Our A Class project has just come to an end! All the activities, the songs, the games, the art, the practice, everything has been summarised in this short video. Lovely! Have a great summer!
Ένα εξαιρετικό πρόγραμμα αγωγής υγείας ξεκίνησε στο 2ο Δημοτικό Σχολείο Αμαλιάδας, από τις τάξεις Α1 και Α2 και τις υπέροχες δασκάλες τους, Λέττα και Λένα, με θέμα “Οι αξίες του σχολείου”. Για τη συμμετοχή μου μέσω του μαθήματος των Αγγλικών αποφάσισα να χρησιμοποιήσω το βιβλίο της Carrie Finn, “Manners at School”, μεταφρασμένο στα ελληνικά από τις εκδόσεις Ψυχογιός (“Καλοί τρόποι στο σχολείο”). Απευθύνεται με επιτυχία σε παιδιά αυτής ακριβώς της ηλικίας, είναι γραμμένο με λίγα λόγια και λέει αυτό ακριβώς που πρέπει να πει, ενώ συνοδεύεται από μεγάλες εικόνες, που ελκύουν το ενδιαφέρον των παιδιών.
Ως μια πρώτη γνωριμία, ξεφυλλίσαμε το βιβλίο και συζητήσαμε κάθε σελίδα και το θέμα που θίγει. Έπειτα, φτιάξαμε ένα σπιτάκι διπλώνοντας κατάλληλα μια κόλλα Α4 και ζωγραφίσαμε μέσα το σχολείο, όπως θα μας άρεσε να είναι. Γιατί το σχολείο είναι όντως το σπίτι μας.
Have you ever felt that things somehow fall into place, and you suddenly see they are going to work out just fine? Well, it was the case this last week of May. I really felt we were left behind on the project, but in a mysterious way there was finally time for us to complete the process.
First all the students wrote a story (in Greek), for a new character of Mr. Men or Little Miss. Then, they all read it aloud and then they voted for their favourites. We ended up with Ο κύριος Σοβαρός, written by Katerina.
The next time, we put the scenes down and illustrated the story. The Art teacher had helped immensely by asking the students to create a character for Ο κύριος Σοβαρός.
But, we did run out of time, so I created the video myself… And here it is:
https://www.storyjumper.com/book/index/56462515/5b096dd11f562
My 2nd grade students are beginning to feel comfortable with the English letters, recognise them and read a little. I am so happy they also enjoy the popular books by Roger Hargreaves. They loved Mr. Messy and Mr. Busy, and it was an opportunity to talk about different types of people.
For the past couple of lessons with my 2nd graders we’ve been discussing different body types, like Mr. Tall (also Mr. Tickle, Mr. Nosey, Mr. Greedy and Mr. Small, who appear in the book) and Little Miss Somersault (along with Mr. Bounce). Students were introduced to the idea that one’s obvious “drawback” may well indeed be a blessing, as is the case with Mr. Tall! And in the case of Little Miss Somersault, how delightful to see a girl character save the day like a super hero, only to discover that super heroes do sometimes need help themselves! Two lovely messages from Roger Hargeaves, worth the attention of younger learners.
The students drew Mr. Tall this time, easily following this wonderful video, which I only had to pause a little, and then there was also colouring and lots of “Jump! Bounce! Cartwheel!” singing! I think they carried on jumping for the next hour, as by the time we finished, it was time for their P.E. class.
These are the lyrics to the song, available here:
Bounce! (Bounce!)
Jump! (Jump!)
Cartwheel! (Cartweel!)
Little Miss Somersault, Little Miss Somersault
Stretch! (Stretch!)
Leap! (Leap!)
Tumble! (Tumble!)
Little Miss Somersault, Little Miss Somersault!
She doesn’t walk around, but leaps over instead.
She can do anything, even stand on her head!
Jumping, tumbling, bouncing up and down, Little Miss Somersault never touches the ground!
Bounce! (Bounce!)
Jump! (Jump!)
Cartwheel! (Cartweel!)
Little Miss Somersault, Little Miss Somersault
Stretch! (Stretch!)
Leap! (Leap!)
Tumble! (Tumble!)
Little Miss Somersault, Little Miss Somersault!
She’s so full of energy, there is no doubt.
Bouncing over and under, around and about!
Climb on a roof, or balance on a chair, she does it all with out a single care!
Bounce! (Bounce!)
Jump! (Jump!)
Cartwheel! (Cartweel!)
Little Miss Somersault, Little Miss Somersault
Stretch! (Stretch!)
Leap! (Leap!)
Tumble! (Tumble!)
Little Miss Somersault, Little Miss Somersault!
(repeat this a few times)
See you next time!
I am excited to see the children get more involved in our project. Little Miss Wise was next in line, and we got to discuss her behaviour. A student (girl) brought Little Miss Neat in class, too, so there she was, our little guest, and we also got to know her! Letter and phoneme correspondence was tackled during the lesson, in the following words:
After that, it was Little Miss Chatterbox, and while the boys were almost sure that talking too much is a female trait, they were surprised to find out that a Mr. Chatterbox also existed, and he was just as talkative as his sister!
There was a very nice video on Youtube that the students enjoyed. The following character will have to be a male one, though. Till next time!
It was so enjoyable to see how the young students of 2nd grade reacted to the stories, they really liked them a lot. There was colouring of letters and figures, playing and letter making with play-doh, the kids loved it. They are also beginning to understand and accept the different characteristics of different personalities, portrayed in the series, which is good. Here are some pictures:
Can’t wait to see what’s next! Have a happy Clean Monday!
So many things in today’s society, factors outside the classroom, are ripping the students’ team spirit apart: The antagonism is sometimes insane, and it is often one of the roles of the teacher to reconcile different situations and to build bridges, so that students can co-exist peacefully and in a spirit of understanding.
In this context, I decided to invest in a project with 2nd grade students, called “Party with Mr. Men and Little Miss”, with the aim of bringing them closer to each other by primarily recognising aspects of themselves in the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters, getting to know themselves better, and then by realising how many things we all have in common with others. To do that, we are going to study 10 books by the English writer Roger Hargreaves, at the same time engaging in fun activities that will promote the students’ phonemic and phonological awareness in English, as well as building on their self-confidence and connecting English with a literature and a culture. The end product is going to be a story that the students themselves will have created. The project will also help students learn how to illustrate a story, with the help of the Art teacher, and how to value differences in playground games, with the help of the PE teacher.
This is the set of books that we are going to deal with:
And of course, the books are going to enrich the collection of the school library, after we finish our project. I’m curious to see if the young students are going to be familiar with this series and talk about books that they have at home. We’ll see!
In the context of a project about the olive tree, which 4th grade students did with their teacher, Ms Stratigoula Lazaraki, we thought about creating an advertisement flyer for our very own, imaginary, olive oil label! We all thought it would be a great idea to see the locally produced olive oil being sold on the shelves of big supermarkets in the UK, so we wanted to help by making it known to the people there.
The students’ imagination was unlimited: Someone thought of olive oil as being liquid gold, which triggered someone else’s idea of presenting this olive oil as treasure which pirates had to struggle very hard to get to; others thought about olive oil as a means of celebrating peace and unity among people; for others it was the product of hard work, during the harsh autumn and winter weather; others celebrated Greek cuisine and the Mediterranean diet, and so on. It was such a pleasure to work with these talented kids! You can see some of their works here.
In the hot summer month of July I was fortunate enough to have been invited by the School Advisor, Ms Marianthi Kotadaki, to present the work I did on Beatrix Potter during 2016-17 with my then 3rd grade students. The presentation took place at a seminar meeting on September 7, in Pyrgos. This is where you can have a look at it, if you are interested in obtaining a general picture, instead of reading all my blog posts about the project. Enjoy!