“S.O.S.: Save Our Sea” at the 2nd Pedagogical Conference of the Directorate of Primary Education of Western Thessaloniki

As part of our commitment to the goals we set as an eTwinning School regarding wider dissemination of eTwinning projects, we shared our eTwinning project “S.O.S.: Save Our Sea” at a thematically related conference which took part at the Cultural Centre of Ampelokipi and the Auditorium of the 12th Primary School of Ampelokipi. Specifically, on Saturday, October 11, 2025, we participated in the 2nd Educational Conference organised by the Directorate of Primary Education of Western Thessaloniki, titled: “Teaching and Learning – Education and Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges and Reflections.” There, we had the opportunity to present our students’ creative work, which focused on promoting the 14^th Sustainable Goal titled ‘Life below water’. We also shared ideas and educational practices, attended interesting presentations by colleagues and engaged in a creative dialogue that helped us enrich our teaching methods through innovative ideas and practices.

 

National Quality Labels for both our eTwinning projects implemented during the school year 2024-2025

 

2024-2025

We are absolutely thrilled and proud to share that our eTwinning projects, “Do you need me? Because I need you” and “S.O.S.: Save Our Sea” have been honored with the National Quality Label!

This prestigious recognition celebrates the hard work, creativity, and teamwork our students poured into these projects throughout the 2024-2025 school year. The National Quality Label isn’t just an award—it’s a stamp of excellence, highlighting the innovation, imagination, and collaborative spirit that made our projects stand out.

A huge round of applause to our amazing students for their brilliant ideas, relentless enthusiasm, and extraordinary dedication! This achievement belongs to everyone involved, and it fills us with energy and inspiration to continue creating, learning, and reaching new heights together.

eTwinning “ S.O.S.: Save Our Sea” - Part 7

 

May was a month of intense activity, as we worked on our final products.

We began by compiling a poetic anthology featuring various types of short poems, either celebrating the beauty of the Mediterranean or highlighting some of its problems. To achieve this, we worked in transnational teams, with each school tasked with illustrating poems from the other countries according to the students’ interpretations.

Look at our worksheet, which we shared among all partners:

Poems about the Mediterranean - Worksheet από Theofani Iatropoulou

Read the complete anthology below:

Read this book made on StoryJumper

We also created a virtual exhibition of students’ artworks, created under the guidance of our art teacher, using “treasures” from the beaches, such as shells, pebbles, sticks, and even plastic bottle caps, as a form of upcycling. The goal was to showcase the beauty of our sea.

Visit the complete exhibition below.

Browse the exhibition catalogue below.

https://heyzine.com/flip-book/d8345705d9.html

In addition, we co-authored a transnational story-fairytale about the Mediterranean, aiming to highlight its issues and inspire people to take action. This story was illustrated with the help of Artificial Intelligence tools, with learners providing appropriate prompts.

Eventually it was turned into a video, narrated by AI.

You can watch it by clicking on the link below:

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGqgMq3X7M/XaXQe5GMFNcQ7uyqB-XQpw/watch

We also held our final online meeting. After the usual greetings, each school sang two songs about the sea or its islands in their mother tongue, offering students a rich experience of cultural exchange and multilingualism. The excitement was palpable, and we said goodbye in an atmosphere full of joy. 

The songs were recorded, and videos were made with English subtitles so that everyone could understand and enjoy them. You can have access to them below:

The eTwinning project showed us what we can achieve when we collaborate, share, and dream together. Even though it has ended, it has left a deep impression on all of us. After all, every ending is simply the beginning of a new creative adventure!

Flip through the memory book of the eTwinning program “S.O.S.: Save Our Sea” by clicking the link below:

SOS Save Our Sea

Click to read this book, made with Book Creator

read.bookcreator.com

eTwinning “ S.O.S.: Save Our Sea” - Part 6

 

The month of April was marked by an online meeting between all partners to play the Kahoot quiz game simultaneously. This quiz had already been created with contributions from students of all schools, based on the environmental videos each school had studied and then shared with the other partners through their collaborative presentations.

Before the meeting, all students had reviewed the presentation material in order to answer the questions correctly and quickly, aiming for high scores. Our students were divided into six mixed teams, including learners from both participating classes, and each team received one tablet.

At the start of the session, following the customary greetings and a brief discussion of recent news, the winning project logo was announced. It had been chosen through voting by students, parents, and teachers from all participating schools. The announcement was met with sustained applause, as this logo had received exceptionally high preference compared to the other ones.

The signal to start the game was then given, and the students, after entering the special game code, began answering the questions displayed on the screen simultaneously, consulting with their team mates for each answer. They showed great interest and focus, competing to climb as high as possible in the ranking. The winning team came from a school in Spain, and their victory was celebrated enthusiastically by all schools, demonstrating how passionately everyone had engaged in the game.

The conclusion is simple: a playful approach stimulates students’ natural curiosity, ignites excitement, and gives real meaning to learning!

eTwinning “ S.O.S.: Save Our Sea” - Part 5

 

eTwinning  “ S.O.S.: Save Our Sea”  - Part 5

March was a month of creativity and awareness.

We first worked together in transnational teams, each named after a sea of the Mediterranean, to collaboratively design the project logo. In this way, five different logos were created, each reflecting the contribution of all the participating schools. Afterwards a voting procedure took place in the classroom, with the participation of every student and teacher. The link was also shared with parents, so that the parental community could be involved in the final selection, as well.

In addition, we carried out activities aimed at informing and training students on environmental issues related to our project. Each participating country undertook the study of two videos presenting scientific data on important topics such as climate change, global warming, the greenhouse effect, water pollution, plastic pollution, endangered species in the Mediterranean, invasive alien species, sustainability, and upcycling.

Following that the students collaborated on the creation of a joint presentation, highlighting the key findings from the videos assigned to them. This ensured that important information was effectively shared with all participants. The final goal was to use the knowledge exchanged among schools to collectively design an online quiz game (Kahoot) based on the content of the learner-designed presentation. Each school contributed by writing multiple-choice questions on the issues they had explored. Our students focused on water pollution and single-use plastics. At a later stage, an online meeting was scheduled so that all students could play the game together in real time.

Finally, in order to emphasize the alarming dimension of the  problems afflicting the Mediterranean through the power of images, the learners were invited to visit a website that allowed them to create a mock television screen by uploading a relevant copyright free image, filling in the news headlines and the ticker. All these “screens” were collected on a collaborative online board, showcasing the magnitude of the challenges our sea is facing through a cascade of striking images.

These activities sparked students’ interest and contributed to strengthening their environmental awareness in general but especially towards our shared sea, the Mediterranean.

Because the Mediterranean is not just a sea; it is a bridge that unites cultures and at the same time a heritage we must protect for the generations to come!

eTwinning “ S.O.S.: Save Our Sea” - Part 4

Our February activities were dedicated to Safer Internet Day, which is usually celebrated on the second day of the second week of the second month each year. Its aim is to raise awareness about both safe and ethically responsible internet use, based on netiquette.

For 2025, the celebration was set on 11 February. From the beginning of the month, students from all participating countries started collaborating in a shared document with a  view to writing multiple-choice questions focusing on responsible and safe use of cyberspace and digital technologies, as well as on tackling cyberbullying. These were subsequently compiled into a common collaborative digital quiz, which was scheduled to be played on the celebration day.

All partners played the interactive quiz in their classrooms, giving students the opportunity to check their understanding and reinforce appropriate online behavior in a more playful and engaging way.

An additional activity for the occasion involved using an interactive platform, where students from all schools once again collaborated to create short rules and tips. These stemmed from what they had learned in the quiz and served as reminders for maintaining a responsible online attitude.

As a closing thought, their collective message can be summed up in the following phrase:

“Surf the internet wisely, just like you do at sea – because a careless click may sweep you away into dangerous currents!”

 

eTwinning “ S.O.S.: Save Our Sea” - Part 3

 

We welcomed the New Year full of energy and creativity!

Our mission for January was to present our cities and seas in a collaborative digital book created for this purpose, so that each partner could get to know the most important features of the other participants’ cities and seas.

Our students, working in groups, were asked to write their texts based on a set of guiding questions that served as research prompts for their online exploration. They then recorded the final versions of their texts in the digital book and added relevant photos to illustrate the places they described.

They spoke about the geographical location of our city, the Thermaic Gulf, the port, the marina of Aretsou, and the city’s close ties to the sea, reflected in the presence of sailing clubs, sea scouts, and cultural events taking place by the waterfront – such as the city’s Book Festival and the International Film and Documentary Festivals.

They presented monuments and buildings connected to the sea, such as the White Tower, the statues of Alexander the Great and Pavlos Melas, the Umbrellas sculpture and the Moon on the waterfront, as well as the Concert Hall. They also highlighted everyday habits of people on the seafront, making brief references to characteristic local dishes.

Finally, they compared the image of the seafront and its activities in the past with those of the present, creating a mosaic of images that reflects the past and the present.

Through this project, our students not only discovered the partner cities, but got to know our own city and its sea a little better!
Are you ready for them to guide you on this journey?

 

eTwinning “ S.O.S.: Save Our Sea” - Part 2

 With great warmth and enthusiasm, we continued our collaborative activities throughout December.

In the spirit of the festive season, students from all the participating schools created handmade cards and crafts, which they uploaded to a shared online board, in order to exchange holiday greetings. Along with the cards, our school also crafted and decorated the traditional Greek Christmas boat. Beyond being a Christmas custom, it was thematically connected to our project, and allowed students to send their wishes for “Merry Christmas” in their native language.

Another particularly engaging activity was the creation of Christmas posters in transnational teams with the use of a digital poster-making tool. Each final poster was a piece of true collaboration, with student contributions from all the partner countries. Five posters were created in total, each one showing:

·         on the left side, a decorated house accompanied by a festive wish,

·         on the right side, an undersea world adorned with a Christmas touch and an environmental awareness message.

The goal was to spread the idea that the Mediterranean Sea is our common home, and we must all take care of it together. The results were truly impressive!

This month we also held our first online meeting in a magical atmosphere, during which our school connected with the partner schools from Italy, Turkey and Larissa. At first, the students introduced themselves through representatives and exchanged information. Then, they collaborated in real time on Mentimeter, an interactive audience engagement platform, where:

·         they entered their first names and instantly watched a word cloud of participant names being created, and

·         they also contributed words that they typically associate with the Mediterranean Sea, which formed another collective word cloud, depicting the image of the Mediterranean as it exists in the children’s collective perception.

The meeting concluded in a joyful spirit: the learners of each school sang Christmas carols for their partners, both in English and in their mother tongue, to the accompaniment of musical instruments. The session ended with an exchange of heartfelt wishes, an atmosphere of excitement, and a strong sense of anticipation for the next interaction! 

eTwinning “ S.O.S.: Save Our Sea” - Part 1

 

We have dynamically launched our second eTwinning project for the current school year, titled “S.O.S.: Save Our Sea”!
The month of November was dedicated to introducing the students from the participating countries to one another.

Our students:

·         Wrote their personal introductions, mentioning their nationality, favourite school subjects, and free-time activities.

·         Then, in the ICT lab, they created their own avatars (virtual figures with which they will appear in the project).

·         The avatars were brought to life through Chatterpix, a talking-image application, as students recorded their presentations.

·         These talking images were uploaded to a collaborative notice board, allowing everyone to get to know each other in a more playful and creative way.

At the same time, both students and teachers completed the initial project questionnaires online. The aim was:

·         to identify their perceptions, expectations, and prior knowledge,

·         to enable a comparative analysis with the final questionnaires at the end of the project,

·         and to evaluate the project’s overall impact on both the student and the teacher community.

From the outset, the project was filled with enthusiasm and creativity and we are looking forward to the next activities!