We became familiar with the school, the teachers, and the children. For this reason, we only spent a few hours in the świetlica so far, but even during this short time we managed to do many activities with the students. We made origami, created collages, and tried out several board games together.

Even within just one week, we have already learned a lot from each other. The children picked up a few new English words, while I had the chance to get to know Polish cuisine, explore Wasilków, and learn some basic Polish words and expressions.

I am really excited about the work we will be doing together in the coming weeks.

At the middle of the week we organized a relay race in the gym. The children enjoyed competing in teams and improving their physical skills while having lots of fun.In addition, the children made their own bracelets.

Another important part of the week was ankieta, when we studied each other names, and favorit stuffs.

To end the week we also had a fun cooking activity where we baked waffles together. This was a great way to work on cooperation.

I got my first experince with Fat Thursday, and we made some cookies with the kids on this day. Mixing the ingredients, shaping the dough, and finally tasting our own baked treats was a joyful and memorable experience for everyone.

We also talked about Valentine’s Day and explored how it is celebrated in different countries around the world. The children were curious to see the similarities and differences between cultures, and this activity helped them understand that love and kindness can be expressed in many ways.

We stayed on a creative path, so in the middle of the week we connected with our inner princesses and made paper crowns.

We continued our cooking course and moved on to savory dishes. We made mini pizzas together and shared them in the swietlica.

On Friday, we went on a trip around the world. We learned about different festivals and how various countries celebrate.

During this week’s classes, we learned about the five senses and sign language. We consider it important to hold classes that are as colorful as possible and to make children more sensitive to unusual topics. They were very curious about sign language, and they learned how to show their own names and some additional words.

On the cooking class we made muffin together. It's always great to see how enthusiastic the kids are about this program. They help a lot, they want to do their part in everything. And of course, their favorite part is always the tasting, when they see the end result of their work.

Our traveling topic was famouse monuments around the world. We learned about the Great Wall of China, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Taj Mahal, etc., among other things. Then they discussed where they would like to travel and what they would like to see.

We continued our film topic with the older group. This week the topic was genres. We learned more about the types of films there are, and then they could start working on their own project, choosing a topic, and laying the foundation for the story.

This week the good weather finally arrived, and it was noticeable in everyone’s mood. We were able to spend more and more time outside with the children, where we organized running races and played tag and hide-and-seek. Of course, playful learning was also part of the week. This time we read a story in English about what the stars might be doing during the daytime.

Since our “Festivals Around the World” topic was very successful in the świetlica, we expanded it and presented it to the different lower-grade classes as well. We watched short videos about festivals and even played a music recognition game. I also introduced a special festival from Hungary, the Busójárás, and we drew masks inspired by it.

During the weekly cooking class, the children made fruit skewers to celebrate the arrival of spring.

On the last day of the week, we also talked a little about International Women’s Day and how it is celebrated in different countries.

During the lessons, we got to know Europe and many of its countries through music, presentations, and playful activities. We learned the flags and capitals of certain countries and also added an extra fun fact about each of them.

Saturday was Poetry Day, so during the week we placed poems in English and Polish for the children, which they could freely take and bring home with t

hem.

On the last day, our topic was Easter around the world. First, the children taught us how they celebrate Easter in Poland and at home. Then we shared our own traditions, as well as those of other nationalities, and discussed how different cultures celebrate.

With the older kids, we worked on two main topics: scriptwriting and acting, as well as makeup and costumes. Every group completed their own script, and some of them started practicing their acting and thinking about what makeup and costumes they would need for their movie.

During this period, we tried to combine learning English with creative tasks. In the lessons for the younger children, we talked about “How is a book made?”. First, we learned some important vocabulary and saw how books are made. After that, the children created and drew their own books.

In the świetlica, we showed a video about the city mouse and the country mouse, with an important moral: sometimes other people’s lives are not as great as they seem. Afterwards, we showed the two mice again, and the children matched pictures to them.

Our next topic around the world was food. We showed our traditional dishes as well as some famous foods from other countries and how they are made. At the end, the children created their own pizzas from paper.

In the cooking class, we made croissants with cocoa and cinnamon filling.

With the older children, we talked about acting, costumes, makeup, and set design in movies. After learning about these aspects, the children collected ideas about what they would need for their own movie.

These two weeks were full of programs and new experiences.

At the beginning of the week, we brought some activities to the świetlica. First, we arranged six different colors in a sequence, and the kids had to figure out the correct order. Then we worked on improving their memory: after looking at something for a few seconds, they had to draw what they saw on the paper. At the end, we created groups, and with only one pen per group, the kids had to work together to draw a shape. It was difficult at the beginning, but eventually every group found their own way to cooperate.

On Tuesday, we read them a story about the Gingerbread Man, and afterward we practiced English with some tasks.

This week, the most popular activity was drawing together. I realized that sometimes kids don’t need any special materials just a piece of paper and a pen and they can create together for hours and truly enjoy the time they spend with us.

This weekend, it will be Constitution Day in Poland. I learned a lot about this holiday during the week. We watched some videos together and talked about it. It was very interesting for me to learn more about the history of Poland.

Our reading topic this week was the story of The Three Little Pigs and the wolf. After the story, we decided to change our usual approach and, instead of paper-based tasks, we introduced online activities. The kids were really into it—everyone wanted to join, answer questions, and come to the table.

Because of the good weather, we spent more time outside. It was a great opportunity for me to play basketball with the kids and teach them some basics, since this sport is very important to me. It’s always nice to see how much they enjoy it too.

On Thursday, we had a special guest from France. Another volunteer, Ella, came to our school to cook a French dessert with the kids.

This week, we reached the end of our presentation series about movies, and from next week the classes will start making their own short films. So our final topics were camera work, music, and video editing.

End of this week we had some extra classes about our countries. It was really nice to meet new kids and talk with them about Hungary and Latvia. They were very interested in learning some Hungarian words and enjoyed playing a Kahoot quiz about Hungary, Latvia, and Poland.

On Tuesday, our story was The Bear and the Bee. It was a good story for learning some body parts together. The moral of the story was: “A hot temper always gets you into trouble.”

We had a special week because on Tuesday we traveled to Michałowo. One of the previous volunteers is working there at a school, and she invited us to present our countries, organize some games, and talk about volunteering. It was a really nice opportunity to see another school—the kids and the teachers were very warm and welcoming. After the school visit, we worked together with the other volunteers, because in May we will have a big joint project involving all of our schools, and we needed to finish the planning stage.

On Friday, Zaklin and I showed the kids how many languages we speak, and we taught them some words in seven different languages: English, German, Russian, Latvian, Hungarian, French, and Spanish. At the end of the presentation, we tried some tongue twisters, and the kids also taught us some Polish ones.

The theme of our play was a hotel and a lottery night. We taught the children a few words from our languages and asked them some simple but interesting questions about our home countries.

Afterwards, at my table, I organized a memory game for the children. The pictures in the game were related to Hungary, and when they finished, we talked about the pictures and how they connected to my country.

This experience was amazing, and I really enjoyed seeing how differently the schools operate. It was very interesting to work with children from different schools and share our cultures with them.