SUMMER ACTIVITY SCHOOL

Today we all met up at the University of Oulu. Our two main activities for the day were visiting the marvelous, amazing and fabulous Fab Lab and exploring space with some visitors, so we divided everyone in two groups and set off to spend an exciting day. In Fab Lab, everyone got a cut out of what they had created on paper yesterday. Thank you to Antti and the rest of the Fab Lab personnel for showing us Fab Lab and letting us use your laser cutter! "I always thought the University was kind of boring, but now that we visited Fab Lab my opinion has changed. I might even consider studying here" said Frans. During our lunch break we played a "little" game of chess. While exploring space, we asked everyone what they knew about our solar system, "It's quite big" Tarmo replied. We also learnt about NASA projects, Mars, astronauts and many, many other space themed things thanks to our lovely visitors Richard and Suzy. Befor...

This morning, after a few games, we divided into four groups. The groups rotated between four stations which all shared one theme - bubbles! Bubbles with Fruit Nets and Cut up Bottles What you need: fruit nets, bottles with the bottoms cut off, glycerol, dish soap, water How to: Attach the fruit net over the hole you cut in the bottle, dip the end which is covered by the net into the water and blow into the mouth of the bottle During this activity students discovered new ways to make bubbles too! For instance, with bare hands or by using the bottle alone. Square Bubbles What you need: pipe cleaners, straws, dish soap, glycerol and water How to: Video tutorial Interesting shapes were created during this station, even ones not displayed in the instructions! Bouncy Bubbles What you need: gloves, sugar, glycerol, dish soap, water and a bubble wand How to: Mix the some sugar, glycerol, soap and water in a container and dip th...

During the second day we went to the park and solved the mystery of the missing cookies, learnt about idioms and had a special visit from Ken, who taught everyone how to make origami. We were also joined by Akane, a visitor all the way from Japan, who was a great help with the origami workshop. She will accompany us on other days too during summer school.  Here we have a very happy Karim in his natural habitat.  "The scavenger hunt was SUPER fun!" -Anna About origami: "It was really fun, I couldn't believe that i made it myself!" said Safina. To finish the day off some of the kids had a game of football and the others made more amazing origami creations.

"Done and dusted" is the first day of our English Summer Activity School, we started off with a few shy smiles, got to know each other and each other's names and by the end of the day we agreed all of us had fun. Here's some things we did on our first day: Lots of getting to know each other activities, Writing letters to our new secret friends, A brief football game, Wrote down words we learnt today in our own suitcases,  Walked to the park for more games, And got to know a special member of the SAS-staff - Mr. Broccoli.

LOOKING FORWARD TO IT Out went the SAS-welcome e-mail, and back came the replies from parents: “innolla odotetaan” and “… first time with English Summer Activity School. He’s looking forward to the next two weeks.” So how many people are waiting excitedly, apart from the two mentioned in those messages? We’re expecting 27 children aged 10-15, four assistants (youth workers) and three teachers – so there are at least 34 people looking forward to it. Well, ok, some of the 14 newcomer children might be slightly nervous too, ahead of the first morning, but they really needn’t be; since 12 SAS-2016-children are coming back for more this year, it must be fun, mustn’t it. Some things that have been going on behind the scenes: Emma (one of our teachers) has been practising blowing bubbles in her own kitchen. Tim and Anja (part of the teaching staff last year) are back with BAGS of enthusiasm :) 61 applicants tried for the OP-sponsored job of assistant. (Well done, Karim, and wel...