Europe, let´s play!

The earlier children are taught to have an open mind about new opportunities, the more it will encourage them to grow personally and professionally. The main objective of our project was to develop problem solving attitude, social values in our students through the games and the respect of rules as well as to enhance creativity and innovation at all levels of teaching. Students learned to mix and deal with their cultural and personal differences in a respectful way, to deal with tradition as a fundamental part of their personal history to value for the making of their future. Activities that could improve their oral skills were encouraged to develop their self-esteem, creativity, positive attitude, leadership, team working, cooperation. With these tools our students were introduced in a creative way of learning by creating games, learning about old games, designing logos and slogans, organizing events, shows, exhibitions, contests. They became aware of critical thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving skills as well as language and mathematical competences. Children grew their motivation while learning along the process as they learned by doing. They had the opportunity to create their games, revise past ones and play them during events and meetings. They used their fantasy and creativity, developing and creating products or solutions for a mindset that can be implemented in real life, always being friendly with the environment and the others. So, by educating them to grow determination, we educated them to deal with the challenges along the way. Our partnership from 5 different European countries cooperated in order to foster a better understanding of what rules, respect and values mean, what skills and competences are necessary to become a successful European player and deal with the past as a cultural heritage to be preserved and valued. We fostered perseverance, honesty, responsibility, respect, effort and caring by showing children how they can make good choices and how their choices will affect themselves and others. To be successful, they needed to be able to communicate well and get along with people, so they have been involved in a series of activities and actions to improve the linguistic competenceDealing with games can teach students to value other people´s contributions, appreciate teamwork and develop awareness that being different a value, not a problem.Communicative competence in foreign languages is an indispensable tool for social relationships and developing a compassionate and responsible citizenship. Knowing one or more languages and developing an effective way of communication enable a smooth integration within the multicultural society we live in. They improved logical competencies in developing, designing, and playing their games. Children were taught to evaluate right from wrong as well as the consequences of their actions. We created realistic learning situations where each game led to a fair and responsible togetherness. The use of the ICT was very present along the two years of the project and was an important mean of communication.