The project ”My Hometown, My Country – Culture and Traditions”, initiated by our kindergarten, is a fun and motivational way for pupils to explore cultural aspects of their region and to share their reflections with new friends in other classrooms across Europe and neighbouring countries.

Tourism is an important economic factor contributing to growth and employment worldwide. When we learned that according to the World Tourism Organization, cultural tourism meets 37% of the total tourism demand, we wondered about the situation in our country, which has hosted many civilizations. We have determined that cultural values such as historical and archaeological artifacts, special days, food culture, handicrafts, local folk songs, agriculture, vegetation, animal husbandry and folklore constitute a great potential for cultural tourism in our district and our region. At the point of introducing our culture and values, we aim to create an e-guide from the eyes of our children and contribute to the country’s tourism for those who want to travel and get to know our city and region by bringing together the hidden beauties of our city and our region from the eyes of our children, our local culture, our historical and natural beauties.

Title of the project: My Hometown, My Country – Culture and Traditions
Founder: Roșca Oana
Institution: Grădinița cu Program Prelungit Curcubeul Copilăriei Craiova

The working language: English
The age range and the number of students involved in the project:  4-6 years, 50
The topics addressed: Culture, traditions
Tools that will be used (e.g., audio or video conferences, email, virtual classes, forum, chat, etc.): audio and video meeting, photos, videos, emails.

The aims of the project are:

• To introduce the cultural and historical heritage to children, exploring our city together
• To contribute to the 21st century skill development of children
• To create awareness to protect cultural heritage
• To develop respect and dialogue between different cultures with other partners participating in our project
• To develop children’s sense of harmony, creativity, cooperation, communication skills and self-confidence
• To enable children to reveal their products
• To provide children with the opportunity to know and introduce their cities and regions through their own observations
• To develop their willingness to do research
• To gain the ability to express oneself
• To develop the intercultural comunication

Activities and aproaches:

The project is expected to last for one educational year. Firstly, in December, partners will introduce themselves and their living places, they will make together with the children Christmas cards and we will exchange photos. In January, each partner will make presentations of the national costumes of the country in which he lives and send the video and photos. Then, in February, all partners in the project will present tourist attractions from their city or other regions of the country

The research will be exhibited in e-book, website, videos, slides etc. Evaluation will be done to have a general idea how the objectives have been met by the activities. Impressions of the stakeholders will be expressed in a digital journal of the project.

December:
– I am – introduction
– my country
– my city
– my school/kindergarten
– my group
– let us meet online (creating meeting)
Exchange Christmas cards with your partner(s) via the post so that your partner receives a filled and decorated Christmas card from you and you receive one back from them.

January:
Traditional costume of partner countries. What is it made of? Wool, hemp, yarn, loom, different patterns. What is happening to wool nowadays? Is something else being produced, is it being thrown away, is the function being repurposed?…research in each partner country. Activities: Get to know old trades in your area – pottery, costume making, blacksmith…Organize activities where children can  try what they have seen. Through artistic activities, each country should create a pattern specific to its costume, from which we will create the flag of our project. Together we will make a music and words to our project anthem or flag raising in our kindergartens. It wiil be festive activity.
– we share examples of the peculiarities of each partner country
– activities with children and parents – preparation of winter food.
– activities with photo and recipes put in e-book.

February:
The third activity requires each partner to present some tourist attractions from their city/region/country.
The partners will make pictures, presentations, videos of the tourist attractions from their city/country. Brief histories of places with tourist potential in each partner’s country will be presented.We will meet online to discuss  and to present the materials.

The envisaged results are as it follows:

• Children’s recognition/ ownership of their cities, regions, culture and different cultures,
• Respect among different cultures
• Transferring the cultural awareness of children to other students
• Ensuring that children activelly use technology

Through the project, we will have the opportunity to get to know both our city and our region and the places where our other partners who will take part in this project live.