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.

Clothes

My Class 1 pupils enjoyed learning about clothes through a chant and a song!

We started with a chant. To help them remember, we drew a washing line with the clothes in the order they appeared in the chant. 

Lenka, I2

Aron, I1

Lorena, I2

Iva, I2

The pupils soon added their own movements, pointing to their clothes and acting out each item.

In the next lesson, we learned a new song. We drew stick figures of a boy and a girl, dressing them in the order mentioned in the song. 

Aron, I1

Lenka, I2

Teodora, I2

Iva, I2

The pupils joined in with actions.

With singing, drawing, and movement, they quickly picked up the vocabulary—and had lots of fun along the way!

Think outside the proverb!

 This May, I encouraged my pupils from Classes 1, 4, 5, and 7 to explore proverbs in a creative way as part of a creative contest organised by Express Publishing.

Classes 1 & 4 chose endings and illustrated their proverbs. Some clever results included: The early bird catches the ... Lena, Balša, Nikola, Mila, Sara: coffee, Neda, Tijana: glasses, Tisa: prize, Andrija, Milijana, Relja: crown, A leopard never changes its ... Lorena, Iva, Dejana: crown, and Slow and steady wins the ... Lenka, Marko: crown, Dimitrije, Jovan: prize, Katina: coffee, Vukašin: parking spot.

Classes 5 & 7 worked in groups to write short stories based on proverbs. 

There was once a girl working in a restaurant at noon. She was looking out the window and saw a restaurant that looked better to her. Her manager saw her and said, 'The grass is always greener...'. She thought about these words and focused on her work. Soon, she got promoted to an assistant manager. She was very happy and proud of herself.

Nina, Jovana and Mila, V2

Ellen loves picnics. One summer day, she and her friend Kira go to the beach. They play volleyball and eat pizza. Suddenly, it starts to rain. The girls pack up and go home. On the way, they pass a beautiful garden. 'I wish we'd stayed there,' says Kira. Ellen smiles and says, 'The grass is always greener on the other side.'

Emilija, Tara, Ena and Nina, V2

Later, they individually came up with unique endings to famous sayings (The grass is always greener ... Nina: without the trash / Nađa: when you look at it with love, understanding and clarity / Nadežda: until you find out it's covered in paint / Mateja: when you look with rainbow eyes, When one door closes, ... Jovana: second luck opens / Kalina: see if the fridge is open, A rolling stone ... Nikolina: just wants a Wi-Fi and snack, Where there's a will, there's ... Aljoša: will do) and illustrated them.

I'm thrilled that Andrija Dukić from IV3 is among the 10 winners of the contest and will have his drawing turned into stickers.

Twinkling Tale

As part of our Celebrate with Us! eTwinning project activities, Class 4 pupils created a unique chain story with their friends from Lithuania, Spain, Taiwan and the USA. 

First, the Tale Weavers from IV3 shared their ideas in the class and then on the forum. They discussed what to include in their part of the story. Then, they wrote their first draft, refined their writing, and finally added it to the book. Next, they shared their feelings in the poll. It was challenging, but they felt proud.

The representatives of IV2 used Gemini and Copilot AI to create illustrations for the Spanish team's part. They discussed what to include in their prompts to make sure the illustrations matched their ideas. Most illustrators felt inspired and imaginative while making the images. Others were curious and thoughtful to see if AI would understand what the images should show.

By the way, our friends from Lithuania illustrated our part.

📖 Read the Twinkling Tale on StoryJumper

Touch

One of the last songs we learned this year helped my 7-year-olds learn and later revise the parts of the head. They loved the movements, touching their eyes, ears, nose, mouth and hair, and the fun 'woo' sound.

Bridging Tale

As part of our Cultural Bridges Across Europe eTwinning project activities, Class 5 pupils wrote a chain story with their friends from Türkiye.

📘 Read Bridging Tale on StoryJumper

Hop, hop, hop

One of the first songs my Class 1 pupils learn is a fun one that gets them moving and smiling. They hop, jump, count to five, and play the air guitar. It's a great way to take a break, recharge, and get ready for the next activity.

Poetry Contest

 This spring, I've challenged my Class 5 pupils to write a poem and express their creativity. Three girls accepted the challenge, but only two completed their poems during our lesson, so I sent both to the poetry contest organised by Jovan Jovanović Zmaj Primary School in Novi Kneževac.

I'm thrilled that Hristina's poem won first prize in the contest! She's received some amazing prizes, and we're all proud of her.

eTwinning Day 2025

 To celebrate this year's eTwinning Day, I've prepared a Kahoot game. My Classes 5 and 7 pupils enjoyed the game. Most of them answered correctly and proved they know quite a lot about eTwinning. 

As part of our Sustainable Future: Our Actions, Our Impact project, the teachers collaboratively prepared quiz questions about the SDGs. The pupils had fun playing the game online and checking how much they remembered about the project and then evaluated it. 

My Class 5 pupils were also delighted to talk on Zoom to our Turkish friends from Cultural Bridges Across Europe project. It was a great way to celebrate eTwinning Day together.

Likes

Class 1 pupils had a creative day! One group made their favourite animals from playdough—bears, ducks, frogs, monkeys, pandas, snakes and others. Another group shaped their favourite foods—apples, ice cream, carrots, plums, tomatoes, watermelons, and others.

Then, they turned their creations into fun singing dialogues:

Several pupils later performed their version of the Chicken Banana song:

Our Animals

Inspired by the Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? book, a group of my Class 1 pupils used colourful playdough to make their favourite animals. 

In just a few moments, they shaped bears, ducks, dogs, penguins, sheep, fish, foxes, butterflies, and other animals.

When they finished, they proudly introduced their animals in a song:

PS I've turned some of these colourful animals into a memory game.

At the doctor's

My Class 4 pupils have recently revised health problems and learned some new ones. 

We started the lesson with a quick review.

Next, we introduced new vocabulary through interactive activities. Pupils then practised using the terms in short dialogues, asking and responding as a doctor and patient.

Finally, they did role plays in pairs, acting out different scenarios in a doctor’s office.

Sustainable Schools

In our latest lesson on sustainability, Class 7 pupils explored what makes a sustainable school.

As Eco Agents and Eco Avengers, some joined forum discussions exchanging ideas on how schools can become more eco-friendly:

• In schools we can use drainage to collect rain water for plants because that water is better for plants than tap water.
• In schools, students and teachers use paper and a lot of it goes to trash. We can renew old paper and use it many times.
• The teachers can organise the class where students will learn how they can contribute the eco schools and the sustainable future of the schools.
• The technologies will be eco and use electricity. There will be solar panels which collect energy for all electricity in school for better future.
• For every tree cut down, we should plant a new one. We should replace normal trash bins with recycling ones. We should encourage others to recycle and care for plants.
• I think the perfect green school would be if pupils followed a few rules.

Number one: instead of throwing away the paper bags from their lunches they would recycle them.
Number two: pupils would receive a back-to-school kit from recycled bottles, plastic bags etc.
Pupils and Teachers would certainly not be turning on the lights when its daytime, when the sun sets, they can turn on their power-saving LED lights.
In every classroom will be open windows for natural sunlight and a plant for more oxygen.

and how we can set composting stations in our school gardens: 

• We can find a place in the shadow and put some compost bins there. Then, we can put our leftovers and orange and banana peels in the bins. 
• Younger children have lunch at school, so we can ask the woman who works in the kitchen to put stale bread or leftovers in the bins too and help us make compost for our school garden. 

They also shared their ideas of small actions to help the environment:

• First step to help the environment is when we cut trees, for each tree we cut down we plant a new one. Also, every school should add a recycling bin instead of normal bins and encourage students to throw their trash into those bins. These changes could help increase the number of trees and there will be less trash on the ground in school yards. I think politicians should start encouraging ppl to start throwing their trash into recycling bins. These small changes could really help the environment and clean up school yards.
• I personally think that if we stopped cutting trees and instead planted more would help the environment. At home I could turn the lights off when not needed, close the tap water when I'm not using it, so I can save water. A new habit I could start today is to start a charity work, many people would gather up and clean the streets, lakes, rivers, cleaning the whole city and planting plants like trees, flowers etc. I would personally call it the Plantvengers.

Others imagined themselves in a sustainable school, described classrooms and wrote diary entries describing a day in such an eco-friendly environment. They also designed accompanying images using AI.

Sustainable school

Click to read this book, made with Book Creator

read.bookcreator.com

Pupils then brainstormed their ideas and came up with 5 highlights of a green classroom. Finally, they used GravityWrite to write the lyrics, and Suno AI to create a pop, uplifting song.

Hopefully, these activities, inspired by our Sustainable Future: Our Actions, Our Impact eTwinning project, helped pupils think critically about their role in creating a better, greener tomorrow.

Bike Song

 As part of our lesson about comparatives, my Class 4 pupils explored how to describe differences in a fun way. 

They also learned a catchy song that uses comparatives and talks about bikes, friendship, and enjoying spending time outside. 

Tom:
My bike is bigger
And faster than yours,
And more beautiful too.
My bike is lighter
And newer than yours,
And it's more expensive too.

Sue:
It's true that
Your bike is bigger
And faster than mine,
And it's more beautiful too.
Your bike is lighter
And newer than mine,
And it's more expensive too.

But I ride my bike every day,
In the sun and in the rain.
Your bike just stays inside,
It never comes out to play.

Tom: 
So, you ride your bike every day,
In the sun and in the rain.
I want to take my bike outside too,
Can I come out and play with you?
Can I come out and play with you?

HIPPO 2025 National Finals

 This year's National Finals for pupils from local schools were held at Đura Jakšić Primary School on 11 April. Just like last year, the contestants did their exams online.

Both my pupils did their best on the more challenging tests and, once again, made it to the orange list. 

Hippo 1: Nina Stijelja, V2 (Reading: 37/40, Writing 24/37.5 - compared to the first on the list),

Hippo 3: Nikola Tomić, VII2 (Reading: 33/34, Writing: 24/40.5 - compared to the first on the list).

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

 My Class 1 pupils have recently enjoyed the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. 

We started our lesson with a fun guessing game about food. Then, I asked them if they had ever seen a caterpillar - Was it big or small? What colour was it? What superpower has it got? 

Next, I asked them to draw a big, happy caterpillar in the middle of their page. We started watching and listening to the animated story. Whenever the pupils spotted the food the caterpillar ate, they drew it in their notebooks. Soon, their pages were filled with colourful fruit and treats, and they weren't able to hide their surprise at how much food that tiny creature could eat!

Helena, I1

Aron, I1

Mirna, I1

Ivan, I1

Iskra, I1

Tea, I1

They all wowed when the caterpillar transformed into a beautiful butterfly. Inspired by that moment, they created their own butterflies. They were proud to present their work to their classmates.

As a follow-up, I asked them to explain the caterpillar's journey and name the food they had drawn. We finished the lesson with the well-known Do you like bananas? song but mentioning the food the caterpillar ate.

SDG 15

In our lessons about extinct and endangered animals, we usually discuss those living in other countries. This time, I asked my Class 7 pupils to turn their focus closer to home. 

Working in teams, pupils researched and designed infographics and posters showcasing Serbia's endangered animals, including the griffon vulture, brown bear, and otter. 

Some enjoyed working on our collaborative acrostic poem. They added three lines (Earth is our home, let's keep it clean! Inspire each other, every day; Create a world where every new day looks bright), created accompanying images using Canva, and recorded their messages using Chatterpix Kids.

Later, we used AIMusicGen.AI to transform the acrostic lyrics into a catchy pop tune.

Finally, as members of an international team, they imagined themselves as animals facing various challenges and expressed their feelings. They also suggested solutions to solve certain problems. You can find their ideas in the collaborative e-book Saving Our Earth: Problems and Solutions.

saving our Earth e-book

Click to read this book, made with Book Creator

read.bookcreator.com

These engaging activities were inspired by our Sustainable Future: Our Actions, Our Impact eTwinning project.