on Wednesdays. In the following posts, you can see the videos that were shared. Additonally, should you want to ask questions and/or find out more, Señora Stevens is usually happy to talk to you before or after school on Tuesdays or Thursdays, or via a message to the school office. 

Let's go cultural - Finding out about Christmas in our partner countries.

In the pre-Christmas hullabaloo, 4MG wondered how Christmas was celebrated by their friends in our partner schools. So, armed with an iPad between two, they began a websearch.

Firstly they discovered that Christmas is not an official holiday in Turkey - we talked about why this was and decided that we would find out about a festival they do celebrate in Turkey later in the year. We found some photos of the Spring Festival and messages on trees that looked intriguing!

That left Austria, Greece and Spain. The children chose one of these and completed a fact file about celebrations in that country using https://www.whychristmas.com/cultures/
We tweeted some of our work, and then made a video of it all that you can see below.
We wish you and all our friends in Spain, Turkey, Greece and Austria, a very Happy New Year!

4MG and Señora Stevens, WCPS, UK