The last two months’ activities were dedicated to the Art of Theater. But March seems to be full of singing and dancing. Through various celebrations and traditions, our students familiarized themselves with the Art of Music, they danced and discovered different kinds of music like folk music, traditional carols, dance music and also classical music.

These are some of the activities, which took place in our school during March.

1. March has started with celebrating Tsiknopempti, which literally means “Thursday of the Smoke of Grilled Meat”. It is celebrated 11 days before Clean Monday (which marks the start of the fasting period of Lent). Teachers and students celebrated that special day by consuming grilled meat, such as souvlaki. We also sang and danced Greek folk music songs around a maypole.

2. For the 3rd time, another group of our students, with their teachers, visited the Pottery Workshop, which was organized by the City of Athens Culture, Sports & Youth Organization (OPANDA). Students had the chance to familiarize themselves with the Art of Ceramics. They felt the plasticity of clay and created, with the valuable help of the person in charge of the workshop, inspired artwork, like animals, birds, flowers, hearts and butterflies made out of clay.

These kind of activities, which are using materials like clay, dough or finger paints, are very popular to the children and also beneficial for the children’s sensory development.

3. Dancing and fun continued with the Carnival. During the celebrations, teachers and students wore masks and costumes, a magician entertained them and everybody danced and had a great time! Through a school event, students had the chance to familiarize themselves with music and free dancing. This time, not in a traditional way, but by following the current era, listening to modern dance music, with fast, uplifting rhythm. This was a way for children to externalize their energy, as well as interact with each other and improve their social skills.

4. The visit of the 1st Kindergarten of Korydallos gave our students another opportunity to sing! The little students visited our school in order to sing spring carol. They were holding handmade paper wreaths and swallows, which they showed to our students! All children together, holding hands, welcomed spring!

5. March is a special month for Greece. On March 25^th we have two important celebrations. Firstly, the Greek Independence Day, which is a national holiday celebrated annually in Greece on that day, commemorating the start of the War of Greek Independence in 1821. It coincides with the Greek Orthodox Church’s celebration of the Annunciation to the Theotokos, when the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her that she would bear the son of God.

These two celebrations are a source of discussion, inspiration and creation. Mrs. Athena, Zoi, Rita, Zaharenia and Maria, with their students, made handcraft with glass bottles, presenting the Greek national costumes of “Tsolias” and “Queen Amalia”. Mrs. Lukia with her group of students made a great collage, which shows the events of March 25, 1821, in a simple and understandable way. Once again, the creativity strengthened and facilitated children’s learning and understanding of the history!

6. Our school visited Avakio Theater in order to watch the theatrical play: “The Prince and the Pauper”, which is based on a popular novel that chronicles the adventures of two young boys, a Prince and a Pauper, who exchange roles and stations in life. It was an amazing performance. Our little students were impressed by the actors’ performance, the scenery, the costumes and the magical music. When the actors stepped down from the stage and approached the children, the theatre was filled with shouts of joy and excitement. Some of our students also played a small part in the performance for a while!

7. “Painting music” was the 5.1 official activity of our project “Artemotion Xpress in Europe”. Two classes of our school worked on this activity with their teachers. Pupils had to sit around a large piece of paper and while listening to happy and sad classic music, they had to paint what the music made them feel! It was a beautiful activity and children loved it! It is essential to point out that different music hearings influenced pupil’s reactions and feelings. So they expressed different moods, which were represented by different choices of colors and different choices of paintings. For example, during the happy music they chose vivid and bright colors with abstract, curvy lines or happy faces, whereas during the sad music they chose dark and moody colors with sad faces, rain, clouds etc.

We hope that you will enjoy our video.

8. “Getting to know an artist” was the 5.2 official activity of our project “Artemotion Xpress in Europe”. Two school classes worked on this activity with their teachers. The aim was to get to know an artist and his/her work and then meet in real life! The excitement of the pupils was huge!

At first, teachers and pupils decided to work on a local artist, painter and writer, Ms Olga Chanouza. They searched the internet in order to find information about her biography and paintings. They prepared a short Power Point Presentation about her artistic work. They analyzed her paintings and worked during the Language lesson, on a poem called “You are my strength” and even made paintings relevant to the poem.

In a predetermined time, Ms Chanouza visited our school. Pupils presented their preliminary work and all together analyzed her paintings and poem. Later, Ms Chanouza presented some of her new paintings and children expressed what they saw and how they felt.

Finally, we painted. Our minds and hearts were full of colors, imagination, enthusiasm and a great desire to paint along with the artist.

Enjoy our video.

9. The second mobility in Spain is coming soon and as usual, we are going to exchange presents with the partner-countries. Therefore, we decided to buy small fabric bags, which will be filled with delicacies and gifts for our partners. Over these bags, we made drawings related to Greece. Students who attend the upper grade classes with Mrs. Kyra, Mrs. Stamoula (occupational therapist) and Mrs. Kelli (psyghologist), recruited their imagination and made the greatest effort for the best result. We hope you like our creations!

10. A second present for our partners is going to be a handmade puzzle. Therefore, we took a photo of our students, created a puzzle by cutting it into pieces and put it into beautiful folders.

11. Students who attend the middle grade classes of our school, with their teachers Mrs. Georgia and Mrs. Evaggelia, used clay to make little artifacts, related to Greece. This is an activity which is going to help our friends from Nepal (cooperation between Greece and Nepal, in the context of the International School Award) to learn about our culture through Art.

12. A group of students with their teachers visited the Museum of Feelings and attended the program “Hello Mr. Fear”, in the context of the European program «Artemotion Xpress in Europe». It was really different visit, full of emotional interaction. Enjoy our video.

13. A theatrical team visited our school to present a theatrical play, as part of solidarity performances given from the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus. Therefore, we watched the performance “We, the others”. Five young actors, using drama play, approached scenes of the New Greek Theatre, aiming at meeting people and getting them to know each other. Our students liked their immediacy, their jokes, the beautiful songs and the interactivity of the performance.

14. As part of the program “Artemotion Xpress in Europe”, a game workshop was conducted in our school. The students had the opportunity to participate in the program “Meet the emotions: Acceptance, expression and management of our personal emotions. Recognition and interaction with other people’s feelings”. The program was a repetition of all that our young students have learnt during the school year.

15. During our last week at school before the Easter holidays, students and teaching staff created Easter handcrafts! The colors, the designs and their ideas show how much they enjoyed the activity. They even created a giant egg made of styrofoam! The children were so  excited and proud of their creations.