The theme of this project is our cultural heritage, whether tangible or intangible. It aims to represent the richness and uniqueness of all our countries and their vibrant heart. It will enable us to learn not only about our partners’ towns and cities, their monuments, natural landscapes and archeological sites; but also develop a deeper understanding of the literature, language, food, songs and dances associated with our cultural heritage. Through this project we want to encourage our children to explore and embrace Europe’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, to find that silver thread which unites countries and find Common Roots In Our Diversity. We believe it is essential to encourage people, especially children at a very young age, to know Europe’s cultural heritage. It is our intention that they will realise that their different identities can enrich and strengthen each other, enabling them to co-exist within a European identity, encouraging them to become guardians of our heritage in the future. We are going to organise a range of entertaining and motivating activities, which fully support our overarching aims for this project. The children will reproduce tridimensional monuments representing our cultural heritage; create a CRIOD museum in each school where these monuments will be displayed; perform typical songs and dances; take part in workshops on food, music, cork and tile painting; visit interesting places, including a number elected World Heritage sites identified by Unesco. Each school will present a specific aspect of the cultural heritage from its area/region, whether tangible or intangible. The other schools will work on that theme, preparing videos, power point presentations, photos and will compare the results during the Learning Activities and on the website of the project. One of the main objectives of the Learning Activities is, in fact, to promote the richness of cultural diversity, in any form and expression, to appreciate the differences and identify similarities, and encourage cooperation among students and active citizenship. We have planned five Learning Activities with students, one in each country. Each LTTA will develop a specific theme linked to the cultural heritage the host school has chosen. We have also planned a staff training activity for teachers, at the very start of the project. It will be held by experts of the Department of Architecture in Palermo. The aim is to have teachers trained on the role of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and on the benefits of using a 3D printer in classroom with concrete examples. An eTwinning project will support the Erasmus+ project CRIOD in the preparation and implementation of the activities and mobilities; it will be also used for the dissemination of the CRIOD project. Through this platform, we will launch the competition to create the LOGO of the project, to choose a mascot which will travel with the students in mobility and be used to answer surveys for the evaluation of the project. Students will upload videos to train their European peers before mobilities, and teachers will use the chat room to plan activities and discuss details before travelling. After each Learning Activity, students will work collaboratively on a joint report which will contain a summary of the activites completed. Within their own country, each school will create a booklet containing photos of the places visited and historical information. The Erasmus corner will show the project's steps and will be a visible showcase for visitors at school (parents and the local community as a whole). This project “Common Roots In Our Diversity” will enable pupils, their families and staff to gain a greater understanding of the differences and similarities between our countries and our heritage - that have contributed to make us who we are. - It is going to be a unifying project because all the participants will be able to: - relate to each other through this common theme; - build friendships with the pupils of the European countries; - develop an understanding, knowledge and respect for the other countries, their cultures, traditions and heritages; - work collaboratively to achieve joint goals that will increase their self-esteem; - improve their ICT knowledge and abilities for communication by using e-mails, website, blogs, e-Twinning and videoconferencing; - - develop increased awareness of future life opportunities through intercultural dialogue and working in partnership; - develop friendships and professional working relationships between teachers of all schools who will observe and learn different kinds of methods and approaches. - The whole school community, including families, will have the opportunity of being part of an European project and will increase their intercultural understanding.
The theme of this project was to know, analyse and protect our cultural heritage, whether tangible or intangible, appreciating the richness and uniqueness of all our countries and their vibrant heart. It enabled us to learn not only about our partners’ towns and cities, their monuments, natural landscapes and archaeological sites; but also developed a deeper understanding of the literature, language, food, songs and dances associated with our cultural heritage. This project encouraged our children to explore and embrace Europe’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, find that silver thread which unites countries and create Common Roots In Our Diversity. We found out that it was essential, during the life of this project, to encourage our students to know Europe’s cultural heritage, to realise that their different identities can enrich and strengthen each other, enabling them to co-exist within a European identity and encouraging them to become guardians of our heritage in the future. We succeeded in organising entertaining and motivating activities, which fully supported the aims of this project. The children were able to reproduce tridimensional monuments representing our cultural heritage; a CRIOD museum was created in each school where to display these monuments; the students performed typical songs and dances; took part in workshops on food, music, cork and tile painting; visited, physically or virtually, interesting places, including a number of elected World Heritage sites identified by UNESCO. During the different planned LTTA, whether physically or virtually, each school presented a specific aspect of the cultural heritage from its own area/region. The other schools worked on that theme, preparing videos, powerpoint presentations, photos and then they shared the results during the Learning Activities and on the website of the project. One of the main objectives of the Learning Activities was, in fact, to promote the richness of cultural diversity, in any form and expression, in order to appreciate the differences and identify similarities, and encourage cooperation among students and active citizenship. Originally, we had planned five Learning Activities with students, one in each country. Each LTTA would have developed a specific theme linked to the cultural heritage the host school had chosen. Due to the pandemic, we decided to organise two virtual LTTAs and two blended LTTAs, maintaining the same tasks for each country. We had also planned a staff training activity for teachers, at the very start of the project. It was held by experts of the Department of Architecture in Palermo. The aim was to have teachers trained on the role of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and on the benefits of using a 3D printer in the classroom with concrete examples. We were also able to organise a training on the use of the 3D printer in Greece, with concrete examples for the teachers. The eTwinning project supported the Erasmus+ project CRIOD in the preparation and implementation of the activities and mobilities. Through this platform, we launched the competition to create the LOGO of the project, to choose a mascot which travelled with the students and teachers in mobility and was used to answer surveys for the evaluation of the project. Within their own country, each school created videos, wrote articles for the local newspapers and for the website containing photos of the places visited and historical information. The Erasmus corner enriched slowly but consistently with a visible showcase for visitors at school (parents and the local community as a whole). Even if this project was mostly carried on during the emergency period, it enabled pupils, their families and staff to gain a greater understanding of the differences and similarities between our countries and our heritage - that have contributed to make us who we are. We can affirm that it was a unifying project because all the participants were able to: - relate to each other through this common theme; - build friendships among them; - develop an understanding, knowledge and respect for the other countries, their cultures, traditions and heritages; - work collaboratively to achieve joint goals; - improve their ICT knowledge and abilities for communication by using e-mails, website, blogs, eTwinning and videoconferencing; - - develop increased awareness of future life opportunities through intercultural dialogue and working in partnership; - develop friendships and professional working relationships between teachers of all schools by observing and learning different kinds of methods and approaches. - The whole school community, including families, have had the opportunity of being part of an European project and increased their intercultural understanding.