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Myths and emotions in Florina

From the start of the 2023-2024 school year, students in Florina and Tampere have been working on discovering the characters’ emotions in national mythology through various art forms. Eight students and two accompanying teachers from the Tampereen yliopisto Normaalikoulu, yläkoulu visited the schools of our consortium at the end of October 2023. Local families of our schools hosted the students.

During this first group mobility of students in Florina between 30/10/2023 and 3/11/2023, teachers from the schools of our consortium designed and implemented joint workshops for visiting and hosting students and teachers.

Tuesday 31/10/2023

The 5th Primary School of Florina hosted the visiting students and teachers from Tampere and also students from the other schools of our consortium. We implemented the following activities:

  • Hidden Treasure. Students worked in mixed groups, and their task was to find all the hidden clues within the school and finally decode the secret message. This warmup activity helped participants to get to know each other and feel more comfortable with the school setting. Areti Oikonomidou organized this activity. Ifigeneia Androutsou and Theodora Londraki assisted in the implementation.
  • Tag the emotions. Students worked in mixed groups. Nine image frames of the Ulysses story were presented to all groups, and each group had to decide their order and tag the protagonists’ feelings using post-it notes. Thekla Nouli, Areti Oikonomidou, and Pantelis Tamoutselis organized this activity. Our French teacher, Christina Rizidou, also presented a short multilingual sketch about the myth.
  • Shadow theatre. Students worked again in mixed groups and created figures for traditional Greek shadow theatre based on the Ulysses story. They also had the chance to practice playing the figures in a light and shadow setting made in the school for this occasion. Giorgos Sapardanis organized the activity. Areti Oikonomidou, Thekla Nouli, and Giorgos Katikaridis assisted in the implementation.

Students from the local school also prepared a presentation of local and modern dances for our guests with the help of Theodora Londraki. Our guests also had the chance to play outdoor chess in our yard with the guidance of Lazaros Gymnopoulos.

In the evening, our guests, local students, and teachers visited the Innovation in Education Hub of Florina, where Sotiris Georgiou and Elena Oikonomidou had prepared a “robotics in art” workshop. Students worked in pairs and created a drawing arm that uses markers to create colorful patterns.

Wednesday 1/11/2023

The Experimental Primary School of Florina hosted the visiting students and teachers from Tampere and also students from the other schools of our consortium. We implemented the following activities:

  • Theatrical presentation of the myth of Persephone. Third-grade students from the hosting school present a dramatic play they have been working on that is based on the legend of Persephone. Pepi Papathanasiou organized the activity with the assistance of Smaro Papapantazi.
  • Explore the mythical characters. Students played outdoor games in mixed groups. They played puzzles and memory games that explored the symbols of ancient Greek mythology. Olympia Papathanasiou organized this activity with the assistance of Smaro Papapantazi.
  • Stop Motion Animation. Students worked in mixed groups and created stop-motion animation movies using simple materials and tablets. Based on the myth of Persephone, they made their characters with plasticine and their sets using cardboard and paper. They used a simple stop-motion animation app to shoot their movies, which are available on YouTube. Our Art teacher, Anna Gazea, and our CS teacher, Giannis Arvanitakis, organized the activity.

They also had the chance to visit the exhibition of drawings of our students that were inspired by the myth of Persephone under the guidance of our Art teacher Anna Gazea.

The stop-animation video that students created during the workshop at the Experimental Primary School of Florina. In the first scene, the Sun goes to meet Pluto and discuss releasing Persephone from the underworld. In the second scene, Persephone returns from the underworld to meet her mother, the goddess Dimitra.

In the evening, our guests, local students, and teachers visited the Aristotelis Cultural Club, where they had the chance to practice local Florina dances with the guidance of Ritsa Tryfonos.

Thursday 2/11/2023

Students from Tampere and Florina, accompanied by their teachers, visited the island of Agios Achilleios in the National Park of Prespes, where they created their clay characters out of a local legend using a technique of recycled art. The activity was held at the Agios Achilleios Basilica (10th century AD), and the students worked in mixed pairs. They were first introduced to the legend of the Prince and the Fairy, which explained the creation of the lakes. Then, they used clay and natural materials they found on-site (leaves, sticks, rocks) to create face masks that depicted the emotions of the protagonists of the story. Each mask was placed on a tree in the area and left to disintegrate over time and return the materials to the natural environment. Johanna Pitkänen, Hanna Lehikoinen, and Giannis Arvanitakis organized the activity.

We also want to thank the Management Unit of Prespa National Park and Protected Areas of Western Macedonia for their kind presentation about the Prespes history and ecosystem in the Information Center of Pyli.

Friday 3/11/2023

The Primary School of Ydrousa hosted the visiting students and teachers from Tampere and also students from the other schools of our consortium. We implemented the following activities:

  • Song plays
  • Hand-crafting workshop. Students in mixed groups practiced handcrafting methods.
  • Sound-stories. Students worked again in mixed groups. They created their own sound stories based on the myth of the sleeping beauty.
  • Mythical songs. Students sing together various songs that relate to myths and legends.

Evgenia Gaki, Evaggelia Choleri, and Georgia Konstantinidou organized the activities. All teachers of the schools assisted with the implementation.

Special thanks!

  • To the local families from the 5th Primary School of Florina and the Experimental Primary School of Florina for hosting the Finnish students.
  • To the teachers from the schools of our consortium who assisted in our activities.
  • To the directors of the schools of our consortium, Gianna Zachou, Konstantinos Sechidis, and Evgenia Gaki, who assisted in the organization and planning.
  • Sotiris Georgiou and Elena Oikonomidou from the Innovation in Education Hub of Florina.
  • Aristotelis Cultural Club and Ritsa Tryfonos.
  • To our guests from Finland who were accepting and made us feel wonderful in hosting them.

We will meet again in Tampere in April 2024!

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