Μήνας: Νοέμβριος 2022

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!

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.

https://greek-lol.com/news/november-17th/

This project was based on the layout of the Geography project, Lesson 3, Unit 1 of the 6th Grade Coursebook and its purpose was to foster the 4 Cs (Critical thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, Communication) on an educational level and to practise Speaking and Writing skills on a linguistic level.

The format of their educational product followed the layout of the book because this would give them a rubric to refer to. More specifically the layout was the following:

• Name of Country-Borders
• Landscape
• Weather
• People
• Feelings 

Students were divided into 5 groups of 4. They needed to compose a product namely write a report by working the first 4 parts. Each group needed also to decice who of its members would undertake to find the material for each aspect of the topic apart form the last one -Feelings- which they had to discuss and write on a plenary level in class time. When they finished, their report was handed in and made into a presentation which was discussed in class.

Μετάβαση στο sway.office.com.

https://sway.office.com/lnyvprOPVC2Qqqw6?ref=Link

Corrections and new instructions were given and the groups were assigned with a different task: Each group needs now to work on ONE of the five dimensions of the project and bring visual material as well.

Project in process….

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!