International Fairy Tea Party Day 2017

On International Fairy Tea Party Day we went on a hunt for fairies and found all the evidence we need to prove that fairies do exist!

After reading a story about a naughty fairy, we looked for fairy signs.

Flowers where fairies like to sleep.

Acorns they like to eat

Fairy rings

And wands they use to turn anyone in anything they want.

After spending the whole day tracking them we decided to dance in a circle to call for them.

They didn’t appear but they left a surprise for us instead. They filled the place with colors!

And sprinkled fairy dust all around

They even gave us wings to fly

They also left a book for us to read.

After reading it we act out the story and threw a fairy tea party in their honor.

What better way to celebrate the wonderful world of nature all around us?

While sparking their imagination, children exercised their tracking skills and learned how to spot the tell-tale signs of fairies.

(by Claire Hadjinikolaou, our English language teacher)

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Let it snow in Athens!

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Living in a hot Mediterranean city like Athens, snow is a rare  thing to see, downtown. But today, it was one of these days!

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Being unfamiliar with snowy weather, the Municipality of Athens advised all schools to remain closed. However, a brave play-based school like Dorothy Snot is not afraid of some snow flakes!

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The sure thing is our kids loved it. Being able to play with snow in the heart of the city is such an unusual experience down here. Not to mention that most of our 4 and 5 y.o. had not ever seen Athens in white!

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Play in life-derived conditions is always the most exciting thing for children. And we are dedicated to keep providing this kind of play!

Pop up basketball play in kindergarten

“Let’s play basketball” someone said… And so, kindergarten kids just constructed a pop up basket from used tires!

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They arranged by themselves a shooting order and patiently waited for their turn. They were little puzzled about how to get the ball out of this basket and needed to come up with some original solutions.

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Through this spontaneous yard play, kindergarten children accomplished a bunch of educational milestones by themselves, just being based on pleasure and joy! Priceless….

(by Ioanna Eleftheriou & Stavroula Gaoutsi, teachers in our Athens kindergarten)

International Fairy Tea Party 2016

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We spent the whole week preparing our fairy tea party which took place on Thursday and Friday in the woods. After reading in school the legend of the rainbow fairies, we decided to help these little fairies make a rainbow.

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In school, we put on the wings we made out of hangers and rope and practiced how to use the fairy dust and learnt a few spells! We mixed paints, just to find out that we only need three colors to make so many more.

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We even tried to make our colors shine by sprinkling some fairy dust on them.

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The result was to make everything around us shine bright, including ourselves!

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On Thursday and Friday, we had a wonderful day in the woods!

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We looked around for some fairy signs and while looking we found some acorns instead and a little tortoise wandering around.

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We built our fairy welcome houses in the trees and decorated them the way we wanted.

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Then, we went hunting for colors.

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And used what we found to make a rainbow.

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And after all this hard work, we set the table and had a cup of tea and biscuits!

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(by Claire Hadjinikolaou, English teacher in Dorothy Snot, Athens)

One day after swimming class…

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Last Monday,  only Cynthia, Poppy and Marina from toddlers’ class participated in swimming lesson.

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Girls got ready in few minutes after lesson was finished. We had plenty of time since post-toddlers’ class was still in locker room. So, l asked them what we were going to do, and theÎąr answer was “We can discover the place!”

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And so the game began…

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We found water in the road…

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And jumped in it….

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We focused on the plants…

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Smelled them….

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And brought one back to school….

But time was running so fast, so we had to return in our school bus!

(by Chryssa Vaitsi, teacher & projects’ coordinator in Athens school)

Two hours in the woods, are enough….

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….to discover new paths.

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….to discover the botanical walk (and to possibly see the Christmas goblins making their magical tricks using herbs, according to Myronas!)

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…to see a strange and huge tree.

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….to make signs on the ground to help us find our way back.

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…to find something looking like a hollow for birds (but it was not…)

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…to cook!

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…to show our leadership skills!

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…to discover the beauty of nature.

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….and to leave our mark on the ground!

All, until next time!!!

(by Spyridoula Patouna, teacher in pre-K class in Athens)