We gave colour!

...to our schoolyard!  From back to front! With our bare hands, of course! Pupils and teachers gave their best (and LOTS of working hours) and managed to create what you can see below! And everybody is ready for a second round...! For starters, here's a short extract of "before" and "after"... As for what happened in between, you can watch it in the video that follows! We hope you'll enjoy it as much as we did...!

BEFORE...

...and AFTER...

ΠΡΙΝ...

...and AFTER...

ΠΡΙΝ...

...and AFTER...

ΠΡΙΝ...

...and AFTER...

ΠΡΙΝ...

...and AFTER...

ΠΡΙΝ...

...and AFTER...

ΠΡΙΝ...

...and AFTER...

ΠΡΙΝ...

...and AFTER...

ΠΡΙΝ...

...and AFTER...

ΠΡΙΝ...

...and AFTER...

ΠΡΙΝ...

...and AFTER...

ΠΡΙΝ...

...and AFTER...

ΠΡΙΝ...

...and AFTER...

ΠΡΙΝ...

...and AFTER...

A big thanks to little and big ones who devoted endless hours to the realization of our over-ambitious idea... We also thank them because the result was, after all, better than anyone had expected...!
Another thanks to the 9th Primary School of Rethymno and Nektarios Tsagliotis for the equipment they lent us and the expenses they saved us!
A special thanks to the "outside partner", Sofia Nikolidaki for her drawings, her contribution to the painting of the walls and her invaluable advice!
A VERY special thanks for the same reasons (and for twenty extra working hours) to the "outside partner" Giouli Bosdelekidou (with the tongue-twister name)! Despite the fact that we had a hard time to snap her off the walls for three days and her insistence on making everything perfect, we have to admit that, without her, we would probably be at about less than half the way...

...and so the journey goes on...

Signs and messages of communication

The two unrivaled Ms Katerinas strike again!!!
The two fifth grade classes, within the framework of the "Flexible Zone" class, have been exploring and running a flashback to the development of communication from antiquity till today. One of the results of their quest was the song "Signs and Messages of Communication"-given in the modern Greek Sign Language...

"I'm getting a message, talk to you, talk with you...

I'm sending a message, disagree, I love thee...

I'm writing a message asking you to see you...
I'm hearing a message, I agree, I love thee...

I say, listen, I'm walking, you meeting...

Message just for you I am here to tell you...

Even in disagreeing, on this we are agreeing:

We are trying to persuade, rhetoric is being made!"

We read books to the little ones!

Now we have grown up! And we like reading a lot. We don't only study for school, but we also read extra-curricular books!
But we also want to "pass the virus on" to other people! Thus, we thought we could read some books to our first-grades!

Do you want to know how? It's very simple!
Each one of us took a book and read it!

We read them very well!

We read them really-really well!

And we visited the first grade!

We presented the books to the pupils and let them choose their favouites...

...and read them to them...

We did the same with our even younger ones-the primary school kids!

Do you want to have a look?

Of course we didn't leave with our hands empty! 

The Primary School children gave us their drawings which were inspired by our books, as presents!

...a beautiful butterfly!

...a big-eared hare!

"The StarCat"

From the book, "The Three Robbers"

Every one had a great time in the end! 

Because a book is the best company!!!

Original post by Maria Priniotaki

The refugees of Rethymno...

  Mr Paraskevas Syrianoglou knows a lot about refugees! He knows even more about the refugees of Rethymno and of our area-Tsesmes! The "Tsesmelis"! As a president of the Rethymnian Minor Asians Association he made us the honour to talk in our school on May 19th and we thank him a lot for that! We learned so much on that Saturday (especially we, grown-ups), so as to be able to teach it to the younger ones, too...
  We learned how so many Greeks were made to leave their homes in Minor Asia during the first decades of the last century, how they were scattered around Greece and that about 4200 of them arrived in Rethymno...

  We also learned how difficult life was at the beginning both for the refugees (lack of accommodation, clothing and warm covers for the night and terrible living conditions with people being literally "piled up" in public buildings) and for locals (lack of clean water, dirt and sanitation problems in the city due to overproduction of waste for which there wasn't an efficient drainage providence)...
  We learned that refugees weren't treated with the same hospitality by all of the local population and that there were people who, not wanting to accept them, made their life even more difficult (luckily the exceptions were few)...
  We learned, as well, about how important the contribution of the refugee population to the local society and economy was, how great a boost they gave to the development of agricultural production (especially to the suburban areas, like Tsesmes) but also to the arts-and what good gatherings they made with locals in the evenings!
  So, we thank Mr Paraskevas for once more, not only for his interesting lecture, but also for the 4 books of his that he donated to our school library!
Lastly, we owe a "thank you" to the residents of Tsesmes with (or without) refugee origins, who shared with us their experiences and memories from their childhood years and their ancestors.

Let's make cookies!

...not only cookies, actually!

We know it took us a while to write this post, but we were "holidaying"! So, we come back stronger and wish you happy holidays by presenting to you our (pre)Easter creations!

1. Making cookies!
After gathering our ingredients (900 gr. flour, 1 glass sugar, 1 glass oil, 1 glass orange juice, the zest of an orange, 1 tablespoon cinnamon  sesame seeds), we began the preparation of the cookies and took our cooking trays to the local Open Care Centre for the Elderly to have them baked!

Ingredients...

Pinnies...

Squeezing...

A little oil...

The dough needs hard work...!

(...for the molding of the cookies watch the video that follows...!) ...we baked them here, though...!

Huh? Aren't they "good-looking"?

Please! Have a treat!

The intermediate procedure you didn't see...:

2. Eggs-works of art!
We thought we should follow the -very- old custom of dying the eggs! Crayons at first and then red dye to "solidify" the drawing!

We draw...

First round is ready!

We sink the eggs in red dye...

And "fish" them with a spoon so as not to get parched!

Careful with that dye!

Ready for egg-fight!

3. Egg-cups in the mood of the days!

Here everyone helps!

And we need quite a few...!

here's one!

...And one with content...!

• We would like to thank the Open Care Centre for the Elderly of Tsesmes for one more time for the excellent cooperation and the help they offered us. 

Our best wishes to everyone-regardless of nationality, colour or religion!

Walking, learning and playing around "Platanias" river!

On the last Wednesday of March, our school went on an outing to river "Platanias".

We started out with identifying the surroundings of our school and with a basic orientation lesson on our school's roof!

"Where's the south, kids???"

Walking side by side on the pavement, we arrived at the bank of our local river, where we talked about the importance of rivers and the river deltas.

Side by side on the pavement...!

The estuary of river Platanias into the sea...

The White Mountains, covered in snow, majestic, lying to the west and Rethymno seemed to relax under their foot. 

 The wonderful beach luckily had little rubbish, which we collected in bags and then started playing!

"Come on, quick! We need to play, too!"

We had brought balls, cones and rackets. We dug in the sand, walked in the small sweeter water  pond and played tug of war. Some of our teachers had got tired and seeked rest quickly. Others, in a better physical shape, played with us!

Here is pitch number 1...

"Mandilaki" running game...

Some of us were fully "equiped!"!!!

...digging was one of our favourite activities...!

Some...immersed themselves in the sand...

...and some were buried -literally- up to their ears in the sand!

...a keepsake photo with our "spoil", the rubbish we collected!

Tug of War: 4th grades-teachers, write one!

 It turns out no cars or distances are needed to have fun!
Let us not forget, our activities matched the programme "Tourism and Environment" of the Environmental Education Centre of Archanes, in which we take part as a partner school!

Original post by Kostas Ververidis