04/27/10
Today on the 26th of April, a man from Japan named Ichiro came to visit our school. He was in Pärnu because of an performance on the art festival, so Piret, our art teacher, asked him to give a performance to the freeschool students. He told us about Kappa, a Japanese folklore creature. Later he put on a dragon/lion costume and danced around to the rythm of the music. It was absolutely hilarious for everyone, he changed around in different Japanese festival masks. After the show he wrote everybody’s name in Japanese letters.
On Wednesday, the 14th of April the 7th and 8th grade went on a little trip to Tallinn. We started our journey in front of the school at 8:15. First we went to the Estonia theatre, where they showed and told us about the backstage life of the theatre. The guide told us something interesting in every room. We saw the decorations’ room, the soundroom, props room, the backstage, the big theatre room, the blue room, and the white room, the sewing room, the accessories making room, and many many other rooms. In the Estonia theatre there are nearly 500 workers, in the cellar they have a costume rental.
After the visiting the theatre, we went to the Kiek In De Kök dungeon. In the beginning of the trip they showed us a 10 minute introduction video, and after that we got to see the underground dungeons. That was probably the best part of everyones day, even though it was very wet and cold down there. Following the old dungeons, we saw what Tallinn might look like in the future. After Kiek In De Kök we went to the bus, had a small lunch, before arriving at the Kalev chocolate factoy! Right when we stepped out of the bus, you could smell the chocolate. At the door the guide was there waiting for us. He told us about the history of this sweet factory, after that we had to put on full body costumes, and hats, so any hair wouldn't get inside the chocolate.
The guide was very friendly, and let us ask a lot of questions. We saw how the chocolate was made, glazed, packed and transported. When we finished the tour everybody got to take some chocolate. This was the sweetest part of our day. The day was full of fun for everyone .
03/09/10
On Thursday, February 18th our school held a Fairytale Night.
Fairytale nights are meant to bring children closer to books and fairy tales, and let children discover that books are like a magic kingdoms, that open doors to world of fantasy. In addition, it’s very nice to stay in the schoolhouse, and it’s a fun way to spend time with classmates and friends.
This year's theme was the Hanseatic times, which is also freeschool’s theme of the year.
The evening included a night of exciting activites, all of which were related to the Hanseatic times.
They played fun medieval games, and read an interesting medieval book.The most exciting activity of the night turned out to be called. 'Archaeological excavation. "All the participants had to think about what exciting medieval objects could be dug out of the ground. Then, each child had their own "findings" of clay mold. The students had a lot of fun, and they put out an exhibition of their works.
All participating children and teachers are waiting forward to next year’s Fairytale Night.
02/22/10
On Friday, the 12th of February, 2 big buses waited in front of the school, to take everyone to the „Jõulumägi“ sport center to take part of the wintersport day. When we got there a „skibus“ from Otepää was there, that gave everyone a rental pair of skis. Many of the kids were on skis for the first time in their lives. Everybody enjoyed the best ski trails in the Pärnu county. Coach Tanel was ready to do fun excercises and games with the little ones. He said they just need some practice, and they can be very good crosscountry skiers in future. He taught everyone how to take a fall on skis, and how to position your body when going down a hill. Everyone had a very fun time.
Take a look at pictures in our school galery
http://galerii.vabakool.ee/main.php?g2_itemId=21059
01/22/10
Our school`s very brave and busy team went to build a snowtown on the Port Artur parkinglot.
In the teams were: Kendro from the4th grade Kendro, Jaanika, Ken and Andres Markus from the 5th grade, Deborah from the 6th grade, Karin, Karoliina Kuusik, Karoliina Itter, Carmen, Elenor from the 7th grade and Merliti from the 8th grade.
A big praise to the people who helped build the town. We were surely a team with some of the youngest members!
We decided to build a hanseatic slidehill . Even principal Riho helped to build the snowtown.The day was long and fun.We didn`t completely finish our building and already little kids wanted to slide down. We were glad to see that someone got something fun out of our building.
We got the 2nd place for „People`s Favourite“. Anyone who hasn`t visited the town, should do it.
01/22/10
On the 29th December, the freeschool teachers together with their families came to Marge`s house in Tabria village.
The trip started with an amazing hike in the nature. Marge told everyone a story about the fairy who lived in the forest. The weather was amazing for walking through the forest . Everybody had a chance to forget something from the last year (anger, sadness..) that you don't want to take to the next year with you.
The kids left food to the forest animals and birds-vegetables, bread, nuts. Some of them saw „rabbits“ running in the forest, and you could even hear the „roaring of a bear“. The fairy waited for us in the forest with lanterns and candles by the campfire. The hikers got to taste the flavour of the bean soup and eat the homemade baked goods.
The sky was lit up with the stars, the snow, the full moon, and the air was filled with thankfulness, warm hearts, and goodness. When it was time to go home the little ones got a little present filled with gingerbread .
We thank Marge`s family, who worked in the snow all day, to prepare this event for us. We would also like to thank Terje, who cooked us an amazing meal, and thanks to everyone who came together with us.
01/13/10
Wednesday, 16th December at 12:30 the Pärnu Little Freeschool opened our art exhibition, called Nõiamäe exhibition in the Endla theatre gallery for the 8th year in a row. This year`s exhibition was inspired by the Pärnu hansa-year. You could see boats, masks, fish, saltbags and everything else, connected to hansa theme. The exhibition this year was interactive and the visitor could help in creating the show. Every student of Freeschool made this happen, also the teachers and parents were a helping hands. The art was especially created in the art classes. The promoter of the show was the Freeschool's art teacher, a credited artist Piret Bergmann.
01/13/10
Our student Grete Raspen Masing won the first prize for her single photo in our town's photo competition. Grete has been into photography for the last couple of years. Her instructor is photoartist Andres Adamson. Pärnu Postimees and the citygallery arranged Pärnu`s proffessional and hobby photography exhibition for the 5th time. Last year one of the prizes was also won by a Freeschool student, Pamela Sume.
02/18/09
February 9-13th the Freeschool held it`s traditional Friend´ Week. Monday was the Friend-Mail box day, on Tuesday there was a pony-tail day, everyone who has hair got a pony-tail!
Wednesday was a pyjama day, the name speaks for itself! On Thursday was the Friend-Run and on Friday you had to dress in as much red as you could. We had lots of fun during these days and we kept more together.
02/18/09
On the 5th and 6th February in our school was held the wintersport days, under the subheading „The Baltic Sea“. During the two days there were all sorts of different sport activities. We ice-skated, skied, sledged, went hiking and ect.
But we also listened to the lecture of an Estonian marine-biologist, Jüri Tenson who introduced us fish, birds, animals who live in the Baltic Sea. He also talked about the conditions of our sea.
Grades 5-7 visited the interactive exhibition called AHHAA in Viljandi.
12/14/08
On the 6th of December in the Freeschool’s building there was a big Christmas bazaar called ``Green Christmas``. Different work-shops were held by our parents, students and their brothers, sisters and relatives.
We got many thanks from all the people who came. Visitors could go to the Health-Room, Arts ja Crafts Room, to room called „Christmas Land”, buy home-made gifts, Christmas cards, CD-s, accessories, decorations, gingerbreads, home made cakes and sandwiches, to have Christmas lunch, to decorate a big gingerbread, to watch shows performed by different classes, to take part in lotteries e.t.c.
Freeschool is grateful to everyone who made this bazaar happen and thanks to all the visitors and sponsors.
11/29/08
On Wednesday, 19th November for the second time we held a Learning Skills Day. Students solved tasks in three different age groups. Interesting part was that students from every class were spread out into different teams, so team-work had to be good.
Someone once said: „ People will start team-work, or the planet is going extinct.”
When students last year asked why they needed team-work, there was no such questions this year. The tasks were put together by the teachers.
There were mathematics, different languages, history, biology, chemistry, physics, sport, music questions, searching in books and in the interenet, sewing a finger-puppet, making a film. This is the experience for everyone’s future life.
11/24/08
From the 4 th to the10 th November Freeschool held a Talent Week, where some students and even teachers showed their different skills. There were some acrobatic shows, a piece on the piano, a rap singing, a lesson in Japanese, rhyme reading in Lithuanian, a Russian tchastushka etc.
The Freeschool’s record holder is the 9th grade student Emil.
The Talent Week was constructed by Amalie and Keidi from the student council.
11/04/08
On 22nd of October in Pärnu in the City Gallery there was open an exhibition ”Pärnu Photo 2008`` where one of the two main awards won Pärnu Little Freeschool’s 9th grade student Pamela Sume.
Under the hand of teacher Andres Adamson, she has been a photographer for a couple of years. She was awarded for the best single-photo and she won a 5000-kroon photostore-giftcard.
The photo competition has been on for the fourth-year running, started by the ”Pärnu Postimees”, a local newspaper company. You can have a look at the pictures until the 15th of November in the City Gallery.
11/03/08
The Freeschool`s this year’s priority is making of the Responsibility System. Our main question is setting outer borders so they would set inner borders. Our main attention is targeted on delays, homeworks, inside shoes, and the existing of gear needed for school.
At the last teachers’ meeting our teachers met the policewomen, Nurmely Mitrahovitsh and Kristi Vahi. The guests talked about the idea of teamwork between the school and the police.
Together they figured out that the Freeschool parents would need an `Info Hour` to find out what are the consequences to their children’s actions.
The 6th grade used the chance right away, where the police cadets came and talked about school teasing and lawbreaker’s possible punisment.
10/15/08
Pärnu Little Freeschool celebrated Teachers’ Day on Thursday October 2nd. The first 3 lessons were like usual. In exception the Morning Singing started after the 3rd class, where reins were given over to the 9th graders. The former teachers spent their day chatting and relaxing,starting at 11 o`clock.
Here are some thoughts from theyoung teachers:
10/09/08
At the end of September Pärnu Litte Freeschool held a healthcamp in Tootsi, which every Freeschool student took part in. During the three days the students visited the local peat-factory, walked on the swamp and took a forest-hike, had fun on the swings and carousels beside the singing-stage and enjoyed the swimming-pool.
On the second day of the camp we held a traditional sports day at the Tootsi school stadium. The bigger classes took part in various health-themed lectures and yoga classes, and in the evening they listened to the forest-ranger Vahur Sepp, who`s stories proved a pile of animal skins and horns.
On the last day of the camp we made a round-up that concluded: everyone liked it and would like to take part in other camps like this.
The school is supported by a Center of Environment-Investigations and this camp was a part of the programme under the name of ``Freeschool on the road to a green flag``.