Comenius Project

2011 / 2012

The students, the teachers and language assistants in the Arco Iris School

celebrated the Greek Liberation Day enjoying it for two week.

The activities were as follows:

1) We have two posters to advertise this day, one to announce what is celebrated

and the other to explain how they celebrate this day in Greece.

Greek Independence Day Celebration

The Greeks celebrate this day with military parades and celebrations

throughout the country.

Marching bands in traditional

Greek military uniforms and Greek

dancers in bright costumes move

through the streets.

Vendors serve roasted

almonds, barbequed meat,

baklava and lemonade to the flag

waving crowds.

The biggest parade is held in Athens.

Additionally, the Greeks go to a special church service in honor of

the religious events that took place on this day.

Around the world, there are parades with a large Greek population.

Independence Day in Greece

On 25th March, Greece have their national day.

They celebrate their independence from the Ottoman

Empire in May 1832. The Ottoman Empire had been in

control of Greece for more than 400 years.

They celebrate on the 25th March because it is a holy

day in Christianity and it was on this day that a priest

waved a Greek flag as a symbol of revolution.

This started the fight for independence. It lasted for

many years. They celebrate the end of this war and the

independence that followed every year on this day.

2) The students of 1st and 2nd, together with their teachers have done craft and

related chips such as Greek flags, a slipper called "Tsaruchi" of his costume very

representative for them and flags.

3) The students of 3 rd and 4 th with their teachers have made craft on the Greek

shoe, called “Tsarouchi” using fabric and glitter.

Furthermore, in collaboration with the language assistants have produced a Book

with a selection of Greek stories, Myths and Legends in English. You can see in the

web page.

● After that, the students of each class of 3rd have chosen one of them and

they have told the story of the three classes of first year. They chose ‘The Legend

of Hercules’.

Comenius Project Greek National Day 2011-2012

Name: ........................Level:…..Date: ..........

‘Hercules’

Everyone knew that

Hercules was half-man and

half-god. His mother was a

mortal, but his father was

Zeus, the king of all the

gods.

Hercules did not know

he was part god until he had

grown into a man.

Hera, Zeus' wife, was

very jealous of Hercules.

She tried to kill him many

times. One time, she sent a

couple of really big snakes

into his crib. He was just a baby, but Hercules survived. Hercules was

incredibly strong, magically strong, even as a baby!

Zeus loved his little son. To protect Hercules, Zeus sent him to live

with a mortal family on earth. Hercules grew up loved and honest. But he

didn't fit in on Earth. He was too big and too strong. One day, his mortal

father told him he was part god.

All of them produced some posters, and a group was characterized with typical

clothing of ancient Greece told the story. Watch the video in web page.

To complete the activity left them a flag of Greece to color and a form with

a game called "Memory Matching Game ." This is the way they did then:

Mythology has been introduced them telling the children the story of different greek

gods like Hercules, Midas, Apollo and Cassandra, Daedalus and Icarus, Narcissus , Aphrodite

and Venus… All of them has been adapted and written by teachers and our Assistant languages,

Sarah and Amber.

The teachers of the third and forth level and Mª Carmen, estudied the most funny way

to explain the stories to the first and second grade pupils.

They decided that the story would be read by three students and the rest of the class

would paint and decorate many posters that help them to understand the legend better.

The third grades have prepared The leyend of Hercules. The posters has been painted

and decorated by the students, and they have worked hard.

Before starting the presentation the third grade teacher explained the little students

the whole story of Hercules in Spanish, which was supported by students who got dressed in

greek costumes, the posters and the flag of Greece, the country where Hercules lived.

It was a very enriching experience. As always, we have had the advice, support

and work of our ICT coordinator, José Luis. to share this experience with everyone

on our School page web.

When the pupils read the story, they repeated it again to understand it better. In

the end we believe the most of them understood the whole story and they enjoyed it.

The last one step was to paint a greek flag.

We also prepared a memory matching game with countless pictures of Hercules and

other characters of the leyend. We taught them the pronunciation, they coloured them

and finally played in partners.

●The students of 4th have chosen another legend called ‘King Midas’.

A group of each class of 4th, staged the story to the three classes of Second Level .

Then, he left as a token gift and bulleted text to sort and worked on it in pairs a

student of 4th with of 2nd.When they completed them, the read each other. It was a

very enriching, especially for the work of cooperative work done. A video can be seen

in the web page of the school

The “king Midas” story has been

worked in the following way during the

lessons:The procedure was:

First of all the teacher has read the

story twice and ask the children what did

they understand.

Then the key words have been

explained through mimics, gestures, pictures

synonymus and onomatopeic sounds.

We avoiding translation.

After that the story has been read

again by the teacher.

Then the children have been

encouraged to read the first paragraph. Once

they have finished the teacher use body

language and read this paragraph again.

Then they are given some time to re-

read it again and memorize, after some

minutes, the children felt be able to tell the

first paragraph.

The same procedure is made with all

the paragraphs of the story.

During this work, children are asked

if they already knew the story and if they

like it.

And alsom what do they thing about

King Midas, what do they think about

money and the importance of other things

like family, friends, and other simple

activities we do daily and we don’t pay

attention, like breathing, smelling flowers,

and so on.

Once that we’ve been working

through the text children are asked how

would they represent this story, what kind

of clothes would they need, what

accessories (coins, food, flowers) they woul

use, etc.

They have also find out in the

Internet, about the location of Greece, the

clothes used in Ancient Greece.

Finally they have played the story

several times, before telling their younger

partners.

Comenius Project

Greek National Day 2011-2012

Name.......................................................

Level: ...... Date: ......................................

‘King Midas’

King Midas is a greedy

king in Ancient Greece.

Money is more important to

him than his own family.

One day a God grants

him a wish. He wishes that

everything he touches turns

to gold. His wish comes true.

Now he is very very

rich but he isn't happy

anymore. He can't smell the flowers because they are gold. He

can't eat or drink because it turns to gold when he touches it.

He hugs his children and they turn to gold. He misses them.

He tells the God that he doesn't want gold anymore, he

wanted his family. The God changes everything back to how it is

meant to be. King Midas is happy again.

He learns some things are more important than money.

4) The students of 5 th grades, as a volunteer work, prepare a Greek traditional

dance called "Sirtaki" guided them by our specialist music teacher, and they dance in

the third level classes.

You can watch the videos on the web page of the school.

5) The students of 6th grades, as a volunteer work, research tasks to make

Presentations about features of Greece, in order to expose them to the 5 th grade

classes. Enriching activity because the students themselves that explain instead of

teachers.

You can watch these presentations made by students on the web page of our

school.

You can watch the Book of Greek Stories on the web page of the school.

Comenius Project. Greek National Day

2011-2012