Founders:
- Vrtec Tržič (Slovenia), teacher: Tina Klemenčič
- Leikskólinn Holt (Iceland), teacher: Björk Snorradóttir
Other partner schools/pre-schools
- Vrtec Tržič (Slovenia)
- „Leikskólinn Holt” (Iceland)
- „C.R.A. Alto Cidacos” (Spain)
- Przedszkole nr 48 z Oddziałami Integracyjnymi w Zabrzu (Poland)
About the project
This project is a result of training event for teachers, which was a part of Erasmus+ KA2. Partnership of schools – “Through democracy to literacy”. The inspiration of the topic was water and water resources that are suitable for water supply of our town.
In Tržič, Slovenia water has always been an important factor of the industry in Tržič (blacksmiths, shoemakers). It also shapes the landscape of Tržič and its surroundings (a great site: Dovžan Gorge). This means it has influenced the lives of the people in great extent.
Water is a great part of our lives, wherever we live. Drops of water can perhaps travel from Slovenia to Poland, Spain and all the way to Iceland. We share water from rivers, streams, lakes and sea through the global water cycle.
Project aims are strongly connected with developing literacy and democracy in classrooms. The project approach and working inspired by the preschools in Reggio Emilia are the basis of the teaching and learning approach within this project. The main method is “Look at me” – including observing children and the child centered approach, as it was presented during the teacher training event in Slovenia. During the project activities, we want to encourage creativity, exploring and children’s participation in their learning process and promote outdoor education.
Aims
– gaining and developing literacy competences (expanding vocabulary, to widen speech & communication skills, ability of listening and understanding the meaning and context);
– forming an intellectual abilities in creative thinking, forming links between the story and places in the children’s close environment;
– to build knowledge about cultural heritage of the town,/city/region;
– to learn about our environment through outdoor education
– exchanges experiences with others so we can use the local community as a resource to support outdoor education.
– developing multisensual experiencing the world (through visual/audio/tactile channels);
– arousing children’s initiative and independence;
– supporting the children curiosity, self-confidence and awareness of their abilities;
– gaining the ability of working in teams (among students in classroom teams and international teams, but also among parents and teachers);
– providing the joy and satisfaction with the result of oneself’s work;
– using simple ICT tools by children within the project.
Work process
- Discover and research water resources in the surroundings;
- Find the purpose of the water resource,
- Establish if the resource can be used as drinking water, if not – why?
- The teachers discuss the interest of the children and decide a topic.
- Each group makes a mind map with the children, brainstorming what the children know of the topic, and see what questions come up to explore further.
- Finding ways to answer these questions (field trips, outdoor education, expert visit, parents’ cooperation, books, and internet), children becoming actively involved working with the different topics of the participating kindergartens.
- Prepare a common board game (Travelling Water Drop).
- Everybody documents the learning process and share and discuss the documentation through the project website.
- Evaluation of the project.
Expected results
- The Project blog (https://erasmuswatercycle.wordpress.com/) presenting project tasks and results on all its stages.
- The teachers will use the “Look at me” methodology. There will be different results depending on the topics but we would also like to conclude the project making a common board game and answering the question: Are we all connected with water, are we sharing the same water?
- For the children:
– The experience of enjoying, learning through and exploring water resources
– Gaining knowledge of their closest context and culture.
– Development of social skills (working in pairs, team, respect for others and their ideas, self-confidence, taking responsibilities for actions, awareness of their skills
– Gaining positive experience from interaction between children from other European countries and creating positive attitude towards international contacts in future
– Gaining experience and basic skills in use of simple ICT tools
– Gaining first experience of using English language (on the appropriate level to the age).
Language
English
Age range
From 3 to 11
Subjects
Art, Drama, Environmental Education, Foreign Languages, Informatics / ICT, Media Education, Language and Literature, Mathematics / Geometry, Music, Pre-school Subjects
Erasmus Water Cycle 