Our pre-school staff have taken part in three Comenius Projects before, as a result, we have acquired a wide range of useful experience in cooperation with our partners. This might be the key to the successful accomplishment of the new project in which the following countries will work together (involving one preschool from each country) : Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Spain, Sweden and Turkey. The age of children is between 3-7. The patricipants of the project are experienced, innovative pre-school teachers, all of them can speak English. The objective of our project is to gain experience from our partners in different fields of environmental education, outdoor activities, pre-school children’s attitude towards Nature in different parts of Europe. The project will demonstrate how to get closer to our natural environment in an emotional way as well as how to experience the joy of outdoor activities. The reason why we have chosen the theme of environmental education is that children are losing contact with Nature, get fewer and fewer opportunities to learn about the world around them. They do not go out during the weekends. They spend most of their time inside and they hardly ever do exercise in the fresh air. We aim to make the children feel the beauty of Nature and to give them the opportunity to experience the closeness to Nature, by using natural materials. They must learn how the spirit of Nature will live on in their artworks. We have to encourage them to spend more time outside and to make them feel enthusiastic about walking in the countryside, doing exercise in the fresh air. The teachers’ main task is to create „real life situations” to draw children’s interest and attention to a number of activities that they can do in Nature. Outdoor activities can develop children’s personality in both intellectual and emotional way. Furthermore, such activities develop their positive attitude towards Nature. The process of our project consists following: organising partners’ meetings, professional perfomances, building effective communication channels between the partner countries, creating a „project corner”, compiling a collection of methodology, related to the theme of our project. During our project the participating teachers will expand their professional knowledge, especially in the fields of environmental education and art education in a complex way, as well as of outdoor physical activities. By using new methods and activities the children will gain new experience, improving their emotional intelligence, creativity and way of thinking. The triangular relationship of „physical activity-art-nature”(’move-sing-spy’) might create new useful synapsis in our pre-school practice and might replace our out-of-date routines. We would like to involve the families in the project, in order to show them the importance of gaining new experiences by undertaking outdoor activities. Parents should also be experiencing how their kids take part in learning processes in active playful ways by singing, moving their body or simply watching the Nature. Expected results: After completing the project, our teachers will provide more and more outdoor activities for the children in the future. On the other hand, the children will have opportunities for self-expression through artistic activities such as drawing, singing, tales, poems, chants, games, „aha” moments. The teachers will expand their knowledge of methodology in both physical and artistic education “under the sky”. The partners will share their experience and specific knowledge, consequently they will improve their own professional and ICT competence. And last but not least they will improve their communication skills in english. As for the cooperation, the partner preschools will establish long-term relationships. These partnerships might be constructive sources for the future. The outcome of the project will strenghten the “European dimension” of intercultural education. A methodological collection - based on the results of the project - will be compiled. This professional handbook will contain the materials of the performances held by the partner pre-school teachers, and might lend a hand not only to the participating colleagues, but to other preschools in the participating countries. All the purposes that we have set in the project will serve the following two main priorities: - strengthening the profiles of the teaching profession, - Promoting the acquisition of skills and competence. We hope that after completing the project the parents will prefer to choose outdoor recreation as a family programme, instead of watching TV and surfing the Net. In addition, we are convinced that exercising „under the sky” is great fun, and makes both children and adults happier and more cheerful. We know that human being is only a small particle in the Universe, just like a drop in the ocean. But if we do make the drops better, we succeed in changing the whole.
Within the framework of the two-year cooperation, the goal was successfully achieved that the partner institutions gained insight into each other's pedagogical practice, the childhood education system of the given country. According to the title of the project, - Move & sing & spy - under the same sky . The institutions demonstrated how the objectives of the project will be achieved by exploiting the potential of local natural endowments and the immediate geographical environment. In accordance with the plans of the tender, the institutions shared the knowledge in which they have a significant additional methodological knowledge and practice in their pedagogical practice. The Hungarian partner presented the discovery of nature in the framework of fairy tales. In Latvia, we gained insight into the possibilities of linking music and movement through Carl Orff’s music pedagogical method. In Spain, experiments and artistic expressions that can be realized with the treasures of nature played a role. Our Swedish partner experienced with us the discovery of nature through the senses, the effect of the “path of silence” on a child’s behavior and their relationship to nature. Our Finnish partner shared with us their vast experience in outdoor play in winter weather conditions. The Turkish partners carried out their professional tasks online due to Covid 19. These were soil-related games and activities, that could be used among preschool children. After each international mobility, we created a methodological collection for the given activity, thus helping to share experiences more widely, so that in each institution the information could reach the colleagues who were not able to participate in the mobility in person. In the project, we only planned the travel of the teachers, but we placed great emphasis on involving the children in the tender activity as well. Despite the physical distances, the project logo design was a great success. An exhibition of the completed drawings was organized by each partner and published in an Erasmus corner in the institutions. Organizing Bird Christmas, sending each other a Christmas greeting card using natural materials, celebrating Earth Day, Europe Day, applying new methods learned from each other, helped bring children emotionally closer to nature and become a necessity in the open air stay. By screening the photos and videos taken at the partner meetings, trying out the children's games learned, the children also gained an insight into the culture of the partner countries and got to know the songs and dances of other peoples. We chose mascot animals per country in order to bring our kindergarten children closer to their peers in a distant country. As a result, their sense of belonging grew stronger, they became more interested and open to other cultures, and their sense of identity developed. The mascot animals became the protagonists of the tale, which we co-wrote with the partners in a continuous form. The characters of the fairy tale visit the locations of the project, thus capturing the course of our joint activities and not only providing an experience for the children currently attending the institution, but also evoking our cooperation in years to come. Informing parents about project activities and involving them in the programs was also successful. Families were able to keep track of where the application was, because the project wall created in the institutions (Erasmus Corner) provided them with up-to-date news. The partner institutions also placed great emphasis on presenting good practice in joint program management with parents during the meetings. Thus, the “Princess” tour, the obstacle course set up in the autumn forest and the joint song playing in the autumn forest, which was realized in cooperation with parents and educators from different countries, was a great success. These occasions go beyond the goal of setting an example for parents to spend their free time usefully, but it was a great opportunity to develop informal conversation and personal relationships between colleagues and parents. The large billboard with a colorful logo - which we placed on the fence of our kindergarten next to a busy road - announces our cooperation for a narrower and wider living environment.