Posted in 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, School Paper Articles

JOKES – English School Paper, April 2011 Issue

JOKES
by Hryssa Papalexopoulou

What did John say when he saw four elephants walking down the hill?
“Are elephants coming?”
And what did John say when he saw four elephants with black sunglasses walking down the hill?
Nothing. He didn’t recognize them!

———————-

Teacher: Tell us, Helen, where does God live?
Helen: I think in the bathroom, Miss.
Teacher: And why are you saying that?
Helen: Because every morning my dad is behind the bathroom door and he says: “God, will you ever get out?”

———————-

Two men were gambling in a salon. One of them stood up and he started screaming:
– I won, I won!
– What do you have?, the second man asked.
– Four aces.
– I think that you don’t….
– Why, what do you have?
– Two nines and one gun!!!

Posted in 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, My Schools' English Newspapers

ENGLISH SCHOOL NEWSPAPER – ISSUE 2 – PRIMARY SCHOOL OF PTELEOS

Since the beginning of this school year, the Primary School of Pteleos has been involved in an eTwinning project that includes exchanging English school newspapers with other European Primary Schools ( St Mary’s Primary Duntocher, Clydebank, United Kingdom, Ulubatlı Hasan İlköğretim Okulu, Kocaeli, Turkey, Szkoła Podstawowa nr 1 im. Feliksa Nowowiejskiego w Barczewie, Barczewo, Poland, Samanyolu Ilköğretim Okulu , Ankara, Turkey and Öğretmen Mediha Mehmet Tetikol İlköğretim Okulu, Tekirdağ, Turkey. Their English school paper is called “Our World” (see their first issue here) and their second issue is finally ready! You can download it here: OUR WORLD – ENGLISH SCHOOL PAPER – 2ND ISSUE – PRIMARY SCHOOL OF PTELEOS

Posted in 5th Grade, 6th Grade, School Paper Articles

CARNIVAL IN GREECE – English School Paper, February 2011 Issue

CARNIVAL IN GREECE

Since the beginning of this school year the learners in the Primary School of Pteleos exchange presentations of national customs and traditions with other European Primary Schools. Here is what our 5th graders wrote about the Carnival celebrations in Greece.

CARNIVAL CUSTOMS AROUND GREECE
by Kosmas Gourgiotis

Naoussa. In Naoussa, every year people celebrate the custom of “Yenitsari” and “Boules” which has its roots since when Greece was under Turkish occupation. Yenitsaroi are men dressed in traditional Greek costumes and Boules are also men dressed-up as women. They all wear masks.

Halkidona. In New Halkidona, in Thessaloniki, Greece, people celebrate the Carnival playing yogurt fights. They throw yogurt at each other!

Skiros. In Skiros, people celebrate the custom of “the old man of Korela”. They wear the traditional costume of the sheppard and they hang big bells around their waist.

Naxos. In Naxos, men wear traditional Greek costumes and go around the neighborhoods and sing.

Galaxidi. People in Galaxidi have a strange, but funny carnival custom. On Clean Monday they throw flour and ashes at each other, so they turn white and in a minute they’re all covered in black! It is a very funny tradition and many people visit Galaxidi to participate in this traditional game!

Patra. Patra is one of the famous destinations during the carnival. People in Patras participate in a long carnival parade, dressed up in different costumes. There is also a treasure hunt game!

Clean Monday
by George Papargiris

Clean Monday is a big celebration in Greece. People eat seafood and vegetables. This day in the morning the people go in the countryside or the mountain and they fly a kite. They have a picnic there. Clean Monday is a very good and enjoyable celebration. Children usually have lots of fun!

Clean Monday
by Danae Xiromeriti

Clean Monday is the opening day of the fasting for the Greek Orthodox Church and it means the end of the Carnival. It was named like this because the early Christians used to clean their body and soul on that special day, preparing themselves for the Easter holidays. Fasting lasts 40 days, the same as the days Jesus spent in the desert. On Clean Monday it is common that we eat ‘lagana’, which is a flat loaf of bread, and beans soup without oil. Traditionally, it is the last day of the year we can dress up for the carnival and we go out and fly kites. Clean Monday is celebrated 48 days before Easter. For more information, you can visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Monday

GAΪTANAKI
by Valentina Velikova

Gaitanaki is a traditional Greek dance that we dance during the carnival. It is a colourful and funny dance!

We need 13 people for this dance! One person is holding a wooden pole with 12 ribbons hanging from its top. The ribbons have different colours and every person is holding a ribbon.

When the music begins, the dancers move towards the pole, go under the other dancer’s ribbon, move far from the pole and then towards the pole again! A colourful braid is created on the pole when the dance finishes.

This dance is a symbol of the circle of life. We move from happiness to sadness, from winter to spring, from life to death and the opposite!

A CARNIVAL GAME
by Danae Xiromeriti, Helen Kaltsouni and Helen Alamanioti

During the carnival Greek people organize many games for children to play. Sometimes they win and sometimes they lose! Sometimes they dress up, and sometimes they don’t!

Valmas was a game that was played in the village of Penia. There were two teams and each one was tied on each side of the rope. The winner was the team that dragged the other team towards its side. It was a special game because after the game they had funny dialogues, like a play.

CARNIVAL IN PTELEOS

People celebrate the carnival all around Greece. In our village, the carnival celebrations take place on the last Sunday of the carnival period, just before Clean Monday. This year, we celebrated the carnival in the central square of our village on March 6th.

The celebration this year was great! The local choir sang beautiful traditional songs. Our school participated in the celebrations, too! Our PE teacher, Mrs. Despina Founta, taught us the traditional dances. We danced the traditional ‘Gaitanaki’ and the ‘Pepper’ song, which was a lot of fun. We also danced some other Greek traditional songs.

A great party followed our presentation of the dances and in the end we burnt the king of the carnival in a big fire that people lit in the central square.

Posted in 5th Grade, 6th Grade, School Paper Articles

A SCHOOL TRIP TO THE NEWSPAPER ‘THESSALIA’ – English School Paper, February 2011 Issue

A SCHOOL TRIP TO THE NEWSPAPER ‘THESSALIA’
by Bill Tsouvalias, Natassa Hassioti and Marilena Louska (6th grade)

On December 9th, 2010, we visited the printing house of the local newspaper “Thessalia”. We had the opportunity to see how they print a newspaper and discover some new information.

We had prepared questionnaires and our guide, Ms Hrapalou, answered all our questions. First of all, she said to us that “Thessalia” has been circulating since 1898, but she could not inform us about the number of copies that they sell every day. Secondly, she told us that there are about 30 reporters who work for the newspaper.

Thirdly, she told us that reporters are not the only people needed for a newspaper to be published. There are people who work for the printing of the newspaper, photographers, editors, accountants, the chief editor, the manager, a person who is responsible for the newspaper circulation and the drivers who deliver the copies. Then, we asked her how the reporters know what is new and we found out that they use the internet, the TV and, of course, they go out to see what happens.

In addition, we asked her how they choose the articles which will be in the newspaper. Ms Hrapalou told us that the chief editor is responsible for that. Also, we all wanted to know how much it costs to publish each issue. She did not know the exact cost, but she informed us that they sell the newspaper for 0,50€ only on Mondays and buying the newspaper on one of the rest of the days costs 1,00€.

As our school paper issue takes about two months to be published, we wanted to know how long it takes them to prepare each issue. To our surprise, we discovered that it takes them about 4 hours to prepare an issue! Finally, we asked what kind of problems they face and Ms Hrapalou informed us that one of the biggest and most common problems is when the roll paper is cut in the printing machine during the printing of the newspaper. It is very difficult for them to change it and it takes time.

Ms Hrapalou also showed us old issues of the newspaper and the machines they used to have in the past. Back then it took them a lot of hours to print with these machines!

We really enjoyed this visit to the printing house of the newspaper “Thessalia”. It was fun and we discovered many things. We would like to thank Ms Hrapalou once again for being so nice to us and for explaining everything so well!

Posted in 4th Grade, School Paper Articles

MY VILLAGE – English School Paper, February 2011 Issue

MY VILLAGE
by Vasso Boukorou and Zoe Gerogiakomou (4th grade)

The name of our village is Pteleos. It is in central Greece. It is near the sea.

We have got clean beaches and beautiful shops. An important city near Pteleos is Volos. There are a lot of mountains here. You can eat fresh fish, meat and olives here.

One of our festivals is on August 15th. We celebrate Virgin Mary. In the morning, people go to church and at night they go to the central square and have dinner in taverns. We also have another festival, the Carnival, in February. Children dress up and go to the central square and dance. They also go to a party at a club and they play treasure hunt, they throw confetti, dance and drink soft drinks and hot chocolate.

Many tourists visit Pteleos in the summer. They go to the village of Hamako, the Sea Museum in Achillio, the castle and, of course, the beaches!

Posted in 5th Grade, 6th Grade, Computer-Assisted Language Learning, Public Education

Exchange of Traditional Dances and National Customs Among European Primary Schools

Exchange of Traditional Dances and National Customs Among European Primary Schools

Primary School of Pteleos

Upon the beginning of the current school year, the Primary School of Pteleos, Greece, participates in the European programme ‘eTwinning’ which promotes the collaboration of European schools with common pedagogical and educational objectives. The project we submitted this year bears the title «Dancing our Way Through Tradition» and it involves learners in the exchange of national customs and traditions among participating European Primary Schools. The vehicle for each exchange will be a video-recorded traditional dance of each partner, accompanied with the presentation of a selected custom or tradition.

The primary objectives of this endeavour are: a) to raise awareness of learners’ own and others’ customs and tradition, b) to develop global understanding, c) to realize the emergence of English as an international language, and d) to motivate leasrners to learn national traditional dances. The secondary objectives are: a) to develop learners’ writing skills in English, b) to promote collaborative learning, c) to introduce the use of technology in learning (video, email, search engine, word processor, PowerPoint presentation, etc). «Dancing Our Way Through Tradition» aspires primarily to develop the learners’ awareness of the traditions of other countries. This way, they may become more tolerant with different cultures and more sensitive to different lifestyles, and generally more respectful of the diversity of cultures.

Once submitted, the programme has been approved by the National Committee and the Primary Schools involved are the following: eLearning Centre, Floriana, Malta, Karacaoğlan İ.Ö.O / Primary School, Adana, Turkey, Scoala gen. nr. 2 Codlea, Codlea, Romania, St. Clare College, San Gwann Primary A, San Gwann, Malta, TEVFİK YARAMANOĞLU İLKÖĞRETİM OKULU, MERKEZ, Turkey, Samanyolu Ilköğretim Okulu , Ankara, Turkey and the Primary School of Politika, Evia, Greece.

The first exchange among the participating schools has been accomplished prior to the closing of schools for the Christmas Holidays and it involved the learners of the Primary School of Pteleos in the creation of a video with Greek Christmas carols and songs and a presentation of the Greek Christmas and New Year’s customs. The learners taking part in this project are those of the 4th, 5th and 6th grade and the teachers who coordinated and collaborated for this first exchange are the following: Despina Founda (Physical Education Teacher), Maria Soultani (Music Teacher) and Paraskevi Hamilou (English Teacher).