Lillestadskolan
Växjö, Sweden

Every week we study Swedish from a book called The Boy and the Tiger (Pojken och Tigern) and the dolls that we sometimes use with the books promised to care for her during the night. They will, of course, be sharing their basket during Tunia´s stay.

Our two teachers, Mrs. Vieweg and Mrs. Samuelsson showed Tunia around. It has been snowing. Tunia asked if she please could see some of the polar bears she had heard are wandering about the streets of Sweden. We had to disappoint her and tell her that they can only be seen at the zoo. We have brown bears in the north of Sweden, but no polar bears. We promised to tell her some more about Sweden, our town and our surroundings tomorrow. We will write some more real soon.  

Tomorrow we will all be back to school again. It will be a lot of fun to introduce Tunia to the children. We have been waiting for her.. We started taking English this year so it will be a lot of nice practice for us to get to know Tunia and to learn a lot of new words from her. Maybe you can learn a few Swedish words from us? Let´s start with:

The children have started learning about a famous Swedish author namned Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002) who was born in this part of Sweden. One of her first books was Pippi Longstocking, a book that almost every Swede knows very well. She wrote it as a present for her daughter's tenth birthday and it was first published in 1945.

We took a vote today as to which Astrid Lindgren book is the favourite of our class. We have a treasure of stories to choose from thanks to her writing. Our top 4 are:

Tunia suggested that maybe your teacher could read The Lionheart Brothers out loud to you. We know that has been translated into English. Our two top choices are fantasy and a lot about the fight between good and evil. Most of her books have been turned into film also, and we love them all!

This week we visited the house of X-periments, an interactive science center. Tunia had a lot of fun. Here you can try experiments and try to figure out what happens while learning by doing. They also teach us all kinds of interesting facts about different subjects: the body, magnetism, space, etc.

This week we were told lots of facts about how space is being explored, and how it is to travel in space. Tunia asked if you can grow plants in space? Have you ever thought about that? (and how does an astronaut go to the bathroom?) They grow plants in special closed containers with special lighting, and it´s not an easy process.

If we want to go far out into space, we have to think of ways to bring food, they told us. They emphasized that what makes things like space travels possible is a vivid imagination. We have to think new thoughts to be able to do new things. We went back to school full of new thoughts and inspiration. Children are the future!

Every Thursday we go out for two hours in the afternoon. We have a forest very close to school and we try to go there every week. In Sweden we have the right to walk in any forrest without special permission from the land owner. We are very careful not to break twigs from living trees or bushes. We are very careful with fire, and we always pick up and take back everything that we brought with us. We learn very much from being out in the forest. We learn the names of plants and trees, and we play a lot together. When playing we learn how to play fair and to feel secure in the group. We get to know nature in all seasons, and we learn to enjoy nature very much.

When snow is here we try to make the most of it. We have been out on pulka twice during Tunia´s visit and we have been skating once. When we were skating we grilled hotdogs. They were delicious!

When we studied Småland we learned about a man named John Bauer who lived more than 100 years ago. He did fantastic drawings of trolls and princesses and other creatures that we enjoy making up stories about. The children and Tunia heard the story called Little Princess Tuvstarr and the Big Moose. It has nice drawings that Tunia enjoyed very much. This story explains that a very small white flower, which you can see in the forest, really is a little princess under a spell. The children made their own pictures of how they think a troll might look, adding an English touch - the Swedish flag.

The children have written texts about "My Växjö". This is the text that Emma wrote.

My Växjö.

Växjö is not very big, but there are 80,000 people living in town and the surrounding area. Växjö has a big dome that is well known. The dome is in the center of town. Carolina Klyft is a well-known athlete from our town. She is known all over the world. Växjö is also well known for Linné Park. There is a flower called Linnéa. It has its name from Carl von Linné who lived long ago. There are not many wild Linneas, but there are some. In Växjö you can also see Lily of the Valley (Liljekonvalj). There are lots of Lilys of the Valley in spring. There is another flower called Dandelion (maskros). Dandelion is a flower and a weed. We have lots of pine trees and fir trees in the forrest. There are birch trees too. There are some roe in Växjö. You can see quite a few hares in Växjö too. Moose can also be seen in Växjö. This is my town Växjö.

It is time for Tunia to hop into her little envelope and go back home. Thank you for coming. Your are very welcome back! Goodbye from "the Sun and the Moon", year 3 at Lillestadskolan in Växjö, Sweden. Have a safe trip home. We look forward to reading about your further travels.