In pedagogical and psychological theory and practice, the period of early childhood – from 3 to 7 years, is defined as the most sensitive period of human life. Exactly in this period the most enduring relationships and attitude towards the world around them are created and cultivated. New scientific discoveries provide a new perspective and greater importance of teaching and learning in preschool, as an integral part of education systems in Europe. The proposed project is a result of a conscious need of a large number of teachers from different European countries to work towards realisation of key competencies in children. These competencies are the basis for personal fulfilment and development, active citizenship, social inclusion and future employment, including children with special educational needs who attend general or special schools. For all of us it is very important our children to grow up with the self-confidence of European citizens. Through the activities and initiatives under this project we shall achieve the following aims: - The educational and digital skills of teachers will be increased; they will be motivated to seek ways to provide developing and inclusive learning environment; we shall provide optimal opportunities for the exchange of useful pedagogical experience and best practices; - The children, including those with SEN, will be prepared for responsible, successful, happy and healthy life; they will be taught to respect the others and the environment; we shall assist personal development and abilities of children; we shall develop their potential and desire to learn; we shall teach them to respect and appreciate their national identity and to accept that of the others; we will educate them in the European spirit; - We shall make parents involved in the initiatives and activities of the project; - We shall help to increase public confidence in educational institutions as a place where future citizens of Europe are trained and educated. We plan to include in the project activities 78 teachers and school principals from all partnering countries, more than 1,000 children, including 250 children with special educational needs, learning difficulties and cultural differences, more than 2,000 indirect participants – parents, representatives of NGOs, local authorities, teachers from other educational institutions, professors, students, volunteers, local business. The project aims will be implemented by various, rich and wide-ranging activities that will be carried out in two interconnected planes – at school and at international level. We plan organising of international meetings with participation of representatives of each partnering organisation. Also, we plan a number of initiatives with children and parents subjected to the topics of educational modules under which we shall work – organising children's parties, observations, making decorations from recycled materials; school for parents and joint initiatives with local community representatives, making herbariums and products from natural materials, mini-laboratories for paper recycling and children's creativity workshops, exhibitions, voluntary initiatives and donation campaigns, etc. The results that we expect can be defined as tangible and intangible, and are directly related to the planned activities. The e-book that we shall produce during the project will contain two sections – the first one will be a methodological guidance for teachers with the necessary information for organising educational and practical activities with the children, presentations on various topics prepared by all partner teams, sample interactive tutorials, useful links for finding information. The children's section will include educational games, quizzes, puzzles, instructions for making different objects or toys from waste materials. All games will be adapted for children with SEN and might be used to improve the language skills of children of both native and foreign languages. For us the education for sustainable development is a basic philosophy, which has three simple but very important principles – be kind to yourself, be kind to others, be kind to the environment. By TERRA VITA project we shall achieve: T – Tolerance E – Education R – Responsibility R – Respect A – Act V – Vitality I – Inclusion T – Talent A – Ability
TERRA VITA - T – Tolerance ,E – Education , R – Responsibility , R – Respect , A – Act V – Vitality , I – Inclusion , T – Talent , A – Ability - is a project that reflects the philosophy and attitude of teachers and school experts from all partner institutions. Through the project activities we were able to: To orient children to the knowledge and protection of inanimate nature (air, water, fire, earth, natural phenomena), to acquaint them with their properties and their role as a decisive factor for the existence of living nature; To keep children aware of the interest and the need to protect nature and to form a readiness for an environmentally friendly way of life; To encourage children to seek information about the different ways of recycling waste and to realize the need to make wise use of natural resources; To educate children in the spirit of European citizenship, to realize that caring for nature at home is a concern for nature throughout Europe; To motivate teachers to enrich the methodological approaches in realizing the goals of the project and to educate the children in environmentally friendly behavior; To encourage school leaders to strengthen capacity and develop a European dimension in school education; To involve the parent community with the project idea and goals in order to have a lasting effect after the completion of the specific project; To involve the representatives of public institutions for the implementation of the project activities and the promotion of the results; To improve the use of new communication and information technologies by educators and children. Eight partner institutions are involved in the project - two kindergartens from Bulgaria; a kindergarten from Romania; a primary school in Poland, a primary school in Slovenia, a primary school in Spain; kindergarten for children with SEN from Greece and a school for children with SEN from Croatia. In the first year of the project, activities with children were focused on learning about the elements of inanimate nature - fire, water, air, land and their role in human life, and the second year was devoted to the wildlife of each partner country - typical plants, animals, analysis of the relationship between the natural assets of each partner country and the holidays and traditions they have, the way of life and livelihood of people. In addition to the activities for children and students, we also implemented six short-term teacher trainings aimed at enhancing the pedagogical and digital competencies of teachers in dealing with children with special needs as well as talented children. С 1 - in Patras, Greece for learning and applying methods for working with children with SEN. С 2 in Vukovar - Croatia for learning about and applying a specific methodology for working with children with autism and applying animal therapy for children with SEN. С 3 - The training we conducted in Poland was oriented towards the use of waste materials to create ornaments and toys for children, as well as environmental education in partner countries' educational programs. С 5 - in Rogaška Slatina, Slovenia, we talked about the role of school guides in improving the educational environment. С 6 - in Craiova, Romania, the focus of the discussions was national inclusive education policies - opportunities to support children with special needs and gifted children. С 7 - During the last meeting in Bulgaria, in addition to the role of local authorities and non-governmental organizations in the processes of improving education, we also held the International Pedagogical Conference TERRA VITA, which was attended by 95 teachers, principals, school experts from eight European countries, university professors , local government representatives, non-governmental organizations, the HRDC. Three international meetings were held - at the beginning of the project - to divide the roles and responsibilities of the participants and at the end of the first year - to report on the activities to date, to monitor the project and plan the activities in the second year and at the end of the project - to analyze and summarize project activities, benefits and impact on participants. The aim of the project was to improve the pedagogical and digital competences of teachers from all partner institutions to improve the educational environment and make the learning more interesting, useful, accessible and educational for the children. The evaluation of the participants strongly confirms that through the project activities in all partner institutions the quality of the pedagogical activity has been achieved and a significant positive effect has been achieved not only on the direct participants in the project activities, but also on a wider range of stakeholders - parents, local community, other children, other educators.