Giving books is a popular tradition worldwide. People give books as gifts on World Book and Copyright Day. This year, the campaign #GiveaBook is held for the third time in Georgia. The ES students exchange books- the gift of reading, literacy, and education. On April 23rd, UNESCO named Tbilisi World Book Capital for the year 2021. The city is going to host many interesting book-promoting events where our students will be participating actively. Booklover students came to the school on Book Day dressed in famous characters’ costumes, gave books to friends, attended Giorgi Kekelidze’s Literacy lessons, learned a lot about children’s books, and watched movies in the library.

For the past several weeks grade 3 students have been investigating the unit about global issues and learning about challenges that people around the world have to face. At the same time, they have been discussing and trying to find solutions to these issues.

The European School students engaged in various movements under the 2021 Earth Day theme – Restore the Earth. The first movement embraced by Earth Day 2021 is to advance environmental literacy. Within this movement, the Georgian Program students from grade 5 met USAID ZRDA project senior advisor Irakli Ujmajuridze who raised their awareness on the role and benefits of forests, the threads for world forests and forests in Georgia. The goal of this awareness session was also to make popular indigenous species of trees. In the end, the guest presented seeds to young environmentalists and encouraged them to plant these seeds and grow trees.

On April 19th, Christopher Anderson, the Cultural Attache of the US embassy in Georgia visited the European School. An honored guest became acquainted with the ES academic programs, innovative approaches implemented at the school, he had a tour of the European School's state-of-the-art infrastructure that fosters academic excellence. Christopher J. Anderson evaluated the role of the American High School which provides Georgian and international students with a pathway to American higher education. He received information about the impressive results and achievements of the AHS students who were awarded the USA Presidential Award for Educational Excellence. We hope, this visit will increase the role of American education at the European School and lead our students to greater success.

Today, 4th and 5th grade students attended and participated in the webinar, conducted by PYP counselor. The webinar was about Video Games and its impact on physical and mental health. How video games affect the brain? How video games affect students health? when is it addiction? How much is too much? The webinar aroused great interest in students. All students were actively involved. Students asked questions and expressed their opinion. 

During the unit How we Express Ourselves, at the music lessons grade 1 students listened to Camille Saint-Saens's suite - "Carnival of the Animals". On each of the movements students expressed their emotions and attitudes towards music by moving and playing instruments. In collaboration with the Art teacher we used   Camille Saint-Saens's suite - "Carnival of the Animals" and made the shadow puppets for the shadow theater as one of the storytelling forms. 

World Poetry Day was declared by UNESCO in 1999. The purpose of World Poetry Day is to promote the reading, writing, publishing and teaching of poetry throughout the world. World Poetry Day is annually celebrated at the European School. Throughout the day, the PYP community talked about their favorite poets and learn about the different ways that poetry can be written and spoken. PYP Students read and wrote a nice poem.

Theodor Seuss Geisel, commonly known by his pen name Dr. Seuss, was a writer, poet and cartoonist. Though best known as a children’s author (he released a whopping forty-six books for tykes), his career also saw him work as an illustrator for advertising campaigns and a political cartoonist during the Second World War. He was also a true perfectionist, known to discard 95% of his material before settling on a theme for a new book, sometimes spending up to a year writing a single story, and preferring payment upon completion, rather than in advance.

February 26th was Tell a Fairy Tale Day! This day encourages us to tell a fairy tale or two. What were once oral histories, myths, and legends retold around the fire or by traveling storytellers, have been written down and become known the world over as fairy tales.