This thought provoking poster for International Children’s Book Day 2011 comes from Estonia, with a beautiful design by Jüri Mildeberg (aka Jüri Mildebergius). The theme is ‘The Book Remembers’.

Saturday, 2nd April is the birthday of Hans Christian Andersen is celebrated worldwide as International Children’s Book Day.  There are a myriad of ways to do this in schools, libraries and homes.  Some suggestions include:

•    reading and promoting stories by HC Andersen
•    introducing folk tales from around the world
•    invite a local storyteller to tell HC Andersen stories and/or folktales from overseas
•    inviting parents from other cultures to share their childhood favourites and folk tales
•    suggesting your own book club read an overseas children’s book
•    encouraging children to write a story about a child from another culture
•    start a pen pal club with children from abroad
•    encourage each class to create a diaorama featuring a folk-tale or story from elsewhere
•    explore flags, food, clothing, housing and stories from other cultures
•     invite fellow staff members to have a lunch or gathering where they speak for about a minute or so about their favourite children’s book
•    and light a candle for world peace.

Posted on March 4, 2011 by ibbyaustralia

I think it is a wonderful opportunity to read any children’s books in class. Unit 8 in the Grade 5 book is called ALL ABOUT STORIES and the Activity book has a piece on Hans Christian Andersen.  Books by various children’s authors are mentioned ….Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, Eugene Trivizas. I always wait to hand out the reader MMPublications offer the Grade 3 students on or around this day. THE UGLY DUCKLING by Hans Christian Anderson! It is also fun to make bookmarks with students and to encourage them to read in their free time… Happy reading!

Unit 7 in the Grade 5 book is called Going back in time. We talked about various figures from the past and students wrote about Aliki Vougiouklaki, Jenny Karezi and Socrates but I am posting the following piece as it is 200 years since this influential Greek writer passed away.

Papadiamantis was born on 4^th March 1851 on the island of Skiathos. He lived a humble life and he supported himself (very meagerly) by writing throughout his adult life. His novels are adventurous with rich plots about war, pirates and the plague and his shorter stories are “ real “ about country life in Skiathos or city life in the poorer neighbourhoods of Athens. He lived among people like a monk. He was known as a recluse. He died of pneumonia on 3^rd January 1911. This year marks 200 years since his death.

By George Grade 5.



There are certain days in the year that as an English teacher I feel we should point out to students….. March 17 last week was Saint Patrick’s Day and I did enjoy making leprechaun figures with students and introducing them to the legend of Saint Patrick. There are crosswords, word searches and a variety of printable worksheets on line to keep everyone busy. We may not have worn green but we did read GREEN EGGS AND HAM by Dr.Seuss. We had a good time.

I think encouraging children to read books is very important and introducing them to some classic English children’s literature is something I truly enjoy. Today I chose to read Where the Wild Things Are (a 1963 children’s picture book by American writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak) to the students in Grade 6. The story appealed to them as the plot is “wild” and they did enjoy the beautiful illustrations. We talked about Max’s feelings, dreams, fantasy and animals as the “wild things” in the book are a combination of different animals. We finished off with a worksheet and I now await to see their own “wild” animal creations.

Tuesday 22^nd February, 2011

Dear Joe,

Thanks for your letter and it was nice to hear from you and all about your class trip to the London Transport museum. It did sound interesting! We also went on a school trip recently.

We visited the Mevgal Milk Industry in Koufalia. We travelled by bus and when we arrived we watched a video of the industry’s operations. We were also given a bag with samples of yogurt and milk. We then had some free time in the park. We also visited an enamel workshop in Pella. A woman showed us how to make small statues. It was really interesting and we had a great time!

That’s all for now.  We are looking forward to hearing from you again.

Yours,

Grade 6 Class

(All students took part in the letter writing process based on letter writing task in Grade 6 Pupil’s Book page 57)



It lives in a home.

It’s got four legs and a tail.

It eats bones and meat.

It drinks water.

It likes to run and barks.

It is small and cute.

Which animal is it?

A puppy.    By Helen E.  Grade 4

My favourite animal lives almost anywhere.

It has a long tail and is a type of lizard.

It is small and changes colour.

It eats leaves.

Which animal is it?

A chameleon. By Marios. Grade 4

My favourite animal lives in the mountains and in the forest.

It is big and short.

It has got four legs and a tail. It hasn’t got hands.

It’s brown and white and grey.

It eats meat.

It runs fast and has a good sense of smell.

Which animal is it?

A wolf. By Stathis. Grade 4

Based on Grade 4 Student’s Book Write your  riddle task page73

I may teach English but Crafts are something all primary school children love. Here is a tree the Grade 3 and 4 students helped with: we cut out their hands on green cardboard and they coloured in angels, bells and stars and voila! The Grade 1 and 2 teachers Ms. Marietta and Ms.Afroditi helped with the final outcome.

GREEK CUSTOMS AT CHRISTMAS

At Christmas we decorate a Christmas tree and a boat. We always sing carols on Christmas Eve and open presents from Father Christmas on New Year’s Day (January 1^st). We make Christmas cards at school and sometimes send them. We always eat vasilopita (New Year’s Pie) and hope the lucky coin is in our piece. We decorate our house with lights. We sometimes eat turkey and we often eat traditional honey sweets –  melomakarona and Greek shortbread – kourabiethes.

Based on the Write and speak task in Grade 4 Student’s Book page 64

Christmas trees in picture were made by Grade 2 students and their creative teacher Ms. Afroditi.