Elmer prezentat prin tehnici de literație

                                                     Ungureanu Gabriela

        In April, Elmer the elephant visited the classes involved in the project, bringing with him common European values, symbols and concerns that some children also experience: diversity, acceptance versus non-acceptance, even of oneself, tolerance, well-being, our role in a group. This story written by David McKee opened the way to exploring the themes through literacy techniques, techniques that enlivened and energized the deepening of the meanings of the message transmitted by this beautiful story.

         In the classes that enthusiastically read the story of Elmer the elephant, the students set off by noting, through brainstorming, those words that refer to a key word, in this case, diversity.

         Some performed visual brainstorming, others applied other pre-reading techniques, such as: "I see...I think...I wonder...", terms given in advance or predictions.

        They completed the double journal, delighted that they could not only note what impressed them, but also because they were able to draw characters or elements from the story or write onomatopoeias found in comics. The preparation of the text map, along with the literacy techniques through which the students analyzed the characters, supported the discovery of detailed elements and the understanding of visible and invisible connections between characters, known literary texts, and similar life experiences.

 The classes created comics in Canva, with the children using this digital application for the first time with success and delight. A plan with ideas to be processed in Canva slides allowed the students to choose the sequence to illustrate. The joy of some was the discovery of the different resources offered by the application, such as gifs.

         The mornings began in our Step by Step classes with messages through which the children discussed content from the Romanian language and literature curriculum (for example, about parts of speech encountered in reading) or learned a song about Elmer, reading its lyrics.

            The students of the 3rd grade of S Step by Step created descriptive and imaginary compositions based on the main character and his adventures.

        A special moment was the creation of the multinational collage: each school received a piece of Elmer, handmade by the other partners. When they were assembled, the elephant came to life in the colors of all the countries involved, and the emotion of the children was indescribable.

        A simple story using literacy techniques brings values ​​and meanings to the classroom that students explore and understand with interest, motivation, and the pleasure of reading.