Activities and Highlights
Our schools proudly participated for the fourth consecutive year in the campaign “Gift a Poem”, a meaningful initiative that promotes poetry, creativity, empathy, and human connection through the sharing of poems. This year’s participation brought together students of all ages, from Kindergarten to Upper Secondary Education, who engaged in a wide variety of literary, artistic, educational, and community-based activities.
Through poetry, students explored emotions, values, environmental awareness, cultural identity, peace, love, and social solidarity, transforming poetic expression into an act of offering and communication. Students copied poems by hand, illustrated poetic texts, created artistic cards, exchanged poems with classmates, teachers, parents, and members of the wider community, and in many cases composed their own original poems.
The activities encouraged imagination, emotional expression, collaboration, and creativity, while also strengthening language and literacy skills. In several schools, the campaign was meaningfully integrated into the curriculum, especially within Language, Literature, Foreign Language, and interdisciplinary learning projects. Students read and analyzed poems, practiced expressive reading, explored poetic language and literary techniques, and produced their own creative writing inspired by themes discussed in class.
Many activities combined poetry with visual arts and digital creativity. Students illustrated poems, added reflective comments next to their drawings, created limericks, and in some cases transformed poems into digital books using Story Jumper or into songs through AI-supported applications such as Suno.ai. Artificial intelligence was also used pedagogically and creatively in selected activities to support students’ poetic expression and multilingual writing while maintaining students’ active and thoughtful participation throughout the process.
Several schools connected poetry with environmental education and sustainability. Kindergarten students created poems about recycling, climate action, and environmental protection as part of interdisciplinary projects promoting ecological awareness and reading culture. These poems were shared with parents, neighboring classes, and the wider school community, emphasizing the importance of caring for the planet through creative expression. The campaign also fostered intergenerational communication and community engagement.
In multiple cases, students visited local Open Care Centers for the Elderly (KAPI), where they read poems aloud and offered handwritten poetic gifts to elderly community members, creating deeply emotional moments of connection, empathy, and dialogue between generations. Other poetic creations were offered to social organizations supporting vulnerable groups, reinforcing values of inclusion, friendship, solidarity, and social responsibility.
International and intercultural collaboration also played an important role in this year’s activities. Through online exchanges and e-Twinning collaborations, students shared poetry in multiple languages, connected with partner schools abroad, celebrated the Greek language and European values, and collaboratively created multilingual poems promoting unity, peace, diversity, and cultural dialogue.
Poetry celebrations were often connected with important international observances such as the International Day of Poetry, International Greek Language Day, Europe Day, Mother Day and UNESCO related educational initiatives. Students participated in poetry contests, expressive reading activities, collaborative writing workshops, and performances that highlighted poetry as both an educational tool and a living cultural experience. A particularly important aspect of the campaign was the active involvement of a school library, in a Vocational School, involving teachers, families, students, volunteers, and local community.
The Library acted as mediator of culture and inclusion, bringing reading and poetry closer to students and citizens who may not traditionally have easy access to books and literary experiences. Through open reading groups, creative workshops, and public sharing activities, the campaign strengthened the connection between schools and their local community. The enthusiasm and emotional engagement of the students throughout all activities demonstrated once again that poetry can become a powerful means of self-expression, creativity, communication, and social connection.
Through reading, writing, illustrating, performing, and gifting poems, students experienced poetry not simply as a school subject, but as a living form of art capable of bringing people together. Our participation in “Gift a Poem” reaffirmed the educational and social value of poetry and highlighted the important role of schools in cultivating empathy, creativity, cultural awareness, active citizenship, and human connection through literature and the arts.
Schools involved
- Junior High School of Moudros, Lemnos Island
- 18th Primary School of Maroussi, Attika
- 1st Vocational High School of Agia Paraskevi, Attika
- 2nd Experimental Primary School of Rhodes, Rhodes Island
- 3rd Primary School of Kifissia, Attika
- 4th Kintergarten Neas Ionias volou, Magnesia
- 4th Primary Shool of Pamfila, Lesvos Island
- 7th Primary School of Agios Dimitrios, Attika
- 8th Primary School of Thebes, Central Greece
- 9th Primary School of Mytilene, Lesvos Island
- Arsakeio Kindergarten of Psychiko, Attika
- Atsoglou Junior High School, Korinth
- Erasmeios Ellinogermaniki School, Attika
- International School of Athens, Senior High School, Attika
- Junior High School, Saint Joseph French-Greek School, Attika
- Kintergarten of Klimatia of Ioannina, Epirus
- ONASIS Senior High Schools of Acharnes
- Primary School of Isthmia, Korinth
- Primary School of Piskokefalos, Lasithi, Crete
- Primary School, Saint Joseph French-Greek School, Attika
- Saint Joseph French-Greek School, Attika
- Varvakeio Model Junior High School, Attika
