Each beginning of the year brings the habit of reflecting on the previous year. Join us to look back at our Flamingos Year 2022.
As you probably already know, our school is not a typical Slovak language school. The teaching of the Slovak language is not focused only on grammar and vocabulary, but also on learning about Slovak heritage. We intend to introduce children to the current country developments as well as history and traditions.
Kindergarteners emerge into dramatizations of well-known children’s fairy tales, learn Slovak songs, nursery rhymes, draw, paint and dance. Can you imagine that all of us together (albeit each in a different geographical place) we managed to bake muffins (although not Slovak, but easy to handle) and made traditional Slovak Easter or Christmas decorations!
Younger children get to know the history of Slovakia through tales and stories about different cities, virtual travel through different corners of Slovakia.
Older & advanced students work on projects that help them not only to develop vocabulary and stylistics, but also to gain new and different information about Slovakia. In the class they debate about various topics, they also have the opportunity to express their point of view on various current social topics. And we assure you that now they manage to even have a proper argumentation in Slovak! This is also a skill that we support in our classes.
And this isn’t all! Last year, we also prepared several bonus classes. The goal of the “bonus classes” is to invite and open learning to our students from all over the world. It has the feeling of an international webinar, during which in a relaxed and playful atmosphere we can build contacts and friendships between our “flamingos” from different corners of the world.
During bonus class for youngest students, we dramatized the fairy tale The Hedgehog and the Horned Goat, and we made decorations and candies for Saint Nicholas and spent time with special St. Nicholas activities.
The bonus class for beginners was dedicated to treasure hunt. The children improved their vocabulary, created Slovak comics and also learned a few Slovak idioms.
More advanced students enjoyed a very creative bonus class with Dávid Králik, who was awarded the best Slovak distance teacher in 2020.
The story about “The Mistake”, which was called Mystake (Chyba, ktorá sa volala Chiba), developed and written by David directly for our „flamingos“, was aimed at correct understanding of text and determining the correct timeline of the story plot.
We also celebrated the Day of the Struggle for Freedom and Democracy (November 17) with a special bonus class prepared in cooperation with Dávid, during which we talked about differences of life before and after the Velvet Revolution of 1989. The children discovered and debated the meaning of the word FREEDOM by using pictures, songs and other props.
Our students also had the opportunity to virtually meet and interview the best swimmer in the history of Slovakia, Martina Moravcová. The questions and curiosity had no end! It was also very interesting to hear how Martina herself manages to raise her children bilingually (English-Slovak) in the USA.
Many of our students living abroad do travel to Slovakia during their school vacations. The ESCAPE ROOM bonus lesson offered them to learn about interesting sites of Slovakia. By unlocking virtual key locks, we revealed the beauties of our homeland, so the children could plan their next trip to Slovakia in order to visit those sites in person as well.
On the next bonus lesson we prepared a specially designed virtual board game about Slovakia. You can also play it by clicking on: https://view.genial.ly/623ef46326682e0018f73beb/interactive-content-slovencina-od-flamingos-pre-svet-plny-lasky.
In the birthplace of our school in Cyprus, we continue to organize personal meetings with Slovak families and community who have a second home here on the island. Last year’s Children’s Day (June 1) was celebrated on the beach, where we competed in sports, built Slovak sand castles and played the game “Sugar, coffee, chocolate, tea, rum, boom” (who remembers?).
Just before Christmas, the meeting of Slovak friends living in Cyprus opened in the traditional Slovak Christmas atmosphere. We have welcomed our guests from the Nitra region. They brought us a piece of Slovakia in the form of an amazing performance. Workshops with songs and games, decorating gingerbread, creating Christmas decorations and pictures, and especially the visit of Saint Nicholas delighted our little ones.
As every year, this year we also held an educational seminar for our teachers and the school team. Enriching lectures, testing various language activities and educational tools, exchange of experiences, discussions, inspiration. The result? A whole bunch of innovative ideas and improvements! We are already looking forward to gradually implementing them into our lessons. Let yourself be surprised!
We entered the year 2023 with the energy and excitement for sending the Slovak language to all corners of the world, uniting the Slovak community abroad and discovering Slovak heritage by children has become a reality. The entire school team can’t wait for more upcoming discoveries, regular classes, projects, bonus classes and events that are enriching and educational for us as well as for our „flamingos“. If you would also like to see and try what it looks like in our Flamingos family, do not hesitate to contact us at any time.
Your Flamingos team
