The project arises from the vital importance of playing in childhood. It is the most natural process of growing up, experimenting, finding solutions, concluding and , therefore, learning. Children have the right to play and it should be one of our top priorities to obtain both mentally and physically healthy and happy children. Nowadays we observe a lack of respect and tolerance among family members, the absence of good manners. Children are often left alone with their troubles and uncertainties: they spend much time in front of computers, playing mostly videogames, sometimes violent videogames, missing the experience of exploring the real childish world with fantasy and creativity. The main objectives of our project are: -teaching tolerance and acceptance of the different. -teaching children their national identity and also the sense of belonging to Europe. -stimulating children to work and to play in team, in order to develop their social skills. -encouraging the children and teachers to share their experience through media and developing ICT skills. -producing end products and disseminating the results of the project -enabling teachers to share their approaches in teaching and learning, constructing new teaching material , and sharing examples of good practice. Number of participants: 1933 pupils of kindergartens and primary schools (478 with fewer opportunities); 189 teachers and educational staff. Our planned activities are: -setting up an international blog/website of the project -designing a logo of the project -constructing a multimedia presentation of partner schools -creating a ‘Trans Europe Express Game’ by all partner countries -interviewing parents and grandparents about the way they used to play in the past - working by workshop, organising A 3D toy-game workshop; -creating a common artwork calendar by students; -organising skype conferences, where children can teach each other traditional games from each country; -making a guide book with traditional games from each country -conducting workshop activities by an expert for both parents and children - promoting a school play based on a scenario arranged by teachers Methods and teaching strategies will be: -learning by using songs and tradional music games; - learning by sport games and sport rules; organising a sport game day as an event; -carrying out relevant surveys; -training teachers by transational meetings in Spain, Bulgaria, Hungary and Italy - cooperative learning, flipped class. Modern technologies will be used. As far as the results of the project are concerned: -An increase in knowledge about ‘Learning by playing’ and the use of the teaching material adopted in partner institutions. -workshop material -the jingle song of the project -a common survey for project evaluation -the creation of ‘Trans Europe Express Game’ - the workshop certificate -a guide book with traditional games -an increasing knowledge of traditional games in different environments; -the Knoweledge of different ways to include children with special needs, through playing activities; -a plan of activities about ground and wall games, the final festival and reports of the training events. - a final Photo book of activities The project is aimed to widen the children’s horizons by learning about themselves , partner schools , their cultures and countries. They will get the chance to improve their skills and broaden their interests. We hope that children will benefit from sharing ideas, experiences, teaching material with partner colleagues. They will be able to improve professionally by meeting and interacting with teachers from all over Europe and being inspired to innovate and taking advantage of different educational systems. The institutions will gain innovative and modern image sharing different approaches with children, various teaching methods, educational innovations, to get a real European dimension in each educational institution. Erasmus corners and displays will appear in all institutions. The project will become an integral part of the planned curriculum in each school. The work and the end products will be adapted in order to meet the needs and interests of the target group. Parents associations and teachers will sign a committment document to keep updated the blog for further use , even after the end of the project. We also aim to spread the most meaningfull experiences to a larger target audience through local , regional, national authorities.
The project was developed in the Institutes of towns of six different European countries: Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Hungary and, at first, even Canary Islands who left at the starting phase. The main purpose of the project was increasing childhood playful activities as a way of living and learning at school and at home, so as to prevent and deal with some common current social issues such as emotional relating troubles, lack of respect and tolerance and loss of reference points and values with resulting growing violent attitudes. Fully achieved objectives of the project have been:an increased tolerance and acceptance towards other people; a full awareness of children about their own national identity and the creation of a sense of belonging to the European community; the implementation of a friendship atmosphere among pupils and the children’s expertise to work and play as a group, developing their social skills;the experiences of sharing through media overcoming the language barriers for both pupils and teachers and the development of ICT skills through the use of modern technologies and virtual mobility; the cooperation among teachers in comparing their learning and teaching approaches, sharing examples of good practice. Teachers, pupils, parents, local associations and institutions were involved in the project. Numbers of children and teachers from the several Institutes:I.O. LEONARDO DA VINCI, ITALY(463 students and 49 teachers); FasoriKicsinyekÓvodája, HUNGARY (74 children and 8 teachers);CEIP Valdemembra, SPAIN(585 pupils and 41 teachers);Agrupamento de Escolas de Marrazes,PORTUGAL(390 out of 1953 and 10 teachers); ODZ"Slaveiche"N17, BULGARIA (176 children and 14 teachers);12 Nipiagogio Glyfadas, GREECE(45 children and 3 teachers). All planned activities were accomplished involving in cooperation all the participant components. -Activities mainly carried out by teachers: setting up an international blog/website of the project; making a multimedia presentation of partner schools and photobooks; creating a ‘Trans Europe Express Game’ by all partner countries; cooperating in writing a guide book with traditional games from each country; promoting and arranging a school play; sharing teaching materials and ideas; getting trained about the project themes by the international meetings certificated workshops; reporting and sharing documentation. -Activities mainly carried out by children and pupils: designing a logo of the project; interviewing parents and grandparents about the way they used to play in the past and realizing toys with them; playing sensorial games and team-games; singing a jingle song of the project; creating "ground games" painted on schoolyards; singing and acting traditional music games; creating a common artwork calendar; cooperating at the Trans Europe Express Game’; watching and sharing videos from the international teachers’ meetings; participating to the virtual mobility. -Activities mainly carried out by parents and families: working and learning by workshop activities held by external experts;participating to surveys concerning the level of interest and involvement; recreating old toys; helping teachers and children to organize public social events. and participating actively to them. -Cooperative public events of social impact: old toys exhibition in schools and other local public places, sport game day, final festival. Many of those activities were realized by using part of the "Project Management and Implementation" grant. The activities produced concrete results such as: workshop materials; the jingle song and the logo of the project; a 3D "Trans Europe express game" with which children can play nowadays; multimedia presentations and reports; artwork and handmade gadgets; an international blog and a Facebook group to share documentation; a printed guide book with traditional games from each country, later published online and a photo-book of the international meetings,the Erasmus corners in each school, the production of teaching materials and gadgets, the involvement of local authorities and media, parents and families, the realization of social events.Other outcomes of the project have been: an increased knowledge about "learning by playing"; an increased professional teacher level; children’s and teacher’s skills and interests improvement and horizon widening; a collaborative attitude and goal sharing; the growth of a general friendship and cooperative climate. The results of the project have been made accessible for others through various instruments such as: events, publications, web, social media, face-to-face meetings. A dissemination plan was set to help to those who have to face the same problems. The applied strategies and the positive results have been shared.The good cooperative work among families, schools, teachers and different institutions within the project will promote the use of the good practices along educational processes.