RECOVERY STARTS FROM KINDERGARTEN

<< Background >>The partners had agreed on that the Covid-19 pandemic affected the education negatively almost in all countries in the world. The effects were both during and after the pandemic. The affected parties were all components of the education involving students, teachers, institutions and parents. Each part had their own effects and difficulties.- The students were the most affected groups by the Covid. The interviews, questionnaires and surveys provided by teachers and kids themselves showed that the readiness of the students in basic skills such as reading skills, basic maths, communication and digital competences are really low in newcomers to the education ,and have gone back in the upper grades. These were the main needs of the students to be recovered initially.-The students were also locked in their houses for a long time and exposed to digital world and technological tool which also affected their communication and social skills. Therefore, it was really essential to bring the students out of classroom and connect to the environment and nature again.-Thus, we focused on reading habits and outdoor activities regarding the mentioned needs of the students as well teachers and parent’s.<< Objectives >>By implementing our project ''Recovery Starts from Kindergarten'' ,we targeted at actualizing our general and specific objectives set prior to the implementation of the project.In general, -we wanted to equip preschool teachers by innovative learning and teaching methods for their professional development:-develop high quality early childhood education by recovering the aftermaths of covid-19-acquire digital and outdoor skills from the very beginning of educationIn specific term, we wanted to : - increase the positive statistics of reading habits in partner countries - prepare the students for digital transformation- develop bridges between libraries and schools- bring the students outside the classroom for physical and mental health being- acquire students outdoor skills and make them love the nature- internationalize and develop capacity building of the partner organisations- involve the parents more in education processWe also wanted to produce two different project results in addition to above mentioned skills, competences and experiences for the use of target groups such as preschool students, preschool teachers ,kindergarten schools and parents.<< Implementation >>We had several activities before, during and after the project life-circle. We had an online project meeting with the participation of all partner organisations before the official start of our project.The purpose of the online meeting was the final review of the project objectives , decision of the mobility dates, management plan and distribution of the tasks for each partner.Then ,we had 4 mobilities during the project at the venue of each partner.The first meeting was Romania hosted by Biblioteca Publica Locala Pietrari.The hosting partner carried out the LTTA on ''how to make students love reading from earlier ages''.The second was the LTTA held in Portugal and executed by Lar D. Pedro V. The topic of the LTTA was '' outdoor activities for kindergarten classes ''.The participants learned creating outdoor activities for applying their classes.The third meeting was in Turkey by ATATÜRK ORTAOKULU which focused on creating '' the Audiobook'' by using digital tools.The final meeting was held by I.C. PADRE ISAIA COLUMBRO in Italy.The host provided an LTTA to partners about ''storytelling'' which was also essential for the project objectives and products.The partners made dissemination activities in their local after each LTTA.<< Results >>- The main objectives of our project was to recover the aftermaths of the Covid-19 pandemic on the kindergarten students and teachers.Therefore, during the project design discussions among the partners, we focused what were the most challenging effects of the pandemic and what should we do recover the situation due to statistics from official institutions, the needs of the teacher and SWOT and Need Analyses among the partners , we decided on two concrete products to be created at the end of the project. These were '' The Audiobook for Kindergarten Students'' and '' The Outdoor Education Guide for Kindergarten Teachers''.They will help the needs of kindergarten students and teachers.For the creation of our project products, each partner received a task in accordance with their strengths and capacity. Therefore, the products were created easily through a collaborative work.Except the concrete outputs, the participants gained competences and experiences such as:- digital skills- communication skills- intercultural learning- enhancing their motivation and the participating institutions ;- develope bridges between different cultures;- develope their building capacity;- create network for future projects;- get international