The 30 months project concerns children aged 3-10 from seven European countries ( Bulgaria – coordinator, Romania, Greece, Croatia, Lithuania, Portugal and Italy) The project’s target groups are two – comprising the both sides of the educational process – teachers and children. At the teacher’s level, teachers will get digital training and exchange of good practices, methodologies and approaches, concerning the topic of budgeting, finances and elementary economics for children, numerical competences and ability to operate with numbers and money. We find that is necessary, as the topic of budgeting and elementary economics is not currently taught as a part of the kindergarten and the primary school level curricula. We assume that teachers are aware of the digital resources but we suggest a way to train teachers to use devices and applications so that they are able to create their own digital pedagogical resources which to use later in other subjects and when needed in their further pedagogical practice. The other target group is children aged 3-10 who will be subjected to that educational practice and will be the major agent in the project process. The main project idea is to teach children basic commercial and financial knowledge and notions by introducing the topic of historical foundation and development of the country, its economic development and livelihood and all factors for it in a suitable way - through tales. In this process, children will also learn basic terms in English as the topics will be introduced in the English classes at kindergarten and primary school level (1-2 classes). By the realization of the project work the kids will foster the following knowledge and skills and competences: - Learning English as Foreign language - Cultural and historical knowledge for the development of Europe; - Knowledge on basic economic skills suitable for young children and adapted to the specifics of their age; - Skills and competences to operate with numbers and recognition of currency value and signs. - Notions as multiculturalism and tolerance; - Digital skills Teachers will elaborate three major products, and guidebooks on “How to create, design and apply….” . These products are : an electronic book, an interactive game book and a set of zoomed games. Electronic flash book – collection of lessons and lessons materials, tales, in English to be used and taught in the kindergarten and primary school, on the current project topic on financial development of commerce and the invention of money. The lessons will be developed on PowerPoint or other similar free platform which offer the options for animation, flash effects and other interactive tools, suitable to apply at that level The teachers in the kindergarten or the primary school will be trained to work with these digital platforms so that to be able to use their knowledge and digital skills in their teaching practice in order to make the lessons more interesting and engaging children’s attention. What we mean by an interactive game book is one made of textile, or other soft materials, suitable to use at the kindergarten. It can have various pages and each page to be equipped with pockets and additional materials which kids can touch and explore. We suggest this tool due to the fact that children at that age have stronger visual thinking. The book will be for playing with and its main purpose is to be used as a methodological tool for foreign language learning with CLIL elements in finances. It will not be competitive. Teachers will get to know new approaches in making self-made teaching materials and applying them in the project’s topic. This boosts their creativity and handicraft. The Zoomed game - will in fact represent boardgames which can be projected on he floor or walls and kids to play using the projected area as playground. That type of games develops children’s kinesthetic and spatial thinking and physical skills, applying the method of learning by doing and touching. This game will not have a competitive character, either as our main aim is to include all children from the groups regardless their physical or mental strengths. This type of application will help teachers to use digital resources as a means of gamification in the learning- teaching process. These activities will help teachers in their professional qualification and experience, as elaboration and development of the project products requires additional work – research, scientific and methodological, which is not directly related to the their university degree and subject of science. Teachers will invest a lot of time and efforts in the elaboration of that type of resources. By doing this, they will also foster knowledge and skills on using digital resources and software applications in their proper teaching practice for creating content and organization of the lessons so that the latter are interesting and attractive for children and young learners.
The project was planned and approved for 30 months, but our pandemic situation necessitated its extension and so it became 34 months with an additional agreement signed by the Bulgarian National Agency - Center for Human Resources Development and the Private Kindergarten "Leonardo da Vinci”. OTTT focused on children aged 3 to 10 from seven European countries (Bulgaria - Coordinator, Romania, Greece, Croatia, Lithuania, Portugal and Italy). The project’s target groups included both sides of the educational process - teachers and children. The project provided teachers with digital training and exchange of good practices, methodologies and approaches on the topic of budgeting, finance and basic economics for children, numerical competencies and the ability of children to operate with numbers and money. This was extremely useful, as the topic of budget and elementary economics is not currently taught as part of the curricula of kindergarten and primary school. Although teachers are aware of digital resources, with the project we have offered teacher training so that they can create their own digital pedagogical resources to use later in other subjects and when necessary in their further pedagogical practice. The other target group - the children aged 3 to 10, on whom this educational practice was directed, were the main users of the products developed by the teachers. The leading idea of the project was to give them the basic commercial and financial knowledge in the closest possible way for the children - through TALES about the money told by The Old Turtle. Thus, the children learned basic terms in English, as the topics were introduced in English classes in kindergarten and primary school (grades 1-2). Through the implementation of the project work the young students developed the following skills and competencies: - Learning English as a foreign language; - Cultural and historical knowledge about the development of Europe; - Вasic economic skills, suitable for young children and adapted to the specifics of their age; - Work with numbers and recognize currency value and signs. - Awareness of concepts such as multiculturalism and tolerance; - Digital skills. The teachers created three main products and manuals, and the general motto of the developments was "How to create, design and implement the project’s products". These products are: an e-flash book, an interactive soft game book and a set of zoom games. An electronic flash book is a collection of lessons and materials for lessons, tales in English to be used and taught in kindergarten and primary school, on the current topic of the project for the financial development of trade and the invention of money. The tutorials are developed on PowerPoint, which offers animation options, flash effects and other interactive tools suitable for applying this level. Kindergarten or primary school teachers have been trained to work with this application software so that they can use their knowledge and digital skills in their teaching practice to make their lessons more interesting and also to engage the children's attention. Each country decided whether to translate the manual into their native language, as it is intended for teachers and more and more of them already speak English fluently. The interactive game book is made of textiles and other soft materials suitable for use in kindergarten. Each page is shaped differently, with pockets, strings, "buttons" and additional materials that children can easily touch and explore. This product proved to be more than successful because at this age children have stronger visual thinking and a chance to develop dactyl skills. The main purpose of the Paperback is to be used as a methodological tool for learning a foreign language with elements of CLIL in finance. Using it, teachers will learn about new approaches in creating self-made teaching materials and applying them to the project’s topic. Zoom games are digital games that can be projected on the floor or walls and children can play using the designed area as a playground. This type of games develops children's kinesthetic and spatial thinking and physical skills, applying the method of learning by doing and touching. These games are not competitive, as our main goal is to include all children in the groups, regardless of their physical or mental strength. In the process of learning to create games, Italian trainers suggested a new direction for using games. A certain element of a banknote or coin, or a financial resource is shown enlarged or reduced, and so by scaling the children gradually recognize the whole picture. During the piloting part, when the products were tested with students, the result was a great interest on behalf of the children, both in the lessons and in the zoom games, which provoked thinking, fantasy and dynamics, and especially in the "Soft Book", which all enthusiasts wanted to touch and work with.