Christmas time is the most important holiday celebrated in Estonia. The guest of honor in Christmas tradition is of course the Christmas tree. Trees were decorated in homes, schools and kindergartens, on public areas, in the parks and gardens.As Christmas tree is the most inspirational object in children drawings, paintings and handicrafts in December, we decided to make a calendar on this particular topic. Aruküla`s biggest and most important Christmas tree is growing behind the board of local municipality. With our students we take walks to the tree to observe it .We also have Christmas tree growing in Aruküla kindergarten. It`s decorated with Christmas lights and woolen elves made by children. Children just love the tree. The most famous Christmas tree in Estonia stands on Town Hall Square in Tallinn, in the middle of the magical Christmas Market. In December 2018 Tallinn was awarded the title of Best Christmas Market in Europe!

The students of Don Minzoni primary school wrote their Christmas wishes on beautiful postcards from Piacenza. Then they visited the local post office in order to post them and send their wishes to all the partners of our project … in Estonia, Romania, France and Greece. Happy new year to all!

On Wednesday 19th of December we visited the Greek National Opera in Foundation Stavros Niarchos where we watched an opera for kids with title “The Princess and the pea”. It was a unique experience for our students!

Before the winter vacation children, parents and teachers made a team work for the Outdoor education calendar with the most characteristic outdoor cultural education sites of the county’s cultural heritage. It was a new opportunity for them to be next to us working together and the children were very happy and interested. The students’ parents photographed all the places where we had the outdoor activities and after that some of pictures were chosen for each month of the next year 2019 .The children were excited to decorate each frame with specific elements to every season. After a lot of work and fun we managed to have six calendars for each class of the kindergarten. Furthermore, each group will personalize their calendar according to the outdoor activities they will participate in 2019.

Christmas cards made by comics… recycling all the students and teachers from Don Minzoni primary school wish Merry Christmas and Happy new year!

5 years old students and teachers of Ottolenghi preprimary school created this outdoor corner in order to send everybody their best wishes for Merry Christmas and happy 2019!!!

5 years old pupils were very happy and proud to discover the postcards received from Piacenza !!

Their teacher translated them and they could admire the different places of the city : churches, statue, squares…

It was very interesting because they started to learn some words in English last year and they can remember it !!!

It will be useful for the next Skype session in January.

The postcards has been read in the classroom then in our Erasmus corner !!

On Thursday, December 6th 2018, 30 children from the big group “Piticot” performed a math activity outdoor where they made gatherings and decreases using natural materials like : pine cones, nuts, chestnuts. Their teachers made a numerical scale with the help of children. All the materials used in the mathematical activity turned into Christmas ornaments with which we decorated the pine from the yard of the kindergarten. The children were very happy because Santa Claus can see by far the pine decorated and so he will find our kindergarten easier to bring them gifts.

After the meeting we had with a local newspaper reporter at our school, an article has been published on ” LIBERTA’ “, our local daily newspaper, to talk about our outdoor activities and our wonderful Erasmus Project ” LEARNING OUTside the classroom IN the EUROPEan nature”.
We have built 4 birdhouses, with recycled material ( plastic bottles…) and natural materials ( leaves, sticks, topsoil…)
Besurica preprimary school also had joined the Project ” ORTO IN CONDOTTA”, in collaboration with SLOW FOOD, International organization that promotes natural food, traditional cooking and livestock characteristic of the local ecosystem, participating in a competition organized by this Association. We were very happy to participate!

On 1^rst of December this year, we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the major political event of 1918: the completion of the Romanian national state, made by the union of the Romanian provinces with Romania. On this occasion, 50 students from our kindergarten, (5-6 years old) had a joint activity with 30 students (7-8 years old) from “Nicolae Balcescu” Secondary School. As part of this activity, the children made the map of the country by collage, decorated popular costumes, and with their songs and dances they expressed the joy of being Romanian.