And not a burden we must bear
Every year our students take part in bird house contest in Kaunas city and for several years in a row they have become the winners of the contest. This year hasn’t been an exception as well. (Craft teacher – Sigitas Venys)
Gabija Riaubaitė is a student from Kaunas Versvu Gymnasium (form 11c) and she has never attended the school because she has a serious disability. She learns at home. The girl is interested in nature and especially in insects. She has three stick-bugs in the glass terrarium, the beautiful butterflies come into life from the small cocoons in the glass jar which stands on the table. The girl takes photos of these small creatures because she has no possibility to go out to see nature. The whole world of this amazing girl is in her room, in her photos of the butterflies, stick-bugs… Gabija explores the plants and insects through the microscope and makes photo of these views. It is really hard for Gabija to hold the camera, to press the button, but she is so patient and persistent so she tries to beat all the difficulties and not to surrender to her disability.
At Kaunas Versvu Gymnasium students have a possibility to attend ecodesign workshop conducted by Art teacher Laneda Jatuleviciene on the regular basis.
Eco houses
Made from used boxes and natural materials: dried leaves, chestnuts, cones, decoupage napkins.
Puppies, kennels
Puppies from toilet paper rolls, kennels of used cardboard boxes, painted with acrylic paint.
Bottles
Used glass bottles, painted with acrylic paint, decorated with protective cloth shells, dried herbs, string, felted wool balls.
an eco-fashion
We have provided a retro style hat collection. The main material-wallpaper decorated with guilloch used to protect treles, paper cupcake forms, foam coating for floors, decorative feathers, plastic containers of food and so on. Dresses made from garbage bags. The collection was introdused to Kaunas city community at Kaunas Environmental Centre.
Students of 5-6 grades organized an exhibition of their works from natural and used materials at Kaunas Versvu Gymnasium. The exh
ibition was devoted to the Earth Day.
“Our Animals – In Our Hands“
The most beautiful celebrations are coming, so the students from 8i grade and their teacher Ieva Kriauciuniene have decided to pay some attention and their time for the homeless animals in the animal shelter “The Fifth Leg“. All students gave their money for the animals, they have bought about 100 kg dogs‘ food. 20th November the teacher and eight students visited the shelter. Now, there are 150 animals there. A lot of dogs met the students with their barking and happy yelping. The students walked with the dogs for several hours. Everyone here needs the attention – one dog should be outside at least for 45 minutes. Everyone was really tired, a little bit sad because the students had to leave the dogs there. However, they felt happy and proud that they could give some help and happiness for the animals. It is so good to do good works.
Christmas cards made by Kaunas Versvu Gymnasium studets were sent to project partners by snail mail. The cards were made from used materials. Cristmas cards exhibition was organised at gymnasium before Christmas 2015.
Kaunas Veršvų Gymnasium student council and the public Medical surveillance specialist J. Masteikienė organized various activities for International Water Day held on March 22nd, 2017. The billboard with useful information about the importance of water was prepared. The teachers were treated with water, flavored with lemon and mint. On classrooms doors water droplets were sticked where teachers and students wrote sayings and their thouts about water. 5th grade students had a test about water and the winners were rewarded with drinking bottles.
On January 19th, Judit Serrats, English teacher and coordinator of European Projects at La Miquela Secondary School, delivered a lecture on the Erasmus+ Project “Protecting the environment is an opportunity!Not a burden, we must bear” for postgraduate students of the CLIL postgraduate course titled “Bilingual Teaching Methodologies for the Language School Project”, placing a special emphasis on the importance of the use of English, as a working language for learning and disseminating the contents of such a project.
From 25th September to 1st October the 2nd meeting of the Erasmus + project 2015-2017 was held at Pestalozzi Radeberg. After the successful 1st meeting in April 2016 in Bescanó, Catalonia, Spain, this time we hosted 31 31 students and teachers from Finland, Lithuania, Spain and Turkey. For a week, the foreign students learned together with their German host children according to the project theme “Protecting the environment is an opportunity! Not a burden we must bear! ” („Umweltschutz ist eine Chance und keine Last, die wir tragen müssen“) at the Pestalozzi School and other interesting places.
On Monday we participated at the Kings’ Riverbank” in Dresden in the “International Day of the Rivers”, where we learned a lot of interesting things about the River Elbe and life in and around the water. The competition “Building a wall against the flood with sandbags” made us sweat easily.
==> Watch the film clip in the category “Videos” ==>
On Monday afternoon the official welcome ceremony took place. Pupils dressed up in costumes as “August the Strong” and “Countess Cosel” led through the programme and were also the most wanted photo models during the school yard festival.
“Overcoming differences and finding friends for life through languages” was the motto of this year’s “International Day of Languages”. Each guest school had its own stall with products typical for their country. Lithuanian cheese (Lietuviškas varškės sūris) with delicious honey, stuffed vine leaves from Turkey, the Catalan sausage specialty Butifarra and freshly made birch leaf tea from Finland attracted many curious people.
Tuesday started with attending school lessons during which the guest children gained insights into German school life. Our teachers had prepared lessons in English especially for our guests! After that we showed the presentations by all participating countries on the subject of “Environmental Problems in the Regions”, in English of course! There was also a logo contest within the framework of the Erasmus + project. A winner logo was determined, which ultimately came from Finland. The last point of the program on this day was – what else could you have been expected? – an English guided city tour in Dresden where we visited among other sights the Frauenkirche. We admired the Fürstenzug and made a stop in the Dresden Zwinger.
On Wednesday we got to know the sewage treatment plant in Dresden Kaditz, one of the most modern in Europe. During the tour we learned a lot of interesting facts about the precious resource of water. In the student laboratory “Aquamundi” we were able to carry out a variety of experiments. Also on this project day our common language was English. Before we went back to Radeberg in the evening we still had some free time for shopping in the Elbepark Dresden.
On Thursday the visited the opencast coal mine Welzow-Süd. We got an unforgettable insight into the mining of lignite during this very interesting tour into the open pit. On the way back we made a stopover at Lake Senftenberg and saw how to recultivate land after the completion of mining and use it for recreation.
In the evening we celebrated a Farewell Party together with our guests, parents and teachers at school. The Golden Pigeon, a symbol of our project was handed over to Finland. In addition our thanks went to all families who lovingly cared for their host children or contributed otherwise to the success of this week.
On the last day of this project week we showed our guests the beauty of our homeland on a nature excursion to Saxon Switzerland in fabulous autumn weather. First we went by train along the Elbe River Valley. Then we crossed the stream by ferry and hiked from the village Wehlen to the Bastei and back. On our tour a guide from the National Park Service taught us how this unique landscape was created by water millions of years ago.
The last evening and also Saturday until the departure was free for leisure activities with the host families. And they came up with some more highlights: bowling with the families, a visit to the famous Semper Opera, a steamboat trip on the River Elbe or a rock climbing tour in Saxon Switzerland.
On Saturday there was, as always at our meetings, the tearful farewell to our guest children. This week saw many new friendships making it even harder to say goodbye.
The next Erasmus School Partnership meeting will take place in February 2017 in Veikkola – Finland probably at -25 ° C J