Holidays are anticipated and emotion-filled moments in the lives of children and adults. Every holiday is being prepared carefully and for a long time. It brings a positive emotion that mobilizes everyone for its realization. That is one of the reasons why we chose to work on "Interactive holiday calendar in Europe" The topics to be addressed by this project are connected with the different holidays, characterizing each partner country and the similarities and differences in their peculiarity, specificity and events. The problems to be discussed are connected with the identity of each country and its overall expression in the big European family. The project aims to help us avoid racial, ethnic and religious discrimination by understanding the lifestyle and traditions of all participating in the project countries. The project will be realized by elaborating and studying the holidays, the traditions of each partner organization, and the holidays will be considered on a seasonal basis. Activities to be done: 1. To make an interactive calendar of the traditional holidays in Europe by classifying them into common traditional holidays and Seasonal holidays 2. To familiarize everyone with the festive calendars of partner countries. 3. To find the similarities and differences between the common holidays that unite us into a common family. 4.To Make DVDs to illustrate the festive systems of the countries involved in the project. 5.To create Project Recipe book which to contain recipes representing local/national cuisine of each of the participating in the project countries. 6. To create Multi Media Phrase book containing common phrases related to traditional holidays and customs in the languages off all the participating countries and in English. 7. To create a booklet with pictures representing national costumes and attributes used during traditional holidays in each country drawn by the students. 8.To publish a newspaper presenting information for all the activities throughout the entire project. 9.The following topics will be discussed during the project meetings Traditions. Holidays and customs Calendars and Holidays Traditions and Values Traditional folk culture Curious rituals and customs How public holidays and traditions affect pupils' education The end result will be to get to know each of the partner organizations through the most anticipated moments of all - the holidays. By getting to know the country's holidays, we can easily perceive everyone, understanding some of the features in their lifestyle, tradition, culture. Knowing the common and equal holidays of the partners will make us feel like a big family celebrating together. The target groups of this projects are students /aged 10-16/, teachers, parents and the local communities. All activities in the project will have direct involvement of pupils, both in gathering information, planning and preparing products, communicating with pupils from partner institutions and in presenting their findings to all members of the partnership. Throughout the project all pupils will be encouraged to evaluate the activities and provide feedback about their own and others contributions. Questionnaires will be designed for evaluating the project activities. Students will take part in project forums during which they will answer questions about the project activities and their own personal learning. We believe that by involving students in the project we let them make not only friends for life but also teach them tolerance, respect towards other cultures and nations, faith in their own possibilities. And that it allows eliminate aggression and violence from our communities. Engaging pupils in different forms of learning can prevent students from alienation, fight xenophobia, teach openness to new cultures and let them know about new lifestyles, languages. Teachers and parents will also be active participants in the project because they will be involved in all stages of its realization. They will also have the opportunity to learn about different holiday calendars, which will have a unifying function for the entire institution and the project implementation. We hope that it will enable us to cooperate in various fields and help to exchange our experience. We will take part in activities which can help us quickly and easily accept the different cultures and traditions and by knowing them to unite them with the help of the final products. Teachers will share good practices among Europe concerning school management, cultural issues and national traditions. All these could help teachers, students, parents and local public to be aware of the differences and improve the way of work. Families and representatives of the local community can attend the numerous events that we plan to organize in each school in order to promote and benefit from the project.
The main team of the project was traditional holidays which have always played an important role in our lives and are usually filled with positive emotions.The topics were connected with holidays characterizing each partner country and the similarities and differences in their peculiarity, specificity and events. The questions that we discussed were connected with the identity of each country and its overall expression in the big European family. The project aimed to help us avoid racial, ethnic and religious discrimination by understanding the lifestyle and traditions of all participating in the project countries. During the implementation of the project we saw changes in stands and behaviors of students who had prejudices at the beginning, connected with an initial idea of ‘superiority’ of their own traditions against other traditions. There were students who had the tendency to underestimate different traditions and gradually, they got rid of these ideas and acquired stands of mutual respect, focusing on our common tradition as human beings. We elaborated and studied the holidays, the traditions of each partner organization, and the holidays were considered on a seasonal basis. We made an interactive calendar of the traditional holidays in Europe by classifying them into common traditional holidays and Seasonal holidays. The students, teachers and the parents that participated were familiarized with the festive calendars of partner countries. We found similarities and differences among the common holidays that unite us into a common family. We created a Project Recipe book with recipes representing local/national cuisine of each of the participating countries. We created Multi Media Phrase book containing common phrases related to traditional holidays and customs in the languages off all the participating countries and in English. We created a booklet with pictures representing traditional costumes and attributes used during traditional holidays in each country. We published a newspaper presenting information for all the activities throughout the entire project. During the project meetings we discussed various topics, connecting traditions with values of mutual respect and solidarity. We also discussed the interaction between education and tradition. The end result was to get to know each of the partner organizations through holidays. And our goal, to feel like a big family celebrating together, combating prejudices, was realized. The target groups of this project were students /aged 10-16/, teachers, parents and the local communities. All activities in the project had direct involvement of pupils, in gathering information, planning and preparing products, communicating with pupils from partner institutions and in presenting their findings to all members of the partnership. Throughout the project pupils were encouraged to evaluate the activities and provided feedback about their own and other contributions. The students, during their interaction either physical or virtual with other students from the partner schools, made friends and also acquired feelings of tolerance, respect and self-confidence. Engaging pupils in different forms of learning, prevented alienation. Also, emphasis was put on involving participants facing situations that make their participation more difficult, for example, students with various learning disabilities, students with autism, or students of lower financial status, were encouraged to participate in the mobilities and in common activities. Teachers and parents were also active participants in the project because they were involved in all stages of its realization. They had the opportunity to learn about different holiday calendars, which had a unifying function for the entire institutions. Teachers shared good practices among Europe concerning school management, methodologies, educational tools, cultural issues. All these helped teachers, students, parents and local public to open their horizons and gain knowledge and understanding. Families and representatives of the local community had the chance to participate in the numerous events that were organized in each school either physically or virtually, enriching their knowledge and acquiring tolerance and understanding.