C1 20th – 26th May Greece
Exhibition of mindmaps (A4 ) and a representative digital story of a modified classic fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood”; creating project mascots (1-3) with a name and accompying haiku poem.
Short exchange of students and accompanying teachers in Thessaloniki, Greece
1 DIMOTIKO SXOLEIO TRIANDRIAS
News bulletin
‘Celebrating diversity through creativity in Thessaloniki, Greece’
17 children and 14 accompanying teachers from six countries participated in the scheduled actions organized by the 1st Primary School of Triandria, Thessaloniki, Greece, from the 21st to the 25th of May 2018 within the framework of the Erasmus+ Key Action 2, under the title ‘Creating, Communicating, our Diversity we are Celebrating’ cooperating with schools from Poland, Lithuania, Spain, Portugal, Romania and Turkey. The students from the visiting schools stayed in the houses of students from the Greek school.
On the first day, students and teachers of the school organized a series of activities to welcome their guests. They presented their projects about the countries of the partnership. Then, they dramatized the myth of Europe, they gave a shadow theatre performance with the mermaid, they acted out a short story about the name of Thessaloniki, they presented traditional customs, songs and dances. Also, the guests visited all the classrooms, exchanging presents and souvenirs and they played team games at the school yard.
Guided visits to the Archaeological sites of Pella, Vergina , the Archaeological and the Byzantine museums, the Municipality, monuments of Thessaloniki, the White Tower, followed by a boat tour around Thermaikos Gulf, were samples of the actions carried out aiming at knowledge of the multicultural history of the city, which is totally compatible to the essence of our project, with different people, from different origins, religion and culture, living peacefully together.
According to the scheduled activities, workshops were carried out, with construction of the mermaid, a figure of the shadow theatre, creation of the White Tower, the landmark of Thessaloniki and creative writing workshops with triggering of inspiration using senses and memories. The last day, the children from all countries presented their own versions of the Little Red Riding Hood, they played with funny versions of classic fairy tales and they voted for the mascot of the project. The winner mascot was ‘Corky’ from Portugal, a fish, carrying the flags from the seven countries and the message ‘Creating, Communicating, our Diversity we are Celebrating!’
The farewell celebration was open to the local community with traditional music and dance by cultural associations and bands and traditional dishes offered by the parents’ association.
The project, under the co-funding of the European Union, started in September 2017 and the seven schools experience daily the idea of ‘Creating, Communicating, our Diversity we are Celebrating!’ Poems, songs, fairy tales, stories, drawings, cards, are created and shared. In this way the learning processes become more powerful under the light of interaction.
The future activities are transnational meetings in Portugal and Romania and short exchanges of students and accompanying teachers in Spain and Lithuania.
Expected outcome of the actions is the fight against prejudice, racism and xenophobia and the creation of open spaces of inclusion in education. Already, from the first year, the influence of the project to children, students, parents and the local society are evident. In school, the teachers experience daily that within this creative framework, the value of learning languages can be upgraded, borders of the mind can be erased, bridges can be built, horizons can be opened.
