European Day of Languages 2025

 This year, we marked the European Day of Languages with a variety of interactive and creative activities designed to spark curiosity, teamwork, and imagination.

My Class 2 pupils learned greetings and how to say “peace” in Italian, Greek, and Turkish with help from their peers across Europe. They also created a mini video dictionary of kind words, linking language and emotion in a playful way, and joined a memory game with flags. 

Older pupils went on a virtual journey across Europe, discovering fun facts about different countries. The most creative ones wrote poems in English and translated the song “Voices of Europe”, composed for this year’s celebration.

The main event took place on 2 October in the school canteen, where Class 5 pupils, divided into five mixed teams, took part in quizzes on general knowledge and languages. They performed a choreography to the song “Voices of Europe”, a scene from the musical “Letter by Letter”, and a short sketch about cases called “The Toreador and the Bull.”

This was our 15th celebration at school and the 25th across Europe — a joyful reminder of how languages enrich our world and bring people closer together. As always, the activity is part of the Council of Europe's Event Calendar.

Finger Family

 Introducing family members through finger puppets and a cheerful song always brings joy to our classroom. Drawing on a tried-and-true practice from previous years, I prepared printed puppets for each child. They cut them out—either on their own or with a friend’s help—then coloured them and tucked them into their puppet bags, ready to bring to every lesson.

We begin each lesson with our familiar tune, which not only helps the children remember the names of our characters, but also gives them a chance to practise a simple dialogue: 'How are you?' followed by 'I’m fine, thank you. And how are you?'

It’s a fun way to practise English and feel good about speaking.

SonS 2025

 On 13 September, our team took part in the third national Science on Stage festival, held at ITHS in New Belgrade. The event gathered 20 school teams from different parts of Serbia, each showcasing their creative STEAM projects. We were proud to be invited to the national finals with our eTwinning SDG story.

This was a fantastic opportunity to explore innovative approaches to STEAM education, practise public speaking in front of visitors and the jury, and enjoy a sunny day in New Belgrade. We also organised a short workshop to demonstrate how we use digital apps, such as ChatterPix Kids, in our project work.

The feedback from visitors truly made our day. Comments like 'I’ve never heard a teacher talk with so much enthusiasm about working with students before' and 'You’ve done amazing work for a primary school' were deeply encouraging, even though we were not selected to represent Serbia at the European finals in Lithuania next May.

The selection of national finalists was based on several criteria, including originality and creativity, scientific relevance, ease of implementation, financial sustainability, and contribution to education for sustainable development. Projects that inspired curiosity, encouraged student research, and could be easily adapted to different school contexts received additional recognition.

NQL 2025

Our eTwinning National Support Organisation has just awarded 156 teachers with Quality Labels for their international projects. I'm proud and delighted to share that the projects I started and collaborated on with my pupils have also received the recognition:

- Thankful tunes: A thanksgiving celebration

The project creatively and engagingly explored the cultural significance of Thanksgiving, connecting students of various ages through joint activities that involved linguistic, musical, and artistic expression, as well as digital skills. Students expanded their knowledge and achieved important outcomes in foreign language education. At the same time, key competencies were developed and knowledge from different fields was integrated.

Teachers collaborated in a positive and encouraging atmosphere, exchanged experiences with colleagues, and improved their own teaching practices. Students were active participants in the activities; interaction took place through online meetings, forum discussions, and the use of collaborative pedagogical approaches such as co-writing. The final products reflect their engagement, cooperation, and acquired knowledge.

Participation in the project contributed to the quality of the teaching process and strengthened the school’s openness to innovative approaches. 

- Cultural Bridges Across Europe

The aim of the project was to learn basic language phrases in various languages, fostering understanding and appreciation of different European cultures. A detailed activity plan and teacher task distribution are available on TwinSpace. Student activities were diverse and aligned with the project’s goals (learning greetings in multiple languages, creating a digital cookbook, recording positive words in their native language, sharing e-safety tips, making New Year’s cards, etc.). Although the final products are separate, they stem from the same activity and demonstrate cohesion, unified through the use of ICT tools.

The collaborative storytelling activity involved task-sharing between students from Serbia and Turkey. TwinSpace is used systematically, and its organisation allows for clear project tracking. 

Project evaluations were conducted for teachers, students, and parents at both the beginning and end of the project. An analysis and review of the evaluation results were carried out. 

- Celebrate With Us!

This international eTwinning project, focused on inclusion, creativity, and cultural exchange, was carried out with primary school students from the USA, Taiwan, Spain, Lithuania, and Serbia. At the outset, it’s worth highlighting that the project combined various interactive and creative activities that enabled students to explore cultural diversity, communication, and problem-solving. These included designing logos and infographics, creating a joint Canva presentation on online dos and don’ts, coding holiday messages and games, preparing traditional dishes through recipe exchanges, making holiday cards, offering internet safety tips, and co-writing a holiday-themed story.

Through collaborative learning and hands-on tasks, students improved their language skills, digital literacy, creativity, global awareness, and communication. Intercultural friendships were also encouraged, with special praise for involving parents in the activity related to preparing traditional meals. The activities were designed to accommodate different learning styles, ensuring that all students could actively participate and benefit—an especially important aspect.

Special recognition is given for integrating the eTwinning platform into regular lessons and for the diverse use of cutting-edge ICT tools. In line with educational goals and the students’ age group, the teacher successfully incorporated artificial intelligence into tasks related to the project theme. Digital tools such as Canva, Genially, StoryJumper, and AI-based platforms were used to support learning, making the experience interactive and engaging.

- Sustainable Future: Our Actions, Our Impact

The project stands out for its excellent structure and the dedication of the teacher who submitted the application. The project follows a clear timeline and features well-organised activities, with tasks evenly distributed among partners—demonstrating a high level of coordination.

The teacher actively participated in all phases of the project, guiding students through diverse and meaningful activities that fostered the development of digital, communication, civic, and intercultural competencies. Students collaborated in an international context through forums, video conferences, and collaborative tools, resulting in numerous joint products such as digital books, quizzes, posters, calendars, and infographics.

Evaluation was conducted before and after the project for both teachers and students, accompanied by a detailed analysis of the results, reflecting pedagogical maturity and a reflective approach. Attention was also given to internet safety and data protection, while dissemination was carried out through various channels—including school websites, social media, professional gatherings, and the Scientix community.

Global Flavours

 As part of our eTwinning project activities, the foody rockstars from Classes 4 and 5 rolled up their sleeves and brought international recipes to life. They prepared delicious dishes following the recipes shared by our Lithuanian, Spanish and Turkish friends, and also voted for their favourite cookbook app.

To deepen the exchange, young chefs joined their older friends from Class 7 in lively forum discussions, sharing recipes, impressions, asking and answering questions.

Class 4 pupils enjoyed watching the videos of our friends from the Canary Islands making little vanilla sandwich cakes using our recipe.

Partnerships for the Goals

 Over the past months, Class 4, 5, and 7 pupils have been busy contributing to our EduTales FCL eTwinning project. 

They designed logos (Class 5) and infographics (Class 4), imagined future schools (Class 5 and 7), and wrote chain stories (Class 4 and 5).

To wrap it all up, Class 7 shared their slogan (Partnerships for the goals is about working together to make the world better) in the collaborative magazine illustrating it with an AI generated image.

Fest Quest

 As part of our Celebrate with Us! eTwinning activities, I challenged my Class 4 pupils to spin the wheel, research, and create an infographic about a festival. They agreed to spin the wheel until one remained, so they finally landed on Hallowe'en.

Using trusted online resources, they explored key facts and selected images for their collaborative infographic.

Later, they teamed up with their international friends to use shared infographic details in creating an interactive escape room game. Playing it in our last lesson was a lot of fun.