The Greek Letters Day

Τα Ελληνικά γράμματα

30^th January “The Greek letters” day.

An activity for the Greek Letters Day 
and the three Hierarchs

(Οι Τρεις Ιεράρχες).

In my class this week we did the following activity.

It is a church shape card.

I used this picture with the 3 Hierarchs from this link

and I gave to pupils to colour it.

Then I did this template with the cross on top 

to look like a church.

From one side, in the middle, we glued the picture.

Over the picture pupils wrote 

“Οι 3 Ιεράρχες” and “30 Ιανουαρίου”.

To the left and to the right, pupils choose sentences to copy from the whiteboard that these wise saints had said.

Most of them chose

“ Η ειρήνη είναι το πιο γλυκό πράγμα στον κόσμο”

and

“Η καλή φιλία είναι θησαυρός”

They folded and in the front of the card, where the two are join, they did one coloured cross.

To the back, they wrote their name.

The Three Hierarchs (Οι Τρεις Ιεράρχες) refers to Basil the Great (Μέγας Βασίλειος), Gregory the Theologian (Γρηγόριος ο Θεολόγος) and John Chrysostom ( Ιωάννης ο Χρυσόστομος).

How can you help your pupils spell their name correct?

Do your pupils spell

 their name

 correct in Greek?

Using this technique to my classes

always helped all my pupils

to spell their name correct!

use this money box instead of  your register to help your students to learn spelling their name.

I remembered when I had my first lesson in a year 3 class 

and I was in shock when I realised that they were pupils in my class that they didn't spell their name correct. 

But... this was my 1^st year. 

After I realised that this phenomenon is so common.

 From that moment, I understood how important it was to find a way - activity to be sure that all my pupils can spell their name.

What I did, it was to find a metallic money box that tucked away in a cupboard and use it as my register every day. 

Any box can do the job, just let a hole on top.

I put this box with some small papers and a pencil 

next to my class door

 and when a pupil get inside

 he must write down his/her name

 and put it inside the hole of the money box.

In this way, they practise writing their name 

every day 

in an exciting way. 

The results? 

After 5-7 times, all the children spelled correctly their name!

Learn colours in Greek easy!

Learn the colours 

in Greek easy!

 colours in Greek matching activity

matching activity

What do you need: plain wooden clothes pegs, one plain white paper plate, and markers in different colours (basically the colours you want to teach).

Take the plate and 

write down the names of the colours 

you want to teach.

my plate after I wrote the colours I want to teach

Then paint the pegs with the written colours.

my pegs after colouring

The colours that I chose to teach were:

Κόκκινο=red

Κίτρινο= yellow

Μπλε= blue

Άσπρο= white

Μαύρο= black

Πράσινο= green

Καφέ= brown

Ροζ= pink

Γαλάζιο=light blue

Γκρίζο= grey

Μωβ= purple

Πορτοκαλί= orange

Then you just ask the pupils 

to match the coloured pegs 

with the written words on the plate.

The result was my pupils loved this activity 

and most important they learned the colours so quickly.

New Year's Resolutions?

New Year’s Resolutions?

Have you made some New Year's Resolutions in your class???  

Here is an activity you can do after Christmas holidays.

 Ask your pupils to complete each of these sentences by writing their own phrase in the gaps, 

thinking about all these things

 they would like to change in 2017.

Download the resolutions sheet here.

Look what some of my pupils wrote:

Or instead ask pupils to choose one word to sum up 

how they would like to feel mostly in 2017

 and to create a poster.

These two activities are simple and 

so can be used in a variety of classrooms

 with a variety of ages and abilities!

 In the meantime, while I was looking around 

for inspirational stuff, I found these 

New Year's resolutions for teachers 

posted by the Pensive Sloth,

Wish I could claim these as mine, 

but they are not…

 here are some of my favourites…

 And my most favourite…may be because it is snowing in Greece and not here in London...

What can I say? No comments...

Thanks to my friend Maria who sent me this picture.👍

The Greek double letter "αυ" and its voice.

The Greek 
double letter «αυ».

Always there is a difficulty for pupils learning

Greek as a F.L.

 with the phonic of this double letter.

And the reason of this?

This double letter has two voices!!

But if you are wondering, 

just like my pupils in class this week,
 “how do we know when we will say af or av?”

There is an answer obviously on this question.

Ancient Greeks created everything using Maths rules.

The rule of this letter is the following:

When you will have one of these

7 letters

σ, ξ, κ, π, τ, θ, χ

after the double letter «αυ»

then

«αυ» says «αφ»(af).

So, from now on there is no fear about this letter.

Give your students lots of words

and you will see that

they will manage very easily

to pronounce everything correctly.

Additionally, I am giving the following activities.

Exercise 1: circle the words with the voice αφ (af)
download here

Exercise 2: put the words in the correct column
download here.

Exercise 3 : Words to achieve confidence 
in reading words with the letter "αυ".

Try to check how many words you can read in one minute!

upper and lower-case matching

Upper and lower-case letters

matching game.

Materials: Two plain white paper plates, permanent marker 

and the letter pegs we did here.

Just write on the edges of the plate the Greek letters in order. I did two plates, 

one with the upper 

and one with the lower-case letters.

The pupils need to have, in front of them, the box with the capital letter pegs and the lower-case plate.

 

After they will finish this correctly, let them continue with the box with the lower-case pegs and the upper-case plate.

When they will achieve to finish this activity correctly 

then it’s time for the

Timer-time!

I use a timer because the pupils love

to beat the quickest one or even me!!!

Always keep a record of their time and

always they feel so proud when they achieve better time!

Let the game begins…

Greek letters Alphabetical ordering activity.

Greek letters
Alphabetical ordering activity.

On a Hanger!!

Practice with this exercise 

using the letter pegs 

we did in the previous post here

and place the pegs in alphabetical order.

Not only would it strengthens pupils knowledge

of Greek Alphabet order

but it will simultaneously work 

on their fine motor skills. 

Give them the box with the capital letter pegs 

or with the lower case pegs 

and ask them to place the pegs 

on a hanger in alphabetical order. 

Greek Alphabet

Greek alphabet letters. 

Simple to make these letters 

from clothes pegs 

and a 

very useful tool to different activities!

What do you need: plain wooden clothes pegs, 
a permanent marker.

I painted the wooden pegs using two colours blue for the consonants and red for the vowels.

vowels with red

consonants with blue

 Let them dry.

I had an English stamp set tucked away in my craft cupboard which I used it for the same capital Greek letters.

The rest I wrote the letters directly onto the pegs with a permanent mark. 

All you need to end up with is two sets of pegs. 

One with the upper case and 

one with the lower case Greek alphabet letters 

to use them to a lot of different activities.

Vana Sarimpalidou

email: teachingmoderngreek@gmail.com

Welcome!

Καλώς ορίσατε!

Hi I am Vana. A modern Greek teacher in London. I have been teaching for over 15 years. Teaching is my absolute favourite!!!

When I am not in a classroom you can find me, with my beautiful daughter Elizabeth and my wonderful husband, out enjoying the sunshine or the rain! I love reading, travelling, visiting museums.

I start this blog because I believe there is a gap of activities specialised to students who are learning Greek as a foreign or second language. And with this blog, I would like to share my ideas and experiences and inspire you with your students!

I hope you enjoy browsing around my blog and I love hearing from fellow teachers about creative things we are doing at your class.

So feel free to leave a comment!

Best wishes.

Vana