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

Can't make heads or tails of this!

United Kingdom, Great Britain, England, London... Aren't they all the same???
Hmmmm... Actually not! Unfortunately enough, there are some small and bigger differences amongst all of them...!

The United Kingdom is a country called so for a reason! What reason? But, of course, the fact that it consists of 4 DIFFERENT kingdoms, "United" so as to form a bigger one! They are, that is, like a big country consisting of 4 smaller ones!  If you take a look at the following picture, you will see all four of them, painted in different colours each..
But let's take them one at a time:

• The "great island" that you can see, is called Great Britain. Great Island= Great Britain! The term "Great Britain", thus is simply geographical.
  On the island of Great Britain, now, there are three out of the four kingdoms we were talking about:
  1. Scotland), in blue colour,
  2. England, in white colour and
  3. Wales, in red colour. 
• The "small island" you can see is Ireland. The term "Ireland" is geographical too, because it refers to the small island we talked about.
  On the island of Ireland there is kingdom number 4, Northern Ireland,the one in yellow colour, as well as another, totally different country, The Rebublic of Ireland!

Well, wht's left? Oh, yes! London! London is a city- the capital city of England and of the whole of the United Kingdom! London is in England and it is marked with a black dot on the map! But we'll say more about it some other time!

The kids always express themselves more simply, of course...:

You heard (in order of appearance) the 6th Grade students: Anna, Angela, Popi, Vaggelio, Titsa, Kostas, Maria, Michelle and Katerina!!!

I'm not eating THAT...!

Speaking of fruit, we also talked about the avocado, a fruit a bit unknown to most people, which, however, is cultivated in Crete. We'll find it easily and at a very good price at our neighbourhood greengrocer's or at the street market.

The avocado, as we learnt, is a highly-beneficial food. But it is kind of a...weird fruit! It tastes more like butter, rather than like a fruit.
So, how do we eat it? But, of course, like the Mexicans do! By making "Guacamole"!

Indeed, as it always happens with new things, we were a bit hesitant at the beginning...Most of us stated in disgust: "I'm not eating this thing!!!" Luckily, though, there are always the bold ones who never say no to new tastes...

Half of the ingredients are at place and are waiting for...

...the avocado! It is ripe, as it should be!

Let's season it with a little salt and pepper!	Who is the brave one to have the first bite?
It's delicious, after all!	Hey...! Don't eat it up! I want some too!!

Don't forget! Organic waste go to compost!	Let's write the recipe down to try it at home...

Now the permanent line at the kids' lips is: "Miss, when will we make "guacamole" again?"
So, go ahead! Try it yourselves! You will only need 2 avocados, 2 tomatoes, 1 onion, a little lemon juice, salt and pepper!
You might say the same after you try it!

Some little secrets: 
When you prepare it, put one of the kernels in the bowl with the sauce. It will prevent the "guacamole" from turning black.
And, if you feel like a little gardening and are patient enough, try to put the kernels in water like in the following pictures until they grow roots. Then plant them in a pot!

Original post by Maria Priniotaki

From production to selling! (Part III-final!)

ΝΟ intermediaries...

Last time we talked we had remained with the unanswered question, "What can we do now with so many jars of marmalade?".
The kids gave the answer to that question themselves: "We are going to decorate them, sell them and earn money for the school!"
So, why not? The day the reports would be given was set as the official marketing day of our produce!

We decorated our jars...	...and made sure to promote our products the right way ("Come and get the best orange marmalade! It's good for the health!")!
...a convincing stall...  ("Pure-organic marmalade!", "We picked the oranges, added sugar, cinamon and love and packaged them!")	...proper marketing...  ("Our lovely school-made marmalade is loved by all the sweet-toothed no additives, no colourings, and all your craving is soothed"!)

...with humour...("GET SWEET  BEFORE YOU GET BITTER!")

...quite enough of it...  ("Makes you beautiful, not fat!")

...and, of course, the best traders  in the world to promote their  merchandise!

...we couldn't contain the crowds!

...and, indeed, issuing of receipts (so that we be typical...)!

The decision on the appropriation of the money collected will be made by the Product Management Agency United (consisting of 6th Grade Students and their teachers)...! In any case, the money will be utilized for the updating of the pedagogic material in our school!