Learning about Darth Vader in school bus

Who doesn’t know about Darth Vader? The answer is me. This was true, until the day children in the school bus taught me everything about him…

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Whoever believes adults have nothing to learn from children, makes a big mistake! Consider me, for example. I learned so much about Darth, even where he lives. Next day I even had the chance to meet him!

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It was a little daunting at first, but it is so interesting to become a child again and see the world through their eyes….

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As always, the game was so creative. They told me, “We made our own monsters”.

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(by Eleni Triantafyllopoulou, teacher in post-toddlers class in Athens)

How does it rain? Let’s experiment!

In school bus kids started a discussion about how does water gets included into the clouds and where does it come from?

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First, we noted on paper our thoughts and thought about the continuous circular movement of water. We talked about the global water cycle and wrote down the phrase, in Greek.

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Afterwards, we experimented over the phenomenon of condensation and found out that our breath is hot air. Blurring the windows of the school bus with our breaths, helped us realize how air changes into liquid.

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Then we played by creating patterns on the windows. Some children recognized the same happens in their bathroom.

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The experimentation thrilled children and their interest continued at home. So, Despina brought us a photo she took out of the experiment she made in home with a glass and ice cubes.

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We also studied the opposite phenomenon, evaporation, in which water is converted into air. We all remembered, from our daily life, when mom spreads out wet clothes to dry. At the same time we threw water on our trousers to see what happens and how quickly it dries.

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Back in class, school bus children continued to experiment on evaporation during cleaning the blackboard with a wet sponge. They wrote something on the board using the wet sponge and shortly after it was lost! Rest children of the class liked the experiment and asked to write with a wet sponge, too. As you can imagine, we ended having the cleanest blackboard in school!!

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(by Eleni Triantafyllopoulou, bus school teacher in Athens)

Ophthalmology class in school bus (II)

After the experience children had in school bus with Spyridoula’s eye glasses, they asked me if I can see clearly while not wearing mine.

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I replied that when not in glasses, I use eye-lenses. Next day, I gave them a pair of lenses to come in contact with. They touched them, smell them and realized that after a while they got dry.

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So, I told them to place them into their own case with the special liquid and lenses became wet and resilient again.

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Since then, every time that I don’t wear glasses, children look into my eyes and try to “locate” my lenses.

(by Chrysa Vaitsi, cross-class projects’ coordinator in Athens school)