Live From Camp Malmö

"The spirit of a warrior resides within you."

One thing that I enjoy about the school here in Malmö, is the inspirational student work that covers the school. The work gives the a cozy feeling that it would be missing if it were not there! 
Even the teacher bathrooms are decorated with art! I snapped the picture below on the way to 
Swedish class with my students. In Swedish class, I got to experience Swedish bingo. A little 
different than back home, but the kids loved it. One of the students did a victory dance once he 
won! I would say some of the numbers sound similar to

English, but others not so much…….

Fish Burgers were on the menu for lunch, I'll share about that experience at a later time. After 
lunch, the students and teachers both have a 30 minute break! (Except for when the teacher has
outside duty.) They also have a 30 minute break during the morning schedule. Safe to say, the 
teacher breaks here are much better than the teacher breaks in the US! I also wish students back home had these long breaks to run around more!

After break, it is “Unit” time. The class has a different unit theme each grading period. The current theme is transportation. It's near the end of the unit, so students have been split into groups. Each group has a different mode of transportation that they have to create a Google Slides 
presentation and models made from recycled materials. Wednesday, was building day for their 
models. It was fun walking around seeing what the different groups were making and how their 
ideas were coming to life! Seeing all the hard work that they have put into the unit, makes me 
more excited to experience their presentations. I already know that I will be very impressed!

I have a Noah and a Yassin in my classroom in Malmö, as well as in my classroom back home! 
Swedish Noah is natural leader in his class with a very warm personality. He always runs to greet me with a hug! Swedish Yasin (spelled only with one “s”) is the SPED student in classroom with an artistic eye and a friendly smile. I took a picture of them to send back to my Noah and Yassin at 
home! I also filmed Swedish Noah saying hello to the American Noah. He was excited to help me out with Flat Stanley.

Copenhagen, Denmark is a short train ride from Malmö. Chandler, Hailey, and I decided to venture out to Copenhagen to check out the picturesque Nyhavn area after school. The walk to Nyhavn 
was a short distance from the train station we came into. Nyhavn was a vibrant area that became
the perfect background for pictures. We walked around the area, grabbed some souvenirs 
(postcards and an ornament to add to my collection!), and ate some cheesy gnocchi for dinner. 
Copenhagen was filled with a lot more people than our Malmö. I felt the busy-ness from the 
moment we came up from the underground station. I loved what I saw in Copenhagen, and can't
wait for another after school adventure there! If you have any recommendations, send them my 
way!! However, I’m thankful we are staying in a more quaint city during the weekday.

#keepingitreal

I love the word "love"..... so a picture was needed, of course! 

Thursday started off with drama class! I loved it!! The teacher divided the class into three groups. She gave each group a prop and two character words to use as themes in the skit. The groups 
split into their groups and started working on their skits. The room became filled with laughter. It 
was nice to see the students using their imagination and being silly! I wish kids back home had  
more chances to do these types of activities in school! One group of girls danced to Micheal 
Jackson's song Thriller and I got to be their DJ! One girl is quite the character and has the dance moves to match! Another group had a tiara as a prop and "respect" as one of their two words. One of the students, came up with the theme behind the skit. In the skit, one of the boy students puts on the tiara and becomes a girl. The girl explained that the boy was transgender, and the other people in the skit respected that decision. I was surprised to hear this! I cant imagine students back home talking about this subject so eloquently.

Squinty eyes, but these girls are the sweetest!

The day ended up being full of the arts because the students had art class in the afternoon. No matter the country, I feel like every art room looks the same - messy in it's own organized way. To me, it is a true representation of the way an artist thinks, definitely, outside the box! While in art, my students continued to work on assembling their transportation models. Next class, they get to paint them!

In the afternoon I got to sit with Yasin during his free time. He wanted me to draw a picture of him, though I think his skills beat me for sure. I wrote his name in cursive and he was very intrigued. This turned into a little cursive lesson/practice with his name! The students are actually starting to learn the cursive vowels in class. This is not something I see in schools very often back home, and it makes me a little sad. I remember in my elementary school that writing in cursive was almost a law and print was a big no-no till middle school. I feel that cursive is becoming a lost art!

The gals and I went for an afternoon stroll through Pildammsparken, a huge park in Malmö. We strolled past this enormous lake with a thin sheet of ice laying on top. There were so many birds on the ice that it made quite the sight when they all flew away. We tried some Swedish candy during our stroll, safe to say we were not a fan of the licorice, toffee flavored candy. I will stick with my chocolate, thank you very much! A little section of the park had small weights and outdoor exercise machines. Hailey demonstrated rope climbing for us. She is always down to provide the entertainment! Hailey also runs an instagram account, @dogsabroad! Highly recommend following. She posts pictures of the dogs we see around Europe! We saw a picturesque scene of a dog with his owner sitting on these stairs by the frozen water. I told Hailey that she should go ask to take a picture, the worst they could say is no! Plus, after the encounter we would never see them again. I even told her to tell them we were journalist haha. She didn't go that route, but we did get to meet the dog and get some pictures! #doitforthegram. All in all, It was a beautiful, winter day in the park! I can only imagine it’s beauty during the summer or when the leaves start to change! On the way home from the park, we walked through Malmö Trianglen Station (the train station closest to us & the school!) I wanted to walk through the entrance opposite from us to experience the design of the station as a whole. #justkayleighthings

Think I could find this tile in Texas???

Friday, was filled with student council, another day of Swedish class, and P.E.! Student council is held within their own classrooms. One student leads the discussion, while one acts as the secretary and writes down notes from the meeting. The topic this week was: What can we do to make our school better? Their suggestions were to clean up more after themselves to help the cleaning ladies and ideas to make the break time more safe for students. In Swedish class, I got to observe some of the students using the app Duolingo. In P.E., the students were timed during an obstacle course and were even given little paper metals. Starting in PYP3, students start to shower after P.E..... maybe something the States should do as well.

After school, we headed back to our Malmö home to change rooms. We have decided to call the 
new room Cabin #2 to honor the #campmalmö theme we got going. It is spacious compared to our last room, with the added bonus of a huge window! Also, all three beds are spaced on one wall. 
Major camp vibes going on.

Camp Malmö girls are now headed off to Berlin for the weekend & we are excited for the new 
adventures to come!

Hugs,

KayLeigh