Another week come and gone. I can’t believe just one week ago I was sitting on my cave house patio in Oia. Where does the time go? Anyway, now it’s back to reality and the fast paced life that is the end of the school year.
This week tucked between math prep for our state test coming up in two weeks, writing our Spain classroom book, poem in your pocket day, and the usual lessons, I managed to share some pictures and information from my trip to Greece.
Students knew I was traveling to Greece for April vacation. We talked briefly before I left about where Greece is located, what kinds of things I might see there and what sorts of things I might do. One of my favorite questions I got before leaving was, “Is Greece near Spain?” This prompted me to pull up a map so we could investigate that although there are a few countries in between, Spain is much closer to Greece than the US. How cool that 3rd graders would think to ask about Greece’s location as compared to Spain?! I love that they are thinking globally.
Back and armed with pictures, I wanted to share a small sliver of my trip with students. Highlights from the trip I shared included pictures from the Acropolis, market areas, beautiful buildings, and of course food!
McDonalds is always top on the list of student questions when talking about food. Do they have McDonalds? Is it the same as ours? Do Greeks like McDonalds? Knowing the high level of interest I made sure to get a snapshot of the one McDonalds (still not open) in Santorini. I also shared with students that I learned that McDonalds is not popular in Greece. Probably due to the delicious, cheap street food they have.
The next question is always about any “strange” foods I might have tried. They know me too well. I always tell students that when I am somewhere new I like to try something that I would maybe never eat or try at home. For this trip I shared with students a picture of octopus hanging out to dry, and then the grilled tentacle I ate for dinner. This elicited some surprised faces and some shocked comments that I actually ate that for dinner. These comments were follow up with, “so what does it taste like?” How great that students can see it’s okay to try something new, something typical for another area, you never know you might just like it.
Students were engaged, had lots of questions and were excited to learn about somewhere new. Some of them are interested in Greek gods and mythology and so the tie in with the Acropolis was perfect. It was great to tap into student interests and share with them some of the little tid bits I learned by visiting some famous sights.
Katy
