Project „My country, your country" is designed for students aged 4 - 11 years. This project is concentrated on the knowledge of pupils about Europe But we want to achieve more goals in this project. We suppose pupils improve communication skills in English, computer skills and general education competences. Pupils will learn about own country and talk about European countries and it is important for young people, pupils and students to know homeland and Europe very good, to know better geographical facts, natural beauties, historic sights, traditions and festivals, famous personalities of own country and Europe. This way pupils will become more aware and proud of the place where they live. In this project students will get to know better a part of Europe through partnership countries and also own country in various attractive and interesting way. We will work especially on 5 main topics: Geographical facts, Beauties of Europe, Sights, Traditions and festivals and Famous personalities of Europe. We will search information in internet about geography of Europe, we will talk with our grandparents, visit museums, organize excursions in our regions and countries, we will cook traditional meals. We will organize some festivals and traditions at schools to know better culture of European countries and respect them. Several international results will be the outcomes of our great cooperation created personally during meetings and also on-line. Students create e-Guide book "Beauties of Europe" as the summary of presentations about geographical facts, holiday resorts, historic sights. There we will publish also the summary of excursions, because each school will realize local excursions and in the meetings we will take part in 1 - 2 excursions in each partnership country. This way we will know other European countries personally. During meetings all participants, especially pippils will present films and presentations to the topics created at school. Then they will work together in workshops creating collages and exhibitions of student´s artworks, posters, handmade projects to each topic. We will create international collages from exchanged material at own schools and public places after meetings to spread results of our work and gained knowledge. We willalsodo on-line quizes to involve more students into this project. This is atractive way how students can know Europe with interesting way. In Slovakia we will organize international program "Traditions are our heritage", as the parade of folk and traditional costumes, songs, dances of European countries. We will realize several on-line activities to involve more pupils into our project. We will make the Calendar full of pictures, children artworks, short texts of the topics of project. Traditional Christmas cookery book will be created on-line as the next international result. We will try to cook and taste meals by recipes of partner countries. Our first Fairy Tales in electronic and paper form will be created on-line as the result and support of writing skills, creativity and fantasy of our pupils. International short-term exchanges of pupils and short-term joint staff training events will be realized in the meetings. These meetings are very significant part because here students will present their outcomes from local activities and all presentations and films created for the meeting. Teachers will talk about innovative teaching methods, impact of international project on the education at their schools. What more, each school will organize at least 1 lesson of Geography, History, Literature, Art, languages lessons using innovative and interactive methods and programs and all participants will take part in these lessons actively. We´ll create DVD and brochure - Teaching methods in European schools - as the results of seminars and lessons. But not only personal meetings but also virtual mobilities will be important part of this project because we would like many students have chance to cooperate and work together, meet and know each other. We will talk, sing and dance together via videoconferences. We will work also in Twinspace of our eTwinnig project with the title "We live in Europe" to organize here various online contests, quizzes and questionnares or we will chat here and write our opinions and view. All on-line activities will be realized here. We´d like to achieve more objectives in our project. This project supports students in education not only Geography and History, but also English and another partnership languages, improves computer skills of students, supports their healthy self-confidence, strengthen their national awareness and broaden the vision of European cultural heritage. Pupils will learn to work in an international teams and respect the culture and lifestyle in other European countries. They will understand what the European identity means and will know the importance of the inter-cultural education for them and their future.
Project "My country, your country" is for students aged 4-11 years. The project is focused on students' knowledge of Europe. We achieved several goals in it. Students improved their communication skills in English, computer skills and general education competences. Students learnt more about their own country, they knew better their homeland and partner European countries, their natural beauties, historical sights, traditions, personalities. We mainly worked on 5 main topics: Geographical facts, Beauties of Europe, Sights, Traditions and Famous personalities of Europe. We looked for information on the Internet, the students talked to their grandparents about customs, we visited museums, organized excursions during exchange stays and virtual mobilities. We cooked traditional meals, we remembered traditions at schools. Our cooperation has resulted in several international outputs, which were created during meetings or as a result of online cooperation. We chose the project logo in the international competition and at the beginning we got to know the languages of involved countries. We have created Word Bank as a summary of useful expressions and greetings. The pupils learnt them in a playful way. Students created an e-tourist guide "Beauties of Europe" as a summary of geographical facts, holiday resorts, historical sights, excursions - local, virtual or realized during personal meetings. We have implemented several online activities with the aim of involving more pupils in our project. We made a calendar full of pupils´ artworks, short texts. We worked together in Canva. The Traditional cookery book was created online as another international result. At schools we made and taste some recipes of partner countries. "Our first Fairy Tale Book" in electronic form was also created as a result of online collaboration and a support of writing, creativity and imagination of our students. Online activities about getting to know famous personalities, writers, painters, reading stories and making illustrations supported pupils' reading literacy. We had a nice online activity of the topic "Beauties of Europe", when pupils studied the destination of the partner country, created a presentation for it and expressed their view of the resort in drawings. Then we made an online quiz during the videoconference. International short-term student exchanges and staff training events were held at the meetings. Students had the opportunity to present their local activities and all results created for the meeting, presentations, films to the topic. They could work in mixed teams, discuss topics, create friendships, learn to cooperate in a team. At the workshops we created collages together and organized exhibitions of students´ artworks, posters, hand-made projects. Pupils solved the online quizzes directly at the meetings and then more pupils could continue at schools. In such an attractive way, pupils could spontaneously get to know Europe and expand their knowledge of European countries. During staff training events teachers debated about innovative and funny teaching methods, the influence of the international projects Erasmus and eTwinning on the education of pupils, on their attitude towards learning foreign languages and also other subjects. Each school organized 1 international lesson using innovative and funny methods. As the summary e-brochure "Teaching methods in European schools" was created. But not only personal meetings, but also virtual mobilities were an important part of our cooperation. The advantage was the possibility to involve more students in the cooperation. During virtual mobility in Slovakia we organized an international program "Traditions are our heritage" as a festival of folk and traditional costumes, songs, dances of European countries. During virtual mobility in Spain, we created and sang the Anthem of the project together. Despite the difficulty, we had nice international activities that showed the ability of schools to cooperate well also virtually. We also worked in Twinspace of our eTwinnnig project "We live in Europe" in which we focused at online cooperation - we organized various online competitions, all quizzes and questionnaires. Pupils had the chance to say their opinion and look on activities and cooperation. Evaluation questionnaires and observations during the project and at the end of the cooperation showed us more positive attitude of students towards learning various subjects and foreign languages. Students' computer skills improved, the project supported pupils' reading literacy, relationship to art, traditions, the cooperation supported pupils' healthy self-confidence, strengthened their national awareness and expanded the vision of European cultural heritage. Pupils learnt to work in international teams and to respect the culture and lifestyle of other European countries. They knew the importance of intercultural education for them and their future.