Meeting in Cyprus

BITS AND PIECES OF CULTURE

Meeting in Cyprus

The fourth short-term exchange of pupils’ groups – part of the EU project Erasmus + Bits and Pieces of Culture which we have been implementing since last September- took place in Paphos (Chloraka village). 30 pupils from Croatia, Poland, Greece, Spain and Italy visited Cyprus between the 20^th and 25^th of October 2019. The pupils were hosted by their Cypriot peers’ families, thanks to whom they gained new experiences, learned about Cyprus’ culture and customs, developed their language skills, and last - but not least - made new friends.

Day 1

 The day began with a guided tour at the site of Choirokoitia, a Neolithic village, cited by UNESCO. Afterwards, there was a visit to the medieval Limassol Castle, near the old harbour in the heart of the historical centre of the city of Limassol. Before lunch, the visitors walked around the old town and saw the Limassol Marina and the Old port. After lunch they had a guided tour at Kourio, an important ancient town. In the evening, the participants of the exchange arrived at Chloraka’s primary school to meet their host family.

However, they had a stop first at “Petra tou Romiou” (Rock of the Roman), located off the shore along the main road of Limassol to Paphos.

Host families welcome the visitors.

                                                    

 

Day 2

After the excitement that followed the first contact with their new friends, guest students and their teachers attended a welcome ceremony at school. The headteacher, Mr Giannis Charalambous greeted them and then Cypriot students presented a short show including traditional dances and songs. After the ceremony, students and their teachers participated to the “City game” aiming to introduce Chloraka to the guest students and teachers. Web quest activities followed in order for the kids to learn about their favorite authors. The kids worked in international teams and created posters and a timeline about each country‘s favorite author. After that, the kids watched the presentations they had prepared about their favorite book before the meeting in Cyprus. In the afternoon, they came back to school in order to make a story through the web tool “Stop motion” using characters from their favorite books.

Welcome ceremony.

                                                             City game.

Day 3

During the third day of this amazing multicultural experience, students and teachers had a field trip to another UNESCO listed site. They visited Paphos Mosaics, which are superbly preserved mosaic remains dating from third to fifth century A.D. After that the students had a hands-on experience by making their own mosaics in a place offering the opportunity to locals and tourists to create Cypriot crafts.

“The Place”

Day 4

The fourth day was dedicated to comics creation during school time. The kids, working in international teams, had the opportunity to create their own comics, through the web tool “Makebeliefscomix” using their imagination!! The only requirement was for the story to be fun!!! In the afternoon students had free time to enjoy the hospitality of Cypriot families.

Day 5

In the morning of the last day kids played traditional Cypriot games. The rest of the day was devoted to evaluating the visit. Students participated in two Kahoot quizzes in order to check their newfound knowledge about Cyprus and the language and literature of the partner countries. Then, the teams created some questions about the language and literature for a board game. Finally, they filled out a survey concerning the meeting in Cyprus. The last night in Cyprus included a farewell party for the visitor students, organized by the Parents’ association.