Perhaps you feel the same way: You picked up a story here or there or at least parts of it and asked yourself: "What is that story?", "What was it all about again?", "Who knows this "legendary" stories and where do they come from?" or the most exciting question: "Is it possible that there might even be something true in it?" The traditional German legends of the 'Magdeburger Nixen' or the 'Binger Mäuseturm' can be mentioned here as examples. Our project "We are Legendary - Researching old national legends together" is exactly about such traditional stories and legends - less in a national and more in a regional context. We want to develop a book with our project participants and our partner school from Hungary, in which we collect regional legends, if possible, from the areas around Heidenheim, Ulm or a little further (southern Germany), as well as from the area around Keszthely or the region around Lake Balaton and present them with self-made illustrations in order to make this accessible to the surrounding population, but also to be able to use it very specifically later in the classroom. There will be two teachers and twelve students from grades 8 and 9 aged 13-15 years that will take part in the project from each partner school. In addition to an encounter of the participating teachers and students via eTwinning, we rely on strong communication with our project partners, the motivated and lively collaboration of the children, as well as the support of a well-known regional book author, so we can achieve our goals in developing the book as final end product, as well as improving important key competencies of the students for example in terms of reading, writing, designing or communicating. During the mutual visits at the respective partner schools, where the important personal meeting of the participants take place, iwe would like to work together on what was previously developed. More than that - it is a great chance to address specific topics and deepen them in an exemplary manner. The groups also get to know the partner region and get an insight into where the legends that their peers from the partner country have worked out have their origins. As a result, our project makes an important contribution to working together in the European community. It is good that our students experience this through their own actions and through working together with peers of another nationality and feel how they can work towards and achieve a common goal across national borders. Incidentally, the fact that international friendships can be made that last long after the school career is an aspect that should not be neglected, which will also contribute to lifelong learning and the development of the personalities of our students, as will the skills that are promoted within the project. Therefore our project is "legendary" and we are really looking forward to finally getting started and working with our Hungarian partners to develop the book.
"We are Legendary - Researching old national legends together" was the motto of the school partnership with our Hungarian exchange school in Keszthely. After finding the group, everyone first went to their respective home towns in search of legends from the region that were worth telling. In virtual meetings we presented the selected content to each other. In the further time, the pupils were able to work on the sagas in literary form with the German children's and youth book author Iris Lemanczyk, among others. This is how the first drafts came about, which we presented again in a video meeting. During the performances via video call, the students were able to get to know their first cultural similarities and exchange views on differences. Our group, as well as the Hungarian group, with different costumes and folk costumes that fit the time of the respective legend, took illustrations and motifs with a photo camera. These could later be inserted into the texts for illustration and embellishment. Building on this, the characters of the main characters and the narrative strands could be further worked on when the Hungarian group visited Germany. Here, too, Mrs. Lemanczyk supported us in further coaching with her experiences and ideas. Since the young people have already got to know each other through the video meetings, they quickly found each other during the visit and were able to deepen the time together not only with the work on the sagas, but also with friends in the further cultural program. In the return visit a few months later, our group was introduced to various locations for the legends during the visit to Hungary, which gave everyone a very concrete impression of the places where the legends are said to have taken place. This also happened in Germany, where we visited the rock formation of the so called "stone virgins". On several mornings we were divided into mixed groups in the Hungarian school, in which the students worked together on short German-Hungarian translations and were thus able to finalize the texts. We were also able to present the layout of the book in order to ensure that the result of the project - a book of creatively self written legends - could be completed promptly after our return. We handed over the finished book to our municipal library and the municipal archives in Heidenheim and Giengen, which means that other schools and interested readers will have the opportunity to deal with the subject in the future. Class sets of the books that are left at our school are already being used intensively in the classroom. We are very pleased that the friendships that developed during the project will continue to be cultivated and that further cooperation is planned in the future. Thus, the European idea is filled with life for better understanding and togetherness.