Dwarf workshop
Text and photos: Dilek Iusuf
With a flower we'll bring spring! Even though it was snowing outside and there was a dedicated blizzard from Russia, the Dwarves played spring.
So, we made a memory game with the specific spring flowers: snowdrop, hyacinth, daffodil, tulip, etc. (source: https://www.zmeisorii.ro/joc-memorie-flori). Thanks to the mums for their help in cutting!Then we read about Dora's garden where we counted butterflies and so practiced numbers to 5. The creative talents of the children and mums were expressed in the play dough game when we made a humming spring landscape: Spring is coming, spring is coming and Gardens are blooming.
And at the end we danced, picked up our toys and played with the colourful rings.
See you next week when Nicoleta awaits you with new adventures! (And maybe with more spring weather)
Romanian language and culture
Text and photos: Eliza van Peppen
Last Saturday's lesson was all about spring. Despite the weather outside that contradicted the calendar date, we stubbornly tried to lure spring, to make it warm with poems and songs. After recalling our March traditions and their meanings through the process of conversation, we listed all four seasons using revealing images provided by our 'smart' board. We then described the characteristics of spring based on these beautiful verses that we loved as children:
"The frosty winter's past, the field's green again
The cheerful swallow
Here it comes again.
From branch to branch it flies
Sturgeon, yellow, golden
Hello, Spring
Nice time, welcome!
The turtledoves are getting fat
Thousands of butterflies you see flying
And the industrious bee
From flowers gathering honey.
Singing cuckoo in the grove
On the flowering tree,
Hello, spring,
Nice time, welcome!"
With this poem by Alecsandri and the song "Vine, vine, printemps" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ0ShmKjSvA), we tried to bring spring to our midst! We imagined green fields, poppies and imitated the flight and song of birds. With the help of this video, we identified and named the birds that return from warm countries with the arrival of spring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBvV6LVNuQ4
We didn't miss the mime and movement game either, transforming, one by one, into frogs, storks and caterpillars. A successful exercise!
We ended our lesson with a creative moment, bringing a spring landscape to life on paper, which the children took home.
I look forward to another lesson this Saturday when we conclude with our aforementioned topic.
Play, personal development and photography
Text and photos by Raluca Tudorache
There was great joy at the Romanian School last Saturday. Although we still had one more round of winter, the children came back enthusiastic, with spring in their hearts.
After warming up a bit and getting to know the newcomers even better, we played a very funny game called "Thread", in which we imagined that an imaginary thread is master over our will and pulls us by different parts of our body when you least expect it. It was a relaxing exercise, with the children exercising their spontaneity and imagination, while having fun on the go.
We continued with energy games and then we moved on to an important exercise in which we checked and trained not only imagination and spontaneity, but also general culture, language or vocabulary and body attitude. This improvisation exercise is inspired by Sports Theatre and encourages the children to use team ways of telling a compelling and exciting story. While the partner stands hidden behind the storyteller, the partner uses their hands to help the storyteller with explanations or to make the task harder. The children made up very funny stories, showing a colourful and abundant imagination. Most of them found their words easily and proved that they had a good knowledge of Romanian and geography.
I spoke again about realist and fantasy or abstract art, explaining in more depth the idea of inspiration and why artists started to create art by coordinating their feelings and emotions rather than inspired by ideas or a particular technique. The children were receptive when we talked about how important feelings are and how we can use them to create art. The theme of feelings in creation will be repeated in other classes, as it is one of the aims of my workshop: discovering and becoming aware of inner feelings and finding a way to express them through art.
After the break we continued telling stories, but this time through pictures. We asked the children to make up a 'Picture Story' using three different coloured sheets of paper to illustrate a few adventures or a story in three different situations. Even those who thought they weren't good at drawing this time felt comfortable drawing, having confirmation that a picture doesn't need to be realistic, but rather it needs to vibrate and communicate something. They took their task so seriously that it was barely possible to finish the class. We'll continue the image making next time, when we'll play a few more games to exercise and train our senses, at least. Then we will award the winners of this session who expressed themselves most beautifully and had the most diverse and interesting vocabulary. I think the idea of the prize will stimulate everyone to be more attentive and in addition to the undeniable fun to solve their class exercises with curiosity and ingenuity.
