First Snow Fun

The luxus part of living in Finland is four seasons. Yesterday we got first snow. What a fun the students had when they saw snow flakes from classroom window!

Stay tuned for the next weeks when we start our new Entrepreneurship project "SnowHow"

Happy Autumn Holiday everyone!

Sports and fun

Sports and fun


Paula Vorne 2nd grade teacher


City of Oulu has been developing youth work in the past few years and students' opportunities to influence to the decisions that are made in the City council. Every year there is a big meeting where children bring ideas from every area of the city about things that they'd like to improve in their own area. There are ten groups in different parts of the city that the youth workers lead in co-operation with the schools. The schools send students from their student councils to the group. They are usually from the grades 6, 7, 8 and 9.

This week is the "Week of Good deeds" and every youth group at the city planned some kind of activity that they implemented for some other group in the area. It could be something for a kindergarten, elderly people or for one of the schools. In our area the 1st and 2nd graders of Patamäki school were the lucky ones and today the youth group came to our school and organized a sports day for our youngest students.

Group had planned six different activities where the 1st and 2nd graders tried mini bowling, some dancing and stretching and precision throwing of matches, played floor ball and a traditional Finnish outdoor game called "puuropata" = "porridge pot". They also played an outdoor game called "Steal the flag".

The event was a huge success, the older students handled the younger students' groups really well and the younger students really enjoyed the activities. Even though the students didn't know each other in advance the co-operation was effortless and when the day was over we welcomed the youth group for another visit anytime!

Track and Field Competition

Track and Field Competitions
Mrs. Sanna Kokko 3rd Grade Teacher

On September 3rd we held track and field competitions for all the students of 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th grade in Maikkula Comprehensive School. The students from the Secondary school helped teachers to organize the competitions and worked as officials. Weather that day was really sunny and the atmosphere at the competition was really good.

The 3rd and 4th grade students competed in three different sports which were 60 meters, 600 meters and long jump. The 5th and 6th grade had four different sports: 60 meters, 600 meters, shot put and turbojavelin.

Students got points from each sport according to their performance and the points were added together. After we got all the results calculated we gathered all the students to the school gym and rewarded three best girls and boys from each grade with medals. We also noticed the students who had been representing our school in the track and field and orienteering competitions of the city of Oulu.

Congratulations to all the rewarded students!

Should the Classroom be Quiet?

Should the classroom be quiet?

Teachers from Patamäki, Oulu, Finland:

Mr. Jukka Miettunen

Mrs. Paula Vorne

Mr. Timo Fordell

Mrs. Kaisa Loponen

The most common issue talked about Finnish schools at the moment is the noise in the classrooms. Teachers are complaining that they cannot concentrate in teaching and parents that their children don’t learn because of the disturbance. The sound of “shhhh” is often heard. This reminds us the times when teacher was standing in front of the class and the children were strictly listening. But world has changed, learners and learning has changed. Should we do something else in the classrooms also?

This is once again a question about how we learn, different learning styles and the working methods used in teaching and learning. Our school Patamäki Primary has used collaborative methods for several years. All the work is based on sitting in groups that change at least once a month. Teachers act as counselors of learning more than lecturers.  Vice versa the students act as active learners instead of passive responders. Once the instructions are given, materials and resources shared and technology selected, students start working in groups. The group members have different roles that vary depending on the work. We emphasize the individual, group and class accountability from the students. While working the whole school is a learning environment which we have tried to change comfortable and motivating by furnishing, colors and technology like wlan, laptops and tablets available.

Working this way the noise is there. We love the sound of children solving problems together. They talk, sometimes shout, agree and disagree. We call it “controlled positive noise”. Usually after a while they come to a mutual understanding and you can imagine the light in their eyes when they’ve discovered and learned something new together.

In every class there are pupils who prefer moving and being active while learning. It is hard to sit still. It is important that the teachers can canalize the energy right to support the working. A possibility to choose the learning environment and versatile co-operative working methods helps a lot.

You must give up complete silence because the co-operation claims talking and discussing. The perfect school day must contain also moments of silence.

2nd Graders in an International Project

Our 2nd graders have completed the nonverbal portion in collaboration with friends in Colombia, U.S and Australia were they worked to overcome language barriers to share ideas. They will continue their friendship and connection throughout the year working to teach each other their own languages and share learning.

LIKE TO KNOW MORE? CLICK HERE

Visitors from Denmark

Mr. Jukka Miettunen
pedagogical manager

As known Patamäki is a Pathfinder school in Microsoft's PIL-program. So are the Danish schools from Silkeborg: Virklund school, Vestre skolen and Kjellerup who were visiting three days us and Metsokangas school this week.

16 school leaders, teachers and pedagogs spent time getting know Finnish school system, doing hands on in the classroom together with teachers and students and visiting museums, Tietomaa science center and our learning center Oppis. One target was also the Timosenkoski Nature School.

We had also evening activities like sauna and swimming in +5C sea :)

Everyone learned from each other and got new innovations and practices to implement in own work. How similar are we thinking about the school reform and future skills!

3rd and 4th graders in the autumn forest

Mrs. Kaisa Loponen 4th grade teacher
Mrs. Sanna Kokko, 3rd grade teacher

Early in the September morning the 3rd and 4t graders of our school left school to go and have a trip to forest. The bagbags were full of warm clothes, packed lunch and hot chocholoade. A trip of few kilometers was nice with the bikes. After leaving the bikes they had to walk a while to destination.

 The students divided to groups and every group's first task was to build a wood house for themselves. While building they figured out names for the group. After the work it was lunch time. The groups worked together co-operatively planning stories: what happens in forest after leaving, who is moving to our house and what kind of creatures capture them. The work continues in the classroom following days combining Finnish studies and art. They examined also trees, measured heights and calculated ages. They played also Capture the Flag-game.

The goal for the day was to get familiar with the other class, problem solving, creativity and have fun in the forest with bright autumn colors. All the goal were reached and the day was a success. For now on the co-operation between the classes goes well and naturally.

The day was so nice that we are going to do it again some day!