Much of children’s early learning and development takes place through play and hands-on experiences. These experiences help children to manage their feelings, develop as thinkers and language users, develop socially, be creative and imaginative, and lay the foundations for becoming effective communicators and learners. The project aims to focus on resources and methodologies which will help children develop pre-literacy skills, problem solving skills and concentration, and also to generate social learning experiences in greater diversity than in a single country setting. It is envisaged that these resources and methodologies will be effective in improving achievement in relevant and high-level basic and transversal competences for lifelong learning. There are several types of play considered relevant with respect to children’s holistic development during the early childhood years: exploratory play, constructive play, creative play, pretend, fantasy and socio-dramatic play, physical / movement play, and language and word play. Undoubtedly the form and focus of the materials developed and activities undertaken in this project will be influenced both by children’s development and the socio-cultural and ecological context of each individual school. However the project aims to broaden the range and cultural diversity of content developed. The project participants will be drawn from the following pre-schools and primary schools:St Mary's Parish Primary School, Drogheda, Ireland.Salesianos El Pilar Charter School, Soto de Real, SpainPLATON M.E.P.E., Katerini, GreeceIstituto Comprensivo Statale "Elio Vittorini"S., Catania, ItalyLeirvogstunguskóli, Mosfellsbaer, IcelandFundacao CEBI, Alverca, PortugalSpecifically this project’s objectives are to:• Develop common resources which can be utilised in the Early Childhood setting. This will take the form of thematic kits which will be developed collaboratively by class teachers across the partner schools and will allow students to explore common themes while being exposed to the differences and similarities of other cultures.• Allow educators first-hand experience of Early Childhood settings and practices in other countries • Explore different models of Early Childhood education with particular emphasis on structured play and apply these best practices to individual classroom settings.• Develop literacy rich environments which blend specific Early Childhood literacy goals with the opportunity to explore the literature of partner countries.• Allow students to utilise Web 2.0 technology to engage directly with students in other countries.• Use art and the creation of manipulatives based on their learning about partner countries.• Engage older students in using ICT in the creation of resources for junior classes. We would aim that the participating students will have greater engagement in structured play in the classroom resulting in:• Better quality interactions with other children, objects, and places. • A broader language-rich environment to encourage play, exploration, conversations, and collaboration between the students and teachers in the partner schools.• Play and hands-on experiences indoors and outdoors based on exposure to material gained from other partners. A bank of resources for use in the Early Childhood classroom will be created. This will be organised thematically with physical and on-line resources. Both the resources and exemplars of best practice in utilising structured play in the Eraly Childhood setting will be presented and maintained on the project website. The primary target audience are the teachers currently working with Early Childhood classes across the partner schools. However, in the next phase the project activities will be disseminated to peers and colleagues through local professional networks.A broader audience will be addressed when resources and methodologies are shared through the project website.From the perspective of the teachers involved in the work we envisage that the opportunities for collaboration and training in best practice will result in increased professional development and competences utilising structured play in the classroom. On a more over-arching level it is expected that engagement in the project will present wider opportunities for staff to learn from other European schools (e.g. class and whole-school management practices etc.). Students will engage with their peers across Europe in a myriad of cultural and learning activities, thus fostering greater European awareness and co-operation.
Much of children’s early learning and development takes place through play and hands-on experiences. These experiences help children to manage their feelings, develop as thinkers and language users, develop socially, be creative and imaginative, and lay the foundations for becoming effective communicators and learners. The project focused on resources and methodologies to help children develop pre-literacy skills, problem solving skills and concentration, and also generate social learning experiences in greater diversity than in a single country setting. These resources and methodologies improved achievement in relevant and high-level basic and transversal competences. Several types of play can be considered relevant with respect to children’s holistic development during the early childhood years: exploratory play, constructive play, creative play, pretend, fantasy and socio-dramatic play, physical / movement play, and language and word play. Undoubtedly the form and focus of the materials developed and activities undertaken in this project were influenced both by children’s development and the socio-cultural context of each individual school. However a broader range and cultural diversity of content was developed due to the profiles of the project participants: St Mary's Parish Primary School (Ireland), Salesianos El Pilar Charter School (Spain), PLATON M.E.P.E. (Greece), Istituto Comprensivo Statale "Elio Vittorini" (Italy), Leirvogstunguskóli (Iceland) and Fundacao CEBI (Portugal). The project’s objectives were to: :• Develop common resources which can be utilised in the Early Childhood setting. This took the form of thematic kits developed collaboratively by class teachers across the partner schools and will allow students to explore common themes while being exposed to the differences and similarities of other cultures. • Allow educators first-hand experience of Early Childhood settings and practices in other countries • Explore different models of Early Childhood education with particular emphasis on structured play and apply these best practices to individual classroom settings. • Develop literacy rich environments which blend specific Early Childhood literacy goals with the opportunity to explore the literature of partner countries. • Allow students to utilise Web 2.0 technology to engage directly with students in other countries. • Engage older students in using ICT in the creation of resources for junior classes. The project created a bank of resources for use in the Early Childhood classroom. This was organised thematically with physical and on-line resources. The resources are listed on the project website (www.playtolearn.eu). The primary target audience are teachers currently working with Early Childhood classes across the partner schools. However, the project activities have been disseminated to peers and colleagues through local professional networks. The opportunities for collaboration and training in best practice resulted in increased professional development and competences utilising structured play in the classroom. As expected the engagement in the project presented wider opportunities for staff to learn from other European schools (e.g. class and whole-school management practices etc.). Teachers engaged with their peers across Europe in a myriad of cultural and learning activities, thus fostering greater European awareness and co-operation. The work allowed participating students to have greater engagement in structured play in the classroom. This was observed through quality interactions with other children, objects, and places. Resources shared allowed for a broader language-rich environment to encourage play, exploration, conversations, and collaboration.