To celebrate the 100th birthday of the Republic of Estonia, each class of Kilingi-Nõmme Gymnasium came up with a plan to signify and mark the anniversary. Each class also presented their plan to other students at the school assembly meeting on 22 Feb 2017, which was exactly 365 days before the 100th birthday.
These were their plans:
Class 1a, now class 2a* students will find out how each one of them got their name and capture these stories in a book.
Class 1b / 2b students will learn to sing the Estonian national anthem by heart.
Class 2 / 3 students will set up a tree outside of school that has 100 reflective tags hanging of the tree branches. This way a person who does not have a reflective tag can take one from the tree, to make themselves visible to cars in the dark. Similarly, people who have many reflective tags can hang up some of their tags that they don’t need for others to use.
Class 3a / 4a students often travel to different places in Estonia. They will write down their travel stories and publish these stories in a book.
Class 3b / 4b students will continue focusing on keeping Estonia clean. To show their commitment to the cause they will collect 100 empty tea candle shells each.
Class 4a / 5a students will work with class 4b / 5b students throughout the year on capturing stories from their daily activities in a 100-lines long poem. The illustrations will be added.
Class 4b / 5b students will work with class 4a / 5b students on the 100-lines long poem with illustrations as mentioned above.
Class 5a / 6a students will go on a hike and as a group cover a combined distance of 100km.
Class 5b / 6b students will invest in better future for Estonia by donating 100 Euro to a charity.
Class 6a / 7a students will arrange a photo exhibition called ‘100 pictures of Estonia’.
Class 6b / 7b students will participate in 100 training sessions playing different ball games throughout the year.
Class 7a / 8a students will bake 100 muffins on the Grandparents Day, take the muffins to the local retirement home and put together a digital photo gallery themed ‘Our Students´ Family Members through the History of Estonia’.
Class 7b / 8b will do the following:
- Study 100% harder to increase their grade average.
- 100 days before the 100th birthday they will start playing Estonian music on the school radio, at least one song each day.
- 1 day before the 100th birthday they will bake a birthday cake that they will eat as a group the following day to celebrate the birthday.
Class 8a / 9a students will take 100 photos of their doings to capture this anniversary year.
Class 8b / 9b students will do 100 hours of physical exercise in addition to the school PE classes.
Class 9a, 9b and Class 10 students will signify the 100th birthday of Estonia and also the 100th day of the year by walking 10,000 steps in celebration of health and knowledge of the Estonian youth.
Class 10 / 11 students will celebrate the 100th birthday by performing 20 good deeds in their community, while multiplying each good deed by five-folds of creativity, commitment and good-will.
Class 11 / 12 students came up with the following plan:
A ring symbolises an unbreakable circle. To class 11 /12 students a graduation ring shows connection to their friends, unity with their school and devotion to their country. Therefore, the class will dedicate their graduation ring to the 100th birthday of Estonia. As the alumni, they will wear their graduation rings with pride as they will capture two significant anniversaries – their class will be the 70th class of graduates from Kilingi-Nõmme Gymnasium and they will be graduating on the 100th birthday year of Estonia.
Class 12 / 69th class of graduates
Last spring in May, class 12, now the 69th class of graduates, finished their project which was called ‘100 Estonian Oak Trees**. The project had started four years earlier, by the then year 9 students who planted little oak tree seedlings. Over the following four years the seedlings grew into beautiful young trees and the students planted them in a dedicated park for the 100 oak trees. The graduates are convinced that they will continue visiting the park over the coming years to make sure the trees continue growing well. By planting these trees they have all made a mark in the history of Estonia.
* Please note that in Estonia a school year starts on 1st of September, hence all students that presented their plans in February have now moved to the next grade, e.g. Class 1a students are now in Class 2a.
** Oak trees are considered as the national trees of Estonia
