Get inspired by food, GIF-project. Connecting Swedish language and food culture Activity Package The idea of this Activity package was to connect Swedish language and food culture. The activity package was carried out on the 24 th of March in 2014. Where? This activity package was carried out by a group of pupils in Seinäjoen lyseo, which is a lower secondary school with 600 pupils in the city of Seinäjoki, in western Finland. Seinäjoki is located in an area where Swedish is a minority language. Only 0.2 % of the population of Seinäjoki speak Swedish as their native language (Wikipedia: Seinäjoki 15.11.2013). The rest of people speak Finnish and other minority languages. The pupils participating in the activity are in 7th grade. The group consists of classes 7D and 7M, the total number of pupils being 18. 7M is a special needs group, where every student has their own personal learning plan. The group is integrated to a part of 7D. They are together during almost all the lessons. This means that this group of 20 pupils also has two teachers almost all the time, a subject teacher and a special education teacher.
Why? This activity package was carried out, because Swedish is our second official language and we can t hear it in our everyday life in this area. I as the group teacher wanted to show them how important it is to study this language. We went to an area where we couldn t avoid hearing and using Swedish. How? The group learned some facts about the city of Vaasa in different subjects lessons. In Computer skills lessons we used Google-maps to check all the places we were going to. The pupils checked the street names, the distances between the places and times for transport from one place to another. In History lessons we learned about the history of the city of Vaasa. The city burned in 1852. It s an old city and nowadays it s the 15 th biggest city in Finland. 22 % of the population in Vaasa speaks Swedish. We also compared Seinäjoki and Vaasa: population, languages, land areas and upper level schools. In Swedish lessons we practised decorating the dining table: Where is the place of the fork (en gaffel)? We also examined food packages with Swedish and Finnish texts. All Finnish products should have the list of ingredients in Swedish, too. We also practised the names of meals and connected food items and names. In the end of the double lesson we made a cartoon about some situations: buying red pants, buying train tickets, asking where the toilets were and what time it was. We colored the cartoons and put them on the wall.
HOW DID IT GO? The pupils of 7M bought their train tickets using Swedish in the ticket office at Seinäjoki railway station on Friday 14 th of March. On Monday morning (24 th of March) we gathered together and walked to Seinäjoki railway station. There we practised checking the timetables and finding out where the train would leave from. We arrived in Vaasa at 10.28 am. We walked to Vaasa University (1,3km). Swedish home economics teachers were preparing a lunch for us. The teacher trainees ran a lesson about Swedish food culture for us. They showed us short video clips from Donalds Duck s Christmas show, and explained that it was an important tradition for them to watch it on Christmas Eve. They also showed us a YouTube clip about what happens during the Swedish midsummer festival: dancing around the maypole. Language and culture are always connected to each other, so understanding some Swedish habits and language we understand better the culture. For lunch we had Wallenberg steaks, mashed potatoes, lingonberries, peas and butter sauce. For dessert we had mumsmums which are a typical Swedish dessert. The pupils liked this meal very much. They even asked for the recipes. After the delicious meal we went to our next task.
The pupils went cross-tasking in the local shopping center (Rewell center). By talking to the local people they found out where the toilets were, what time it was and what a cup of coffee cost. All the questions had to be asked in Swedish. The pupils had a form, where they asked for the signature of the helper, so that we would knew that they have completed the tasks. They also paid attention to how easy or difficult - it was to understand the foreign language outside of the classroom, in a real situation. After the tasks in the shopping center we took the train and travelled back to Seinäjoki. We asked for feedback during the trip. The pupils were quite happy about our day! And so were we teachers.
COSTS Train tickets Seinäjoki - Vaasa - Seinäjoki Train tickets around 315 /group Food costs around 4 / person total 84 Total costs of this trip were: 399
THE LETTER TO PUPILS PARENTS AND THE PERMISSION TICKET TO TRIP Hyvä Kotiväki! 10.3.2014 Kevät lähestyy kohisten, ja keväällä on tapana tehdä retki koulusta. Tänä keväänä retken ajankohta on jo 24.3.2014 ja kohde kaupunkina Vaasa. Kyseessä ei ole perinteinen hupi-retki, vaan tarkoitus on lähteä oppilaiden kanssa harjoittelemaan ruotsin kieltä oikeissa tilanteissa. Retki on oppilaille maksuton. Kokoonnumme aamulla koululle, josta jatkamme matkaa rautatieasemalle, josta jatkamme matkaa junalla. Vaasassa siirrymme kävellen Vaasan yliopistolle, jossa ruotsinkieliset kotitalousopettaja-opiskelijat järjestävät meille ruotsalaisen lounaan. Osallistumme lounaan valmistukseen ja jälkitöihin samalla kieltä harjoitellen. Lounaan jälkeen poikkeamme Rewell Centerissä, jossa oppilailla on ruotsinkielisiä harjoituksia esim. kysyä vastaan tulijalta: Mitä kello on? tai Missä vessat sijaitsevat? Harjoitusten jälkeen suuntaamme takaisin rautatieasemalle ja huristamme junalla takaisin Seinäjoelle. Paluu tapahtuu klo:15.44 rautatieasemalle, joten tarvitsemme mahdollisesti teidän apuanne kotiin kuljetuksien järjestämisessä. Kääntöpuolella retken tarkempi aikataulu. Koululta retkelle lähtee 7DM ja 3 aikuista. Retkellä pätee koulun säännöt ja mikäli nuorenne ei halua osallistua retkelle järjestetään hänelle normaalin koulupäivän oppitunteja. Retki on maksuton oppilaille, mutta jos haluatte antaa taskurahaa niin max 20 / oppilas. Vi hoppas en rolig resa till Vasa! T:Mari Lepistö ja Kaisa Pöntinen lisätietoja: mari.lepisto@edu.seinajoki.fi
AIKATAULU 24.3.2014 klo:9.00 Kokoontuminen koulun ala-aulaan klo:9.05 Lähtö kohti rautatieasemaa klo:9.28 Juna kohti Vaasaa lähtee klo:10.29 Saapuminen Vaasaan ja siirtyminen kävellen kohti (Rantakatu 2) yliopistoa alkaa. klo:11.00 Lounaan valmistelu yliopistolla. Lounas ja jälkityöt. Lounaan yhteydessä meille kerrotaan ruotsalaisen ruoan- ja kulttuurin yhteyksistä. klo:13.00 Siirtyminen Rewell Centeriin, jossa harjoituksia. klo:14.30 Siirtyminen kohti Vaasan rautatieasemaa. klo:15.00 Juna kohti Seinäjokea lähtee. klo:15.44 Paluu Seinäjoelle. Täyttäkää alla oleva lupalappu ja palauttakaa se Marille viimeistään pe 14.3.2014. Jos et palauta lappua ajoissa, sinulle järjestetään omaa ohjelmaa koululla. Leikkaa alaosa: Annan luvan (oppilaan nimi) lähteä ma 24.3.2014 Vaasan retkelle. Järjestämme itse kuljetuksen kotiin Seinäjoen rautatieasemalta klo:15.44. Oppilas tulee kotiin itse bussilla/ pyörällä/ kävellen En anna lupaa nuorelleni osallistua retkelle. Päivämäärä ja huoltajan allekirjoitus
Task form in Vaasa
We practised the route with the help of Googlemaps in ICT lessons