A short while ago, in Oltenia, in Gorj county, an earthquake of magnitude 5.7 on the Richter scale struck at a depth of 6.2 kilometres, according to Romania's National Institute for Earth Physics.
At moments like these, panic takes hold fast. Reacting quickly and staying calm are the first steps, and neither can be improvised: they are practised beforehand, when nothing is happening. So we used today to go over the simple self-protection rules again — where to take shelter, why to stay away from windows and from anything that can fall, why you never run down the stairs or take the lift, and where we meet once it is all over. An action plan said out loud and rehearsed together has a visible effect on children: fear turns into something to do, and that is exactly what we want.
We then ran an experiment to observe what happens to a structure during an earthquake. This is the part that clears up the usual confusion at this age — the idea that the ground "breaks apart". Seeing how a structure behaves on a moving surface, children understand why it matters where you stand and how firmly the things above your head are fixed.
Safety before everything.
About the after-school programme: https://pluskids.ro/en/after-school