Finally, after two years we could meet again. The schedule of short terms exchanges of groups of pupils was turned upside down though, because we restarted the project from the last planned mobility C8 in Alquerias. Apart from that, everything went according to the plan. The superior topic of the mobility was food and influence of a right diet on our functioning, our lifestyle and achieving life goals. The activities which the students took part in involved:
presentations of the schools
introduction games
cooking workshops
sports routine
visit to a local manufacturer of citrus fruits
studying healthy dietary habits and making presentations about common diets
a visit to open-air marches and talking about food typical in the area
creating a Kahoot game
Apart from the activities planned in the frame of the project’s objectives the students visited also the most famous places in the area to learn about Spanish culture and history and their paid a visit in the town mayor office. They did enjoy their stay in Murcia and Alquerias.
Learning the basic yoga rules in two hours’ time seems impossible and it is impossible as it usually takes years. However, it is good to try, understand what it is about and find out what benefits of yoga are:
better flexibility
gaining peace of mind
building strength of muscles
improving one’s posture
preventing spine diseases
increasing heart rate and blood flow
helping you to concentrate and focus your attention
improving consciousness
The students, taking part in a short mobility in Alquerias in Spain took part in yoga workshops during which they learned some simplified yoga poses for beginners and they were encouraged how and why they can do it on their own.
A healthy diet can help you maintain a proper body weight, reduce your risk of certain diseases and improve your quality of life. However, there is no universal diet, common, easy to follow and recommendable for everyone, regardless of their place of living, gender, daily activity and likings. We have to know the rationale of each diet, their pros and cons and it is important to choose a diet plan that fits our goals and lifestyles. During the mobility in Alquerias, in Spain, the students developed the rules for some, most popular diets. They discussed their does and don’ts, as well as benefits and risks and designed leaflets.
The idea seems simple. Take a jar and start composing layers. There are some reasonable rules to follow, though. Our students learned during the workshops how to make healthy and colourful salads in the jar. They started from brainstorming for products representing different food groups, such as grains, diary, meat, fruit, vegetables and fat. Afterwards, after watching some recipes they managed to establish a pattern for tasty, not soggy jar salad. The rules they set up are the following: http://Healthy salads – presentation
the home made dressing goes to the bottom
the heaviest products, containing proteins, such as meat or legumes over the dressing
lighter bits, such as chopped veggies,
some seeds or nuts as they contain vitamins and proteins
light green leaves, like rocket, spinach, lettuce.
Next the students designed their own salads, wrote the recipes and they drew them or created recipes using technological tools.
It is extremely important to know how to prepare proper, nutritional meals since the very beginning. Thus, the school has a powerful opportunity to teach kids to appreciate and enjoy wholesome foods by using creative children’s activities about healthy eating. To make the workshops more impressive the older students were asked to prepare and show the younger ones presentations about groups of food products, their functions and rules which should be followed while making meals. After that the children prepared smoothies, cocktails, salads and desserts, trying to follow the rules they had been taught. Also during English classes they played various games learning vocabulary, designing their healthy pizzas, dividing products according to their origins and planning their wholesome meals.
Because of an epidemic situation in Europe none of the countries is willing to take a risk and organize a mobility. That’s why we decided to set up virtual mobilities. All the details were agreed on during a virtual meeting of all the school coordinators and the Italian team offered to organize the first one. Since it was supposed to concern relationship, emotions and their positive influence on our mental health, we decided to organize it in Christmas spirit just before the Christmas holiday. Before the meeting students uploaded some short information about themselves on the common padlet and they made collages presenting things which make them happy.
During the meeting we took part in the following activities organized by the Italian team:
quizzes about relationships, naming the stages of relationships
discussing reasons for our feeling emotional
making ’emotional alphabets’
brainstorming for qualities which are crucial for being a loyal friend
shortlisting the essential traits of a good friend
considering possible causes of anger issues
checking how well we know our Christmas customs by playing a Kahoot quiz on which we all collaborated
Both the teachers and students were happy to see their friends and listen to them. Technology this time was almost on our side so we were able to participate fully in the planned activities. We finished the two-hour long meeting wishing each other Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
This year we decided to introduce reading as a long-term stress-relief strategy and a way to increasing vocabulary and comprehension. There are numerous benefits of reading, especially empowering people to empathizing with others, reducing stress, improving communication skills. It also helps to concentrate on one thing at the time and improves your ability to understand other people and see the world from perspectives of our family, friends, classmates and even enemies.
We introduced reading on English lessons on a regular basis. We started from deciding what factors influence our choices. In other words – what makes us choose this book not the other one. Students made posters on which they listed the main reasons for choosing some books while buying or borrowing them. Students read some excerpts from the book chosen by the teacher and after reading it they discuss the content, try to predict what may happen, they characterize protagonists, their personalities and skills. They describe the relationships between characters, their plans and intentions. They are also given various tasks related to the book read:
drawing a comic based on a chosen story
using Lego bricks to present the chosen scene
presenting a character they especially like
making word clouds of the vocabulary they learned from the book
comparing characters
comparing accuracy of the film based on the book with the book itself
role playing
making mind-maps
reconstructing a journey of book characters
using Google maps to count distances and see the places where the story takes place
The activities are enjoyed by the students, they are interested in the stories they read, they are keen to discuss the problems mentioned. Their creativity and general knowledge seem to expand.
We celebrate the World Mental Health Day by organizing lectures for children. All the lectures, delivered by school psychologists, concern the typical problems adolescents deal with, such as managing emotions, prioritizing, rejection, peer pressure. All of them can result in serious mental problems, so school time is a proper time to develop social and emotional strategies which would help them to cope with these problems. These include: adopting a regular schedule of activities, ability to tackle problems and developing interpersonal skills. We also created a padlet with a collection of video clips, articles, lesson plans and other supplementary teaching materials as a resource for class tutors to use during the form time.
The lectures and the resources engaged students in discussing the following topics:
dealing with peer pressure and bullying
exploring one’s own identity
resilience to stressful home and school life,
disparity between a teenager’s lived reality and the pressure to be perfect in social media
symptoms of depression, dealing with psychic inertia
an impact of regular physical activities on the quality of life
To show the younger ones how to plan their meals and influence their parents to provide healthy lunches and snacks for them we conducted workshops with a dietician, dr Anna Walentukiewicz, from Academy of Gdansk Universityof Physical Education and Sport. Additionally, they consolidated what they learned during Biology and English classes. The studemts:
Learned the main types of nutrients, such as protein, carbohydrates, fats and vitamins and which products are the vital sources of these nutrients
were taught how to choose foods and beverages with healthier fats, less sodium, and less added sugars
planned their own weekly menu for school lunches
brought their healthy packed lunches from home, they presented them, took photos and made films about their lunches
learned how to assess the nutritional value of the meal and how to read labels
watched school lunches from other countries and discussed their value – how healthy the food is, how much protein, fat and carbohydrates it contains, how many portions of fruit and vegetables it has got
learned how to share information about the benefit of healthy eating
were told which food use to keep their energy up for longer and how to keep themselves fuller for longer and avoid energy drinks as well as to replace ingredients regularly to provide variety
were taught how to identify spices and herbs which can be used instead of salt.
