A library from...scratch!

  A dreary-library! The image of the room that was about to host our school library was something like that! But the kids of the 10th Primary School, as genuine bookworms, deserve a much more beautiful place for reading! Not only for reading, actually! A place where they will be able to relax, let the stress off, but also have fun playing board games, doing puzzles or watching a video presentation! We had no choice, thus, but to give them such a place!
  We started out (how else?) by painting the room and we went on to sort the books out and classify them into categories... We added a sofa, some floor pillows and a carpet for warmth and games! There are still a few...artistic interventions (we'll be owing you an updatte on this), but our library iss ready to work!On Wednesday, during the second break, get in line to meet a new buddy: a book!

Hmmmm...

...now THIS...

...you can't call this a library room...

What do you think?

Shall we begin???

A good painting for starters...

...and the artistic details...

...by the artistic hands...!

What's wrong, Mr Dimitris? Are we tired???

In the meanwhile the bookcases must be sorted out!

Besides, this is the issue in question..!

Of course, the artists...

...keep doing their job undistracted...!

Hey! Something's missing here!!!

Now we're talking...

Let's remember before and after again...!

BEFORE...

...and AFTER...

BEFORE...

...and AFTER...

BEFORE...

...and AFTER...

BEFORE...

...and AFTER...

BEFORE...

...and AFTER...

A doll!

You must be getting tired of us thanking people, but it's impossible to NOT thank, for once more, our colleagues and friends, Yiouli Bosdelekidou and Dimitris Varelas who, despite the fact that they aren't teaching in our school, often give us their help and talent with great love for what they do!

...and don't forget: there are still lots of classroom in an emergency condition in our school...!!! 

Happy birthday, Websail!

It's been a year already since Mr Dimitris was timidly making his first post in this weblog, without knowing how, or where it would lead us...

 "This is my first blog! I feel like I'm sailing in uncharted waters! Let's hope taht it will be full of interesting and useful experiences... The ambition is the creation of a place of meeting and dialogue amongst teachers, parents and students of the 10th Primary School, around the issues of the school, of learning and education in general..."

 The blog that startes out with so many questions and insecurity was about to become everyone of us' "Websail", go outside the walls of our school and take us to places near and faraway, real and imaginary!
We would like to thank for once more, from the deepest of our hearts, all of you who travel in the Websail and help it keep going...
All that's left to us is wish it...

Happy birthday and lots of happy voyages!!!

Α story-teller deserving...awards!

Have you ever heard of Hans Christian Andersen? No? But you have surely heard of "The Ugly Duckling"? "The Little Mermaid"? "The Emperors' New Clothes"? Well, time for you to learn that they were all written by him! We met him in our English class a few days ago and we decided to get to know him a little better!

Hans Christian Andersen was born on April 2, 1805, in the town of Odense in Denmark. He was born to a poor family. His father was a shoemaker, and his mother earned money washing other people's clothes. Although they were poor, his parents didn't want him to work from an early age and they encouraged him to develop his imagination. So, when he was fourteen, Andersen convinced them to let him go to Copenhagen, Denmark, rather than study to become a tailor. He was determined "to become famous"! Andersen lived very poor in the first years of his life in Copenhagen. He tried to become a singer, a dancer, an actor (!), but he failed. Although he had been a very poor student at school (he himself said that his school days were "the darkest and most bitter of his life") he managed to pass his University examinations in 1828 and that was when he wrote his first narrative, which was quickly followed by a collection of poems.

However, that didn't instantly bring him the fame he was aspiring to... His fairy tales were not popular at first. They started seeing success about ten years later! 156 fairytales and stories were published during his lifetime, but he also wrote other kinds of texts and some of them were published after his death, so, if we add them up, that makes 212 works in total.

Andersen died as a successful writer at the age of 70, on August 4, 1875. Apart from the works we already mentioned, other well-known stories written by him include "The Princess and the Pea", "The Tin Soldier", "The Nightingale", "The Little Match Girl"...
His stories are considered unique because he didn't write in the "traditional" way fairytales were written at the time. We don't only see "good guys" and "bad guys" in his fairytales. There is not always a "happy end". There is often melancholy in his narratives. What he wanted was to make his readers think about his characters and their stories and make his stories appeal  and make sense to both children and adults.

Some interesting facts!

1. Hans Christian Andersen never learnt to study successfully. He never learned how to spell or how to write in Danish!
2. Andersen was not considered to be handsome. In fact, some considered him to be quite unattractive! He had a big, long nose, he was very thin and he was about 185 cm tall (which was very unusual for his time) and was a shoe size of 47!!! Some even believe that the story of The Ugly Duckling may have been derived from personal experience!
3. There is an award that is named after him-The Hans Christian Andersen Award, given to the best children's books author and illustrator every two years, by her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark!
4. Hans Christian Andersen never married and he didn't have any children.
5. He liked watching and listening to operas!
6.  There is a sculpture of The Little Mermaid on the harbour of Copenhagen, Denmark!

Let's have some fun with Hans Christian Andersen! Click on the image: