Re-imagining Migration is fortunate to be working with Kiriaki Melliou. Kiriaki is a kindergarten educator in Piraeus, Greece working in low income and refugee-hosting areas. This year she is collaborating with Re-imagining Migration fellow Angela Salmon, an Associate Professor and Director of the Early Childhood Program at Florida International University in Miami on a project that is adapting the Re-imagining Migration learning arc for younger students.

In a recent assignment, Kiriaki asked kindergarteners to demonstrate their ideas of how people’s migration journeys are similar and different from one another. She shared photos of the results. Kiriaki explains that the photos below:

…are part of the “Stories of Reception” project that I do in collaboration with Angela Salmon. Stories of reception invites children (4-6 y old) to communicate and empathize capturing their natural proclivity for friendship and altruism building a foundation of global dispositions.
What you see in the photos is a role-playing activity we organized to engage children in understanding the choices and dilemmas people face when they are trapped in
  1. violence (Pic.1&2: Kids imagine that their homeland is unsafe because of war and decide to put on a life vest and get into a dinghy),
  2. instability or poverty (Pic.3: This child imagines what is might be like to leave his country and look for a job somewhere else)
Although this is a role play, children know that their examples demonstrate real life cases. This way we can provoke discussions about the power to make changes. Children’s ideas are documented on story-maps (Pic.4) and storyboards (Pic.5), to be used for developing stories of reception.
  • Children imagines the options people have when their homeland is unsafe because of war.

  • A child imagines what it must be like to put on a life vest and get into a boat to leave home.

  • A child considers the options people have when their is no work in their homelands.

  • Documenting children’s ideas on story-maps.

  • Using story boards to develop stories of reception, the way that communities can welcome newcomers.

Additional images from the project are below. Use the arrows to navigate between images:

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