TOY STORIES: portraits of children and their toys around Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

TOY STORIES: portraits of children and their toys around Europe

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 : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Creativity and culture; Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage

Project Summary

Our project is called ‘TOY STORIES: portraits of children and their toys around Europe.’ Children communicate easily. The differences in their religions, languages, cultures and races cannot prevent them from communicating with each other. Toys, games and festivals are the most important communication way of children from the past to the present. But today, with the technology coming into the children’s lives, “the toy culture” is about to be forgotten. Considering these observations, we have made a project. Our project aims to teach children about themselves by using toys and to make them explore the world of toys, games and festivals. The toys, which are very important for the children, are one of the big economic sectors in many countries. Today, both in our country and in many countries a few “craftsmen” still keep doing the toys using simple methods in small workshops, despite the fact that they are expensive whereas cheap toys are produced as mass production in big factories. Even though the toys have changed a lot, the children are still interested in our grandparents’ toys which are made of leather, wood, cloth and wires.
There will be 6 participating schools from Poland, Italy, Portugal, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey in the project.
Each of the schools has its own role in the project. The Polish school is the coordinator. They are responsible for writing the application, dividing tasks among the partners and monitoring them, contacts with NA, documents, timetable, reporting, regular contacts with partners, organizing two meetings, and the summary meeting at the end of the project for teachers. The Portuguese school is the eTwinning leader. They have several eTwinning projects awarded and so they have the eTwinning label. They have experience in collaborating projects on e-learning platforms and the members of the international project team are perfectly aconfortable with editing, communication, collaboration and sharing tools of web2.0. The Bulgarian school will be our expert in languages. They are going to organize teachers’ meeting which will include workshops, observations, trainings, the exchange of experience. The Italian school is able to make a valid contribution to the implementation of the methodology.The Greek school will be responsible for evaluation and the Turkish school for PR – they will promote the ideas of the project and suport the participants to share the results of the project writing and blogging for the web (internal and externl sites). Each of the schools will also organize a short-term exchange of students, except for Bulgaria.
The main objective of the project is to regenerate all toys, decorations, games made in the past and learn about customs and traditions in European countries.The modern toys do not let children put their creativity into practice. If children create their own toys, they will certainly assign high value to them. It will help children improve their imaginative and creative skills. We will organize local exhibitions in every partner country with the toys made. We will produce typical Christmas and carnival toys and decorations, prepare games, compare cultural festivals in European countries. One of the objectives is to remember and refresh the toy culture. In particular we are keen to work together to develop the use of CLIL, to embed a more integrated approach to teaching of history and creativity. The other objective is to encourage students to learn foreign languages and develop the key language competences: writing, speaking and reading. There are going to be both- native and foreign language.We will collaborate to create teaching resources, materials, plans where the languages will be taught through Art, History, Design and Technology, Religion Education, Information Technology etc. We will provide young people with the opportunity to learn about the countries and cultures of our partners through interaction (via ICT and face to face) and use project meetings and teachers exchange to share best practices. During our work in the project we will use the eTwinning site for uploading materials, discussions, videoconferences. There will be potential longer term benefits for students and teachers. The impacts for students will be: self- confidence, knowledge of the European Union, knowledge of lifestyle and education in partner countries , knowledge of native culture, digital and foreign language skills development, team work development, social skills development, interest in other countries and their cultures, motivation to study foreign languages, tolerance to different cultures. There are going to be many activities that will lead to the achievement of the project’s objectives. We believe that there will be desired impacts for students, teachers and partner schools that we will be able to be measured easily.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 167580 Eur

Project Coordinator

Szkola Podstawowa nr 7 im. 1000-lecia Panstwa Polskiego & Country: PL

Project Partners

• 32nd Primary School Peristeriou
• ISTITUTO COMPRENSIVO RENATO MORO
• Agrupamento de Escolas de Seia
• ANTALYA BILIM VE SANAT MERKEZI
• 122nd Primary school “Nikolai Liliev”