Italian days and eTwinning at Such Fun!
How to teach English to pupils from the age of 4? That is what to teacher trainees from the University of Turin (Italy), called Gloria Tarozzo en Lorenzo Salmaso, wanted to find out when they came to the Netherlands for a placement at Such Fun!
They hoped to improve their English
Such Fun! wanted to add another objective to their stay here and asked them to set up and run an eTwinning project with an Italian 2nd class of De Amicis primary school in Turin and a Dutch group 3/4 at the Krommen Hoek primary school in Rosmalen.
I love travelling by is the name of their project . They created portraits with the pupils from both classes where the Dutch children finished the other half of the half face the Italian children drew. Also they recorded the Dutch children as they described the different means of transport they designed.
The Italian pupils will use these for creating their favourite means of transport in Italy. In the central hall, there’s an eTwinning corner at Krommen Hoek. Also, the Such Fun! teachers helped creating an Italian pizza corner in the school, where all children have
been doing roleplays in English (and some Italian!)
For the 8-12 year old pupils at most of the 12 Such Fun! schools, Gloria and Lorenzo held some Italian days with the Such Fun! teachers: The 8-10 old pupils went on a scavenger hunt to discover similarities and differences between animal names in English and Italian.
In groups 7 and 8 children also did a scavenger hunt, but now to gain geographic and cultural knowledge about Italy. Food, fashion and football… many topics were covered during this hunt for information!
It has been a most interesting placement. With high impact, not only on both the Italian future teachers, but also on pupils throughout the project and their Dutch and English fellow students/teachers!
Lorenzo en Gloria both enjoyed the fabulous and hospitable homestays at a Rosmalian and Empelian family. And got to really experience Dutch family life, which they adored. Of course they were shocked by the fact the Dutch are having dinner at 6, but they truly enjoyed celebrating highlights like the arrival of Saint-Nick, birthdays and concerts with their family. Parting is such sweet sorrow, however pancakes, chocolate letters and a real Saint-Nick poem in English made it bearable… May many more eTwinning projects follow and invitations were exchanged in the hope we’ll see each other back during our holidays!
