background: A first contact of the Käthe-Kollwitz-Schule (ACKKS)/ Aachen (Germany) and the VOS, SOS and Grammar School Evropska/ Prague (Czech Republic) was established in 2011 on a class trip of German students to Prague. Both schools have a similar profile, the ACKKS/Aachen and VOS, SOS/ Prague lead classes focusing on the education of pre-l and infant school children. The first contact was followed by an intensive mail contact between teachers who met at a preparatory visit in Aachen (March 31st till April 3rd 2014) and mutually chose the project’s topic. Legends are part of every town’s culture and are closely connected to a historical building, its past and present appearance. And, working with fairy tales/ legends is a common topic of pre- and infant school education. Therefore comparing and working with a selection of legends will not only offer the chance to inform about the town/country but also give an insight in its culture. Project aim/goals: With the project the legend culture of Aachen and Prague can be reflected and brought together. Students first gather information about their town and legends and enlarge their own knowledge about legends. As experts they inform their partner student. They acknowledge each town’s legends and history and grow together as an “intercultural team of legend experts” which tries to find out about similarities and differences. In a next step students are asked to use their knowledge and try to work on methods to bring their legends forward to pre- and infant school children. Therefore they adapt their legends for children and work out teaching methods and creative activities which can help pre- and infant school children to understand the legends of Aachen and Prague and arouse their interest in/ tolerance of each town’s cultural background. This second phase of the project will also help to broaden the students’ vocational skills since they go into nursery and infant schools and work with their own legends and didactic material. There will be an exchange of vocational skills. Finally students work on a stage play. They perform their legend/ stage play in Aachen and Prague thus arousing interest in pre- and infant school children but also arousing a public interest in the students’ work. Through this dramatic play they broaden their personal and vocational skills as performing is also part of pre- and infant school education. Participants: 30 students (15/ each school) will take part. They do placements at nursery and infant school and visit classes focusing on child care and education at ACKKS/Aachen and the VOS, SOS/ Prague. The projects will be supported by teachers who teach the subjects German, Czech, English, Social Education, Arts, Music, Stage Play and Information Technology. Description: The project includes different phases of perception of and activities with legends: 1. students deal with their own legends and inform their partners about them, 2. they perceive their partner’s legends, 3. they work with the legends, e.g. they adapt “their” legends for pre- and infant school children and prepare worksheets with creative activities, 4. they work with their didactic material in pre- and infant schools, 5. they chose one legend to transform it into a stage play. Before students begin their project work they form “tandems”, students of each country work in pairs who exchange information via mail, first to get to know each other, later to exchange information about their legends. They translate their legends into German, Czech and English, make up vocabulary lists and glossaries to explain the special legend vocabulary. They inform their partner about the historical building/ place their legend is connected to. After this first exchange students work on their didactic material, they adapt their legends for pre- and infant school children and add work sheets with creative activities which they exchange, discuss and improve. During their first meetings in Aachen and Prague students “test” their worksheets in nursery and infant schools. In the second project year students chose one of their legends to transform it into a stage play which includes that they write a theatre manuscript, exchange it, bring together their concepts and plan their performance (costumes, set…), do rehearsals at their meetings in Aachen and Prague and finally bring “their legend” on stage. Results There will be a handbook with the legends and working sheets, a theatre manuscript, and film documentary of the stage play. There will be various presentations in each school/ country and the worldwide web. Both schools exhibit project results in school but also present the project on their homepage and e-Twinning. The Web presentations and handbook will remain for future students, pre- and infant school children.
Background: A first contact between Käthe-Kollwitz-Schule Aachen Berufskolleg der StädteRegion Aachen (Germany) and Vyšší odborná škola pedagogická a sociální,Střední odborná škola pedagogická a Gymnázium (Praha 6) (VOS/SOS Prague) was established in 2011 on a class trip of German students to Prague. This contact was followed by an intensive mail contact. Since both schools have classes with a similar vocational profile they decided to work on a European project in 2014. On a preparatory visit in Aachen (March 31st till April 3rd 2014) the project topic “legends” was chosen and a project concept was worked out. Working with fairy tales/ legends is a common topic of preschool and infant school education. Therefore comparing and working with a selection of legends (first project year) and designing a theatre performance of one legend (second project year) not only offered a chance to inform about the town/country and have an insight in its culture but also give students the opportunity to expand their vocational skills. Participants: During the two project years 49 students of both schools took part in the project. All participants visit classes focusing on child care and have experience with regular nursery school internship. Project description (activities and goals): In the first project year students gathered information about their town and legends and enlarged their own knowledge about legends. Then as “experts of their own town” they built “intercultural teams of legend experts” with their partner students and exchanged information. Students mostly used whatsapp and email contacts. The students’ first task was to work on didactical methods to bring their legends forward to preschool and infant school children. Therefore they chose five legends and adapted them for children. All legends were translated into German, Czech and English. During the next project phase students worked on teaching methods, they prepared worksheets with creative activities which can help preschool and infant school children to understand the “foreign” legends and arouse their interest in/ tolerance for a new cultural background. As a result German and Czech students created a collection of legends, historical information and a wide range of working sheets. During the project meetings in Prague (April 3rd – 9th, 2016) and Aachen (April 9th-15th, 2016) students went into nursery schools for three days and “tested” their legends and didactic material. Besides those nursery school internships two project days were organized at school to have an exchange on the different nursery school concepts in each country and students’ experience in nursery school. As a result of the project meetings students were able to widen their knowledge about nursery school concepts and deepen their vocational skills. In the second project year students chose one of their legends to create a children’s play keeping in mind that they will have to find ways to present it to “foreign” children. Driven by this aspect German students decided to design a dance and music theatre play for children whereas Czech students worked on a puppet theatre play. Students wrote the manuscript for their legend performance, designed a stage setting (The Charles Bridge of Prague) and beamer presentation with historical settings (Aachen), made their own hand puppets (Prague), wrote song texts and compositions (Aachen), choreographed dance scenes (Aachen), all students chose songs for their performance and rehearsed them, worked on costumes and went through a rehearsal period. During the project meetings in Prague (March 27th-April 1st, 2017) and Aachen (April 3rd -7th, 2017) students used the first three days to work on further ways of adapting their partner’s stage performance for preschool children who do not understand the German or Czech language. Students also took part at a workshop on theatre play improving their stage presence. Finally the legends were performed for nursery school children in Prague (March30th+31st, 2017) and in Aachen (April 6th+7th, 2017). Both performances were really successful and aroused the children’s interest not only in the legends but also in the “foreign people and their language”. Results: At the end of the first project year a handbook with a collection of Prague and Aachen legends, historical information in German, Czech and English and a wide range of worksheets could be distributed to nursery and infant schools. Both schools exhibited project results in their school but also on a project homepage (www.praach.de) which was designed during the two project years. Audios of the legend texts were recorded in German, Czech, English, one of the legends also in Swedish and Turkish. The stage performance was filmed and presented on the project homepage. With the theatre performance a programme booklet in German and Czech was provided with some extra material on the theatre plays.