EUROPEAN FOLK TALES: HIDDEN TREASURES Erasmus Project

Project Title

EUROPEAN FOLK TALES: HIDDEN TREASURES

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Access for disadvantaged

Project Summary

“If you want your children to be intelligent, tell them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, tell them more fairy tales. When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking.” ‐ Albert Einstein…. Starting from that point of view The project theme “fairy tales” has gathered primary and nursery schools from Ireland, England; Turkey, Italy, Greece,Poland and Romania because teaching and learning through fairy tales is one of the most pleasant way, both for teachers and students. Our project focuses on the inclusion of all, giving positive messages about diversity, where we value differences and other cultures. We wish to support individualised approaches to learning that build on learners preferred learning styles and processes.This project was born from the need of schools, both pre-primary and primary schools, from six different countries to give their students the opportunity to get into contact with their parents, their grandparents and elder people who live in their local area and the children from other countries. We would like to expand their horizons, by widening their understanding of the world and to offer them the opportunity to learn about each other by facilitating direct contact with their European peers. This will be a two- year project:During the 1st year-“When my grandparents were children…”- kids will listen, read and analyse stories about their own town and about the other European students towns; During the 2nd year “National fairy tales, global messages” – they will know the most representative fairy tales of each country. Students will finalize the new fairy tale that they have been creating for 2 years by including the cultural aspects of all the partner countries.Each story will open their eyes over the traditions and culture of the other countries and, together with their teachers and families, they will find out the similarities among all the partners, and will learn to appreciate the differences. During the 2 years of the project an international folk tales book will be created; a tale will be converted into a play script and used drama techniques to act it out in a mini-production; powerpoint presentations of the tales using the paintings produced by students, an illustrated book of a new folk tale , a book of paintings created by children, a calendar of 2015-2016 with 12 pictures done by students related to our fairy tales, a CD with each country’s presentations in English of a famous fairy tale will be created by the studentsBut the project is not only important for the exchange of information about culture, traditions and teaching ideas, but also for the fact that it involves the families and elder people in a very active way: the story told by the grandparents and the elder people in the local area will become the bridge that will link two different generations who will learn from each other.Being involved six nations, one of the project aims is to promote cooperation between similar schools all over Europe in order to ensure the quality of the educational systems. In our project we aim to increase knowledge of cultural differences and similarities among our students. We would like to enrich the students’ creative , learning and artistic skills through the whole project activities and encourage the use of ITC and foreign languages by the students and the teachersBy using recycled materials in creating the models of the scenes in the folk tales the students will learn how to recycle the materials and develop their respect for the environmentThe teachers will learn more about the other European educational systems, methodologies of teaching with the help of transnational project meetings.Reading, listening and acting out the fairy tales will increase students’ literacy and language skills. Projects teachers will increase their story-telling skillsThe final products of the project (project logo, bookmarks, video, interviews, plays, booklets, calendars, ppt presentations…) will offer to all the children the possibility of getting involved themselves in the project activities; at the same time, the teachers, will be encouraged to share ideas about pedagogical methods, to improve the knowledge of the foreign languages and ICT, will develop the feeling of belonging to the European community and will get in touch with different cultures and ways of thinking.The use of online tools as Google survey, YouTube, Facebook, a blog, school websites, the twinspace etc will provide a world wide visibility for all the project results. Moreover all the products produced by the kids or by the teachers will be available for everybody for years to come.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 116025 Eur

Project Coordinator

St. Damian’S NS & Country: IE

Project Partners

• Istituto Comprensivo “Via Boccioni”
• SCOALA GIMNAZIALA NR.1 BRANESTI
• Przedszkole nr 240 im. Polskich Olimpijczyków
• T.C. MEB ONDER ATA ILKOKULU
• 11 DIMOTIKO SCHOLEIO ALEXANDROUPOLIS