Me, you, all together

The Kindergarten children of Rodion Pedia School let their emotions overwhelm them as they sang for love, care, provision, compassion and solidarity. The project that was carried out included a variety of activities, the “thread” began from “me” and unfolded to reach “us”. The message they wanted to get across to the whole world is to help others without expecting anything in return, showing commitment and dedication for a common cause.
“When do I feel good? Why do I sometimes feel bad? What has happened to me? How do I feel when I make someone else feel nice?”
The fairytales used for the project were:
• “The Dinosaur Throws the Food Away” by Alexandra K.*, Antonis Papatheodoulou and Daphne Sivetidis, Patakis Publications, to teach children the benefits of volunteering as a form of contribution to the community and what the children can gain on an emotional level, learning the concept of unselfishness.
• “ The Little Tailor of Words” by Antonis Papatheodoulou, Metaixmio Publications, and “Rallou of Stars” by Leto Tsakiri, Tsiampiri Pyramid Publications, to instill values such as offering, being selfless and showing solidarity.
• “The Selfish Giant” by Oscar Wilde, Minoas Publications, to cultivate values such as love and offering.
• “The Greek Kids” by Eugenia Fakinou, Kedros Publications, to stimulate and boost the national feeling for collective freedom.
• “Amin Lost His Way”, “The Little Pirates” by Cabrera Aleix, Metaixmio Publications, to comprehend the need for belonging somewhere and having a national identity.

Some of the activities we did were:
• Moved to the beat of different music patterns and rhythms, expressing the emotion that each piece of music caused them to feel.
• Discovered and explored their feelings through several situations presented to them through videos, pictures and paintings.
• Discussed the things they need in order to be happy and talked about their rights. They came to the conclusion that these are things that all children need and through pictures, they saw how we can help by volunteering for different organizations. As a result, they gathered food to offer to the Welfare Grocery Store of Rhodes.
• Through pictures, videos, symbolic games, drawing and conversations we had in class, the children shared their experiences and concerns for the environment and learned about how they can help by volunteering, such as tree planting, recycling, helping stray animals, etc.
• They did matching activities, such as matching problematic situations to the help offered to each in order to resolve them.
• They recognized sounds of animals and other environmental sounds that inspired them, and this is how the idea for the radio message was born.
• Through musical games, the children realized that harmony derives from collaboration, when we all want something together. So, they coordinated the bells and played the anthem of happiness all together.
• They experimented with words trying to make rhyming verses of their own. A worksheet was also given to them, for consolidation purposes, in which they had to draw lines and match pictures/words that rhymed and sounded the same.

The lyrics of the song emerged from words that the children chose through the method of brainstorming, out of the books we had read, expressing their own needs. It turned out they shared the same needs for: safety, compassion, freedom, etc., as with the others.

Different tunes, rhythms and music genres were tried out to “dress” their lyrics, such as hip hop, traditional music, fast tempo, slow tempo, etc. They agreed on a melody that was easy for them to follow and one that was catchy. The handbells were the musical instrument they chose in the end to produce music, as it’s the most familiar one from the previous activities since the beginning of the school year.

Contributors:

Teachers: Voula Marantou, Xenia Mastromichali, Composing: Yiannis Hatzis (music teacher), Instrumentation, sound recording, production: George Xanthopoulos (music teacher), Poster: Class “Angels of the Shells”, Poster editing: Georgia Kazoulli, Video: Eirini Chatzifounta (teacher) Translation: Giota Manousaridou (English teacher)

“Me, you, all together”

I feel nice when I help
When I care and feel compassion
I offer what I can with love
Games, books and a home.

I want a hug
Care, love and happiness
But I look around me, you want this too, and you, and you
All together………Let’s make the Earth colourful
All together……….Let’s make the Earth colourful

Peace in the world, and not slavery
We need safety for all children
A revolution all together
Freedom, friendship, life.
Youtube link: https://youtu.be/Nj82BDgQF9Q