Sterling Bear's Holiday Pictures 2

About a hundred years ago Tyssedal was no more than a couple of farms and a beautiful, wild river that ran where we are standing now. Then some men decided to buy the rights to the waterfalls and build a hydro- power plant. Within only a year and a half they had the first part up and running. That is rather impressive if you consider that they had no mashines like we have today. If you want to see some pictures of the building of the old power plant you can go here:

The building behind us is the old turbine hall. Inside there were several turbines producing eletricity to run the first factory in the area. The factory used to make calsium carbide for lamps used in British mines in the early 1900s. This building is no longer used as a production hall, instead it is a part of the museum in Tyssedal, NVIM.

These days the production halls are situated deep inside tunnels in the mountains. The water is channelled in such a way that it hits the turbines in thin beams, almost as thin as needles, but still with enough power to make the turbines spin extremely fast. This is what a turbine looks like.

The eletricity that is produced here provides the power to run the metal factory you can see in the background, Tinfos Titan & Iron, and other factories. Many people in Tyssedal work at TTI, like some of our parents.

Sterling Bear's Holiday Pictures 1

Sterling Bear arrived in Tyssedal safely, if a little later than anticipated. While she was here she met a new friend, Friendship Bear, and she had a sightsing around Tyssedal. Here she is, ready to go.

The first thing we wanted to show her was our sports arena "Tyssohallen". This is where our fotball teams and gymnastics groups practice. People have played foootball here for years and years, but a couple of years ago we got a "real" football field, an indoor hall and a club house. It is all thanks to many of the parents in Tyssedal who not only managed to get the founding for building it, but also put in hours and hours of volunteer work to actually build it. We are very proud of "Tyssohallen", and of our parents.

Sometimes during summer holidays the weather is nice enough for us to have a swim. We can swim in the fjord, but with the meltwater from the glacier it can be quite cold unless the weather has been warm for some days. We also have a small outdoor pool, "badedammen" where we can swim and play.

We play outside a lot. Some of the children in year 5 have a little hut that they have built themselves. There are many other games to play outside too, like hide and seek and climbing trees. Sterling Bear tried a little tree- climbing while she was here.

Sometimes we go to the school yard after school and play a bat-and-ball game we call "langball" with the other children who are there. That way we get to play with children who are both younger and older than we are. Everybody knows everybody here.

When we visit our friends, we often use our bicycles to get around. In Tyssedal there are many steep hills to get up and down, so we really have use for our protection equipment! Here is a picture of the view from upper Tyssedal. It gives you an idea of how steep the hills might be.

Alas, Sterling Bear didn't arrive in Tyssedal in time for May 17th Instead of Sterling Bear, we brought along Frendship Bear for the children's procession, as a substitute. That way we kept you in our thoughts during our celebration.

Some people was wondering why we brought a teddy bear with a Scottish flag with us, and that gave us the oportunity to tell them about our blog, and what we have learned from it.

We will send Friendship Bear to to you in Scotland, hopefully you will have him there before school is out for summer.

Here is a picture of Horse and Rabbit with Friendship Bear.

May 17th

May 17th is Norway`s constitution day. We got our constitution in 1814. On this day we go in processions. We believe every single child in Norway is in a procession that day if they are able.

Our school choire sing on May 17th. Everyone in Tyssedal is there. Many pepole wear national costumes. On May 17th we eat a lot of ice cream, hot dogs, cotton candy and cakes. We play many fun gams like thowing balls at a mark on different kinds of races.

Stirling Bear goes to Norway!

Here is Stirling Bear ready to go on her holiday to Norway! We will send her off in the next few days and, hopefully, she will arrive in Tyssedal in time for your special day on 17th May.
We will look forward to seeing her in Norway and finding out what she does with our Norwegian friends.

Our School Uniform

We know that you are interested in the fact that we wear a uniform to school so here is a photo of us wearing our Yester Primary School sweatshirts.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all our Norwegian friends!
Thank you for the information about Easter in Norway. We presented at our Easter assembly and told the audience about Easter traditions in Norway and Scotland. We used the information you gave us and we think everyone found it very interesting. Thank you to Horse for your great information.
Here is a photo of the kind of Easter eggs we get in Scotland. They don't look like yours but they are made from lovely chocolate too!

We had a very special visitor today!

Today, we had a very special visitor in our class. David Bellamy is the grandfather of one of the members of our class and is a very famous botanist. He came to talk to us about living in a rainforest because we are studying rainforests at present and we have lots of questions we would like to have answers to. David told us lots of facts and made us laugh a lot! He also brought many interesting items to show us - we especially liked his blowpipe with its poison-tipped arrows! It was great fun to meet David and listen to him and we would like him to visit us again soon!

David showed us some very interesting slides and items from the rainforest.

Look at us! Osprey is holding a blowpipe, Eemit is holding a quiver which would have poison-tipped arrows in it and Seed-burd is wearing a toucan feather headdress.

David and some of the class are sitting in front of the colourful pictures we have made of the rainforest.

Seed-burd is wearing a very unusual headdress from the rainforest. It is made from lots of feathers from toucans, and is held together by a twine made from stinging nettles.

David and his son Rufus showed us a blowpipe which is used in the rainforest to kill monkeys and toucans which the people eat. It uses poisonous arrows and Rufus blew two of them into the classroom wall! We were all very impressed!

At the end of David's visit, he had his photo taken with our class and a range of rainforest animals!

Norwegian Easter Traditions.

Many people read books, particularly murder mysteries.
We call them "Easter crime".
"Easter crime" is also shown each day on TV.
Our Easter eggs are like small, decorated cardboard boxes, shaped as eggs.
They are filled with chocolte and sweets.
We usally decorate our houses with Easter chicens and decorations.
Many Norwegians go to their cabins in the montains.
Many Norwegians go crass-contry sking during Easter.
typical Easter food is "qick-lunch" (similar to Kit-Cat),
oranges and everything with eggs in it.
And also hot chocolate.

Horse : Easter

Horse:

When I was younger, I believed in the Easter Bunny.
The Easter Bunny put chocolate eggs in my window shelves during the night.
This is not a Norwegian tradition, but my parents told me about the Easter Bunny anyway.
When I read my "Easter crime" books, I eat what I get from the Easter Bunny.
My family and I spend the vacation at our cabin in the mountain.
We go cross-country skiing a lot.
In the evening we play games or watch movies.

Easter :)

A Special Visitor

This afternoon, we had a visit from an author called Jonathan Meres. He talked to Primaries 4,5,6 and 7. He was very funny and made us laugh a lot.

Red Nose Day

On Friday, 13th March, it was Comic Relief Day or Red Nose Day. All over the UK, people dress up, wear red noses and do lots of silly activities to raise money to help those who are not as fortunate as them, in the UK and in other countries in the world. We wore red clothes, some of us had red hairstyles and we wore our red noses. We all donated money to the Comic Relief Fund for the privilege of attending school dressed in red. Can you recognise us?

Special Visitors

We were visited recently by some headteachers from The Netherlands. Here we are working on some online activities about money as we are having a Financial Education Fortnight. Our special visitors were very interested to see what we were doing. They thought our classroom was very bright and they were surprised to see that we have lots of pictures and posters on our classroom walls because, in their country, the classroom walls have only a few pictures on display.

Kailworm is a Highland dancer

At the Burns Supper we watched some of our pupils doing Highland dancing. Here is Kailworm, dressed in her beautiful Highland dancing outfit, with Stirling Bear. They are standing in front of Scotland's flag, which is called "The Saltire".

Primary 5 lead the Burns Supper

Our Primary 5 class led our Burns Supper. They are sitting at the "Top Table". Golden Eagle has a toy horse because he was reciting Robert Burns' famous poem "Tam O' Shanter". In this poem, the main character, Tam, rides his grey mare called Maggie.

Yester's Burns Supper

We had a special Burns Supper at school to celebrate the 250th birthday of Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns. At our Burns Supper we eat the traditional food of haggis, mashed potatoes and mashed turnip (tatties and neeps). The haggis is led in by a piper who plays a traditional Scottish tune on his bagpipes. Here is Richard, the piper, who was a pupil at our school a few years ago.

Rabbie and friends from Yester

Rabbie Burns had lots of friends. Here he is with some new ones - all from our school! He is posing with Reid Rab, Seed-Burd and, of course, everybody's friend - Stirling Bear!

Rabbie's hairstyle

Rabbie showed off his lovely ponytail.

Rabbie Burns visits Yester

Today, we had a very special visitor. Rabbie Burns, Scotland's famous National Poet, came to tell us about his life and to recite some of his poems for us. He told us lots of interesting information and recited two of his favourite poems - To a Louse and To a Mouse. Of course, Rabbie has been dead for over 200 years so it was his ghost who came to see us!

Q&A

You had some questions for us a while back. Here are some answers.

1. What lessons do you have at school?
2. How do you say "hello" in Norwegian?
3. How do you say "Goodbye" in Norwegian?
4. What is it like to live in Norway?
5. Do you have a playground at school?
6. Is Norway a nice place to live?
7. What do you do in your free time?
8. How many pupils are at your school?
9. How do you get to school when tere is a lit of snow?
10. What time do you go to school?

1. In school we have English, Norwegian, PE, Swimming, Religion- Philosophy and Ethics, Art and Craft, Social Studies, Science and Natural Studies, Maths and Music.

2. We can say different things: "Hallo", "Hei", "God dag" and "Mårn".

3. We say: "Hadet", "Farvel", "Adjø" and sometimes in the phone we say "Hei".

4. We think it is fabulous and brilliant!

5. Yes, we have a playground at school.

6. Yes, we think so!

7. We play football, we go horseback riding, do our homework, we attend the Children's Red Cross (scout- like activities), do our chores, are with friends, listen to music, sometimes we have friends on sleep-overs, we paint and much more.

8. We are 72 pupils at our school.

9. There isn't usually that much snow here, so we can always walk. Sometimes there is a lot of snow in the mountains and we have avalanges. Then we have to wait until the roads are cleared before we go anywhere. Sometimes that can take a day or two. But that never happens on the road to school.

10. We leave home at ca. eight o'clock.

Thank you!

Happy New Year, a little late, to all our friends in Scotland!

Thank you for your gifts! They are very nice. We have put the flag up in our classroom, and we have made a small exibition of that and the cards, the calender and some copies of some of the pictures in the catalogue. We think you are very clever to write "Merry Christmas" in Norwegian! Here is a picture of us with our little flags, in front of the exibition in the making.

Godt Nytt År, litt seint, til alle våre venner i Skotland!

Takk for gavene! De er veldig fine. Vi har hengt flagget opp o klasserommet vårt, og vi har laget en liten utstilling av det og kortene, kalenderen og noen kopier av noen av blidene i katalogen. Vi synes dere er veldig flinke som skriver "God Jul" på norsk! Her er et bilde av oss med de små flaggene våre, foran det som skal bli utstillingen.

Happy New Year

We would like to wish all our friends in Tyssedal Barneskole a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

We are looking forward to corresponding with all of you in 2009 and having a long, happy friendship between our two schools.