Peace through Traditional Toys and Games Erasmus Project

Project Title

Peace through Traditional Toys and Games

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 school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Access for disadvantaged; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

The project called Peace through Traditional Toys and Games has been developed by schools from Turkey, Romania, Portugal and Greece.
Long stage of observing pupils, conducting mini questionnaires and considering the experience of school teachers have revealed some realities at school.Pupils have communication problems with their peers and suffer from various learning difficulties. Several reasons have been identified for the problems; the majority of the pupils are children of immigrant parents coming from different parts of the country and suffer from the consequences of integration problems. They lack opportunities of reaching the social, cultural and intellectual resources of today’s life due to the low income of the families and exlusion from life opportunities.
The project has a number of objectives. First of all, pupils will overcome-at least-some of these disadvantages through the innovative approaches and materials traditional toys and games by facilitating their learning,promoting communication with ‘others’, raising their self confidence and encouraging integration.The participant teachers will be able to use the traditional toys and games as means of communication and teaching in the school education.School administrations will have an innovative approach and materials to apply to the school systems. Local teachers, trainers, education authorities will be able to learn an innovative approach on teaching school subjects using traditional toys and games as primary tools through worskhops, project tasks, demo lessons, trips, festivals and products.
The partner schools have similar student profiles and handicaps.They all have a vast experience in developing alternative teaching methods and using creative materials to diversify their school education. Pakmaya Primary School,located in Izmir, hosts 390 pupils aged between 5-10 and16 staff members.Teachers are specialized in making toys and using as teaching materials and they incorporate ICT widely during education process. They have worked in several projects at local, national level and international (Comenius/Arion) level.Câmara de Lobos (Madeira Island/Portugal) is primary school which has 188 students and 30 teachers. Pupils come from a very poor socio-economic background and parents are usually drug/alcohol addicts. They also have communication and conflict problems with their peers. Pia Bratianu school in Romania has reputation of developing innovative projects and initiatives in terms of the similar problems and needs.4th Primary School Of Rafina is an experienced School in Greece.It’s an ”open school” to the local society with many activities and events.
Meetings with all stakeholders will be organised to revise or update the project objectives,activities and dissemination plan.
Workshops on toy making and using in classrooms will be organised.Classroom project works called Designing Toys will be carried out by pupils. Teachers, volunteer young people and other participants will be monitoring. The team will also focus on the possible ways of including ICT during toys making.Study meetings will be organised to prepare a booklet called ‘Make Your Toys and Have Fun’. The digital version of the booklet will be shared through the Net. Toy House, Toy Caravan, Toy Tree, and Calender will be some of the productions of the project.Fly Your Kite for Peace activity and Festival of Culturas will be organised. Trips to local schools and to villages will be carried out for sharing project outcomes and learn traditional toys and games from old people.The aim of project is to raise awareness about peace among their peers and people of the world. Meetings with the local education authorities will be arranged.Project participants will be active and engaged in decision making at pre-, while and post project processes.The responsibilities will be shared fairly.
The long term benefits of the project are; Toys and Games will be recognised as good solutions for the children’s communication and learning problems and as teaching materials. The participants and participating organisations will become competent in the process of launching overseas projects.The positive outcomes of the project will diversify the skills of the participants, participating organisations, target groups and other stakeholders in many aspects. They will also be exposed to cultural diversity of Europe, become familiar with active citizenship and sustainable development. Also,they will find the opportunity to promote their professional perspective, understand the qualifications in Europe and build up long-term relationship with project participants.The project will develop all stakeholders’ awareness towards other cultures in the context of European citizenship and exchange a considerable number of experiences, knowledge, different practises and perspectives. The booklet, webpage, blog and facebook page created during the project will be kept updated and available for long term sustainability.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 75780 Eur

Project Coordinator

Pakmaya Ilkokulu & Country: TR

Project Partners

• Scoala Gimnaziala “Pia Bratianu”
• EB1/PE de Câmara de Lobos
• 4th PRIMARY SCHOOL OF RAFINA