A short story (6-9 years old).

I don´t want to be mashed potatoes.

Once upon a time there where two potatoes called Old and Fresh. They where the best of friends. Old and Fresh lived in a refrigerator and the thing they where most afraid of where mashed potatoes. They where absolutely terrified of ending up as mashed potatoes.

One day the mother of the house said: “Let´s eat mashed potatoes.” Old and Fresh got really scared and decided that they had to escape. When the door to the refrigerator opened, they quickly rolled out, down on a bench and finally through an open window. When they landed on the street, a taxi pulled up and they quickly rolled on. The taxi drove them to the beach.

On the beach Fresh said: “Let´s lay in the sun for a bit.” “What a good idea!” Old replied. But after a while in the sun they noticed that they had become soft. “What has happened?” Fresh asked frightened. “I don´t know, we have to ask a doctor.” said Old.

They went to a doctor and asked him: “What´s wrong with us? Why are we soft?” The doctor answered them that they had become baked potatoes. “Oh no,” said Old. “Is there nothing to be done?” “Yes,” the doctor replied, “You can become mashed potatoes.” Terrified they rolled away.

Suddenly they hit a sign. On the sign it said “Bath-house”. They rolled inside but Old didn´t look out so he fell into the pool. Fresh laughed at him and Old got a angry so he said to Fresh “Hop in, it´s warm and wonderful.” So Fresh jumped in the pool. Now they where both cold and wet so they went in to the sauna to get warm again. But Old and Fresh had never been in a sauna so they laid on the lava stones. “Aooo!!!” they both screamed and ran as fast as they could to another doctor.

“Please, help us.” they asked the doctor. “What has happened to us?” The doctor answered that they had become grilled potatoes. “Is there nothing to be done?” Old asked. “Yes,” said the doctor. “You can become mashed potatoes.” Terrified they rolled away.

They were in such a hurry so they happened to roll in to a Chinese restaurant and the chef got a hold of them. Before they realised what had happened the chef had chopped them up into wedges. Now they had to get out before someone ate them. They hopped out in to the street and there they found a bottle. They thought that they perhaps could hide inside the bottle so they opened it.

Out of the bottle came a jinni. The jinni said that they had freed him so for this they got three wishes. “Oh, then I wish that we where whole potatoes again,” said Fresh. “And I wish that we where home again in out refrigerator.” said Old. “Okey, done,” said the jinni, “but what is your third wish?” “We wish that we never again have to hear about mashed potatoes” they both said at the same time. Poof!!

Old and Fresh then lived happily ever after in their refrigerator... but after about a week they started to mold so the mother of the house through them out, but that is another story all together.

All is well that ends well!!

ICT tools in primary school, the modern world?

ICT tools in primary school, the modern world?

This is an argumentative essay where I will discuss my thoughts on why ICT belongs in primary school.

Today’s society moves in an incredible speed and in a very near future computers will be a necessity in our lives. Most people can not do their everyday life without a computer but there still exist some people who don´t own a computer or even have used one. We as teacher have an obligation to make sure that schools don´t become obsolete and out of date. Nowadays, school is not the number one place for learning but we have to change that trend so that schools will be considered an absolute necessity for learning. I think that computers in primary school is a first step towards this.

Research shows that children can learn to read by writing but not all of them have developed their fine motor ability at the age of 7. If they learn to write at a computer they don´t have to have the same fine motor ability and they can just concentrate on learning the letters and how they sound.

Children of today are very good at computers. Most of them learnt how to use a computer in kindergarten and they love sitting by a computer. So by bringing computers in to school we give children an opportunity to meet something that they know, are familiar with and think is fun. And as we all know, when we think something is fun, we learn more easily.

In this argumentative essay I have argued for the use of ICT tools in primary school. I have shown why I think it is an absolute necessity. ICT tools should be a complement in our ordinary education! Further more, the curriculum states that we should work with computers with our students and that puts an end for this discussion.

letter to parents 14/11

Falköping 14 November 2011

Dear Mr and Mrs Mamudh,

I´m writing to you in regards of your son, Hanad. He has been in our class for almost a year now and I feel like I have gotten to know him quite well. Hanad has always done his homework and he has always tried his best in school, but lately he has been tired and he seems a bit sad. The last three weeks he has not been doing his homework, he says that he has forgotten it.

During breaks he wants to be alone and that is not like him at all. When the other kids tries to talk to him, he screams at them to leave him alone or he pushes them away. I´ve tried to talk to him at school but he says that nothing is wrong, but I´m really worried about him. Can you think of a reason why he seems so sad? You, as his parents, knows him best and perhaps you can get him to open up. If you are aware of what´s happened, perhaps you can more easily start a conversation with what you already know. I would be grateful if you let me know if you can think of anything that I can do to help him. Please inform me as soon as possible if you know why he is so sad and tired. This is starting to affect his performance at school and I hope that we can help him so that he becomes the happy boy that we all know and care for.

If you have any more questions please call me at 0515-88 22 11.

Best regards

Your sons teacher,

Therese Kivelä

Getting started

Hi and welcome to my blogg!
I´ve just started to read the first part of this grammatic course and I realise that it will be quite difficult. I remember things like "word classes" and "grammatical phrases" to some extent but what are other elements such as "determiners", "premodifiers" and "postmodifiers"? For the moment I don´t understand it at all but perhaps I will understand it after the first lesson.
God luck to the rest of you and best wishes.