Thursday 26 March 2009

Saturday in Finland
















Pupils and teachers spent an exacting but a beautiful week. Today we could sleep longer. Our meeting is coming to an end.
Today, pupils and teachers have visited Vuokko Kangas house where they were baking typical Finnish bread. The householder is a musical composer and also a musician. Next door they were singing songs prepared forward.
In the afternoon we all went shopping presents for our relatives.
Oulu is a big city with lots of shops, so it wasn’t any problem. Wood is a symbol of our project and so in the evening we had dinner in a restaurant „Sokeri – Jussi“ that was made from wood.
We said goodbye to all our friends from Turkey that were travelling home sooner.
We spent the next beautiful day.

Friday 20 March 2009

Second Meeting continued:

Thursday - National Equal Rights Day

On arrival at school in the morning we were greeted by the blue and white flag of Finland flying from every tall flagpole in and around the school grounds. It was now obvious why those are the colours of Finland's flag - blue for the sky above and white for the bright snow beneath. On enquiry we discovered that it was to celebrate Finland's national "equal rights for women" day.

Today was going to be our first day out of school for all and, after boarding the coach, we were soon on our way to the nearby, Japanese-owned, Shinshowa sawmill in Kello. Mr Jarmo Noponen kindly showed us the 'cutting-edge' of the business. We saw hundreds of pine and spruce logs of about 4m in length and various girths. We witnessed the process of stripping bark, square cutting the logs and then moulding into construction timber such as tongue-and-groove cladding for houses. There was quite a lot of noise, sawdust and a strong smell of sawn pine.

Moving on, we stopped at Virpiniemi outdoor centre where local people could do some skiing or toboganning or use an outdoor barbecue. Off the tracks the snow was knee-deep. A fine lunch was enjoyed by all at the University of Oulu before visiting the next wood-related industry, Honkamajat Log Houses
(http://www.honkamajat.fi/).

Mr Kristian Aalto (Managing Director) showed us more logs, this time being cut into various forms for making a variety of types of log buildings. We saw the rough logs being processed into perfectly smooth, round logs with a lower concave surface, grooved to match the lower log in an outside wall. This effectively created a wide joining surface which was good for insulation and for strength. We saw machines making joints in rectangular-sectioned timber for another type of construction and we were also shown new ways of jointing which allowed for neater external corners and the possibility of 45 degree angles for such shapes as bow windows.

The company has recently installed new equipment and technology to enable it to manufacture the new joints. The outside of the machine looks like part of a tube train. Two people, working for ten hours, could manufacture all of the parts for one house! Mr Aalto explained to us that, whilst other companies were finding it difficult in the current economic conditions, his company was continuing to expand and orders were very healthy. Wooden houses from here are exported all over the world, especially to France and Japan. Increasingly the Far-Eastern market is taking off and Mr Aalto was, in fact, just about to leave for China within an hour or two.

We were all very impressed and all took brochures and dreamt of owning their own wooden house one day. After this visit we stopped at Hietasaari Winter Wonderland on the beach near Oulu. The ice-fort was interesting enough but something bigger was attracting us away. The sea was completely frozen over and covered in snow; a huge, flat wasteland of snow glistening in the bright sunshine. We could not help ourselves but to run out to sea as far as we could in the time available. We felt like superhuman beings with the power to walk on water. However, people had beaten us to it and everywhere there were ski tracks and even car tracks going out to the opposite shore, almost on the horizon. Some men were fishing through holes in the ice. Rating, 10/10!

Before returning to school we stopped for an hour in Oulu where we could walk into town to look at shops and buildings and also we could visit the Market Hall (www.oululiikekeskus.fi/index.php?285). This was reminiscent of Oxford's indoor market. Some people were able to buy souvenirs and/or reindeer meat (poro).

In the late afternoon, back at school, the children worked in the technology department making wooden key fobs and keeping up with communications with home. Dinner in the canteen included a special cake for dessert; 10/10 again!

Wednesday 18 March 2009

Second project meeting - Finland 17th - 22nd March 2009

Tuesday and Wednesday

The Slovak team arrived in good time and the Turkish team took the train from Helsinki and arrived in Oulu in the morning. The teams were shown different parts of the school, e.g. kindergarten, dentist, the office of the headmistress. According to the programme the children attended various lessons. In the evening our guests got to know their host families.

UK and Czech teams arrived later in the evening and went straight to their host families.

On Wednesday morning all arrived for an 8 am start. The programme of the day included e.g. handcraft, ICT, maths, arts, English. The teachers visited lessons and spoke to local teachers and generally got to know their way around the school. The pupils had their lunch with their Finnish classes. The adults had lunch together and discussed the project so far.

The whole school was gathered in the hall for a party together. There was a lot of singing from all parties involved. The atmosphere was joyful and pleasant. All the 400 pupils enjoyed the experience of having foreign guests at school.

Later in the afternoon the children played games in the hall with their teachers until it was time to have dinner in the school canteen. After dinner the children constructed a Comenius tree made from fabric handprints. After a long day it was time get home to the families.

Friday 6 March 2009

The meeting with forester
















On Thursday 19.2.2009 our pupils had a meeting with a forester.
He was speaking about nature the life in wood, in our region and answered for the very interesting question of our pupils.
The classroom of meeting was decorated by the colorful pictures of animals and plants that are in our woods.
The pupils enjoyed this meeting.

Monday 2 March 2009

The UK Woodland Seasons (Chapter 1 - February)

Late February marks the end of Winter and the dawning of Spring.


This year tree buds of Wild Cherry seem to be making the first move and the Oak buds are beginning to swell too. The woodland floor has been alive with the presence of a profusion of Snowdrops for a month or more.


Wild Daffodils are now beginning to open, gradually changing the woodland floor from white to yellow.


The long yellow Hazel catkins are now past their best but still the most colourful thing at eye level or above.
Looking upwards there is no barrier to the sky and sunlight is able to reflect off the woodland floor, turning the dead leaves into a sea of gold.

The green shoots of Dog's Mercury and Bluebell threaten to steal the gold away at any moment.