Project Classes work on the topic of

"happiness" in relation to the world around me  

Project Classes work on the topic of "happiness" in relation to "others"

Warm -up : Children take a look at  pictures depicting happy people and they guess what is the reason they are happy (possibly reaching the conclusion that people are happy when their needs such hunger, need for love, need to play and have fun  are satisfied). The pictures are used for educational purposes (they belong to unsplash.com), they cannot be published and they are collected in the TwinBoard below. Teachers post the pupils' guesses in the Discussion Forum below.

Step 1: Pupils watch the video subtitled in their own language or the teachers explain it to them  

(Video: "Ugly vegetables" with English subtitles) 

[documentation: photos of children watching the video]

Watching videos in English

Step 2: Pupils answer the following questions in class in their native language

(Natassa, Special Teacher suggests the following questions but teachers should feel free to add more questions )

(α)What did you like about the story? Why?

(b) Can you tell why mum/the child/the neighbours are happy for?

(c) How do you feel when other people (parents, friends) like what you do? When was the last time you felt admiration for yourself?

(d)  When we do our best, we feel happy. When people praise us, we feel happy. Have you ever praised a classmate? Have you ever told them you admire them?How do you think they will feel if you do?

(e) When we are disappointed or when we believe we won't be able to achieve our goals but nonetheless we receive the admiration of people around us, we take courage and feel that we should try and do our best. Do you agree?

Teachers post the pupils' answers in the Discussion Forum below.

Step 3:  What do you think makes the world happy? 

Task 1: Produce happiness in class

In class we make an "Admiration" box. It could be a shoe box wrapped up in pupils' drawings. Each pupil takes a piece of paper, writes the date, his/her name on it, the name of a classmate as well as a skill or ability his/her classmate should be admired for. For instance, s/he can draw well, s/he is a good friend, s/he is good at tidying up the classroom after an activity. Pupils write "admiration" notes to all their classmates. Each pupils collects the "admiration" notes addressed to him/her and takes them home. 

Set a date to work on the "Admiration" box activity: a Friday

Task 2 : Produce happiness in the local community 

Project classes work on plans to "produce" happiness in the local community. The children do some research asking family, friends and neighbours and try to find individuals or groups of people who may need something that the children can provide. Through giving to those in need the children will produce happiness both the recipient but also for themselves.

The children's endeavors to "produce" happiness in the local community are collected on a TwinBoard in the "Happiness Enteprise" TwinSpace page

Teachers post the pupils' suggestions in the Discussion Forum below.