THE LIGHT RETURNS
TEACHING MATERIAL FOR THE OLDEST LEVEL
The Light Returns is one out of nine podcasts produced by Katrine Nyland for The Icefjord Centre in Ilulissat.
Guide to the Book Creator book
The Light Returns is a student’s book associated with the podcast The Light Returns.
The duration of the podcast is 3:49.
The activities have been designed to focus on the students’ investigative, experimental and creative approach to learning.
The process consists of three steps:
- Preparation before listening to the podcast.
- Listening to and working with the podcast.
- Further work with topics and insights from the podcast.
We recommend that you listen to the podcast before presenting it to the students.
We recommend that the students work in pairs or singly. Depending on what suits each student best and the competences to be developed. Keep in mind that your best friend is not necessarily the one you collaborate best with. Working together is about working together and not just being together.
Cross-curricular – languages, music and science.
- The students acquire fundamental knowledge about polar darkness and midnight sun, and also knowledge about natural light such as northern lights, stars and the Moon.
- The students acquire knowledge about the importance of the light for life around the Icefjord and in general for life north of the Arctic Circle.
- The students practise their skills in communication and cooperation.
Guide to the Book Creator book
The Light Returns is a student’s book associated with the podcast The Light Returns.
The duration of the podcast is 3:49.
The activities have been designed to focus on the students’ investigative, experimental and creative approach to learning.
The process consists of three steps:
- Preparation before listening to the podcast.
- Listening to and working with the podcast.
- Further work with topics and insights from the podcast.
We recommend that you listen to the podcast before presenting it to the students.
We recommend that the students work in pairs or singly. Depending on what suits each student best and the competences to be developed. Keep in mind that your best friend is not necessarily the one you collaborate best with. Working together is about working together and not just being together.
Cross-curricular – languages, music and science.
- The students acquire fundamental knowledge about polar darkness and midnight sun, and also knowledge about natural light such as northern lights, stars and the Moon.
- The students acquire knowledge about the importance of the light for life around the Icefjord and in general for life north of the Arctic Circle.
- The students practise their skills in communication and cooperation.
The light returns
The students meet the Icefjord Centre in two pictures, showing summer and winter respectively.
In the classroom you can talk about:
- What the Icefjord Centre is.
- What it looks like around the centre.
- The difference between summer and winter.
- How summer and winter differ where you live.
Talk about the map and about how many people live in Ilulissat. Also talk about how many people live in the town or settlement that you live in.
The students see a map of Ilulissat. There is a marker that shows where Holms Bakke is situated. The red line shows a route from the Icefjord Centre to Holms Bakke.
In the classroom you can talk about:
- How far is the distance from Holms Bakke to the Icefjord Centre?
- Why do you go up on a hill in order to see the return of the Sun?
- Please give the students the experience of standing on the roof of the Icefjord Centre looking down on Holms Bakke (you could use the pictures on pages 4-7)
The students see part of a world map.
The task now is to move the red marker down to the map in order to show where each student lives.
The marker is found in the white box and can be drawn into the map.
In class you can talk about:
- Differences and similarities between Ilulissat and your own town or settlement.
Now it is time for the students to listen to the podcast The Light Returns.
They start the podcast by clicking on the icon in the middle of page 14.
It is recommended that the students listen in pairs or small groups.
Let the students have a Walk and Talk, where they talk with each other about the podcast.
On page 15 the students are to tell about what they think is important to remember from the podcast. In the (speech) balloons the students can choose to put text, pictures or recordings.
Insertion of sound, pictures & text see instructions 1,2 & 3 here
Review in class
It is recommended to have a joint discussion in class when the work with pages 14-15 is finished.
We suggest that you support this with writing and maybe illustrating concepts and keywords on the board.
In class you could talk about:
- What surprised the students when listening to the podcast.
- Concepts and keywords that the students encountered in the podcast.
In the text below you can find inspiration for the class discussion.
- January – 13 January
It is the day where the light returns to Ilulissat. It is the most important day of the year. Lisa tells us that they all look forward to enjoying nature and to sailing. In the schools the children create suns and display them in the windows. From 29 November till 13 January there is no sun. Everyone, who is able to and wants to, goes to welcome the Sun on Seqinniarfik/Holms Bakke. Afterwards they celebrate with singing, eating cake and drinking coffee. 13 January is a very important day for the Greenlanders in Ilulissat.
Why does the light return to Ilulissat on 13 January?
What day/which days are important to you?
- Christmas and Easter – two holidays from Christianity that Lisa mentions.
Even though 13 January is important to the Greenlanders in Ilulissat, the Christian holidays are also of great importance to them.
Are there other holidays that you know of?
Do you know anything about holidays from other religions than Christianity?
- Traditions – everyone, who is able to and wants to, goes to Seqinniarfik/Holms Bakke. To sing a welcome to the Sun.
13 January is quite a special and significant day for the Greenlanders in Ilulissat, because they have a tradition where they welcome the Sun. Afterwards they celebrate with singing, eating cake and drinking coffee. The song they sing is called ”Seqernup qungululluni nunarput nuilaaraa” / ”When the Sun with a smile looks a bit over our country”. They can now look forward to light and warm days.
What is a tradition and which other traditions do you know?
Do you know about other traditions, where phenomena of nature are celebrated?
- The Sun – the star in our solar system. Without it, life on Earth, as we know it, would not be able to exist. The students in Ilulissat create suns of paper and hang them up in the classroom to celebrate the return of the Sun 13 January.
What would the Earth look like if the Sun did not exist?
Could we exist without the Sun?
Do you think the Sun will ever burn out?
- The midnight sun – a phenomenon of nature you can find north of the northern polar circle, where the Sun does not set for several weeks in a row. Lisa tells us that there are no set hours to relate to; you eat when you are hungry and go to bed when you are tired. You live the way that Nature dictates.
What would you do, if you were not to relate to certain set hours in your daily life?
How does it fit with the daily life you live at present?
Now the students will make their own reference book containing the knowledge they have acquired from their work with the podcast.
Assist the students by writing the technical terms from the review on the board.
The students can work with sound, pictures and text.
Insertion of sound, pictures & text see instructions 1,2 & 3 here
The students can draw pictures and insert them on the pages as described above.
The Reference Book can be revisited at any time during the process.
The students will now work with light. On page 18 there is a short text about the difference between polar darkness and the return of the light. There is also a short description of what light consists of.
On page 19 there are four pictures respectively of midnight sun, northern lights, night sky and polar darkness. Let the students read and discuss the text and the pictures with the student sitting next to them.
On page 20 you will find 5 homepages inserted that inform about the Sun, the Moon, the stars, midnight sun, northern lights and polar darkness.
Let the students read the homepages and see the video. Then let them answer the questions on page 21. They can write keywords in the box called “write keywords here”.
We recommend a joint review over pages 18-21 in class. This process is meant to give the students a possibility of finding knowledge and of adding new knowledge about the concepts.
The students will now work with the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. This is to obtain an understanding of why there is polar darkness in the wintertime and midnight sun in the summertime north of the Arctic Circle.
On page 22 there is a short introduction text about the YouTube video on page 23. Let the students read the text first and then subsequently watch the video.
In the black (speech) balloons there are two questions that you can discuss in class.
- Here are some suggestions for more questions to discuss:
- Have we always known that the Earth orbits the Sun?
- How does the “inclination” of the Earth influence on:
- the difference between day/night?
- different seasons?
Now the students will imagine that they meet on the roof of the Icefjord Centre. It is 13 January and they are headed for Holms Bakke to celebrate the return of the Sun.
The students can choose between making two products:
- They must make a welcoming speech or a tribute song with music. No matter which product they choose, it must be appropriate for the celebration of the return of the Light on Holms Bakke.
- They can get inspiration on pages 26-29 where the song from the podcast is texted in Greenlandic and English. On page 27 you can listen to the song by clicking on the image of the Sun.
In their welcoming speech or tribute song they must include:
- Why does the light return on 13 January? How is this connected to Earth’s rotation around its own axis and orbit around the Sun?
- What is midnight sun and polar darkness?
- Which natural sources of light are there during the period of polar darkness?
Pages 24-25 can be adjusted so that they fit with the student’s choice of product. They can also choose to add more pages if they need more space.
They can record their product and insert the sound recording in their Book Creator book. They can add drawings, pictures etc.
On these pages the students can find the text to the tribute song that is sung in the podcast. They can find the text in Greenlandic and in English and they can listen to the song by clicking on the Sun on page 27. They can use the text as inspiration for their own welcoming speech or tribute song.
The podcast The Light Returns has been created by the Icefjord Centre in Ilulissat.
Teaching material for the podcast The Light Returns has been developed by Lotte Brinkmann and Daniella Maria Manuel, Anholt Læringsværksted, with feedback from Leg med It.
The student’s book in Book Creator has been developed as part of the project Nutaaliorta from Kivitsisa.
The template was designed by Rikke Falkenberg Kofoed and Daniella Maria Manuel, Leg med It.
The teaching material The Light Returns is published under a Creative Commons crediting licence CC:BY.
The texts, assignments and pictures can be shared, reproduced and adapted, with the proviso that “The Light Returns” by The Icefjord Centre Ilulissat is credited as the source.
The students meet the Icefjord Centre in two pictures, showing summer and winter respectively.
In the classroom you can talk about:
- What the Icefjord Centre is.
- What it looks like around the centre.
- The difference between summer and winter.
- How summer and winter differ where you live.
Talk about the map and about how many people live in Ilulissat. Also talk about how many people live in the town or settlement that you live in.
The students see a map of Ilulissat. There is a marker that shows where Holms Bakke is situated. The red line shows a route from the Icefjord Centre to Holms Bakke.
In the classroom you can talk about:
- How far is the distance from Holms Bakke to the Icefjord Centre?
- Why do you go up on a hill in order to see the return of the Sun?
- Please give the students the experience of standing on the roof of the Icefjord Centre looking down on Holms Bakke (you could use the pictures on pages 4-7)
The students see part of a world map.
The task now is to move the red marker down to the map in order to show where each student lives.
The marker is found in the white box and can be drawn into the map.
In class you can talk about:
- Differences and similarities between Ilulissat and your own town or settlement.
Now it is time for the students to listen to the podcast The Light Returns.
They start the podcast by clicking on the icon in the middle of page 14.
It is recommended that the students listen in pairs or small groups.
Let the students have a Walk and Talk, where they talk with each other about the podcast.
On page 15 the students are to tell about what they think is important to remember from the podcast. In the (speech) balloons the students can choose to put text, pictures or recordings.
Insertion of sound, pictures & text see instructions 1,2 & 3 here
Review in class
It is recommended to have a joint discussion in class when the work with pages 14-15 is finished.
We suggest that you support this with writing and maybe illustrating concepts and keywords on the board.
In class you could talk about:
- What surprised the students when listening to the podcast.
- Concepts and keywords that the students encountered in the podcast.
In the text below you can find inspiration for the class discussion.
- January – 13 January
It is the day where the light returns to Ilulissat. It is the most important day of the year. Lisa tells us that they all look forward to enjoying nature and to sailing. In the schools the children create suns and display them in the windows. From 29 November till 13 January there is no sun. Everyone, who is able to and wants to, goes to welcome the Sun on Seqinniarfik/Holms Bakke. Afterwards they celebrate with singing, eating cake and drinking coffee. 13 January is a very important day for the Greenlanders in Ilulissat.
Why does the light return to Ilulissat on 13 January?
What day/which days are important to you?
- Christmas and Easter – two holidays from Christianity that Lisa mentions.
Even though 13 January is important to the Greenlanders in Ilulissat, the Christian holidays are also of great importance to them.
Are there other holidays that you know of?
Do you know anything about holidays from other religions than Christianity?
- Traditions – everyone, who is able to and wants to, goes to Seqinniarfik/Holms Bakke. To sing a welcome to the Sun.
13 January is quite a special and significant day for the Greenlanders in Ilulissat, because they have a tradition where they welcome the Sun. Afterwards they celebrate with singing, eating cake and drinking coffee. The song they sing is called ”Seqernup qungululluni nunarput nuilaaraa” / ”When the Sun with a smile looks a bit over our country”. They can now look forward to light and warm days.
What is a tradition and which other traditions do you know?
Do you know about other traditions, where phenomena of nature are celebrated?
- The Sun – the star in our solar system. Without it, life on Earth, as we know it, would not be able to exist. The students in Ilulissat create suns of paper and hang them up in the classroom to celebrate the return of the Sun 13 January.
What would the Earth look like if the Sun did not exist?
Could we exist without the Sun?
Do you think the Sun will ever burn out?
- The midnight sun – a phenomenon of nature you can find north of the northern polar circle, where the Sun does not set for several weeks in a row. Lisa tells us that there are no set hours to relate to; you eat when you are hungry and go to bed when you are tired. You live the way that Nature dictates.
What would you do, if you were not to relate to certain set hours in your daily life?
How does it fit with the daily life you live at present?
Now the students will make their own reference book containing the knowledge they have acquired from their work with the podcast.
Assist the students by writing the technical terms from the review on the board.
The students can work with sound, pictures and text.
Insertion of sound, pictures & text see instructions 1,2 & 3 here
The students can draw pictures and insert them on the pages as described above.
The Reference Book can be revisited at any time during the process.
The students will now work with light. On page 18 there is a short text about the difference between polar darkness and the return of the light. There is also a short description of what light consists of.
On page 19 there are four pictures respectively of midnight sun, northern lights, night sky and polar darkness. Let the students read and discuss the text and the pictures with the student sitting next to them.
On page 20 you will find 5 homepages inserted that inform about the Sun, the Moon, the stars, midnight sun, northern lights and polar darkness.
Let the students read the homepages and see the video. Then let them answer the questions on page 21. They can write keywords in the box called “write keywords here”.
We recommend a joint review over pages 18-21 in class. This process is meant to give the students a possibility of finding knowledge and of adding new knowledge about the concepts.
The students will now work with the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. This is to obtain an understanding of why there is polar darkness in the wintertime and midnight sun in the summertime north of the Arctic Circle.
On page 22 there is a short introduction text about the YouTube video on page 23. Let the students read the text first and then subsequently watch the video.
In the black (speech) balloons there are two questions that you can discuss in class.
- Here are some suggestions for more questions to discuss:
- Have we always known that the Earth orbits the Sun?
- How does the “inclination” of the Earth influence on:
- the difference between day/night?
- different seasons?
Now the students will imagine that they meet on the roof of the Icefjord Centre. It is 13 January and they are headed for Holms Bakke to celebrate the return of the Sun.
The students can choose between making two products:
- They must make a welcoming speech or a tribute song with music. No matter which product they choose, it must be appropriate for the celebration of the return of the Light on Holms Bakke.
- They can get inspiration on pages 26-29 where the song from the podcast is texted in Greenlandic and English. On page 27 you can listen to the song by clicking on the image of the Sun.
In their welcoming speech or tribute song they must include:
- Why does the light return on 13 January? How is this connected to Earth’s rotation around its own axis and orbit around the Sun?
- What is midnight sun and polar darkness?
- Which natural sources of light are there during the period of polar darkness?
Pages 24-25 can be adjusted so that they fit with the student’s choice of product. They can also choose to add more pages if they need more space.
They can record their product and insert the sound recording in their Book Creator book. They can add drawings, pictures etc.
On these pages the students can find the text to the tribute song that is sung in the podcast. They can find the text in Greenlandic and in English and they can listen to the song by clicking on the Sun on page 27. They can use the text as inspiration for their own welcoming speech or tribute song.
The podcast The Light Returns has been created by the Icefjord Centre in Ilulissat.
Teaching material for the podcast The Light Returns has been developed by Lotte Brinkmann and Daniella Maria Manuel, Anholt Læringsværksted, with feedback from Leg med It.
The student’s book in Book Creator has been developed as part of the project Nutaaliorta from Kivitsisa.
The template was designed by Rikke Falkenberg Kofoed and Daniella Maria Manuel, Leg med It.
The teaching material The Light Returns is published under a Creative Commons crediting licence CC:BY.
The texts, assignments and pictures can be shared, reproduced and adapted, with the proviso that “The Light Returns” by The Icefjord Centre Ilulissat is credited as the source.
