As Europe seems to drift more and more apart and euroskeptic voices become louder it is time to make our common heritage aware to the young generation and make them experience our shared values and cherish cultural diversity. Fairytales and legends express national identity and give guidance for behavior and conflict solving. In our modern media-dominated society they still play an important role. Participants will get to know and understand each other through intercultural dialogue about our immaterial cultural heritage. The pupils from four different countries will work in weekly project groups in their schools and increase their motivation to learn foreign languages and to become engaged. They will be enabled for teamwork in an international surrounding, improve communication skills in English as a “lingua franca” and aquire compentences using digital media. This will lead to greater self- assurance and broaden their horizon. 13 -15 year-old pupils are generally interested in self-perception and how others perceive them. By learning about their own cultural identity and comparing regional traditions they will develop a better mutual understanding, combat prejudices and find their place in the European community. Digital media and eTwinning are vital for the exchange and creation of products. Open classroom activities will be integrated in each of the five planned meetings where participants experience the local characteristics and values of the tales and legends chosen by each participating school. As one result from the meetings they will create a multilingual audio-station and a mobile illustrating tool to enhance story-telling (kamishibai). Finally a common text will be written in the form of a fairytale vision for Europe. All products will be made available and presented locally and to a larger national and international public in the Rhineland-Palatinate Open Air Museum Bad Sobernheim as well as in the respective partner countries and in the Twinspace.
Emanuel-Felke-Gymnasium was one of 20 schools in Rhineland-Palatinate which were funded by the Erasmus+ schoolpartnership programme. Partners of Emanuel-Felke-Gymnasium were schools in Vejle (Denmark), Tilburg (Netherlands) and Onda (Spain). Students of all four schools worked together on the project “Fairytale Europe” in the two schoolyears 2018/19 and 2019/20. Apart from this, there existed a cooperation between Emanuel-Felke-Gymnasium and the local Rhineland-Palatinate Open Air Museum. The first student meeting took place from 12th to 16th November 2018 at Emanuel-Felke-Gymnasium with a focus on regional tales and legends. During an excursion to the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Rhine valley participants looked for fairytale motives which were integrated into videos and storytelling by kamishibai. At the Open Air Museum they also gained insight into historical conditions of storytelling which used to be part of long winter evenings spent with work at home. Students discovered common European traditions and values and improved their skills in English as well as making friends with each other. In the week from 18th to 22nd March 2019, students from the four different countries met in Vejle, Denmark. This time they dealt with nordic legends and tales, expecially those by H.C. Andersen. Along with excursions to the home and workplaces of this famous Danish writer they visited burial sites of the first Danish kings. Inspired by new ideas students worked on a scenic dramatization of the fairytale motives and presented the scenes they had worked out in international teams and enriched with props to a primary school class of Vejle Midbyskole, which was also host to the event. But as least as important were the new experiences gained abroad and the bonds of friendship to the other young Erasmus+ participants. During the first week of November 2019, 6 students from class 9 of Emanuel-Felke-Gymnasium met their Danish, Dutch and Spanish partners in the Spanish small town of Onda to continue their collaborative work on the project “Fairytale Europe”. Students studied Spanish tales and legends which are mainly set in the Valencia region. Then they created drawings about key scenes from these and after that painted them on tiles.Tiles because ceramics and tiles have a long tradition in Onda and are an important economic factor. Various activities, e. g. an excursion to Valencia and a boattrip on an underground river gave the participants ample occasion to learn more about the countryside, the culture and way of life of their hosts. They also particularly enjoyed informal gatherings with youngsters from the other countries, the mixture of languages, the easy communication and the hospitality of the Spanish people. The last trip took place in February 2020. Not yet influenced by the corona pandemic six boys and girls fom year 9 travelled to Tilburg in the southern part of the Netherlands to continue their work on the Erasmus+ project with their hosts from “De Nieuwste School” and their Spanish and Danish partners. Special highlights apart from a guided tour of the town including the recently inaugurated and very modern library “De Kennismakerij” were excursions to “De Efteling” park and Amsterdam. At “De Efteling” the students analyzed how fairytales from different countries are presented in an effective way and with public appeal. Representatives from all 4 nations also recorded the selected tales and legends form each country – under supervision from a professionnal sound engineer – in a mobile soundstudio for the audiostation that will find its place in the Open Air museum. The Dutch hositality and easygoing mentality contributed very much to the success of this meeting as well. Due to the corona pandemic the final meeting planned for week 13 in 2020 had to be cancelled. Instead, the audiostation was inaugurated at the Rhineland-Palatinate Open Air Museum with a smaller circle of representatives on 18th September. Additionnally, participants from Emanuel-Felke-Gymnasium had put together a “House of Europe” made from wooden blocks on which they had written experiences and values associated with Europe and the project. They also included terms which had been collected digitally from theri partners abroad.