The last school week before Christmas (14. – 18. 12. 2015)

December, the time of ziemassvētkus, piparcūkas, handcraft and Christmas songs reached its height in the last school week. Each day had another motto in this week. On Monday there was a market in which parents showed what they work with. Līnards sold his ziemas wine, Sandra offered her nuts and noodles, Mūnas and Nīlus mother showed her clothes. Of course many parents offered their products in the market.  On Tuesday everybody dressed white – it was the socalled „baltajā dienā”.  Each class was busy with Christmas decorations, baking piparcūkas and preparing for the final concert. The ķekatu diena on Thursday meant that children dressed up as animals. There were bears, cats, rabbits, urchins and many other. Moreover on Thursday the rehearsal for the Chrismtas concert took place. The whole school drove with the bus to Ikšķiles Dome and practiced the show.

Ziemassvētku koncerts (18.12.2015)

Friday evening the performance of the Christmas concert took place. Children were excited because they were going to perform on stage, sing and dance. The audience, mostly parents and family, were very curious to see what will happen. Each class had his little theatre piece. The pieces were about animals and children were dressed suitable for it. They danced together, sang together – also teachers participated in the piece. After the theatre, the guitar group played a concert and showed what they learned so far. There was also a presentation of Christmas songs in different languages. Our native Spanish speaker Karolīna sang a Spanish song together with the little children. Our volunteers from Germany and Austria taught a german Christmas song with children, parents and teachers and performed this on stage. The final song was in Latvian. All children and teachers joined this song. After the official part of the concert there was time for talking, eating and playing. It was a great and successful evening for children, teachers and parents.

Presentation of the kokle book (19.12.2015)

In our school the music instrument Kokle has a big importance. In summer there came the
idea of Kristīne that there should be an easy book in order to learn this beautiful instrument. Thats why a team consisting of Kristīne, Julgī, Evija, Evita and Zane created a Kokle learning book for beginners and advanced players. The presentation of this book was a big event. The hall of the school was turned into a very special atmosphere. The floor was covered with hay and there was a long table on which traditional Christmas food was placed. Musicians came and played the songs from the book, accompanied by singing, violin and flute. It was a stunning atmosphere, beautiful voices, sounds and traditional dresses. You felt like in another century. During this evening Reinis presented his alternative music instruments for which will be place in a room in the school.

Ziemas restorans and Christmas rituals (19.12.2015)

After the Kokle presentation it was not already time to go home. Each season, our chefs Liene and Irina cook a seasonal menu. For this occasion parents, children but also people and friends apart from school are welcomed for a dinner in a nice atmosphere. The pupils are waiters and take their task very serious. After this tasty dinner we celebrated a traditional ritual: a big trunk was pulled around the house in order to catch all the negative things which
happened during the year. Each person could kick the trunk to put negative incidents or experience in it. This ritual should make you happy for the new year and you can get rid of negative feelings. Afterwards we burned the trunk in a bonfire outside and sang songs.
These Christmas days in school were events to celebrate different but very authentic. You felt happy and satisfied. Now it was time to go home and spend time with his dearest ones.