Fairy Tales Project 2000 -2003     |     home 
 

PROJECT OBJECTIVES: 
uropean fairy tale treasury - as a means of enhancing mutual understanding and acceptance among young children of  Europe. All activities included, aim at developing comprehencive and creative abilities of children /3 -7/, encouraging them to form and express opinions on ethic notions.

n important part of the project is animating and giving extra informative value to the programme material with the help of fairytales specially chosen for each subject and lesson.

etting pre-school children acquainted  to European fairytale heritage, and alongside with elements of Europeam culture, history, social structure, geography, natural phenomenae and architecture monuments.
mprovement and refinement of language skills, enriching vocabulary, development of memory and imagination through reproducing, acting and inventing tales.

chieving greater comprehension and higher memorization in language and other lessons.
 Discovering and developing children’s talents.

ims regarding children:
 Emotional aspect: Enrichment of sensibility. Attaining control over emotional impulsiveness.
 Intelectual aspect: Developing the ability for reasoning over the intentions, motives and after effects of human behaviour. Comprehencion of etic and moral categories /good-bad, truth-lie, generocity, bravery, etc./

Understanding and accepting of common humanitarian values.

 Activity aspect: Development of movement abilities and hand skills.

 Socialization : Adaptation and integration in group, collective work and games.

  ims regarding teachers:
 To motivate them in animating their mainstream lesson work : Research, sellection, organization of material needed for work on the project:
/ Fairytales, myths and legends, pictures, illustrations, other books and atlasses./
1. Collecting, sistematizing, and processing fairytales, myths and legends, interesting facts, geografic amd historical data about different European countries and people, into a suitable for the age of children form.

2.  Classification and scheduling the collected material in regard to time, themes and lesson units.
3. Working out special lesson units implicating the cognitive elements into the plots of  favourite fairytales.

4. Preparing for and carying out purposeful talks with children on moral and ethic themes prompted by the events and characters of fairytales.
5. Preparation and organization of mobile and cognitive games, tests and logic quizes based on fairytale episodes and characters
.

IMPACT OF THE PROJECT ON THE PUPILS
The children involved took great interest in all events and activities connected to the project.

 heir involvement had substantial and noticeable results in:
- Establishing a ffriendly and tlollerant atnospjere in the working groups.
- Open and good-natured communications of the children among themselves, and between children, teachers and other adults they met with during the project work.
- Increased interest to the learning process as a whole, a better comprehension, memorization and reproducing  in all programme subjects.
- Improved level of language culture and behavior.


- Vivid display of fantasy, artistizm, quick-wittedness, dexterity and handy skills.
- Improved abilities for logical and analitical thinking, generalization and drawing conclusions.
- Thanks to the unconventional approach to the wholesome teaching/learning process, the children are capable of  learning and comprehending great blocks of  new information with ease and joy.

 nvolvement of parents
Additional programme:“Mother, Father and Me” – special regular programme hours /every second and fourth Friday of the month/ during which children and parents /relatives/ work together on different subjects such as: Arts /theatre, recitation, music, dance, drawing and applied art/, Language learning, Mathematic, Natural science, Traditional festivities, etc.
 Parents and other members and friends of the family attend all festive events in the Kindergarten, and other public places.
 Family members receive periodicaly written annotations for the finished work, and  the activities to follow.
 Monthly meetings of teachers and parents help to harmonize the educational methods at home and in the Kindergarten, and to a great extend for the better acquaintance between families.

 ntegration into the normal class work:
The work on the project was an indispencible part of the school educational programme. It was integrated permannently into the lesson units of most of the different subjects, and became the basis of a special subject called “Fairy Ethics” /twice a week/.
 nhanced awareness of other cultures:
The project gives an exquizite possibility for getting children acquainted with the culture of different European people. /Every one of the selected fairytales is a ground for learning more about the country and people from which it originates.
The plots of the fairytales often give information about customs and traditions of different countries and people status/. With the help of fairytales the children get eagerly engaged in looking for and finding out
Similarities and diversities between European countries and people. / Way of life, architectural monuments, traditional and historical fasion costumes, etc./

kills development
- Free outspoken communications, rich vocabulary.
- Improved learning abilities, increased interest to the learning process.
- A better comprehension and sound memorization in all programme subjects.
- Improved level of language culture and behavior.
- Use of fantasy and imagination.
- Logic and analytical thinking.

- Quick-wittedness.
- Artistizm.
- Complex handy skills.
- Improved abilities for making decisions and drawing conclusions.

 full collaboration between colleagues on a daily basis is essential for the multysubject work on the project.
Each week special briefings took place, for distributing the scheduled tasks, reporting the degree of tasks fulfilment, successes or problems, and harmonizing the programme material in the different subjects with the project objectives.

evelopment in teaching approach:
 Purpouseful and systematic implication of fairytales from different european countries in subject lessons for Nursery and pre-school children./Age 3-7/
 Thematic coordination and matching of weekly lesson units in different subjects with pre-sellected suitable fairytales.
 Animation of lesson units teaching abstract notions / ethics and mahematic/ with the help of  characters, attitudes, interactions and happenings taken from fairytales.
 The educational programme of our Kindergarten as a whole has been interrelated to the project objectives. The project has an extremely broad and variable subject basis. The enormous amount of different fairytales helps the teachers engaged to find one or more story suitable for any lesson.
The uropean dimension is pursued in two main directions:
 Higher awareness of our Bulgarian historic roots, cultural heritage, language riches and natural beauties, which deserve love and respect for what they are, as an indispensable part of the European home.
 Developing self esteem and the feeling of being affiliated to the European unity of people and nations. Knowing about others and making ourselves known to them. Respecting them and being respected the same way. Sharing the same human values, and the same hopes for a better future.


eriodic visits and collaboration of project coordinator Mrs. Tzvetana Platikanova, colleagues and children engaged in the project in other schools and Kindergartens,as : 31 School “Ivan Vazov”; Kindergarten “Prespa”; 38 School “V.Aprilov”; School for socialy deprived children “Daskal Botyo”, Karlovo. And a great number of  schools patricipating in the Presentation of Private schools in the National Palace of Culture.
These presentations got children of  other schools and institutions and colleagues /teachers and directors/ acquainted to the project objectives and activities.
The open lessons carried out with other groups of children displayed the particularities in the project related teaching methods.
pen air performances of fairytale dramatizations with the participation of children and engaged in the project work proffessional actors.
Distribution of a coloured informative booklet /1000 issues/ presenting the Kindergarten and the two Comenius projects it works on.
Multiple puppet and theatre shows in different city halls, scuares, clubs, parks, etc…Periodic press-conferences, introducing journalists and colleagues to the different stages of work on the project.

upils with special needs:
We have two children with noticeable speech insufficiencies. In the process of work on the project they gradually overcame their shyness and little by little started expressing their thoughts and feelings more freely and fluently. By the end of the first stage of the project, their pronunciation became more distinct, their speech live and emotionally coloured, the vocabulary used – much richer.
Along with the dissemination activities, our team meets and works with different groups of children, many of whom are with different kinds of special needs. In spite of all differences, the project activities have a substantial impact for the better on children of all ages and educational levels.
The school of our Greek partners works with physically and mentally impaired children.Meeting them and working alongside with their teachers, we felt ensured that their engagement in the project helped them to increase their interest towards the learning process as a whole, bringing positive emotions and desire for active perticipation in all project related events.

ND PRODUCTS:

1. EXHIBITIONS OF: 

DRAWINGS, ILLUSTRATIONS, PHOTOS, PUPPETS, MASKS, COSTUMES, ETC…/

2. PRINTED MATERIAL:  TRANSLATED STORIES, REPORTS AND REVIEWS .

3. LIVE, AND RECORDED INTERVIEWS WITH PARTICIPANTS AND  SPECTATORS.

4.SOUND AND VIDEOTAPE RECORDINGS OF PERFORMING ACTIVITIES.

5. MONTHLY ON LINE MAGAZINE - TEXTS AND PICTURES FROM DIFFERENT STAGES OF THE
PROJECT DURATION.

6. FESTIVAL OF FAIRY TALES IN SOFIA, BULGARIA DURING THE FINAL STAGE .

he Project objectives offer rich possibilities for a fruitful work with children on most of the programme subjects. We find it necessary and very promising to continue the in depth work, as well as the broader dissemination of the project ideas, experience and achievements with the collaboration of new partners from different European countries who are interested in our work so far. We already have integrated three new schools from Scotland, Romania and Italy for the following two years. We hope that our joint efforts and mutual support will bring new quality to the teaching/learning process not only in our own schools, but in many others all over Europe.


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