CATALAN CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS WE WANT TO PRESERVE

Our students have recorded a video that shows the Christmas traditions they want to preserve. Watch the video clip...(the whole video is too big to be posted here, this is why we'll show you just a sample):

Visiting local heritage sites. Lithuania. Lentvaris Parish of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Students that participate in our project in all participant countries are now working on learning about local heritage that they consider to be important to be saved for the future generations.

As part of the project, two Lithuanian students Ieva and Aušra visited Lentvaris Parish of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary whose history dates back to 1906. It is undoubtedly one of the most important places to be visited in Lentvaris.  The students met the parish pastor priest Gintaras Petronis who showed the girls around and told them about the history of the church.

The church archive has preserved numerous documents of the last centenary including the one that was signed by the count Vladislovas Tiškevičius - the initiator of the church in Lentvaris and the owner of another landmark of Lentvaris - Lentvaris palace.  The biggest discovery for us was the fact that count Tiškevičius was buried in the church.  

The visitors of the church will definitely admire the magestic wall decor of the church. During 1934-1953 almost all of them were decorated in frescos and sgraffito techniques.  


Another must see and hear attraction of the church is the organ that was given as a present to the church in 2004 by a famous opera singer prof. Teresa Žylis - Gara. 

According to the pastor priest Gintaras Petronis, the church is in perfect condition and there are no worries about its future. However, if we speak about history, during the Second World War damage was done to the church but everything was reconstructed, refurbished and renewed immediately after the war. Interestingly, during the Soviet period when many churches in Lithuania were used for other purposes, our church was always open to the people who believe in God.

OUR FIRST MOBILITY TO LISBON

We are going to talk about everything we have done during this project in Germany, Spain, Portugal and Lithuania. The first meeting of students is in Lisbon, school AEDD (Association of Schools Don Dinis), was on December 8-14, 2017.

CARRY ON THE FLAME DIARY

9/12/2017

Today has been a funny and interesting day. Even though we all woke up very early in the morning,  we have enjoyed a lot this trip. At 8:15 am we met at the school with all the people that are taking part in this Erasmus and we started our bus trip. After that, at 9:30, we stopped at Estação de Aveiras and we had lunch. The first place we visited is named Batalha Monastery. The real name of this monastery is Monastery of Santa Maria de Vitória, but most of the population call it the other way because it was built after the victory of Aljubarrota battle. 

At half past one we arrived in Nazaré and we had free time. Most of us had lunch at a restaurant and later went to the shore. The Atlantic Sea is very beautiful. Then, at half past three, we went for a walk and enjoyed magnificent views. We took loads of pictures there. And finally we went to Óbidos, a Medieval village that is really cool. Now we are all with our partners at home and tomorrow will be another wonderful day!

10/12/2017

Today was the day that was meant to stay with the family to get to know one another better, but the Portuguese students thaught that we all better met and had a good day visiting Lisbon.

We met at 11:30 at the monument of Descobrimentos but somebody was late, so we started the walk one hour later.

The first thing we did in the morning was visiting the Torre do Belem, where we took some pictures, after that we went to have lunch at a fast food restaurant and for dessert we bought Pastels do Belem.

After having lunch we went to Praça do Comerço. When we arrived, it started to rain so the Portuguese students decided to go to a "fira" where we stayed for one hour and after riding some attractions all of us felt sick. 

After that everyone of us went home to relax, after a very intense day.

11/12/2017

Today in the morning we made some presentations about de heritage in Portugal, Spain, Lituania and Germany and, also, we made some presentations about all the schools in the exchange.

We also did a little school tour and then the teachers made teams to work on common things and differences among the countries, talking about food, music, holidays, castles, and fairy tales. Also, one of us has done an activity called video mapping.

After that activity we had lunch.

After lunch we did presentations of the common things among the countries.

After school our partners decided to make a football match so we went to our houses, changed the clothes and then came back to school for playing the match.

After that we all  went to our respective homes. It's been a nice working day!

12/12/2017

Today has been a tiring but exciting day. We started by creating our own logo for our Erasmus+ project. We divided the class into 9 different groups and we  made different logos. After the break, we explained their meanings and we voted to decide which one should win. The winner group was number 1, Júlia's group!

After that, we learnt some games. We showed each other typical games in our country! For example, some Portuguese friends showed us how to play "Peixinho"! It was really funny and entertaining, but they did not allow us to "lie" in the game (you know we usually use strategies and some kind of "trampas", hahaha).

At 3:30 p.m., some of us continued with videomapping to have it ready for watching the final video after the dinner. Videomapping consists in projecting a video on a surface. What we did was projecting different videos on the windows of the school, and it looked really cool. 

While one group continued with the project, the others started cooking dinner and did some activities. Everybody had a lot of fun cooking. The Spanish made omelettes and prepared the typical Catalan pà amb tomàquet and fuet. Lithuanians prepared their cold soup called "Saltibarsciai" with hot potatoes, also their Christmas Eve dish called "kuciukai" with poppy seed milk. German students made Flaedle Soup and Portuguese students prepared their national dish bacalhau (codfish), grão (chicken beans) and arroz doce (sweet rice).

Finally, we all met in the canteen to have dinner and enjoy that time. It was kind of farewell dinner, but we were the cooks! It was fantastic and we tasted so many different dishes that are not typical in our countries. It was a great chance to discover the gastronomy of each country! After that we went outside to watch the videomapping to finish our day.

We had a tiring day (because we did a lot of things) but everyone was so happy! This is a great time to meet new friends and to learn about different cultures, and most important, to preserve our heritage.

13/12/2017

A time to finish what is left over. Texts were corrected and all the work revised and checked. No job is finished until the paper work is done. And so it was the same with that wonderful meeting in Lisbon. After that final work on day 5 we are ready to publish our results and use it for presentation back home. Late afternoon and evening we the last chance to enjoy time with our host families. We are looking forward to meet our new friends soon - at least those who will come to Lentvaris next spring.

STARTING A NEW PROJECT

Our project “Carry on the flame - what we want to be kept for future” links the European year of heritage (2018) with innovative pedagogical methods.To foster modern pedagogical methods is the main objective - using our cultural, natural and personal heritage as a topic to implement them. Both addresses to the target groups of students and teachers - the latter ones also within their  role as important multiplicators. Using the newly acquired competences and innovations will help to improve quality and efficiency of education and training.