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💻Hello, Finland! Our first online meeting

And the big day finally arrived!

Our 4th, 5th and 6th Primary pupils in Arenales had their first online meeting with their new partners from Ojanperän koulu, Finland.

There was excitement — and maybe a few nerves! — as we connected our classrooms for the first time and finally met the people who will be sharing our Time Travellers adventure with us.

🌍 Getting our adventure started

The meeting began with Alycia, our JDO coach, who introduced herself and told us a little more about JDO and the Time Travellers project we are going to work on together.

We also met Alina, the Finnish teacher who will be working with us throughout this adventure.

And then it was the pupils' turn!

🎡 Spin the wheel!

Alycia had prepared a question wheel to help everyone get to know each other.

One by one, the wheel gave us different topics to talk about: our goals, our towns, the things we like and other little details about ourselves.

And the best part? Everyone took part! 🙌

Our pupils listened, answered questions and shared information about themselves in English. It was a fun and relaxed way to break the ice and, most importantly, to use English for what languages are really for: communicating with other people.

It was a great first meeting and a lovely way to start getting to know the people on the other side of the screen.

This was only our first step. There is still a lot to discover, share and learn together as we travel through time with our Finnish partners.

Our Time Travellers adventure is officially underway! ⏳🌍

To be continued…

#JDO #CRAAlciares

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We have partners! Hello, Finland!

Our Connecting Classrooms adventure has officially begun… and we now know who our international partners are!

This school year, our 4th, 5th and 6th Primary pupils in Arenales have been paired with pupils from Ojanperän koulu, a school in Liminka, Finland.

Spain and Finland may be far apart on the map, but over the next few months our classrooms are going to become much closer!

Together, we will take part in a JDO collaborative project called Time Travellers. ⏰🌍

⏳ What is Time Travellers?

Have people always measured time in the same way? How did people tell the time before clocks existed? And… is it the same time in Spain and Finland?

These are some of the ideas we will explore during our project.

Time Travellers will take our pupils on a journey through timekeeping, the history of measuring time and time zones. But the most important part is that we will not be travelling alone!

Our pupils will work with their Finnish partners, sharing ideas, comparing what they discover and learning together.

And, once again, English will be our bridge. 🌉

It will allow two groups of children from different countries, with different languages and different everyday lives, to communicate and work towards a common goal.

Our Finnish partners

We are really looking forward to getting to know the pupils from Ojanperän koulu: their school, their town, their country and, of course, the children themselves!

There are lots of things we would like to know about them… and we are sure they have plenty of questions for us too!

Luckily, we won't have to wait long to meet them…

Next stop: our first online meeting! 💻🇪🇸🤝🇫🇮

#JDO #CRAAlciares

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🌍 Connecting Classrooms: A new international adventure begins!

This school year, our 4th, 5th and 6th Primary pupils in Arenales are starting a new international learning adventure with the JDO Foundation.

JDO is a non-profit educational foundation that helps schools around the world connect and collaborate with each other, giving pupils the opportunity to learn beyond the walls of their own classroom.

For us, taking part in JDO means opening a little window to the world. 🌍

Our pupils will have the chance to meet children from another country, communicate with them, exchange ideas and work together on a collaborative project.

And there is something particularly exciting about this experience: English becomes real.

It is no longer only the language we practise in our English lessons. It becomes the language our pupils need to introduce themselves, ask questions, understand others, express their ideas and communicate with children who do not speak their language.

At the same time, this experience will help us learn about other cultures and ways of life, develop curiosity about the world and discover how much we can learn from people who live far away from us.

✈️ Where will this adventure take us?

We already know which country and school we will be collaborating with this year… but we will tell you all about that in our next post! 😉

For now, we are very excited to begin this new experience and to share it with you here, in Connecting Classrooms.

Our classroom is in Arenales, but our learning can take us anywhere. 🌍

#JDO #CRAAlciares