Travelling Suitcase
Ceļojuma soma
Latvia – Latvija
Activity 1
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Greet children in Latvian. Sveiki (Hello)
Introduce yourself. Mani sauc …. Gunta (My name is … Gunta)
Encourage children to introduce themselves in Latvian.
If the class is small shake hands with everybody greet and
introduce you and encourage children to do the same.
Activity 2
 Show the suitcase. Encourage children to guess and predict what
could be in the suitcase.
 Children suggest ideas in the language they can (mother tongue
MT or English)
 Take out the items children mention and tell about them.
o National flag
o Map, find the country on the map of the world
o Items of national costume
o Typical food (rye bread/black bread)
o Amber
o Ceramics
o Some books
Activity 3
 PPt about Latvia and Riga.
 While watching ask children to pay attention to:
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o Animals they see
o Typical colours in nature (green and blue. Why? – greenbecause more than 45 % of Latvia is covered with woods,
blue- because there are many lakes, rivers and the Baltic
sea)
After watching discuss what children have observed.
Activity 4
 What’s that? Give some data/ numbers and encourage children to
tell what they stand for. Compare with the similar data from
pupils’ country.
o E.g. What could it be? 2 281 300 (number of population in
Latvia). Compare that with the population pupils have in
their country.
o 1 lats (currency used in Latvia)
o 311,6 m (highest peak Gaiziņš in Latvia)
o Estonia, Lithuania, Byelorussia, Russia, The Baltic Sea
(Latvia bordering with)
o Riga (capital of Latvia)
o 65,1 m (deepest lake Drīdzis)
o 80, 7 km2 (largest lake Lubāns)etc.
Activity 5
 Arrange the picture puzzle of Latvia
o Children work in groups and arrange picture of a region of
Latvia.
o Show the map of Latvia and find what the name of the
region they have arranged is.
o Each group examines the pictures and tells what is typical
for Latvia (food, nature phenomena, sports, animals etc)
Activity 6
 Lielvārde waist belt and signs on it.
o Show a picture of an object.
Children say the word in English and MT. Encourage
children to find the matching sign and knitted or woven
pattern. E.g.
o Children try to find the signs on the waist belt.
o Optional. Children decide how they could mime each word
(sun, tree, moon etc)
 Children are divided into groups. Each group has
some words to mime.
 They listen to the story told in Latvian and when they
hear the word they mime it.
o For follow activities children can use the worksheet with
explanations of the signs. See Wsh Rakstu zimes (Latvian)
or signs (English)
 Play Domino. See Wsh. Domino Latvju rakstu zimes.
o Pupils play in groups of 4.
o They make out the rules and strategies of the game. If they
start playing from what they know (recognize real pictures
and words in English) they learn words in Latvian and signs
while playing.
(The domino is prepared with the words in English, Latvian
and in the languages of the countries we plan teacher
exchange with.)
 Complete the Worksheet Draw the pictures. When children
complete the worksheet they get the signs of the sun and water.
Activity 7
 National flag and coat of arms.
o Show the flag and name the colours in Latvian (sarkans,
balts). Children name the colours in their MT and Latvian.
o Introduce colours (amount of colours depend on the age of
pupils)
 Sarkans (red)
 Balts (white)
 Zils (blue)
 Dzeltens (yellow)
 Zaļš (green)
o Play the game Find the colours.
 Play music. While music is playing children move
around the room.
 When music is stopped, name the colour in Latvian
and show a flashcard of the colour.
 Children have to find the appropriate colour in the
classroom (objects, clothes etc)
 They touch the object with the corresponding colour
and say the word in Latvian.
 Continue the game.
 If children feel confident. Call out the colour without
showing a flashcard.
o Display colour flashcards and the flashcards of the colour
words in Latvian in mixed order. Point to the colour
flashcard, read the word of a colour and children try to find
the matching word.
o DVD – National Anthem and different places of Latvia
o Children colour national flag and the Coat of Arms. See the
worksheet.
Activity 8
 National costume
o Show the items and name them in Latvian.
o Dress up a child in the national costume.
o Find the signs on the waist belt.
 DVD- National Song and Dance festival in Latvia. Children can
see different national costumes
 Show the poster with the map of Latvia and national costumes of
the corresponding region.
 Colour the national costumes. See the Worksheets (4 worksheets
representing national costumes of the regions)
Activity 9
 Game Buying a Bear
o Learn some parts of the body in Latvian with the help of the
song. Sing and touch the appropriate part of body.
 (Folk song melody: Kumeliņi, kumeliņi)
Deguns, kakls, auss, auss. 4X
Deguns, kakls, mugura. 4X
Deguns, kakls, nags, nags. 4X
Deguns, kakls, kāja, kāja 4X
o Play “Lūdzu” (Please)– Deguns,
 Children touch the appropriate part of the body if they
hear the word ‘Lūdzu’.
o Demonstration on the board using flashcards.
o Work in pairs or in groups of three and arrange BEAR from
beans.
o Play the game.
 The one who wants to buy a bear turns his/her back to
the bean bear and names the part of the body as many
times as many beans are in the particular part of the
body. (There are : Deguns (nose) = 1 bean; auss (ear)
= 2 beans; kakls (neck – 3 beans); kāja (leg) 3 beans
each leg); nags (claw) = 3 claws each leg; mugura
(back) – 3 beans; )
 The child says: deguns, auss, auss, kakls, kakls, kakls
etc. He/ she gets the beans for each correctly named
part of the body and if the parts of the body are
mentioned so many time as many beans are in it.If
he/she makes a mistake in another child takes turns.
 The winner is the one who gets most beans.
Activity 10
 Baking Piragi – typical national food.
 Children work in three groups.
 Show the materials and ingredients they are going to use for baking
and ask children to guess/tell what they should do and tell the order
of procedure.
 While waiting the piragi to be baked children tell how they did it in
their MT.
 Complete the worksheet How to bake piragi.
Activity 11
 Folk dance Plaukstiņpolka.
Activity 12
 Latvian folk song and game ‘Vilks un Kaza’. See description and
words.
A picture dictionary with the words used in the activities is left with the
teachers for children completing the follow up activities if some of them
we do not have time to complete.