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TTTTHE HE HE HE CCCCOOOOMMMMBBBBILYILYILYILY WITH A SMILEY 5th Edition, December 2012

Comenius’ special TTO Newsletter

RMO/naturalis We didn’t even cross one period at school,

and already we were going on a school trip.

Like it was fun, that is. First, we visited

Naturalis. There, we learned about

prehistoric animals. We had kind of a quiz. I

was in a group with Kamya and Esmee. We

got a beek of a duck. We had to answer

questions about it. Some people even got

complete legs of animals! The rooms were

quite impressive. At certain point, you had

to go to a central room with a lot of stuffed

animals and search up names and

everything. At certain point there even was

a computer wich followed all the corners of

evolution to show you where the species

was created! Seriously, there were

hundreds of black pipes hanging at the

ceiling which would light up if you entered a

name of an animal on the screen.

After that, we visited the RMO (Royal

Museum of Old times). By foot. We must

better not complain, we should be even

lucky that those museums were both in

Leiden! However, when we arrived there,

we got a little quiz (again) about the Ancient

Egypt. Only this time we didn’t get an

animal’s part, but we had to walk through

halls bursting with Egyptian artifacts! We

saw Egyptian mummies, canopes and also

tools and even games! It was fun. After the

quiz, we got a paper from mr Roelevink,

who was coming along. He gave us the

assignment to draw some artifacts, and later

on we had to use them to decorate our

tomb, or, in every case, get inspired for it.

Then we walked all the way back to

Naturalis, into the bus (!!!) and headed back

home. Afterwards, when I’m writing this

now, I think: why couldn’t that bus come to

us at the RMO to pick us up? Nah, hiking is

good for you. Sometimes I am a little softie.

Sometimes.

By Bastiaan te Veldhuis (L1f)

________________________________________

CAPELLE A/D IJSSELCAPELLE A/D IJSSELCAPELLE A/D IJSSELCAPELLE A/D IJSSEL

School together with precipitation,

Causes a lot of frustration.

All the homework is confusing,

But our friends, they are amusing.

Fire fighters and police,

They return the wanted peace.

Not handy,

Dog friendly.

By Jari Elferink and Anne den Drijver (V2b)

CROSS-CURRICULAR PROJECT THE US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS EP KANS PROJECT

Read about L1f’s “Egypt

Project” and V2b’s

“Industrial Age Project”.

P. 2

Find out how TTO2 and TTO3

prepared for the 2012 US

Presidential Elections

P. 3

TTO pupils describe the

Netherlands to the pupils of

Sint Maarten’s St. Dominic

High. …P. 7

The pupils of TTO1, TTO2 and TTO3

thought of and wrote the entire

contents of the Combily Newsletter on

their own. Their articles are evidence of

what they can do after one, two and

three years of lessons respectively.

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Combily news Egypt Project The first period we have been busy with the

Egypt project. With different lessons we do

something for our project. With history we

made in groups a presentation about one

special thing from Egypt. We worked

approximately five to six lessons about it.

After that lessons we must had to do a

presentation. Some children presented it on

the evening that the parents came. The

other children also presented it in the class

for a mark. My topic was about the

mummies in Egypt. My group was

Stephanie, Iva, Noëlle and I. For English we

also have made a presentation. This time

needed your presentation about a important

person in Egypt. We did it in pairs. I did it

with Jooske about Hatshepsut. For math

some children make a presentation about

Egyptians fractions and sums. It was a very

nice project and I learned a lot!

By Aimee van Zijdervelt (L1f)

______________________________________________

Industrial Revolution For the subject history we had to make an

assigment titled: Industrial Revolution and

child labour in 19th century England.

First the teacher had 3 groups mixed with

boys and girls.

In the beginning we all had to read the first

pages of the book called introduction where

the topic is explained and what child labour

actually means. After that you had to make a

task division so that every group member

will investigate a couple of sources.

Number one does: source 4-9

Number two does : source 10-15

Number three does : source 16-19

The first four sources were part of the

intoduction.

Second thing to do was to make a diagram

based on the information given in the

sources.

The diagram consisted of these properties:

-Age of the childeren

-Working hours

-Kind of work

-Working condition

-Treatment

-Effects of the work/treatment.

When every member of your group filled in

the diagram you had to make one diagram

out of it and you had to look for the right use

of English and explaining words to each

other.

Finally we had to write down our

conclusions and well motivated suggestions

to improve treatment of working childeren.

By Raja Ramlochan Tewari

______________________________________________

I wish I would be…

Oh so many homework

When I get home from school

Theres no time for relaxing

Or swimming in the pool.

I am such an old man

Sitting here alone

I’d wish I could go back to school

Having prank-calls on the

telephone.

If I was able to drive a car

It would be so cool

I would never have to cycle

again

That rudicles ride to school.

I wish I could still drive my car

Just to travel along the day

I’d go driving around town

Just to get away.

But when I’m old I can’t be child

And everything is serious

I couldn’t go playing outside

That would be hideous.

Although I’m old I am still happy

Having my family around

I love them and they love me

That’s what life’s about.

By: Jordy van Vliet and

Anouk de Visser

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Combily news US presidential elections

Obama! Obama! NO Romney! Romney!

On November the 2nd 2012 we had our first lesson about

the US presidential elections.

We had to start finding information for our essay in the

computer room.

Therefore we had an

own paper with

exercises about

searching the

answer on some facts, like :’’who

was the first president ever in the US?, or how many

different had the US until the upcoming elections?

We also could vote ourselves for Obama or Romney,

everybody vote for Obama ( of course ).

On the sixth of November there was a girl in our

lesson.

Her name is Angelie, she comes from the US and now

she lives in the Netherlands.

She could vote by e-mail, but she forgot it, and had no

time to do any research how to vote.

When she voted she would vote for Mitt Romney.

Finally on Wednesday the 7th we know Obama won the

elections. He could rule for another 4 years.

As a closing of the project Ms. Verdel arranged a meeting

with Mr. Jaap Hoeksma.

We played the Eurocracy game which was about

understanding the European Union, and becoming the president of the EU.

By Jordy van Vliet (V2b)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

My favorite school…My dream school…

The school where your friends are millionairs,

The school where homework is fun,

The school where you have a strange state of

affairs,

The school where everyone is number one.

But let’s be realistic now….

The school where your friends are common

people,

The school where homework is boring.

The school where everything has to be legal,

The school where everyone is yawning.

Although the reality is nothing like the school

where I want to be,

Comenius College is my favorite school, and I

think everyone here does agree.

By Nigina and Amelie (V2b)

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Combily news

US presidential elections (cont.)

______________________________________________

Poetry Project Hello everyone, we are Denilson and

Rathraj. We will give you some information

about the poetry project we all did in class,

why did we do it and was it useful.

We needed to make a poetry binder in

which we could put our work and hand it in.

The second thing we did was to search for a

poem on the internet and read it aloud in

class. We also needed to give our opinion

about that poem. After that we did some

assignments from the hand-out the teacher

gave us. The hand-out contained

assignments which you need creativity for

and a good vocabulary. We all learned how

we need to make a poem, what kind of

poems there are and how to give your

opinion about a poem expand your

vocabulary and improve your

pronunciation.

The final assignment we had to do in class

was to read a limerick aloud in front of the

class. All of us did a presentation about

poetry. It looked like everybody has done a

good job. The purpose of this project is to

learn all kind of things about poetry, expand

your vocabulary and maybe do something

with poetry in the future.

We are still working on the poetry project at

home and try to get the best out of it.

We need to hand in our poetry binder with

the project somewhere in January.

By Rathraj & Denilson (V2b)

______________________________________________

“Great Expectations” In a couple of weeks we will present

you a radio drama.

But first we needed a story for the

radio drama.

That’s when great expectations came

by, it’s a book about a young boy pip.

When on one day Pip walks in the

marshlands a man grabs him by the

arm, it’s a prisoner escaped from the

boat. He asks Pip to bring him a file, a

loaf of bread, and some brandy.

The next night this convict was caught

again and send to Australia with the

prison ship.

A while later miss Havisman ( a mean

old lady) asks Pip to come to her house

and play over there.

When Pip went to the house a couple

of times he got some money from miss

Havisman and became Joe’s (the

husband of his sister) apprentice.

After a couple of weeks a man came to

him and said that someone wanted to

make him into a gentlemen and gave

him money to study in londen.

He wasn’t allowed to ask who was so

generous to him.

After living a couple of years in London

a strange man appeared on his

doorstep.

He was the convict that he helped

when he was young.

The man gave Pip all of his money for

his study but died when they tried to

put him on a boot to a foreign land

where he would be safe.

By Kylian Klapwijk

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Combily news Kanamori visits the Comenius

college

Toshiro Kanamori travelled begin

September through the Netherlands,

fortunately he was prepared to visit our

school, a consummate honour.

The afternoon of September the 11th

V2B and V3B (TTO year 2 and 3) had

the privilege to meet Japan’s most

famous teacher a man called Mr.

Kanamori.

When Mr. Kanamori entered the

classroom and introduced His self, we

were impressed by his positive attitude;

he was smiling, this caused that the

atmosphere in our classroom sort of

”improved” as well (though the

atmosphere in class wasn’t that bad at

all), meanwhile Kanamori was teaching

us how to enjoy school and how to treat

your friend. Along the way the main

purpose of this special lesson became

more and more clear, as long as you

smile you will be happy.

Not only smiling was what Mr.Kanamori

was trying to learn us, another target of

Kanamori was to describe us what

hands can do to others, hands can help

someone, support someone and comfort

someone. Without a doubt he visit of

this extraordinary special man had some

influence on our way of thinking and

learning in class.

Written by Jens Davenne (V2B)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

The “University Murderers” A few weeks ago, with the subject English, we were

reading the book University Murderers by Richard

MacAndrew. I found it a very captivating, exciting, and

unusual story, and I think that everyone else in our

class thinks so as well.

As the title already says, the book is about University

murderers. The book begins with the murder of Clare

Rutherford. Inspector Logan is in head of the search

for the murderer, when there is another murder, this

time of Frances Stewart. As the police search for

clues, they come to know they Stewart and Rutherford

both studied Computer Science at the Edinburgh

University, but researched different areas. The search

goes on, and as Inspector Logan comes closer and

closer to knowing the truth, she is kidnapped.

Sergeant Graham and Grant search for her and find

her with Karen Ramsay, assistant of the head of

Computer Science. They found out that Karen discovered that if you put the researches

of Frances Stewart and Clare Rutherford together, you could make a lot of money, and

that, as soon as she discovered that, Karen killed Clare Rutherford and Frances Stewart

to steal their researches. Karen Ramsay was put into jail, and everything went back to

how it was.

by Nigina Arian (V2b)

.

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Combily news

Making Pumpkins

On Tuesday, October 30th, we had four

hours no lessons. Because we were

cutting pumpkins for Halloween. An

American woman, Vanessa de Knegt was

our guest. She explained to us what we

should do with the pumpkins and she

showed us a movie about how

Halloween has changed and where the

tradition came from. We only talked

English to each other. After the movie

we could start with the pumpkins.

First we needed to pick a nail, a spoon, a

knife and a drawing. Then we had to

make holes in the top of the pumpkin

and then we used a knife to cut off the

top. After the cutting we had to hollow

out our pumpkins. Then we needed to

place the drawing on the pumpkin. After

that we had to make holes in the

drawing with the nail so the pumpkin

gets a pattern. Then we had to cut the

pattern on the pumpkin with a knife. If

you was finished, you get a candle for

your pumpkin. If there was time left you

can make a second pumpkin.

By Hau Nguyen (L1f)

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Combily news Biology Project

On Friday the sixteenth, our class had to hand in a biology report.

The report was about starch and vitamin C, respectively tested with Pip C and Iodine.

By looking up information individually and writing hyphotheses with that information, we also

had to do experiments in small groups of two in class .

Ultimately, we had to write a report, combining our experiments and hard work. The

experiments themselves consisted of two part, first writing a hyphothesis for each of the twelve

nutrients and five test samples in flasks.

Later on, we actually had to do the experiments. The experiments were divided per group

member. For example, Jari tested the nutrients for starch by dropping Iodine on it and Jedidja

dropped pip C in the test flasks before shaking them a bit and seeing if the colour changed. The

hyphotheses actually took quite a long time to complete, and so we ended up working like

horses to finish the hyphotheses and the experiments just in time. Afterwards, we had to throw

our nutrients in a beaker which spread an overwhelming, icky horiffic smell around the

surroundings. Because of all the projects we had running at that time, we didn't have a lot of

time to finish it. Fortunately, almost everyone in our class completed the report- which had to be

written individually per group member and in two parts, one for starch, the other one for

vitamin C- in time.

By Jedidja Zichterman and Jari Elferink (V2b)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

The “EP Kans Project”

The Comenius College works with

Sint Maarten’s St. Dominic High.

This year marks the start of the

Comenius College’s involvement in the

“EP Kans Project”, an initiative designed

to develop international partnerships

between schools with particular focus

on language teaching methodologies.

Pupils of TTO2 and TTO3 have been in

communication with their Sint Maarten

counterparts via a secure online

platform and have written English

poems and English and Dutch articles

describing their school, region, and the

relevance of age in the Netherlands so

that the pupils at St. Dominic High might

know them better.

What follows are the English sections of

Bilingual (Dutch/English) articles

written by V3b as part of the

programme.

Capelle aan den IJssel The city of Capelle aan den IJssel is a

large village in the east of Rotterdam. It

is surrounded by beautiful countryside.

In addition to this there are also

shopping centres and many

opportunities to do sports.

Capelle aan den IJssel is now a modern

village. However, this hasn’t been

always the fact. In the year 200 there

were already people living along the

river IJssel. They were fishing men who

fished for salmon or brick-makers.

Nevertheless there was a problem, there

were many floods so the inhabitants

withdrew. In the 12th century the folks

came back. Later there were fought

some wars, in which the fascinating

houses were destroyed. After the wars

there was built a castle, called Het Slot.

This castle isn’t there nowadays, but at

the location were the castle had been

there is the Slotplein this is a small

shopping area with some restaurants.

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Combily news Capelle aan den Ijssel (cont.)

In the village you can do many different sports.

There are different hockey and soccer clubs,

moreover there are some fitness centres and

swimming pools. When you have any disability

you still can do sports in different sport places.

There is also a riding school in Capelle, named

the Capelse manege. Without any doubt I can tell

you that you can do all your shopping necessities

in Capelle aan den IJssel. There are four

shopping centres and one large boulevard where

you can buy everything for in or around your

home. In the end of a shopping day you can have

dinner in one of the 54 restaurants or cafés.

There you can chose between Dutch, Indian,

France or other types of restaurants.

If you are very musical you can practise at a

school specialized in the art of music, named the

SKVR.

In this admirable village you would almost

forget that there is gorgeous nature. You can go

cycle, hiking or ice skating in the Hitland or

Schollebos.

I recommend that Capelle aan den IJssel is a

community where you can sport, shop and

entertain yourself excellent!

By Céline Mulder(V3b) ________________________________________________________

Remarkable Rotterdam When Dutch citizens hear Rotterdam, the

first things that will pop up in their heads are

“port” “Feyenoord” or “Shopping”.

Nevertheless, in my opinion, there are lots more

cultural aspects in this city that are forgotten.

Because of Rotterdam’s buildings, events and

entertainment venues it has transformed itself

into a cultural and economic centre of the

Netherlands. The perfect spot for a day out, but

what can you exactly do in this beautiful city?

Despite of the fact that Rotterdam is such an old

city, it is very modern. The main reason for that

is that a big part of Rotterdam was bombed in

the Second World War. If you want to enjoy an

unforgettable beautiful view of Rotterdam, you

must visit the Euromast. Furthermore, you can

go shopping in the Oosterhof, the Koopgoot, the

Bijenkorf and an arrange of other shops in the

city. After your amazing shopping day you end

the day with a glass of wine or a beer in one of

the 150 different restaurants in Rotterdam. Each

part of the city has its own food region (Chinese,

Asian, Italian). Moreover, in Rotterdam you can

visit the most varying museums. From modern

art to the middle ages, from architecture until

photographs and from historical ships until

exotic animals. Literally everything you will find

in these museums! It is interesting, enjoyable

and informative. If you do not feel like shopping

nor visiting museums, then you could always

enjoy a movie in one of the three cinemas, or go

to “Blijdorp”, the most beautiful zoo of Europe!

And if all of this is still not your cup of tea, you

can always hang in the park, see Feyenoord play

in “de Kuip” or go to Ahoy. In conclusion, literally

everything can be done in Rotterdam, so come

visit it!

All in all Rotterdam is a city with a special

history, remarkable architecture and a wide

variety of recreational activities. An amazing city

like this is not a normal city anymore. Because of

these beautiful qualities Holland can say prideful

that Rotterdam is a world city. Of course there is

always room for improvement but if Rotterdam

keeps developing itself it will definitely notify

itself as a breath-taking city with a perfect

balance between nature and buildings.

We love Rotterdam!

By Rianne Smorenburg (V3b) ________________________________________________________

Education in the Netherlands How works the education in the

Netherlands? Are there other levels than in

America? And what kind of school is the

Comenius College?

Three questions without any answers and I will

answer for you.

Comenius College

The Comenius college is a school divided in 6

locations. There are around 3000 students

spread over all the locations. Every unit is

specialized in different education opportunities.

For example you have a college which educates

people in technic and practical things. What

means that you do a great deal with your hands.

You also have a vocational. At that school you

will be educated for a job in the direction of you

chosen profile.

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Combily news Education in the Netherlands (cont.)

In the diagram above, you can see the difficulty

of the levels of education in the Netherlands. The

Gymnasium is the highest level in Holland. When

you’re doing Gymnasium you learn two old

classic languages, Latin and Greek. Vwo means:

preparatory scientific education. After the Vwo

you can go to university. Havo means: higher

general secondary education. Vmbo means:

secondary education. At the Vmbo there are

against different levels, in Dutch: theoretisch,

kader en basis. There aren’t English translations

you can use for that words. Vmbo Theoretisch is

the most theoretical education of the vmbo level,

Kader and Basis are way more practical. The

biggest different between Vmbo, Havo and Vwo

is that at the Vmbo the education is more

vocationally than the Havo and Vwo.

by Féline Clement(V3b)

School going children in the Netherlands In this article I will explain some of the Dutch traditions and things children come across every day.

School

When you are 6 years old, you learn how to read and write in the 3rd grade of primary school. Every year

from that moment on you are going to learn more interesting things in class. The last year of primary

school (the 8th grade ) is the most enjoyable. In this grade, you will do a school exam to determine the

level of education you need. But more importantly you will perform a musical, go on camp and do more

amusing things.

Sinterklaas

The Dutch child friend. This man celebrates his birthday by giving all the children in the Netherlands a bag

full of presents. His servants put the presents in front of doors, whilst they throw

some candy in the room. Unfortunately this man doesn’t really exist, your parents

buy the presents and celebrate the holiday with you. One of the well-known songs

is: Sinterklaas kapoentje,

Gooi wat in mijn schoentje, Gooi wat in mijn laarsje,

Dank u Sinterklaasje

Stilts

Stilts are a common way for children to play outside. Stilts are

long sticks with two foots on them. Children stand on these foots

and try to walk on the stilts. This can be quite tricky because you have to control your

own feet and the stilts. Some people eventually make walking on stilts their job.

By Jeroen Hofland (V3B)

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Combily news Bilingual Comenius

The bilingual course here at the Comenius

College has been taught for three years

now. The bilingual-VWO is just like the

HAVO and the MAVO: a education option

that you can choose in secondary schools.

The only difference is that with the

bilingual course you will not only be

attending classes at VWO-level but half of

the classes will also be taught in English.

Which will help you to have more

confidence in speaking English and

understanding the language better.

Subjects

The subjects you attend in English while

doing bilingual-VWO in third class are

Arts and Design(beeldende vorming),

Geography(aardrijkskunde),

History(geschiedenis), Math(wiskunde),

Physical education(gym),

Physics(natuurkunde) and

Chemistry(scheikunde). In these lessons

you are only allowed to speak English

not only to the teacher but also to your

classmates. We are using English books

and workbooks in class by doing classes

in this manner our English vocabulary

improves steadily and so does our

pronunciation.

Excursions and extra’s

A different aspect of bilingual education

is that we do projects and go on

excursions. Twice every year we do a

theme-project. These projects include

one subject and with this subject we

have special lessons in different classes

about that particular subject. After the

projects have ended we organise a

presentation evening for the parents to

show them what we have been doing in

class. Another thing bilingual students

do is going on an Excursion once every

year to England. While we leave school

for one week we still do many educative

activities and have a lot of fun.

by Corinna Orbahn (V3b)

______________________________________________

Capelle aan den Ijssel You can hardly distinguish Rotterdam’s

skyscrapers from the clouds.

A view beauteous without a doubt.

Water swirls in the river.

A marvelous atmosphere is what it delivers

Leaves of the trees

Rustle in moistly grass.

Timeless, sensible nature always in your

consciousness.

Though this city is small,

it doesn’t relinquish us all… By Jens Davenne and Rathraj Ramdat (V2b)

______________________________________

Capelle aan den Ijssel You can hardly distinguish Rotterdam’s

skyscrapers from the clouds.

A view beauteous without a doubt.

Water swirls in the river.

A marvelous atmosphere is what it delivers

Leaves of the trees

Rustle in moistly grass.

Timeless, sensible nature always in your

consciousness.

Though this city is small,

it doesn’t relinquish us all… By Jens Davenne and Rathraj Ramdat (V2b)

______________________________________