OXI Day Celebration 2014
November 2, 2014
On Friday October 24th we held our annual OXI Day Celebration. During our assembly we spoke about two important events that took place in the recent history of Greece. October 28th commemorates the day that the Greeks said a loud OXI- No to Italian ultimatum to surrender their country. That OXI- No, was the beginning of Greece’s official involvement in the 2nd World War. Also, October 26 is an important day for the city of Thessaloniki. It’s the liberation of the city in 1912 from the Ottomans and the Name Day of the city’s patron saint St. Demetrios.
All of our elementary and grade 6 students were involved in the preparation of the whole celebration. We strongly believe that all students should be actively involved with all aspects of the celebration in order to fully understand the meaning of this national holiday. The students had the opportunity to learn more about that period of the Greek history through a variety of activities. They watched a video on how the war started. Also, they listened to Great leaders making comments about the heroism of Greeks and how their decision influenced the outcome of the Second World War. Furthermore, they saw and talked about photos taken during the winter of 1940-41 by the photographer Voula Papaioannou.
With the first grade students we read a book about peace and we stressed the importance of the word. Then the students were asked to draw a picture to show what peace means to them. We were surprised with their drawings in how creative and thoughtful they were. Second grade students read the story of “The Giant and the Dwarf” and they were asked to create dialogues and drawings related to the story. Students in grade 6 worked in groups and created a collage related to peace and war.
Through all the above, students were exposed to and practiced different parts of speech of the Greek language in order to improve their linguistic skills.
Elementary Greek Teachers
Filiana Zafiriadou
Sophia Konstantinidou
