Amazing Kids! is proud to highlight the Amazing Kids! of the Month!

Each month, we showcase kids who are accomplishing amazing things.  We hope that by telling their special stories, we will inspire other kids to accomplish their own amazing achievements. 

Students fromSolbakkeskolen Elementary School, Jægerspris, Denmark

" Originally we had intended that the grandparents should tell about a thing or a place that had a history or meant something special to them. Some of them has given us this type of stories, but we have also received other stories which tells that family - children, grandchildren and friends has been important to them, so we have decided to accept all the stories, because we can learn something from all of them. " 

Our May, 2001 Amazing Kids! of the Month story features the amazing work of students involved in the Grandparent Project, at Solbakkeskolen Elementary School, Jægerspris, Denmark and Fredensborg Skole, Fredensborg, Denmark!  We are also proud to salute their dedicated teachers, parents, and grandparents from Denmark and their English correspondence with students from Estonia!  The project is headed by two amazing teachers, Nina Lund of Fredensborg Skole and Jane Hansen of Sobakkenskolen. Amazing Kids! is pleased to feature their story, about an exciting multi-generational and multi-cultural project! 

Over a 4 year period, these adventurous students acted like modern day explorers, oral historians and sleuths, uncovering the stories about their grandparents' childhood memories...from the best source possible:  their grandparents!  The result: The Grandparents' Project!  The project recently was awarded a special prize in the first annual Global Junior Challenge Competition in Rome, Italy!  To see a picture of their medal, click here.

As you read their amazing stories, think about your own grandparents.  How much do you know about their childhoods?  Who knows?  Maybe the Grandparent Project will inspire you to investigate your own grandparents' childhoods, or perhaps your teacher and classmates might want to try a similar project in your classroom!

Table of Contents 

THE GRANDPARENT PROJECT PART 1
Co-operation Between the Generations; Grandparents' childhood memories made as comics by 4.B Solbakkeskolen 1998/99

THE GRANDPARENT PROJECT PART 2: Things - Places - Persons - Memories That We Remember and Cherish

THE GRANDPARENT PROJECT PART 3 : Co-operation between Generations and Nations; Parents' childhood memories made as comics by 5.B Solbakkeskolen 2000 

THE GRANDPARENT PROJECT PART 4: Co-operation between generations and nations; Pupils' childhood memories made as comics by 6.B Solbakkeskolen, 2000/2001
 

For the first phase of the project, participants included 3rd grade students from Solbakkeskolen and Fredensborg Skole ("school"), their parents and grandparents. Subjects involved: Danish, history, geography, art, sports and math.  For their material, they used old toys, schoolbooks, photos and stories from the grandparents. Audiovisual aids included e-mail, a scanner, a digital camera, and a regular camera. 

 Some of the things that the students learned included:

• Communication via cooperation between pupils, teachers, grandparents and the local     community 
• The pupils' participation in decision making e.g. by the brainstorm and by making     questions for the questionaire 
• Danish - oral and written 
• Confidence in using various electronic aids
• Responsibility (e.g. when making arrangements with the grandparents and by answering the questions)
• Interdiciplinary teaching - They learned Danish, history, geography, art, sports and math

In the questionnaire, they asked their grandparents questions like: 

 1.   Which toys did you have as a child? 
 2.   What was your favourite toy? 
 3.   Was there a toy you wanted very much, and didn't get? 
       Which?   - Why didn't you get it? 
 4.   What was the most popular toy for boys/girls? 
 5.   Which materials were most toys made of? 
 6.   Bought toys vs. homemade toys - Did you make your toys yourself? 
       Did your parents make toys for you? 

Here are some of the grandparents' answers: 
http://www.dpu.dk/it/espdk/bedste/engelsk1c.htm

The students and their grandparents also wrote each other letters using the Internet.  Here are some of the letters they wrote to each other: 
http://www.dpu.dk/it/espdk/bedste/engelsk1d.htm

The students marked a map with all the places their grandparents lived when they were children: 
http://www.dpu.dk/it/espdk/bedste/engelsk1e.htm

The students played some of the games their grandparents played as children: 
http://www.dpu.dk/it/espdk/bedste/engelsk1f.htm

The students made a record of the kinds of toys that were most popular with the girls and boys of their grandparents youth.  They also compared what the toys were made of with toys today!  In their grandparents' youth, plastic was not yet invented, so most of the toys were made of wood, metal, paper, clay, and fabric!  http://www.dpu.dk/it/espdk/bedste/engelsk1g.htm

The students and their grandparents took a trip to a doll museum, to see some of the old dolls that their grandparents used to play with:  http://www.dpu.dk/it/espdk/bedste/engelsk1h.htm 

Their grandparents even visited their grandchildren at school! 
http://www.dpu.dk/it/espdk/bedste/engelsk1i.htm
 
 

THE GRANDPARENT PROJECT PART 2:
Things - Places - Persons - Memories That We Remember and Cherish
http://www.dpu.dk/it/espdk/bedste/2eng1a.htm

In this phase of the project,  9 - 11 year olds from 3 schools participated:

1) Unipiha Alkhool in Estonia
2) Solbakkeskolen and
3) Fredensborg Skole in Denmark 

The pupils had just started learning English during that year, so they were just beginners. This project helped them learn about different cultures between not only generations, but between other countries. 

They learned to describe themselves and their family members. Then they took photographs of themselves to send to their penpals in Estonia.  They wrote descriptions of themselves according to the photo they sent. 

They took photos (http://www.dpu.dk/it/espdk/bedste/2eng1d.htm) with a digital camera and printed them, so they could tell about the type of clothes they were wearing and their colours, their hair cut etc.  They also told about their hobbies and interests, and about their pets and what type of home they were living in. 

Here are the questions they had to answer about themselves: 
http://www.dpu.dk/it/espdk/bedste/2eng1b.htm 

Here is a sample of a questionnaire completed by one of the students: 
http://www.dpu.dk/it/espdk/bedste/2eng1c.htm 

In the next part of the project, they asked their grandparents to write stories about their childhood memories, and the pupils transcribed their stories into a computer.  First, the children read their grandparents story aloud, then they made a strip cartoon.  They made a speech balloon & wrote text in the balloons that fit the story of their cartoons. 

Here are their grandparents' stories and the comics which the students created to go along with them: http://www.dpu.dk/it/espdk/bedste/2eng1e.htm

The material was exhanged among 3 schools:  1) 4.B Solbakkeskolen, Denmark, 2) 4.B Fredensborg Skole, Denmark and 3) Unipiha Algkool, Estonia in 1998/99. 

THE GRANDPARENT PROJECT PART 3:  Co-operation between Generations and Nations; Parents' childhood memories made as comics by 5.B Solbakkeskolen 2000 
http://solbakkeskolen.jpkom.dk/4B_hjemmeside/PARENT/parent.html

For this phase of the project, in 2000, the students asked their parents to write about their own childhood memories.  Then the students created comics describing their parents' childhood stories.

Here are their parents' childhood memories and the comics which the students created to go along with them: 
http://www.dpu.dk/it/espdk/bedste/Part3/3parent.html

This time, the material was exhanged among 4 schools: 

1) 5.B Solbakkeskolen, Denmark 
2) 5.B Fredensborg Skole, Denmark 
3) Rakke Gymnasium, Estonia 
4) Unipiha Algkool, Estonia 

Some grandparents visited their grandchildren's classrooms!

THE GRANDPARENT PROJECT PART 4:  Co-operation between Generations and Nations; Pupils' childhood memories made as comics by 6.B Solbakkeskolen, 2000/2001

In this part of the project, in 2001, students wrote about their own chilhood memories and drew comics to describe their memories through pictures:

http://solbakkeskolen.jpkom.dk/4B_hjemmeside/pupil/pupil.html

The Danish language version of this material was sent to their partner schools: 

1) 6.B Fredensborg Skole, Denmark 
2) 7.B Løkkeberg skolen, Norway. 

The English language version of the material was sent to their partner schools: 

1) Rakke Gymnasium, Estonia 
2) Unipiha Algkool, Estonia
 

TO LEARN MORE:

If you want to learn more about Solbakkeskolen Elementary School or the Grandparent Project, visit their homepage at:  http://solbakkeskolen.jpkom.dk/4B_hjemmeside/4Bhome.htm

or contact the amazing teachers who are the project directors:

Nina Lund, Fredensborg Skole, Benediktevej 7, 3480 Fredensborg 
Jane Hansen, Solbakkeskolen, Solbakkevej 28, 3630 Jægerspris