This is how we celebrated April Fools’day!
Κατηγορία: CELEBRATIONS
Happy Carnival Day!
Colourful Students’creations
Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!
This year I decided to create Christmas cards with my 3rd and 4th Graders by using simple materials and by playing a little with two words spellingwise.
So for the 3rd Graders I used a simple pattern which I created on a Word document inspired by another pattern I found on the Internet and we created the simplest and cutest Santa Claus card.
With my 4th Graders we played a little with the word “dear” and “deer” so we created the following reeindeer card
in which a pun (which I also found on the Internet ) was written as a wish: “You are deer to me!” Students really enjoyed the whole christmas spirit and I was surprised by how clever and funny they found the pun we used.
Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year to everyone!
Happy Thanksgiving!
I celebrated Thanksgiving this year with my 3rd graders.
First, we got in a circle holding hands and talked about the things we are thankful for in single words. This act made us feel a group who shares feelings and really made students cheerful.
Then we decided to make a list of all things that make us thankful (so as to revise and learn new vocabulary as well). For this reason we used an Alphabet list.
Finally, everything gets better with a little bit of Arts and Crafts so we decided to create our own turkey and write the most precious things in life that we are thankful for!
Politechnio Day
The Greek Online School helped me with an article to discuss the historical moments of Politechnio Day on the 17th of November. Using this article as a stimulus students were given the opportunity to discuss an important part of Greek history and learn related vocabulary to communicate ideas and concepts which could not be found in a regular unit of our Coursebook.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Halloween festivities are always great fun for children and an effective way to teach related vocabulary. This year we watched short informative videos on YouTube https://youtu.be/L_eAKG1paUk about the origin of Halloween and explained customs and traditions. But it didn’t stop there!
The following site gave me the idea of constructing a catapulting trick or treat basket and make a funny activity for my students. https://www.weareteachers.com/halloween-classroom-games-activities-crafts/
My educational scenario was the following: if you want to take a candy out of the box you need to throw a skull or a spider into the trick or treat basket using the catapult!
As a witch I got guided by a tricky spirit who got in my way all the time preparing my basket. Τhis functioned as a role play between the witch (me) and the spirit who wished to make the skill test more difficult! So as I was filling my trick or treat basket with candies, it prompted me to put spiders and skulls in the basket to discourage students to get the candies. This was actually a dialogue between me and myself as I was playing both roles by changing my voice but it made students laugh and cheer so it created a nice interactive atmosphere for the task. Progressively, all students tried their powers and managed to get their candies. They had three shots to achieve the goal and they were cheered on by their fellow students.
Needless to say that Halloween festivities lasted for three days as I’m teaching 3rd graders to 6th graders and all students wanted to test their catapulting skills and taste the candies!
For the 3rd graders there was also art and craft Halloween activity. We created ghosts, bats, black cats and halloween pumpkins for our in class poster and their personal cut-out on sticks to take home.
All in all, we really celebrated and had a happy Halloween this year!
OXI-DAY CELEBRATION
On the 27th of October we celebrated the OXI day 1940 of Greek resistance at school. We had the chance to watch videos documenting two very important dimensions of this particular historical era.
First, it was important to discuss the cirmustances under which children experienced the war days. To this end, the following video offered a visual and audio background to our discussion.
Second, for grades 5th and 6th another video watching stressed the importance of Greek OXI DAY and the Greek resistance in general for the outcome of World War II since as it was unanimously stated that it was the defining factor for the delay of German troops to their way to Russia and their resulting failure to win the war. In the following video many well known personalities from around the world express their admiration and recognise the importance of Greek resistance.
“Anna Frank’s diary” is also an animated film which will be a great stimulus for a more in depth exploration of the turbulent days of the war from the eyes of a young girl whose diary became the symbol of antifascist movement around the world.
“Where is Annie Frank?” is a great after war film and a great suggestion for the follow-up discussion on the impact of Anne Frank’s diary.