Our Winter Holiday Slide Show

Replies to our pen pals in France

Nos correspondants ont répondu!

Our friends in France have replied with a matching game, just like the one we sent them. They have drawn self portraits and written short descriptions of themselves on separate paper. It will be fun reading and figuring out who is who. For our next exchange, we will be writing about our school, community, city and province.

From Pen Pals to True Friendship

Have you ever had the experience of meeting a friend or relative, in person for the first time, after getting to know them from a distance? It is an interesting feeling - a combination of the familiar and the unexpected.

Last school year we very much enjoyed writing to and receiving letters, pictures and more from our pen pals in the village of Missaglia, Italy.  Learning about them, their school and community made me want to go and visit.  I wrote to Ms Panzeri with the idea and she was as excited as I was at the thought of getting to meet each other “in real life”.

On Thursday 31 July, after spending two weeks in France and Switzerland my husband and I took the train from Zermatt to Monza, Italy where we stayed overnight. The next morning, we took a bus to Missaglia, which took about half an hour.  Ms Panzeri met my husband and I at the bus stop in town.  We recognized each other right away.

Our first adventure was a walking tour of Missaglia.  There was a wedding going on in the local church but we snuck in to take a peak, being careful not to photo bomb their official photographs.  Next we went to the school which like King George PS was closed for summer break.  We were very lucky that the head caretaker kindly agreed to let us go in for a brief look around. We got to see their classroom and schoolyard and even some of their art projects.

Next, Ms Panzeri drove us to a nearby hill town called Montevecchia. Despite the hot, humid weather we walked up the 174 steps to the Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.  The views from the top are stunning.  Ms Panzeri had made a lunch reservation for us at the beautiful Ristorante Maggioni Montevecchia.  The décor is rustic and the scenery amazing.  I ordered the beetroot gnocchi which was delightful.  We enjoyed chatting over coffee and lemon sorbeto. For me it was interesting to hear that teaching in a small town in northern Italy has a lot in common with teaching in Toronto.

After our wonderful lunch, we went to Ms Panzeri’s house where we met her husband, son and daughter.  Neither of us could believe that after almost a year of corresponding by letter and email that I was really there in her home.  We exchanged gifts – I gave her a box of maple leaf shaped cookies flavoured with maple syrup and a book about Toronto and Niagara Falls.  I hope this inspires her to come and visit us sometime.  Ms Panzeri gave me a lovely sunflower wall plaque made by THUN pottery in Bolzano, Italy.  It will hang in my kitchen to remind me of our friendship and the wonderful day Ms Panzeri treated us to in Missaglia.  

In Ms Panerzi’s card she quoted the philosopher Epicuro: “Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship “. In her own words she added, “Life is a surprise! I hope you’ll remember your Italian friend forever”.

I certainly will. J

Postcards from Italy

When we received our latest package from Italy, we were surprised by the post cards our pen pals have made for us. Each one is has an illustration of a famous Italian landmark with some interesting information on the back. After a class discussion, we decided to make post cards too. Adding our own twist, they will have pictures of Canadian animals, sports, landmarks, food, and famous people. Finished post cards are due on Monday 5 May.

PowerPoint slide show from our pen pals in Missaglia, Italy

Missaglia, Italy from Annette Lloyd Thomas

Carnivale Masks

Masks, parades, masquerade balls, parties, practical jokes and confetti are all part of the fun of Carnivale celebrated in Italy this year between 15 Feb and Mar 4th. Our pen pals in Missaglia, Italy sent these exquisitely coloured masks with their letters which arrived yesterday. We'll be sending our replies next week, on stationery decorated with what we love about Canada and Toronto, with souvenir pencils. What is the population of Missaglia? Bring your answer written on a piece of paper to Mrs LT first thing Monday morning for a prize. :-)

Pen Pal Letters Arrive today from Durrës, Albania

Gentian,

My students were very excited to receive and read your students' letters today. We very much enjoyed the creative touches that they added. We welcome the newcomers and are happy that they have written to us too. 

Please tell your students not to share or ask of my students - last names, phone numbers, photos, email addresses, Skype, Facebook or other social networking accounts. My students are not allowed to share this kind of information. I'm sure that you will understand the reasons behind this school board policy.

As we work on our replies, we will look forward to getting the second envelope with the remaining letters. 

We will include some surprises for you and your class with our replies

Regards,

Annette

Here is a copy of the email I sent their teacher:

Late Breaking News

• Mrs L-T received an email from our pen pals in Italy on Friday which said that they have put their reply letters to us in the mail.
• No spelling the week of 16 December. We'll start 2014 with List 13 on 6 January.
• Scrabble Club: we'll eat lunch in the library on Wednesday this week to celebrate. This will be the last Junior Scrabble Club meeting.

Locations of our penpals' schools

Both the Italian and Albanian classes  received our packages in the mail last week. They are busily writing replies and their teachers will let me know by email when their letters have been mailed.

One class is in Durrës, which is the second largest city in Albania.  It is an ancient city, one of the oldest in the country. The population of Durrës is about 260 000. http://www.durres.gov.al/

The other class we are writing to is in Missaglia, Italy. It is in the northern part of the country in the region of Lombardy. Missaglia is a small community of about 7 800 people. http://www.comune.missaglia.lc.it/

On Their Way

Our introductory penpal letters and self-portraits are now in the post and speeding their way to our new friends in Italy and Albania. It will be very interesting finding out what their communities and daily routines are like compared to ours. We're starting Social Studies with some mapping skills this year and will locate our pen pals' schools to get a sense of where they are located.

Self Portraits

We drew self portraits and wrote introductory letters to our penpals in Italy and Albania. As soon as they are all complete we'll pop them into the post.

Can you guess who these Room 13 students are?