The Mikri Anna (Little Anna) team, in collaboration with teacher Christina Soumi and theatrologist Katerina Poutachidou, organised a special ‘Bookworms Restaurant’ seminar on the weekend.
The workshop, playing on a famous Greek word pun, titled ‘Estriatoria Viovliofagon’ [Bookworms (book-eaters) restaurant in direct Greek translation], was packed with innovative and fun ideas for teaching literacy to Greek students.
The ‘Bookworms Restaurant’ seminar was not just a training session, but a hands-on and enjoyable experience for all participants.
Upon arrival, participants were greeted and led to their tables where a menu of “delicious activities” awaited.
“For the appetizer, we were served the ‘word salad’ activity. Each group had to read a short story of little Anna, and then mix them up to create a new story based on their group’s fairy tales. This activity was a great way to get everyone involved and create a ‘fairy-tale salad’,” Alexandra Asimaki and Apollonas Karakaidos told Neos Kosmos.
For the main meal, each participant had to create their own hamburger using ingredients with words written on them. In the end, each hamburger became a sentence, teaching children the fundamental syntactical elements of a simple sentence.
A fun teaching technique that also helps children understand the structure of a sentence and create many funny sentences.
“After the main meal, we all participated in the ‘put the sauce on’ activity, where each table creatively re-enacted one of the four Mikri Anna stories they were given. It was a fun and engaging way to get everyone to participate,” Asimaki and Karakaidos added.
The workshop ended with the ‘With my flag a sweet’ activity, where all participants wrote a sweet word on a white flag and placed it on a cupcake. Everyone then picked a cupcake at random and read the flag that was on it, recognising the hard work of teachers while creating solidarity among colleagues.
“The seminar was a wonderful example of how teaching can be made creative and enjoyable. It was a pleasure to be a part of it, and we hope to see more seminars like this in the future. At the end of the seminar, we were not asked for money, but for a ‘culinary’ review of the sumptuous meal provided. It was a perfect end to a perfect seminar,” Asimaki and Karakaidos said.
The seminar was organised via the Greek Orthodox Community of Dandenong & Districts Greek School.
