We're back tooooo!!!

Hi friends, meet the Italian partners!

IV A - From the left, standing in the back row: Chiara Rossetti, Sofia Vergine, Alessia Carruba, Roberto Fazza, Giulia Battistutta, Giulia Carugati.

From the left on their knees: Lisa Gorla, Sara Mognoni, Ludovica Uggeri, Giulia Alberio, Anna Sozzi.

V A - From the left: Daniela Pietrobon, Cecilia Podda, Chiara Locatelli, Silvia Bosetti, Laura Ronzoni, Roberta Pontoriero.

Plan for 2nd term of 2009

1. General introduction of students (getting to know each other)
students exchange first e-mails with the general details about themselves (they write about their families, hobbies, favourite music etc), they continue to exchange emails freely throughout whole semester.

2. Introduction of schools in Plock and Saronno
students prepare an article about their schools to be published on blog by both sides. In the article they should provide following details:
- the school’s name and brief history (about the patron, date of foundation etc)
- the school’s location (they can prepare maps to be published on the blog)
- description of school’s neighbourhood (they should take some photos of the school’s building and its surroundings)
- description plus pictures of the school inside
- description of the school’s ‘life’ - they can write about their timetables, favourite subjects, how they spend their time at school etc.

For this article they can freely add their own ideas about what they would like to show to their colleagues from the other school. The main theme of this part should circle around MY SCHOOL.

3. Typical Polish/Italian teenager
Students prepare another article to be published on blog. This time they ought to describe a typical teenager from both countries. They can write about their favourite free time activities, music, films, actors, hobbies, interests, ideas for future - all based on their own lives and experiences.

4. Teaching Polish / Italian
Students prepare a short film where they teach some basic Polish and Italian phrases to be exchanged by post. Then the other side writes a short article about their experience in learning Polish/Italian for the blog.

5. Saying goodbye for the summer
Students prepare a goodbye card wishing their friends a warm and good summer, the cards are exchanged by post

We're baaaaaaack ;oD

Hello Dear Friends,
From the new semester of 2009 we decided to open a new cooperation plan between our schools. The semester is short that is why our plan is not as complicated and long as the previous ones. We shall post it here soon. At the moment we have managed to put our students in couples. On the Polish side there would be 16 students who take part in the PenPal Project in 2009, they are all from class 1a from Gimnazjum no 8. The couples are as follows:

• Dominika Sosnowska - Lisa Gorla
• Klaudia Jaroszewska - Silvia Bosetti
• Patrycja Wiśniewska - Ambra Figini
• Justyna Bis - Roberto Fazza
• Mateusz Niemiec - Chiara Rossetti
• Kinga Gruszczyńska - Alessia Carruba
• Paulina Czernicka - Sofia Vergine
• Ewa Marciniak - Giulia Carugati
• Kasia Jachowicz - Chiara Locatelli
• Karolina Fortuna - Cecilia Podda & Roberta Pontoriero
• Marta Dziarnowska - Giulia Alberio
• Justyna Szatkowska - Daniela Pietrobon
• Karolina Sikorska - Giulia Battistuta
• Zuzanna Osiecka - Ludovica Uggeri
• Adrianna Budziło - Anna Sozzi
• Katarzyna Feliciak - Laura Ronzoni
• Maciej Lis - Sara Mognoni

There may be small changes in the couples as we still have students who would like to participate in the project, but for the time being the list is as above. We shall be informing you about our cooperation plans and the progress here on the blog. For the time being we are saying goodbye and see you soon ;o)

The Break

Our cooperation has been temporarily suspended... hope to see you soon!!!

Celebration of Festivals in Italy

Dear Polish friends, this part of the blog is dedicated to record the way we celebrate our traditional festivals in Italy.

8th December
The Immaculate Conception is, according to Roman Catholic dogma the conception of Mary, the mother of Jesus without any stain of original sin, in her mother's womb: the dogma thus says that, from the first moment of her existence, she was preserved by God from the lack of sanctifying grace that afflicts mankind, and that she was instead filled with divine grace. It is further believed that she lived a life completely free from sin.
On 8th December we’re off school. It is the day when families decorate christmas trees,or set up the cribs.

Christmas

Christmas is an annual holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus.In Italy we also follow the modern traditions that include the display of Nativity scenes, Holly and Christmas trees, the exchange of gifts and cards, and the arrival of Father Christmas or Santa Claus on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning.However there are 2 traditions that are truly Italian.The first is the crib.The second is the “Panettone”.

Panettone
Panettone (Milanese: panetton classical orthography, panetùn other orthography) is a typical bread of Milan, usually prepared and enjoyed for Christmas and New Year around Italy, and one of the symbols of the city.
It has a cupola shape which extends from a cylindrical base and is usually about 12-15 cm high for a 1 kg panettone. It is made during a long process which involves the curing of the dough.The process alone takes several days, giving the cake its distinctive fluffy characteristics. It contains candied orange and lemon zest, as well as raisins, which are added dry and not soaked. Many other variations are available such as plain or with chocolate . It is served in slices, vertically cut, accompanied with sweet hot beverages or a sweet wine, such as Asti. In some regions of Italy, it is served with Crema di Mascarpone, a cream made from mascarpone cheese, eggs, and typically a sweet liqueur such as Amaretto; if mascarpone cheese is unavailable, zabaglione is sometimes used as a substitute to Crema di Mascarpone.


Epiphany

Epiphany (Greek: επιφάνεια, "appearance" or "manifestation") is a Christian feast intended to celebrate the "shining forth" or revelation of God to mankind in human form, in the person of Jesus. The feast is also called Twelfth Day, as it is the twelfth day after Christmas, or Three Kings Day.The date of the feast was very early fixed on January 6.In Italy Epiphany commemorates the coming of the Magi. La Befana is a character in Italian folklore, similar to Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus. The character may have originated in Rome, then spread as a tradition to peninsular Italy.
Her name derives from the festival of Epiphany, and she visits all the children of Italy on the eve of 6 January to fill their socks with candy if they are good or a lump of coal if they are bad. Being a good housekeeper, many say she will sweep the floor before she leaves. The child's family typically leaves a small glass of wine and a plate with a few morsels of food, often regional or local, for Befana.
She is usually portrayed as an old lady riding a broomstick through the air wearing a black shawl and is covered in soot because she enters the children's houses through the chimney. She is often smiling and carries a bag or hamper filled with candy, gifts, or both.

( written by Cristina Brambilla, Elisa Morosi, Gaia Orlandi )

LETS TALK ABOUT

"MID AUGUST HOLIDAYS!!!!!!"

Mid August holidays is a typical Italian fest-day!
The story of this typical day started under the Roman empire when the population celebrated the harvest of cereals.
This festivity was too much important for all the people that the church decided to associate it to the assumption of the Virgin Mary.
Mid August become a fest day and the people celebrate it on the 15th of August…
It is a tradition that every 15th of August all the Italian families organize a lot of parties,pic-nics or trips to the country to stay together.
In Mid august holidays nobody goes to work ‘cause it is a national holiday…
In summer,and expecially,in this occasion we live a lot of pleasant experiences!!!!!....we eat water melon,we see a lot of romantic fireworks and sometimes we go to the Como lake to enjoy ourselves!!!
In Palermo,in Sassari and in Tivoli there are some important processions where the statue of the Virgin Mary is lead into the streets of cities and villages.

THIS IS A BEAUTIFUL PHOTO OF THE ROMANTIC FIREWORKS THAT WE SAW LAST SUMMER….!!!

THIS IS THE ONE OF THE COAST OF SARDINIA
ON THE 15TH OF AUGUST TWO YEARS AGO…THE WEATHER WAS FANTASTIC!!

( written by Sara Ceriani )

(to be continued...)

Wishing you a......

by the 2 Bs!!

Hei, you look really ...cool

in the Xmas post!!

More Graphics at pYzam.com

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM GIMNAZJUM NO 8!!!

Our home town Plock

Plock's Tumskie Hill (along Vistula River)

The oldest school in Poland - Malachowianka

Taking a turn from Grodzka Street into a narrow Kozia Street we will find ourselves vis a vis "Małachowianka" - the oldest out of the existing high schools in Poland (est. in 1180). School museum is located in the basement of the Medieval wing. It displays the relics of the Romanesque and Gothic architecture. The Gothic tower houses the astronomical observatory. The school had a lot of eminent pupils, among others Ignacy Mościcki, president of the Second Republic of Poland, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the first post – communist prime minister, traveler Tony Halik and Jan Zumbach – commander of the legendary 303 Kościuszko” Squadron. Today most of the students in Plock after graduating from gimnazjum want to get admitted to Malachowianka - all through these years it has remained the best Secondary School in Plock - setting the highest standards of teaching and giving a good start for the future...

The new entrance door to Malachowianka

Zoological Garden
The Zoo picturesquely situated on the Vistula riverbank possesses more than 3300 animals of 430 species. The garden specializes in reptiles breeding and has many singularities of the animal world like tamarins and marmosets (see the photo) – the smallest monkeys in the world. Płock Zoo boasts the biggest in Poland sea and freshwater aquariums. It is also worth seeing here animals that are rare in Poland i.e. Bicolor - Bill Toucan, Eclectus Parrot, Black - Headed Ibis or Siberian Weasel. Plock's zoo is a very popular place to visit especially early spring and whole summer - a beautiful place to go for a romantic walk with the significant other or visit with your whole family. You can easily spend a whole day there taking a stroll among various exotic animals, observe monkey playing wild or spend hours on observing snakes, lizards and other reptails in their glass boxes... Plock's zoo with its different animals and numerous sorts of plants and flowers is one of the most beautiful places in Plock... come and see it yourself!

Written by: Dominika Pięta, class 3i

Some pictures from Plock ;oD Enjoy!

Quiz about Plock

Hey there ;oD I've just prepared a quiz about our city... you can take it here:

http://www.gotoquiz.com/quiz_about_plock

Enjoy!

Short update ;oD

Students of 3A

(Mateusz, Emil, Paulina, Weronika and Dorota - friends of Ombretta, Martina, Sara C, Sarah D, and Valentina)

So the first letters have been sent and currently we're working on the 1st stage of the project which is the introduction of both school and our city. You will soon see the outcomes on this blog. The students of 3A have filmed our school inside and ourside and interviewed a teacher and students about the life of our school. Hopefully you'll like it. Everything is going nice and smooth and peaceful ... at the moment everyone is thinking more of the upcoming Christmas season than anything else. Soon we shall start decorating our classroom. Cannot wait... Soon we shall enclose more of our doings here at blog so be patient and keep checking it on ... for the time being we say

One more thing, here you can download our cooperation contracts that were signed by Headmasters of both schools in June 2007:

1) http://myfreefilehosting.com/f/8d7ddadf7f_0.03MB - English version of the contract

2) http://myfreefilehosting.com/f/8d2cad7cd6_0.03MB - Polish version of the contract

This is the "2Bs" -2007/08

Hi! We are the students of the 2 Bs of the secondary school “Stefano Maria Legnani”.
After the long and hot holidays we returned to school full of new experiences and pleasant memories.
We attend a course of studies that involves expecially girls, infact in our class there are only 3 guys!
We are an active class!
A lot of us practise a sport regularly or take lessons of ballet.
We are nice and friendly too.
We like music: some of us sing in the school’s chorus, or play an instrument…
…last week a group of us went to the theatre “La Scala”, the most important and beautiful theatre in the world.
During the school day the most relaxing moment is the break…it means chatting and snack!!
We are waiting for your first letters and for your presentation on the blog!!!
Love by 2 Bs
( written by Sara Ceriani)

We're baaaaaack ;o)

It so good to be back !!! The summer is long over but as usual it took us some time to pull ourselves together and start working again... coming back to school after summer is a pain indeed!!! But... here we go - another year of our cooperation begins. It is really nice to see you after summer - all happy and smiling and tanned. You wish it never ended didn't you??? But well all good must end sometimes and we are back at school again. And back with our PenPal Project ;o) This time we feel more experienced than last year and we certainly did learn on our own mistakes. That is why we planned this year work to be less hectic ... and with less students. Hopefully this will help us (meaning the teachers) to organize and administrate the project better than last year. This year we have only 15 students on the project from each side (so 30 altogether - easy Maths ;o)) and we've already managed to create new penpal couples so here they are: Weronika and Sarah, Dorota and Valentina, Magda and Sara, Paulina and Sara, Iza and Cristina, Ada and Slivia, Emilian and Martina, Mateusz and Ombretta, Magda and Elena, Ewelina and Christopher, Ola and Fabiola, Dominika and Anna, Piotr and Elena, Rafał and Stefania, and the lucky guy Rafał and Carlotta & Chiara ;o) Just 30 students as you can see... hopefully this will create less mess than last year ;o) Although last year was really funny and we did have LOADS of fun making things for each other!!! This year will be the same... To let you know what we have planned for this year we created a plan of cooperation which is available to download from this file hosting website:

1) http://myfreefilehosting.com/f/d26461c58c_0.08MB English version of the plan

2) http://myfreefilehosting.com/f/3ea48e79fd_0.06MB Polish version of the plan

Right now we're working on our introductory letters and hopefully we will send them next week. Until then let us say goodbye and wish you a wonderful weekend ;o) And hope to hear from you soon!!!

Farewells are always sad ;o(

Dear Friends... this is the last post before we part for the summer holidays. I do not intend to sound sad but I do admit I will miss being with touch with you!!! Let me thank you for wonderful Happy Summer card!!! It's really lovely. I am also glad that you enjoyed our Fashion Show!!!We had so much fun making it too. Well... we're truly getting ready for summer now. The students from classes 3S and 3B got their exams' results the other day and some of them were happy some not so much. But it's the last week of school and they all just focus on summer. Before that they will get to know which High School they will get admitted to, so keep your fingers crossed friends!!! I want them to get to the best ones ;oD. Well I think this will be all for now. I hope that our next year cooperation will be as fruitful and funny as the one we had this year. And I also hope that the bonds we created throughout this year will become stronger in the following years of our cooperation!!! It's been a pleasure working with you and I hope you learnt something about our country!! We wanted to wish you all a wonderful summer holidays with lots of sunshine, smile and happiness. Keep in touch and see you in September!!!

News and pictures from Plock ;o)

Well there... the summer slowly rolls on and we have been busy here in Plock!!! But first thing first - most of the students who take part in the project took their final exams at the end of April - there was a lot of stress and anticipation but it's waaay behind them now and they're all looking forward to summer holidays more than anything!!! This period at school is the worst one too - the 'dark side of the force' (meaning us - teachers) opress the innocent young ones asking them every day for things/knowledge, making tests and classworks, giving them huuuuge homeworks just for one reason - the end of the school year and the final marks. As we know your school year finishes on June 10th but ours much later - on June 22nd. That is why we're working on preparing a farewell parcel for all of you and send it by the end of upcoming week. So we hope you get it before you say BYE to school for summer!!! ;o) We're not saying BYE for good though as I hope that students who wrote to each other by now will still continue writing and the schools' cooperation will develop into personal meeting next year or in two years time!!! For the time being I have just finished working on a contract that is to be signed by the headmasters of both schools some time soon. So we're in the tough period at school but we've manage to get things done for you guys!!! Last week we shot the last movie - Fashion Show which turned out to be a big laugh and lots of stress for me.. we have the movie ready and it will be posted in the parcel alongside with answers to your letters... I hope you'll like it. I think it's a great laugh and the students from 3B were magnificent models hihihi ;o) And up there in the left corner you can see the photo of students from that class ... Apart from the movie Fashion Show we have also prepared from you three short films about how to cook or bake things from Polish cuisine ;o)) And this is a great watch too - done by girls from class 3S ... very professional and fun to watch ;o)) you can see the grils from 3S below on the corner on the left... and last but not least in our project through to the change somewhere in the middle we had five girls from class 2A who also helped in preparing decorations for Fashion Show - on the right up you can see Magda and Weronika from class 2A reading their letters from Riccardo and Michele ;o) They enjoyed getting the letters from Italy very much so hope you guys will keep in touch with them!!! The weather here in Poland has been fairly changeable - we have days of sun and heat (like yesterday) and days full of rain and gloomy clouds. Nevertheless the students continue going to school and doing their best to get good final marks. Especially the third grades who graduate from our Gimnazjum this year... they need to have as good marks as possible as all of them want to get admitted to a good high school in Plock... well - be sure to keep your fingers crossed for them!!! In the meantime we have also completed another assigment of our project - namely the Friendship Tree ... you can see a picture of it below - we hope you like it!!!. I think this will be all for now - hope to hear from you soon and have a great week!!