Our project called 'Sounds Around Us' combines Science, ICT and Music to challenge our children to plan, design and create a range of open ended projects that foster and develop their creativity and innovation. There are four schools in our partnership. One from the UK, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The objectives of the project are- to create feeling of friendship and solidarity with European children during working on the same topics of project-to develop teamwork among children of each partner country and creating sounds/ music which combine the skills and creativity-to make children aware of the European cultural diversity introducing partners`countries through games, music etc.-to help children find out about other countries´ traditions through mobilities and using ICT-to improve our students ICT competence using Skype, facebook, emails and homepage in eTwinning -to motivate pupils to learn, using innovative and creative teaching methods - to experience the importance and pleasure of learning Science and ICT-through this project the teachers will get the opportunity to broaden their horizon. The contacts with foreign colleagues could work reflectively. This project will sharpen their motivation and develop skills through sharing good practice of teaching and assessment procedures.-to enhance a European dimension into school and local community making exhibitions and project-evenings for local communityWe have planned five activities for children as well as five training sessions for adults. Each partner school has been given responsibility for organising and taking the lead on one of the activities planned. The learning activities planned for children are -- Exploring the links between electricity and sound/ Sound inventions - Science- Music powered by electricity - exploring music as a form of communication that can change the way of feelings, thinking and acting; exploring and creating sound using new technologies - ICT- Programming rhythm - ICT- Composition - write a song about sounds - Music- Music appreciation - exploring and responding to work of famous composers using electronic instruments - MusicThis project brought together different types of schools - some specialise in Special Education Needs, one is a mainstream school with designated special provision or inclusion and one school without any experience in SEN provision, though having children with learning difficulties. We wanted to compare and contrast special needs provision in different European Countries as well as share best practice, knowledge and experience. Some schools have previously been involved in Comenius Projects. Through their knowledge of eTwinning the teachers collaborated via eTwinning to plan and discuss a future project. We aim to deliver several training activities during the mobilities - Professional development is a core principle of the project as we would like teachers to observe each other when they visit schools and discuss techniques and methodologies they use.eTwinning training materials and ICT resourcesAmazing ICTKniess methodTraining in logorhythmics andScientific activity ideasDuring mobilities children and teachers will have opportunities to visit other classrooms, observe teaching strategies and engage in teaching and learning activities regardless of abilities or needs. The mobilities are also an opportunity to experience and engage with other European cultures.The project will prepare pupils for their social and professional life, by stimulating their creativity, spontaneity, ICT competencies and language skills by working in a multicultural space. By the end of this project we would like to see a progress in children's results in Science and Computing. We are hoping to see at least 10% progress in comparison with previous years. There should be an increase in children's interest, especially girls (girl's are underachieving in many European countries in Computing and Science) in studying Science and Computing through involving them into cross-curricular activities. The activities involving Music are very motivating for all the children.Parents and carers will have opportunities to be more involved and engaged in their children's life, especially in disadvantaged areas. The results of the project will be used and exploited continuously in a long term by maintaining and developing after the end, for example-dissemination of training to staff who did not attend the training, -a more creative and motivating cross-curricular teaching for all children, -a greater understanding of children's individual needs, -better inclusion of all children irrespective of needs, -maintenance of the project website with additional information from schools regarding the project impact,-inclusion of the project into the curriculum to ensure learning impacts all subjects-motivated and inspired teachers who will go on to motivate and inspire others
Our project called 'Sounds Around Us' combined Science, ICT and the Arts to challenge our children to plan, design and create a range of open ended projects that foster and develop their creativity and innovation. We are proud to say that the main target has been achieved. All children took part in all parts of the project developing their creativity. In this project we combined and used expertise from our partner school to build on previous experience of our partners. The school-partner from the UK shared their expertise in teaching Science and ICT. Our school-partner from Latvia is an expert in teaching Music, but at the same time by taking part in Erasmus+ project the school gained more experience and knowledge in better inclusion of all children irrespective of their needs. The school-partner from Lithuania has got a lot of experience to share with regards to working with pupils from dis-functional families, with low income, low education or single parent families, students coming from foster care, from placement centers for orphaned or abandoned children. The school-partner from Poland has got specialist teachers working with SEN students using new approaches and innovative methods in Mathematics and Computing. They have a wide experience in the area of using ICT. All teachers participated in the project received invaluable knowledge and understanding of various new approaches in using and teaching Science, Music and Computing and combining these subjects to enhance pupils' learning. We brought together different types of schools - some specialise in Special Education Needs, one is a mainstream school with designated special provision or inclusion and one school without any experience in SEN provision, though having children with learning difficulties. We compared special needs provision in different European Countries as well as shared best practice and special knowledge and experience. Some schools have previously been involved in Comenius Projects. Through their knowledge of eTwinning the teachers collaborated via eTwinning to plan and discuss a future project. All the partners were equally involved in the preparation of the project providing a common base for cooperative work so that benefits of the project outcomes can be maximized. We have planned five learning activities for children. Each school has been given responsibility for organising and taking the lead on one of the activities planned. In Poland there was a mid-term evaluation of how the project was progressing. The activities that have been planned were - - Exploring the links between electricity and sound/ Sound inventions. Children in each country took part in three different activities involving sound exploration. All the activities were differentiated to be available for all the children. Partner schools shared their ideas and the ways they did the activities. In Poland all this work was presented as PowerPoint or real experiment or video or photos. The teachers discussed best methods and uploaded the results on twinspace. Teachers were also provided a training on how to use Kniess Method effectively. They disseminated this when they came back to their school. - Music powered by electricity - exploring music as a form of communication that can change the way of feelings, thinking and acting; exploring and creating sound using new technologies. All partner schools organised lessons about feelings, children used musical instruments to describe their feelings. All this have been recorded and shared with the partner schools during the mobility to Lithuania. We compiled a CD with various feelings expressed through music by our children. - Programming rhythm. All partner schools organised lessons using rhythm; we shared best lesson plans and useful ideas. The lessons have been recorded and during the mobility the has been a discussion around how best use ICT when learning about rhythm. At the same time teachers had a training on logorhythmics. They shared their knowledge with their colleagues when back at their schools. - Composition - write a song about sounds. All partner schools organised a competition. We involved parents and local community into the competition. Each child could create a verse for our Anthem. We then locally did our votes using School Councils and chose 2 verses to take with us to Latvia, where we combined the verses and sang our anthem altogether, using all 4 languages and sign language. We recorded our anthem and shared it with all partner schools. - Music appreciation - exploring and responding to work of famous composers using electronic instruments. Each partner school chose 1 famous composer from their country to learn about. This has been differentiated for all children to be available. This has been shared during mobility to UK. We achieved our target in including all our children and engaging children in less-exciting lessons through combining the subjects, motivating pupils to learn.