Working in pairs, spending a whole week on one project and studying many interesting themes like cooperation, communication, first aid and survive puberty! Last week in the Lutheran Elementary School in Martin was really eventful!
All 5th grade students were involved in a one week program called School for Life last week. Life skills were emphasized, including cooperation in class, how to handle stress, reading comprehension, critical thinking, respect for diversity, road safety and dealing with the changes that occur during puberty. The project’s goal was to teach the students to apply these life skills in their studies, as well as in their everyday life.
The students worked in pairs. Of all the life skills being studied, the most time and focus was spent on ‘cooperation,’ because without cooperation, accomplishing the other activivies would be impossible.
Lectures were given by a psychologist, a pastor, and a doctor. Students learned to understand and use much new, useful, and interesting information. They learned about Mind Maps and how to understand different types of text. Moreover, they endeavored to understand media and advertising. The students also learned to discriminate between important and unimportant information. At the end of the project, the students made posters illustrating the things they had learned. Some—about Safety on our Roads and The First aid – were very beautiful. The funniest poster was called “Trouble in the Time of Puberty!”
It wasn’t just students who were excited about the School for Life project. Many parents expressed satisfaction with the project’s results. Mother Jana Zacharove wrote, “My daughter was fascinated with the many topics presented in the School for Life project…We are looking forward to how this study will benefit her in her future.” Another parent, Denisa Bucakova, said “The whole week was very interesting for our children. I am very thankful for what they learned.”
We are very thankful for all the positive response we received from students, parents, and teachers. Every day we realize how much God wants to work through us as parts of His body in the world. With better skills, we can be more useful in God’s kingdom and this is what is most important.
And what did our 5th grade students think about the School for Life project? Here are some of their opinions:
“It is really cool to work and study in groups but it is also hard because sometimes the children quarrel. I liked Mind Maps because I understood that it can help me learn better. Mind Maps make writing easy and I like that my remarks don’t have to be very long!” (Nina)
“I think we must learn to master puberty. It is hard, but we must not give up, because God is still with us.” (Barborka)
“I learned a lot this week! I liked learning not just the regular way but we got to try some other interesting ways to learn. We used life skills in our learning and daily life. It was awesome!” (Janko)
“Now I know that you have to be really careful when you are trying to communicate because it can get really confusing. I also learned that this stage of puberty—the stage we are currently in—can be a hard time, so we really have to discipline ourselves.” (Martin)
Mgr. Monika Záborská,
project leader
HeHe-T
