Istituto Comprensivo “ Giosuè Borsi”; Kindergarten children and pupils of ;Sveti Sava; primary school in reduced numbers (the unexpected end of the school year violated the deadlines from the project), so all our children had gone on holiday break. However, with the good will of both partners, a few students of our school and preschool group from PU Naše dete from Šabac which responded to help in the implementation of online activities, the first workshop was finally successfully implemented.
First, the children introduced themselves to each other, each of them approaching the laptop camera saying his/ her name out loud, and the children on the other side responded by greeting: Hello, and then the name of that child who just introduced himself/ herself. Firstly, children from Italy presented themselves, then children from Serbia.
In the second part of the workshop, we read Duško Radović story Crocodile in Serbian language to the little ones from the kindergarten of our Italian partner. In that way, after reading, we supported them with a cartoon version of the story played in a theatrical performance performed in the carpet theater by the 4th year acting students of UMAS (Art Academy Split from Croatia) the story can be told see at the following link: https://youtu.be/0IEYxN7Zs40
We were all delighted how the children had understood the story based on body language even though they did not understand Serbian language.
Also, one of the tasks was to have the story dubbed into Italian, so it can be found on the code-protected page of this website due to copyright protection and signed in the contract with the conditions for using D. Radovićs story.
A dubbed story for children in Italy: https://youtu.be/oBpXGy4exUU
We had an amazing situation where a non-verbal boy from Italy came up to the camera and said “Hi!” That was his first spoken word! All participants of this activity were stunned and pleasantly surprised when we were told it was his first spoken word. He got an applause, and we received confirmation that some unforeseen circumstances for children on the spectrum autism can sometimes be positive examples that encourage non- verbal children to start speaking.
With this workshop, we strengthen inclusion by introducing children to cultural differences at the same time them by creating awareness about other differences of children with developmental disabilities, as well as opportunities for communication beyond speech. In this workshop we could see the dramatic-(stage) and visual arts in the function of expressive art therapy. Attached are childrens art works that were created as a product of this workshop.
