Games and pastimes that make Europe smile

During the second year of our three-year Comenius project 'Let's all smile at Europe', pupils at St Albert the Great College, Valletta, and our partner schools in the UK, Hungary, Portugal, Poland and Italy, have focused on games and pastimes.

We invited elderly people to our respective schools to teach the children traditional games that they used to play, and each class at St Albert's also invented a new game, which we then exchanged with the other schools.

While taking part in a project evaluation meeting held recently at the co-ordinating school in Co. Durham, UK, I and the various other partner representatives decided to treat the hosting schoolchildren to local specialities. Spread on the Maltese table were hobz biz-zejt, krustini, which the children cooked themselves, galletti with dips, and Twistees.

Incidentally, it was interesting to note that the English school pupils start the day with 20 minutes of stimulating aerobics, followed by milk and toast.

The children are not only having fun but also learning from the project, details on which may be found at www.smile-at-europe.ik.org.

My UK visit was made possible through EUPU funding. Next March, St Albert's will be hosting a project meeting.