"Things we do to live comfortably can affect the world around us, and the quantity of garbage we produce every day is something we should take more care of. Little actions and care from each individual can radically change humanity's impact on our planet. In order to reduce our continuous production of waste and to apply a real sustainable development, It is necessary that we make changes in our consumption habits, daily behavior, lifestyle and ways of doing things. And the sooner we learn how to make these changes, the better will be for our planet. That's why we want to start from very early childhood: kindergarten education.The seven partner kindergartens are from Iceland, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Poland, Norway and Turkey, all of them are already very active on environmental education and recycling activities, with a total of about 400 children and 150 school staff members involved in this project. We are the perfect team to identify, develop and test the 3Rs best practices (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) with children aged 2-7 years. In the 7 partner countries educators will engage children in opportunities to learn about environment, 3Rs and sustainability, involving families and local communities.Four leitmotivs will run throughout the whole project:-RUBBISH FAMILY: a family of waste bins composed by Father, Mother and Babies, that will contain all the waste of the school, so that children and staff can be aware of the quantity (and quality) of waste produced.-COMPOSTER, the King of Rubbish, where children can see first hand, that waste can turn in a valuable resource!-SCHOOL FLEA MARKET, open to children's families and to local community to ease the exchange of cloths, toys or any item that can still serve someone else.-ROSE OF JERICHO (also called Resurrection Plant), a desert plant that seems totally dry and dead, until it gets a little water to open and turn back to life, green and strong, to amaze children with the miracle of water.We have adapted the 3Rs to our little children, and they became 4 as follows :1. RECOGNIZE – children will learn about the different materials we use in our everyday life: plastic, glass, paper, organic, etc. through games, sport competitions, simple agricultural tasks and outdoor activities. Children will learn how to recognize natural and sustainable materials from those that are not.""We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors; we borrow it from our Children"" (anonymous) 2. REDUCE – we will all get acquainted to replace non-sustainable materials and products, with more sustainable ones, schools will help families organizing purchasing groups to get sustainable productions at a lower price. Experts will involve parents in easy lessons to learn how to produce simple every-day low-impact products at home.""Do not pretend that things will change if we always do the same"" (Albert Einstein)3. RECYCLE (and Reuse) – children will get used to separate garbage in the correct bins and reuse everything possible, making handcrafts, shopping bags and decorations for the school, using items in the bins.""The world has enough for everyone's needs, but not everyone's greed"" (Gandhi)4. ROOT – this part will be fully focused on teachers, who will share, discuss and consolidate the aims, activities, methods and results of the project, with other teachers (of local kindergarten and primary schools) and with University Professors. Every school will also apply for the ECO-SCHOOL certification of the worldwide Foundation for Environmental Education, in order to root the good habits learnt during the project and make it a permanent curriculum program.""Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world"" (Nelson Mandela)Our main aims and desired impacts in short:-connecting our children with the wonders of nature and create environmental awareness to respect and protect our planet,-improving competence and skills in environmental education of kindergarten teachers,-consolidating and disseminating the 3Rs best practices to kindergartens children and teachers, but also to their families and local communities,-exchanging good practices among different countries,-raising awareness in children and families about the impact that products we use have on environment, and become aware of how little changes in our lifestyle can help our planet to stay healthy,-rooting all good habits learnt during the project to make them a permanent lifestyle and curriculum program in our kindergartens,-improving, consolidating and disseminating new teaching methods for 3Rs best practices in kindergartens, -increasing the quality level in our kindergartens,-creating a stronger feeling of belonging to the European Community and therefore continue improving our performances as teachers and educators.""Those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world usually do"" (Steve Jobs)"

Contexts of our project were; -Our teachers’ competences on the subject was increased.-Teachers are now more useful in the education of inclusive students and their orientation to the class, school and society. Since our teachers are normal kindergarten teachers and class teachers, we are now more equipped against the problems that can be seen at such children. At the end of the project, participants’ experiences and equipments are highly improved. Teachers are more confident in their abilities and accordingly the children feel more secure! -We were successful in breaking the prejudices of the attitudes of teachers, school administrators, other children, and even family members. -The parents of normal students also were more normal and understanding towrds the inclusive students. They accepted the inclusive students better. They were not discomfort any more. Target groups of our project were; children with special educational needs, families, teachers and community. Objectives were; -helping in the socialization of inclusive students by fully including them into the project activities. -supply equal education-teaching to inclusive students as their normal peers -found out the differences and similarities between different educational systems for inclusive students -to make a better world for inclusive students and stronger their feeling of self-confidence and secure.-to invlove inclusive students in the project activities. -to draw attention on European cultures and Erasmus+projectsWe were totally 5 partners(Turkey the coordinator, Greece,Romania,Bulgaria,Italy). Participants were teachers and directors to the mobilities. Participants were people who had experience with children who were in need of special education. some of our project activities were; -e-book, -semineers to teachers, families and students -traditional games suitable for kindergarten studentsSome results attained;- inclusive students took advantage of the school and its advantages much more than they did before this project -we have raised people's awareness on inclusive students - we promoted inclusive education and overcame isolation at school of inclusive students - we overcame social exclusion and isolation at school impacts and longer term benefits are; -teachers ICT usage and knowledge improved. Because they used the computer a lot while uploading the materials and arranging presentations for the semineers. -teamwork responsibility improved -participants had a better knowledge of the languages and cultures from different European countries. Their motivation to try out new methods increased. Their personal skills developed. They had more confidence to deal with inclusive students and be useful for them. We established strong friendship. For example Turkey and Romania are in another Erasmus project in 2019 applicaton period.

TERRA VITA - T – Tolerance ,E – Education , R – Responsibility , R – Respect , A – Act V – Vitality , I – Inclusion , T – Talent , A – Ability - is a project that reflects the philosophy and attitude of teachers and school experts from all partner institutions. Through the project activities we were able to: To orient children to the knowledge and protection of inanimate nature (air, water, fire, earth, natural phenomena), to acquaint them with their properties and their role as a decisive factor for the existence of living nature; To keep children aware of the interest and the need to protect nature and to form a readiness for an environmentally friendly way of life; To encourage children to seek information about the different ways of recycling waste and to realize the need to make wise use of natural resources; To educate children in the spirit of European citizenship, to realize that caring for nature at home is a concern for nature throughout Europe; To motivate teachers to enrich the methodological approaches in realizing the goals of the project and to educate the children in environmentally friendly behavior; To encourage school leaders to strengthen capacity and develop a European dimension in school education; To involve the parent community with the project idea and goals in order to have a lasting effect after the completion of the specific project; To involve the representatives of public institutions for the implementation of the project activities and the promotion of the results; To improve the use of new communication and information technologies by educators and children.Eight partner institutions are involved in the project - two kindergartens from Bulgaria; a kindergarten from Romania; a primary school in Poland, a primary school in Slovenia, a primary school in Spain; kindergarten for children with SEN from Greece and a school for children with SEN from Croatia.In the first year of the project, activities with children were focused on learning about the elements of inanimate nature - fire, water, air, land and their role in human life, and the second year was devoted to the wildlife of each partner country - typical plants, animals, analysis of the relationship between the natural assets of each partner country and the holidays and traditions they have, the way of life and livelihood of people.In addition to the activities for children and students, we also implemented six short-term teacher trainings aimed at enhancing the pedagogical and digital competencies of teachers in dealing with children with special needs as well as talented children.С 1 - in Patras, Greece for learning and applying methods for working with children with SEN.С 2 in Vukovar - Croatia for learning about and applying a specific methodology for working with children with autism and applying animal therapy for children with SEN.С 3 - The training we conducted in Poland was oriented towards the use of waste materials to create ornaments and toys for children, as well as environmental education in partner countries' educational programs. С 5 - in Rogaška Slatina, Slovenia, we talked about the role of school guides in improving the educational environment.С 6 - in Craiova, Romania, the focus of the discussions was national inclusive education policies - opportunities to support children with special needs and gifted children.С 7 - During the last meeting in Bulgaria, in addition to the role of local authorities and non-governmental organizations in the processes of improving education, we also held the International Pedagogical Conference TERRA VITA, which was attended by 95 teachers, principals, school experts from eight European countries, university professors , local government representatives, non-governmental organizations, the HRDC.Three international meetings were held - at the beginning of the project - to divide the roles and responsibilities of the participants and at the end of the first year - to report on the activities to date, to monitor the project and plan the activities in the second year and at the end of the project - to analyze and summarize project activities, benefits and impact on participants.The aim of the project was to improve the pedagogical and digital competences of teachers from all partner institutions to improve the educational environment and make the learning more interesting, useful, accessible and educational for the children. The evaluation of the participants strongly confirms that through the project activities in all partner institutions the quality of the pedagogical activity has been achieved and a significant positive effect has been achieved not only on the direct participants in the project activities, but also on a wider range of stakeholders - parents, local community, other children, other educators.

"<< Objectives >>In this project partners aim to develop innovative,inclusive methods,techniques in art education in early childhood(36-72 months old)in kindergartens, to design application areas and materials for the developed methods and techniques, to create a gamified, nature-centered and digitalized perception of art, to support students with fewer opportunities ""art therapy"" and ensure their social inclusionand to create an art education program as a result in EU dimension.<< Implementation >>OECD states that ""Art education can help children develop skills and competencies that will prepare them for the future workforce"", In this context we will have 4 transnational mobility and 1 multiplier event.""Eco Art with English Transnational Mobility""“Every child is Artist!” Transnational Mobility""Every School is Art Center""Transnational Mobility""Art Theraphy Activities"" Transnational MobilityVirtual Art Workshop/ Info Day- Multiplier Event<< Results >>Education at a Glance 2022 - OECD ""Art education and art therapy are essential components of a well-rounded education for all children.In two years project period, with 4 transnational mobilities and 1 multiplier events and all local dissemination studies, partners from 4 different geographical areas , we will prepare an draft early childhood art education program for schools in Europe and Turkey.We will make our schools"

In this project, we assume that any child, at some point in his or her life, may present difficulties, of any kind, which may constitute barriers to their development, learning and inclusion. But we also assume that all individuals have learning and participation potential. In this framework, we believe that schools need to recognize that the diversity of their children should be seen as an opportunity for enrichment and development for all, and not as an obstacle to overcome. Although we understand the diversity of characteristics (cultural, social, linguistic, gender, developmental or other), present in every children group, the central challenge of inclusive education, in this project we intend to give special attention to children with necessity of special educational supports, namely children with disabilities, in line with the UNESCO alert, that identifies this issue as one of the inclusive education biggest concerns worldwide.To guarantee a truly inclusive education, it will be necessary, first, that the decision-makers, teachers, families and the community in general, become aware of the richness of this diversity and to became involved in the development of inclusive education programs. In a second hand, it is necessary to develop, in each kindergarten or school, in articulation with families and community, stimulating environments and adapted pedagogical methodologies and materials, to respond to each child´s individual characteristics and conditions.This project pretends to develop teachers’ key skills to work with children who may need special educational supports and with children in general. The quality of social skills of children with developmental difficulties, or other kind of difficulties, and children with no developmental difficulties will be increased. We pretend to improve and share methods and strategies to work with children with special needs, by promoting activities, material incentives, and social relationships, through a holistic approach, in the pedagogical environment in which children attends. In each of the five country partners (Portugal, Croatia, Italy, Slovenia and Greece) will be involved children with and without special needs (from 1 to 6 years old), pre-school teachers, special education teachers, psychologists, experts and other staff. In Portugal and Italy, as we have kindergartens that work together with primary schools, there will have the participation of primary students (from 6 to 8 years old) and teachers, which will contribute to the sustainability of the benefits of early childhood education through other school education levels.Parents and other members of the local community will also be involved.We will perform LTT and TPM in which only teachers or specialized staff will participate.We believe that this project will strongly contribute to an inclusive education, enhancing the quality of Early Childhood Education in the schools involved, ensuring better opportunities for learning, developing and participation to all children, specially to those who may have any type of disadvantage.