19 February

Today was the last day before the Vinterferie (Winter holidays) - which is a one-week break in Norwegian schools (as well as other northern European countries).
The children had a very relaxed day. Instead of classes, they watched the film "Kiki's Delivery Service" and had some popcorn.
In the afternoon, the ones who stayed in the Aktivitesskolen (after school care) have had an ice-sculpture contest, as well as outdoor barbecue and warm apple and berries juice (yes, warm juice!). The weather was really terrible, very cold and windy, but it was lots of fun!
The contest winners had a small gift and all the children who participated got to eat one small chocolate.

So, how do Norwegians sing Happy Birthday?

One of the first things I have learned in the teachers room was the happy birthday song. People were having lunch and suddenly and for no reason(or so it seemed to me) everybody stood up and started singing:

"Hurra for deg som fyller ditt år!
Ja, deg vil vi gratulere!
Alle i ring omkring deg vi står,
og se, nå vil vi marsjere,
bukke, nikke, neie, snu oss omkring,
danse så for deg med hopp og sprett og spring,
ønske deg av hjertet alle gode ting
og si meg så, hva vil du mere? Gratulere!

Høyt våre flagg vi svinger. Hurra!
Ja, nå vil vi riktig feste!
Dagen er din, og dagen er bra,
men du er den aller beste!
Se deg om i ringen hvem du vil ta!
Dans en liten dans med den du helst vil ha!
Vi vil alle sammen svinge oss så gla'
og en av oss skal bli den neste - til å feste!"
(in http://ingeb.org/songs/hurrafor.html)

It was very strange to me because at that time I still didn't understand much Norwegian, but they were in fact singing Happy Birthday to someone. «Hurra for deg som fyller ditt år!» is one of the songs Norwegians sing on birthdays and it was written by Margrethe Munthe. It sounds something like this:

5 February 2010 - Ski trip (II)

Uteskole day!

The solar system

The children have been learning Astronomy :)

4 February 2010 - Math games - Mattetivoli :)

15 January 2010 - Ski trip (I)

First days of snow in November

School begins to change as snow starts falling, slowly but surely.