Rooting for Europe

The project is about history, food, games, dances, traditions and legends. It involves schools from fives countries: Greece, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Italy. Each school has chosen part which suits the school best. In Greece, we will work on history, in Portugal on food, in Slovenia on games and dances, in Italy on holidays and in Poland on legends. We decided that all these five aspects will offer the students a broad perspective of what they are, where they come from and what their roots are.Our general aims are: - students find out different traditions from countries participating in the project;- students will notice connections between traditions in European countries;- students reach to the roots of our traditions, see how they changed, what influenced them over the years and what can be done to preserve them for future generations; - students improve their communication and social skills;- students develop their skills in group work;- students will develop their key competencies.Our specific aims are:- Each student involved in the project knows at least dish, one game, one legend and one tradition from a country participating in the project;- Students learn about connections between the mentioned above and can talk about them;- Participants see the value of your history, traditions, dishes and appreciate intergenerational dialogue;- Each student will learn at least one IT tool for their learning process.The project target group are students aged: 12-15. There five countries involved and in each mobility, there will be six students and two teachers travelling.Each school involved in the project has its own potential and will run the part which suits its the best. Therefore, in Greece, the participants will work on historic sites and reflect on the refugee issue. In Portugal, we will have a close look at each country's dishes and cook together. In Slovenia, we will discover our games and play them together and also present and practise our dances. In Italy, we will share our knowledge and traditions about celebrating different holidays. And in Poland, we will present our legends and use our imagination to create a legend from our cooperation.In the project, we will use many IT tools offered by the e-twinning website, competitions (Euro Master Chef in Portugal and legend competition), blogs and video blogs but also we will run lessons (on refugees, on eating traditions) and also after lesson workshops to give the opportunity to get grandparents and parents to be involved in the project. The participants will have the chance to develop their social skills, work in international teams, improve their language and IT skills. They also will be given the chance to stay abroad for five days and experience what it is to be a part of an international class.Besides the gained knowledge by the participants, it will give them a broader perspective on what it is to a European. It will also give them more motivation to learn foreign languages. It will give the participants the chance to share teaching methods, lesson plans. The results (photos, blogs, videos, games, lesson plans, workshop activities) will enrich the teachers' libraries and will be used by them in the next years.