February’s newsletter
Topics & activities
The first week of February we followed a little girl called Ruby on various adventures. Ruby is a book character who is helping us to learn more about how digital tools like computers work. Ruby cannot make tea, ruby needs help to fix her window…Please read the section Digital Education for more information.
The second week of February was all about the celebration of love! We talked about actions of love among significant others like our family & our friends. We wrote valentine letters in order to express gratitude for our families, we created colorful collages on cards, we made key rings with rainbow handprints on them, we decorated valentine’s envelopes and we read stories related to the theme.
The third week of February we focused on our body hygiene & self – care. Specifically, we discussed the underwear rule, where others should not try to touch us, how to react and where to seek help. Kiko & the hand gave us the opportunity to open the conversation, the kindergarteners painted fancy underpants and they stuck the word no on the top.
Since the tooth fairy has visited a few of our students we also implemented activities about dental health. We observed a model of a human mouth, we made a list with positive habits about our oral hygiene, we sorted the food that makes our teeth happy & sad and we created a craft related to the theme by using glue & scissors.
The fourth week of February we visited the Medical Museum of Crete. We had an anatomy class from an expert, we observed medical tools from different eras & we explored various ways of making medicine by using natural ingredients. We also celebrated Tsiknopempth, we talked about this Greek tradition, and we made vegetarian skewers & homemade lemonade! The children enjoyed cooperative games that day. Last but not least we had our virtual lessons with Mixalis Maniadakis from the Little School of Earth, we started to learn more about the ecosystems. Please read more on the environmental section.
Environmental program
Play & learn and the Little School of Earth cooperated this month in order to implement an ongoing project for the kindergarten class called ‘’Biological agriculture’’. The program will end at the end of May and Mr. Mixalis Maniadakis will support our effort to bring awareness about environmental health. This month we had two virtual classes with Mr. Mixalis and the main purpose was to get familiar with the concept of the ecosystem & the food web which has been created on it.
1st Session-Activities: What is an ecosystem? Examples of ecosystems (flashcards), Different sizes of ecosystems, the story of ‘’Tzitzikas & Mermigkas’’, learning an action song about the ecosystem.
2nd Session – Activities: Who lives in the ecosystem? The different roles of each creature through a PowerPoint presentation: Producers, consumers, decomposers. ‘’The hare & the turtle’’ story. Ecosystem song in practice!
Digital education
Digital education is also an ongoing program that targets to support children to use digital tools as part of their educational journey.
This month we:
- Practiced writing on the iPad keyboard.
- Learned to lock & unlock the iPad device.
- Used the iPad in order to search for educational information.
- Played games in which we had to give instructions, the same that we do with computers.
Useful links
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNF8b7KKJ2I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZclTs81Zz2Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkhIq3gzPDI