Hug the World with Steps – Objemimo Svet s koraki

In January 2021 we started an activity that was reported by the most important Slovene national media. The activity was entitled Hug the World with Steps (Objemimo svet s koraki in Slovene). Pupils were on distance learning. The main purpose of the activity was to encourage children to do some physical exercise during lockdown. As children spent most part of the school year on distance learning, a huge problem emerged: lack of physical exercise. Our aim was to walk together the distance of the circumference of Earth, which is 40, 075 kilometres. All students and their families (siblings, parents, grandparents) and teachers with their families took part in the challenge. They went hiking on different trails and paths in Sežana and the near villages.

P.E. teachers recommended students to use different trails and to measure the length of the distance walked by application on their smartphone, such as Sports Tracker for example or a smart watch. P.E. teachers made a collective Excell chart that summarized the walked kilometres for all the teachers. The distances were summed up with the distance of the children, their parents and grandparents. The activity started in January 2021 and finished in March 2021. The collective distance was published on the school’s website. The activity was marked on the 18^th of March with a ceremony when we celebrate the so-called School day. The response of the children, teachers, parents and grandparents was great and they praised this activity very much. As the goal was achieved sooner than planned, we decided to continue with the activity and hug the world from the North to the South Pole and walk for another 40, 007 kilometres. The event had a huge response on the main Slovene  national media and there was a video about this activity in the Slovenian news on the national channel Slovenija 1.

Teachers Andreja Gulič and Matej Maver, authors of this activity, were nominated for the Personality of the Year on the local radio station Radio Koper.