Be a hero for one day - Slovakia

During TPM in Italy teachers decided to invite real heroes to school as children can meet them and learn more about their work. It was said the invited heroes could come from different work sectors.

Although COVID19 broke down some of our activities, at the beginning of March, Slovak teacher Zuzana Vojsovičová invited a professional environmentalist working for Nature Conservation Area Čadca. He was sharing his professional experience with our youngest children, 1stGraders, from Primary School Nábrežná. His was talking about his long time term observation related to animals, nature and people in the nature. It was interesting and pupils were listening very attentively.

Children could learn how long animals live, what they eat and what kind of their footprints can be found in the wood. The topic about the baby animals and how the animals look after their babies was also well liked. During his presentation, children could see photos on the white board and dream about becoming an environmentalist.

As the International Day of Birds was approaching which is celebrated on the 1st of April, one part of the presentation was dedicated to this kind of animals. Children could listen to birds sounds, they tried to recognize them on the photos. They also tried to mime their behaviour. At the end, as humans are curious, children asked questions and they decided to make a good act toward birds - hang a bird house in the garden, give them water, food, plant a tree, do not cry in the garden, in the forest or in the park and listen more to real birds sounds outside. 

When young children were allowed to go to school in June 2020, children took part in a workshop which was connected to previous presentation. They were working on the topic What can I do for endangered animals. After the mindmap and teacher´s talk, explication, children chose one animal and they studied more about it. They also made a project on the paper - what it eats, where it lives, what I can do for it etc. Finally they made a model of this animal using air dry modelling clay. They worked at home and during Environmental Classes of the subject called Prvouka. Working with a modelling clay was a new experience for some children, they worked focused on their "new clay" animal - press the clay, roll it, cut it, divide it into small parts, crush the clay and make the clay animal. After finishing, some children wished they could go to see these endangered animals in the real life, maybe at least in the Zoo.