Heal the World!

With a colleague of mine, I've recently carried out some of the activities I created with colleagues from Poland and Portugal in the Edu-Hackathon with Google training course in Brussels, Belgium, in December 2022.

We started the first in the series of lessons with the warm-up and brainstorming activities. The pupils were introduced to the topic, discussed climate issues and completed the online survey. Then, five teams were formed according to the main issues they had suggested: air pollution, water pollution, deforestation, endangered animals, and acid rain.

The teams were ready for their next stage - active involvement. They decided on the name of their team and on the roles of each member. I presented them with a selection of resources and digital tools they could use to create their final products. I also showed them my pupils' examples of various forms on environmental issues, such as infographics, e-books, presentations and games which helped the teams decide on the form of their final product, too.

All the teams agreed on creating presentations in Canva.

After two weeks, during which they shared their presentations with their teacher and me so that I could create an escape room game with their quiz questions, we organised the showcase stage. Several teachers came as well. 

I set the timer, and the representatives of each team presented their work. After the last presentation, in their teams, the pupils played the escape room game and checked how much they had learned.

In the wrap-up stage, I asked the pupils to complete the first survey once again and evaluate all the activities too, but I also asked the present teachers to do another survey, with rubrics, and help us choose the best presentation which would be our representative in the international competition and public online show and tell. 

World Book Day 2023

We celebrated this year's World Book Day on 24 April. It was an excellent opportunity for the representatives of Class 6, 7 and 8 to share their book reviews, to play games and to encourage everyone to read more books.

Tenses

In their chosen groups, my Class 7 pupils have recently revised, prepared and shared presentations of different tenses:

Around the World

 My Class 4 pupils have recently done research about different countries around the world and presented their findings to their class friends:

Famous Americans

My older pupils have recently done a research on influential people in American history, and created a presentation with interesting facts. I've reminded them not to copy from the internet, use free photos and add the source. They could use any of the free templates on Canva or Genial.ly (e.g. Bio Infographic).

We later shared the presentations with our partners in Let's walk around the USA! eTwinning project.

Celebrations

Think about a special festival, tradition or celebration in our country. Describe it. Write about what food the people eat, what activities they do, the reason they celebrate it, the date and season the celebration takes place, and things like that. Include a title with your description.

You can design a poster or create a presentation in Canva if you like.

The Pumpkin Days

Jovana Karić, VI2 

The biggest and the most interesting festival in Kikinda is the traditional Pumpkin Days. It takes place in the fall, the last weekend in September. There is a competition for the heaviest and longest pumpkins and some people sell pumpkin cakes and traditional souvenirs. There are various fun activities for children. 

This festival is organised here because pumpkins grow here and they represent Kikinda. 

Our town is famous and has a lot of tourists from different parts of Serbia and that's why I like it.

Teodora Čudan, VI1

Patron Saint's Day

Every Orthodox family in Serbia have their own Patron Saint's Day. Some of the biggest Patron Saint's Days are Saint Nicholas' Day celebrated on 19th December, Saint George's Day on 6th May, and the Day of Saint Paraskeva of the Balkans on 27th October. 

My Patron Saint's Day is the Day of Saint Stephen of Dečani, celebrated on 24th November. When family and friends come, we serve them with ceremonial wheat (wheat, sugar, nuts). We light the candle and give the guests some ceremonial cake (some kind of bread) which we take to the church that morning. We eat some appetizer, and after that we eat some soup, cabbage rolls, lamb or pork and all kinds of salads. When we finish with the main meal, we eat some cakes. Our guests and we as their host hang out and enjoy singing and dancing. 

Lara Avramov, VI2

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is on 6 January. You fast on that day. You don't eat any meat or sweets. For lunch, there is mostly some fish, dry white semolina or poppy seeds.

The day before Christmas, people prepare gifts for carolers, usually walnuts and sweets. On Christmas Eve, all the children get ready to go carolling. They prepare their boots, candy bags, jackets and hats. Basically, some children agree to go together in groups. They go from door to door, from street to street, knocking and asking, "Good evening, happy Christmas Eve! Do you receive the carolers?" If they get an affirmative answer they start carolling, and eventually they get a present. When the children get home, they show what they got and put the treats in a bowl for the next day.

Sara Stepanov, VI2

Christmas  is celebrated on 7 January. It marks the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas straw is brought into the house and is not taken out until the holiday is over. People prepare some salad, roast meat, Christmas cake  (česnica). Christmas is celebrated with the family.

Marina Veljin, VI1

Special Celebration

Mia Pavlov, VI2

Columbus Day

Every second Monday in October the Americans celebrate Columbus Day in memory of the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus who landed in the Americas in 1492.

Since we're members of the Let's walk around the USA! eTwinning project, I've asked my older pupils to watch a video about Columbus and compare what they already know to what they've seen and heard in the video.

Our Town

 After a short workshop on PowToon during our extra lesson in the media room, Majda decided to try out this new web tool and present our town to our friends in the Same Planet - Same Aim eTwinning project. She did a good job.

English Speaking Countries

After we had talked about Australia, read informative texts about this country, and listened to some famous Australian singers and bands, each of my Class 8 students did a research on one of the English speaking countries from the offered list. Divided into smaller groups, they created presentations about sights, food, sport, music and animals in Canada (VIII1), Jamaica (VIII2), Ireland (VIII3), New Zealand (VIII4) and the UK (VIII5).