Thursday ( 10 - 04 - 2008)

Hello,

I have had a very nice day! I will fill you in about all the activities.

Xanthi: Music instruments

Xanthi started the day with an activity about typical traditional instruments that are used in Greek folk music. The instruments are typical for some areas in Greek.

Xanthi showed some pictures of the different traditional-typical instruments from Greek(mpouzouki, klarino, lyra). She also showed a picture of a typical instrument of Belgium (the saxophone).
When Xanthi showed a picture of an instrument, she also showed the region where that instrument is played. Afterwards we could hear the typical sound of each instrument.

After some practicing the sounds and the looks of the instruments and its region, we did a little test with the children. They could here different Greek music. The children had to recognize the instruments and tell us the names and its region.
The children had payed good attention. They knew almost all the answers!

Xanthi ended her activity with a drawning activity. The children had to imagine an instrument that could make a sound that they really like. They could draw a real instrument, but they also could imagine one.







The children really enjoyed the drawning. While they were using there imagination, they could here some beautifull Greek music on the background.
Everyone joined this activity. Even Omer was drawning with a special program on his computer.

I think Xanthi has done a great job! She has chosen an activity that fits good with the theme 'music' in this class. The children learned something different than they are used to. They got to know something more about Greece and the traditional music in this country. This music is completely different than the music that they are normally confront with.

Marian and Monika: Animal names

While Xanthi was doing her activity in class 4, Marian and Monika were doing an other activity with the children of class 3.

They learned the children the names of different animals in Spanish and Czech language. The children really liked it. They thought it was funny to pronounce these words in an other language.

Marian and Monika made it more fun to learn these words by doing a little game with these words.
The children received a lottoticket with different animals on it. Marian or Monika took a note out of a box with a name of a animal. When a child had this animal on its lottoticket, he had to cross it. A child could winn when all the animals on his lottoticket were crossed.

The children were very involved and such you can see on their faces, they really liked this activity! It encorraged them to learn the words, because they could cross a word on their card and winn.
These children were very intrested in other languages and countries. At the end of this activity, they even asked other new words to Monika and Marian.

Marian and Monika have done also a great job! I could see it on the faces and the reaction from the children that they were involved and liked it a lot!
I also like it that they have chosen for an activity with different languages. The children never do these kind of things in normal lesson-activities. It is something different, new and exotic for them and that makes it interesting and fun for them to learn!

Eva and Xanthi: Drama

After the break, Eva and Xanthi had their drama-activity. This activity was with both classes (3 and 4).
First they splitted themself up over the two classes and they explained something more about the Greek theater and showed pictures of an amfitheater.
The children could also see a movie on You Tube of Greek theater.



After some explanation, we went with the two classes to the big circle.
Eva and Xanthi showed an example of Greek theater. They did a kind of pantomime in which you can't speek.
The children had to guess wath they had played. They watched the play very well, because they could tell wath they were playing into the little details.

It was now time for the children to come up with something. We splitted them up in little groups. They had to come up with a play in which nobody would speak. They could only use their bodies.
I helped the children in every group with this activity. I listened to all the ideas and if it was necesary, i helped them on the way by giving a beginning of an idea.

When all the groups were ready, we started the performance.





The children did it very well! They had good ideas and made everything clear with their bodies! A good example you can see in the picture where Mikey is sitting in a corner. He was playing a poor man who didn't have something to eat. On the next picture you see Sanne and Bram who are playing two good people who are giving something to the poor man. The children played this very well! All the other children in the audiance knew immediatly what they were playing!

After all the acting, it was time to end the activity.
Eva and Xanthi wanted to do this by singing some Greek songs.



The children really enjoyed it! After a while, the other classes were also done with their activities. They heard the singing and came to sit with the others of class 3 and 4.
Aristi and Xanthi joined the singing of Greek songs. It was really beautifull to hear!



Marian: Coocking
In the afternoon the activity of Marian started.
She started with asking where Spain is on the map. Afterwards she toldsomething about the Spanish flag and about the typical Spanish music.
She wrote some Spanish words on the blackboard: "guitarra española" and "tortilla española". We translated into English and afterwards in Dutch.
The children did know now that they were about to make a Spanish omelet.

The children were very enthousiastic about this. They had never made such a thing and some of them never prepared something to coock. So this was something very special for them!

We started with washing the hands and then they could start preparing the ingrediënts. The children could peel the potatoes and cut them in little peaces. Most of them never did this before. So they enjoyed this new thing very much.





Some other children could help with the peeling of the onion. This boy was courage enough to do this, because it isn't that easy to peel an onion. It hearts in your eyes and you can crie because of it.

Some other children could break the eggs into a bowl.

Even children with some disabillities were cooperating! Everyone in this class did a great job with preparing the food!


This didn't go always that well. This boy broke the egg, but it broke next to the bowl. On the second picture you see him erasing the evidence. We all had a great laugh with these funny things that happend.


After the eggs were broken, some children could mix in the bowl.



Marian was working on the food...

While we had to wait, we played a little game 'galgje'. The children had to guess words they had learned during the day such as 'Greek theatre', 'amfitheatre', 'Spanish guitarre"...

Marian showed the children some coocking tricks and then the meal was finished!


All the children enjoyed the meal they had all made. It tasted extra good because the whole class worked on it! There were even children wo wanted a second, third and even more portions.





The children had a really nice day today. I am very pleased that all the activities were very good and that the children enjoyed! The students of my group did a very, very, very good job!
I hope tomorrow will be the same!

See you tomorrow!