Kaunas Primary School “Rūtelė”

The 2nd part of the project

2016, Lithuania

My name is Austeja. I will tell you about my country Lithuania. Area of Lithuania is 650 200 sq. km. So Lithuania isn’t a big country. Neighboring countries are Latvia, Byelorussia, and (). Capital and the biggest city is . Vilnius has a very beautiful and UNESCO protected Old town. The five largest cities in Lithuania are Vilnius, , Klaipeda, Siauliai and Panevezys. Lithuanian climate is moderate. It is a medium – warmth summer and medium cold winter. In Lithuania live 2,929,323 people. Lithuania has got beautiful and green country side. My name is Rugilė. I live in Lithuania. Lithuania is the country in , near the Baltic Sea. The capital of Lithuania is Vilnius. Vilnius is the biggest city in Lithuania. The population of Lithuania is nearly 3 million people. In Lithuania are lots of forests. The biggest lake in Lithuania is Drūkšiai. In the Baltic Sea you can find amber. You have to come and see Lithuania!!! Lithuania • One of the three Baltic states, it is next to Baltic Sea. It is bordered by Latvia to the north, to the east and south, Poland to the south, and Kaliningrad Oblast to the southwest. • Area of Lithuania is 65,300 km2

• In Lithuania lives about 2.9 million people. The official language is Lithuanian. • In Lithuania lives Poles (6.6%), Russians (5.8%), Belarusians (1.2%) and (0.5%). • The consists of a horizontal tricolor of , green and red.

• The

• Forest

• Blood

The capital city of Lithuania is Vilnius. The sea port city is Klaipėda. The history says, that Lithuania had only one king and his name was . The history also says that in 15th century Lithuania was much bigger than today- it was from the Baltic Sea in the North to the in the South. Basketball is a very popular . • And maybe Lithuania is a small country but I love it very much and I think it’s really beautiful :D. • See you in Lithuania!

Lithuania

Lithuania is a very beautiful country. Lithuania takes more than 65 thousand square kilometers. Neighbour countries of Lithuania are Belarus, Russia, Poland and Latvia. The capital of Lithuania is Vilnius. Vilnius is the biggest city in Lithuania. Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Panevėžys are very big cities too. Climate of Lithuania depends on four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter. Spring is warm, summer is hot, autumn is cold and rainy, winter is freezing. There are about 3 milion people in Lithuania.

KAUNAS

• Hi. I am Adomas. I live in Kaunas. Kaunas is the second largest city in Lithuania with 300 000 people living in it. Kaunas is the most beautiful city in Lithuania. My city is the temporary capital of Lithuania. There is a very nice old town. Kaunas old town is big. There are many museums in Kaunas: Magnus museum, Devils museum, IX Kaunas fort and other museums. Laisves avenue is the longest pedestrian street in Europe. It is 1,7 km length. There is a Zoo in Kaunas. It is the only Zoo in Lithuania. There is a Botanical Garden in my city. This is a beautiful park when flowers are blooming. • Kaunas has a famous basketball team ,, Žalgiris’’which plays in Euro league. • I like my city. Come and see it!

Kaunas is Lithuania's heart. It is located in the center of Lithuania. Kaunas is the second largest city in Lithuania. In Kaunas live about 300 000 people. Through Kaunas the largest Lithuanian river Nemunas flows. Here are a lot of universities, colleges and schools. Tourists can visit the old town and . Kaunas has about 40 museums. The Devil Museum and Military Museum are my favorite museums. Kaunas has Laisves Avenue. Here are a lot of shops and cafes. It is beautiful in winter and in summer. Kaunas has its own airport. It is convenient to travel everywhere.

I love Kaunas! Kaunas Kaunas Castle

Laisves Avenue Military museum Hi! My name is Mantas. I am eleven years old and I from Lithuania. I live in Kaunas. I go to Primary school ,,Rutelė”. Kaunas is a beatiful city. Kaunas is the second biggest city in Lithuania. Kaunas has got two rivers: Nemunas and Neris. Kaunas has got castle and old town. Kaunas is famous for Gothic architecture. In Kaunas you can visit museums and churches. City has shopping malls and a botanical garden. Kaunas is famous for its big event: “ Kaunas jazz “ festival. There is a good basketball team „Žalgiris“. 308 831 people live in Kaunas. Dear friend, I hope you are well. Spring is coming to Lithuania and I am very happy about it. I want to tell you about a special place in Lithuania which I like very much. It looks the best in spring or summer. It is Juniper Valley in Kaunas Region. It is 90 years old. The valley is sometimes even compared to the Swiss Alps. Junipers of various shapes grow there naturally. There also grow a lot of other rare plants. Juniper Valley has a nice wooden path to walk. It is half a kilometer length. The air is very good to breathe there. I can see Kaunas Sea and its island from the valley. Birds love the island very much. I hope you can come to Lithuania and visit Juniper Valley with me some time soon. I am sending you a picture with me and my mum at the Juniper Valley. I wish you all the best!

Famous places in Lithuania

Lithuania is a small country, but it has famous places. One of them is the Hill of Crosses. The Hill of Crosses is a site of pilgrimage about 12 km north of the city of Šiauliai, in northern Lithuania. The precise origin of the practice of leaving crosses on the hill is uncertain, but it is believed that the first crosses were placed on the former Jurgaičiai or Domantai hill fort after the 1831 Uprising. Over the generations, not only crosses and crucifixes, but statues of the Virgin Mary, carvings of Lithuanian patriots and thousands of tiny effigies and rosaries have been brought here by Catholic pilgrims. The exact number of crosses is unknown, but estimates put it at about 55,000 in 1990 and 100,000 in 2006.

• CHRIST‘S RESURRECTION CHURCH , KAUNAS • IN 1928 , WHEN KAUNAS WAS THE CAPITAL OF LITHUANIA , THE PROJECT OF THE CHURCH WAS MADE . IT WAS VERY MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY! IN 1940 IT WAS ALMOST COMPLETED , AND THE WORLD WAR 2 STARTED . AFTER THE WAR, RUSSIANS MADE IT RADIO FACTORY . IN 2004 IT WAS FINALLY REOPENED AS A CHURCH . FROM THE ROOF YOU CAN SEE THE WHOLE KAUNAS !

The famous places of Lithuania . Trakai is famous for its castle. The castle of Trakai is very beautiful and majestic. It stands in the island and is surrounded by Galve lake. Me and my family were yachting in this lake and it was very funny! Neringa. Neringa is formed of four parts: Nida, Juodkrantė, Preila and Pervalka. In Neringa it is worth to visit the dune of Parnidis, the mountain of Withes and the place of cormorants and more other places! Neringa is surrounded by the Baltic Sea. Our family spends holidays in beautiful Neringa every summer.

Cormorants Anykščiai. Anykščiai is Lithuanian culture capital of 2016. There are a lot of places to visit in Anykščiai: the second largest stone of Puntukas, the pinewood of Anykščiai, the moss of Queen, the museum of Horses. Me and my classmates were in Anykščiai many times and we liked it very much! Top ten- the most beautiful Lithuanian places

10. Lake tauragnas

Tauragnas is the deepest lake in Lithuania reaching 60.5 metres of depth. The surface area is 5.13 km² and average depth 18.7 m. It is situated in Aukštaitija National Park near Tauragnai in Utena County. 9. Ventės ragas

This is the place with the lonely lighthouse, built as if on the very edge of the world, and people, in whose eyes only water and sky are reflected, who ring birds so that they can observe their journey through the sky.Ventės Ragas is one of the best places in Europe to observe migrant birds. For this reason, ornithologists both from Lithuania and abroad meet here every year. 8. Country life museum in Rumsiskes

Museum has the biggest quantity of exhibits (183 buildings and over 86 000 mobile exhibits). The museum presents the mode of life, works, and traditions of peasants and townspeople of all Lithuanian ethnographic areas: Dzūkija, Aukštaitija, Suvalkija, Žemaitija and Lithuania Minor. It was established in 1966, in Rumšiškės on a picturesque coast of Kaunas Lagoon. There are fragments of the villages, authentic farms, century-old buildings with flower gardens, orchards and vegetable gardens, with crosses and wooden roofed poles, technical facilities - mills, forges, a fulling-mill and oil-mill lining along 7 km circular route, meandering between forests, meadows and hills. 7. Ula eyes

Ula eyes - this is one of the most famous and most impressive sources of these countries is quite a lot. "Ula eye is left Ula waterfront terrace and watching the Mančiagirė villages, 8 meters from the shore. It's like a tiny small lake, a waterhole length is 4.4 m and the width - 3.4 m. The length of the center is constantly bustling with strong water currents agitated in the sand. Source flow rate of 2 l / s, and a day even 137.2 m3 of water draining into Ūla 67 m long river. The older residents believe that "Ula eye water can help a variety of ailments, if the source will be going in just after sundown. 6. Plunge city

• Plungė is a city in Lithuania with 23,246 inhabitants. Plunge manor was first mentioned in 1565 years. • Now it has a crab stick factory which exports to many countries in Europe. Before World War II, Plungė had a large Jewish population. • Plunge has famous Plunge palace and Dukes Oginskiai park ensemble. Now the estate is Samogitian Art Museum. The surviving manor building and park ensemble, the neo-Gothic stables, stud, running an ancient folk art exhibition (since 1982 years). • The park area: 58.3 hectares. It is believed that the park was established in the eighteenth century 5. Stone puntukas • Puntukas is the second-largest boulder in Lithuania. It is situated some 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) south of Anykščiai on the left bank of the Šventoji River. It was believed to be the largest stone in Lithuania until the discovery of Barstyčiai stone in the Skuodas district in 1957. • Puntukas is a glacial erratic—it was brought by glaciers during the last glacial period (18th–12th millennium BC) probably from . It measures 6.9 metres (23 ft) in length, 6.7 m (22 ft) in width, and 5.7 m (19 ft) in depth (including 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) underground). It weighs about 265 tons. It is made of Rapakivi granite. Its reddish mass includes large crystals of potassium feldspar surrounded by green rings of oligoclase.

• In 1943, sculptor Bronius Pundzius engraved portraits and quotes from last wills of Lithuanian pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas for the 10th anniversary of their deaths during the transatlantic flight with Lituanica. A local legend has it that velnias (a devil in the ) carried the stone to destroy the Anykščiai Church, however a rooster crowed. The devil disappeared back into the underwo rld, leaving only Puntukas behind. The legend was featured in the famous poem Anykščių šilelis by Antanas Baranauskas. According to another story, a brave Lithuanian warrior Puntukas was killed and was burned (a usual pagan custom) on the stone; since then it is known as Puntukas stone. Other legends claim that the stone was a pagan shrine and that growing around are relics of the sacred groves.

4. Sea museum

Lithuanian Sea Museum is located in the farthest northern point of the Curonian Spit – Kopgalys. Its shores are swashed by the Curonian Lagoon and the Baltic Sea from three sides. In the reconstructed central sconce (project author is the architect P. Lape and the constructor T. Tubis) aquariums with Lithuanian freshwaters, Baltic and tropical seas fish decorated with sea fauna exposition are fitted. In outside pools by the aquarium building, penguins, Baltic seals and sea-lions of the North Sea reside. In the casemates under castle mounds, in the former gunpowder depots, there is the exposition of Lithuanian navigation history; on the mounds, in the former gun squares, the ancient and modern anchors collection is exhibited. On the shore of the Curonian Lagoon, in the place of ancient village of Kopgalys fishermen, the ethnographic seaside fisherman’s homestead is built, and near it – the site for fishing ships, the pioneers of industrial fishing in Lithuania. In 1994, the dolphinarium was opened, which has completed the complex of Lithuanian Sea Museum covering all areas of human relationship with the sea. That complexity is exactly what makes our museum stand out from other sea museums in Europ 3. Hill of Crosses The Hill of Crosses - is a site of pilgrimage about 12 km north of the city of Šiauliai, in northern Lit huania. The precise origin of the practice of leaving crosses on the hill is uncertain, but it is believed that the first crosses were placed on the former Jurgaičiai or Domantai hill fort after the 1831 Uprising. Over the generations, not only crosses and crucifixes, but statues of the Virgin Mary, carvings of Lithuanian patriots and thousands of tiny effigies and rosaries have been brought here by Catholic pilgrims. The exact number of crosses is unknown, but estimates put it at about 55,000 in 1990 and 100,000 in 2006. 2. • Trakai Island Castle (Lithuanian: Trak ų salos pilis) is an island castle located in Trakai, Lithuania on an island in Lake Galv ė. • The construction of the stone castle was begun in the 14th century by Kę stutis, and around 1409 major works were completed by his son Vytautas the Great, who died in this castle in 1430. • Trakai was one of the main centres of the Grand and the castle held great strategic importance. 1. Resorts • Lithuania has a lot resorts. Some of them are sea resorts. • For such a short seashore (99 kilometers) Lithuania has few famous resorts: , ,Šventoji, Nida, Juodkrantė, Neringa . • Some of resorts are near the biggest river Nemunas- Druskininkai, Birštonas. My school • Hi, my name is Gustas. I am ten years old. I live in Kaunas. I go to the school. My school is „Rūtelė“. At school we have about three hundred students. I like my school, because I feel good there. My school frinds are very funny. My teachers are very nice. There are a lot of after- school activities: bastketball, football, singing, chess, gymnastics and other.

My school is Kaunas Primary school – kindergarten „Rutelė“. In our school work 20 teachers. There study 273 pupils. There are 81 children in kindergarten. We have 10 Primary classes and this school was founded in 1994. All classes have Lithuanian hymn and Lithuanian blazon on the walls. There are 12 afterschool classes too. The school has hymn, rules, uniforms and 12 traditional events. Some time ago our school was a weekly nursery – school. This school is the best school ever ! Lithuanian dishes Lithuanian traditional dishes: zeppelins, cold , pancakes, soup, , donuts, cake “sloth”. Zeppelins are the most popular traditional Lithuanian dish. Zeppelins are made of meat and potatoes. Cake “Sloth” is a traditional Lithuanian dessert. This cake is made of: • 2 packages of biscuits • 100 grams of • 1 tin of milk with (condensed milk) • 5 tablespoons of cocoa

Crumble cookies in a deep bowl. Melt butter, pour condensed milk and cocoa in saucepan, mix and boil. To avoid lumps, we can mix cocoa with a small amount of milk. Finally pour the mass over the biscuits and stir well. Form the desired size and shape of sloth. Let it cool, place in the refrigerator for a few hours until the cake stands still.

Lithuanian food • Many Lithuanian people like to eat home made food, because it is tastier and healthier. • A very popular dish in lithuanian is “Cepelinai“. This dish is made of potatoe dough and meet or curd inside. • The other is called “Šakotis“. It is a traditional lithuanian wedding desert. • Also there are many restaurants in Lithuania. Busy people like to eat in restaurants or fast food bistros. • My mum is the owner of three restaurants in Kaunas city. People who work in these restaurants make tasty food. I usually have dinner at my mum`s cafes. • Come to Lithuania and try our savoury food!

Hello my friend, I am writing to you a second time and hope my letter will be interesting to you. I want to tell you about traditional food of Lithuania. I am sure that you will like it and you’ll visit Lithuania to taste our dishes. Potatoes ,, beetroot, meat, mushrooms and dairy products are used for preparing Lithuanian food. Cepelinai (Zeppelins) is a popular dish in Lithuania. Zeppelins are big, round bombs made from potatoes with meat inside. They are served with and spirgai (little greaves). Šaltibarščiai (cold beetroot soup) is a popular summer soup, because it’s cold. It’s made from preboiled eggs, and beets, , and green . All these products are put in to a large pot and mixed with . This soup is pink! So, as you see, our dishes are very interesting. I’m waiting for you in Lithuania, because I want you to taste our dishes.

• like to eat dishes from pork, potatoes, mushrooms, berries. They like to eat more at home. • My most favorite Lithuanian dishes are cold borscht and . • Cold borscht is cold soup. We eat it in summer. It is made from milk kefir or sour milk with beet roots. So the soup is pink. We also add cucumbers, drill, and green onions. We eat it with hot boiled potatoes.

Kvass is a beverage made from . Sometimes we add raisins to it. You can make it at home or buy in the shop. It is sweet and tasty. • Lithuanian food in every region is different. • In the first region people’s popular food is pancakes and curds. They like grains soup and kvass to drink. Kvass is tanned bread’s beverage. • In the second region people often cook potatoes, , buns and potatoes porridge. • In the third region, located near the sea, they eat roasted eel and salmon. They like to drink coffee. • In the fourth region people like to eat apples, cheese and . They like to drink apple kvass, apple and berry soup. • In the last region roasted herrings, zeppelins and potatoes porridge are popular. They also drink bread’s kvass. Sweet berry soup Zeppelins It was great to know You and Your country.

Thank you!!!