In today’s World, it is a common problem in EU Countries that people who are with disabilities and special needs such as Down syndrome and mental disability are isolated from community and they are not accepted by other groups because their lack of communication skills and because they can not do like what social structure wants from them, and they try to survive with the help of other individuals According to data of OECD of EU and Turkey, approximately %15 of World population is composed of individuals with disabilities. So that, they are called ‘largest minority’ in the World. In EU countries, the rate of disabled people who left after primary school is %25. Also, %29.9 of disabled people are in the risk of poverty/social isolation in EU. It is noticeable that they are exposed to isolation from community and the rate of employment of them is low because they are not be included in production and social life.It is a important way to share the practices which are promising with international collaboration for individuals with disabilities so that they can acquire vocational skills in schools, provide self-confidence, maintaine their lives as individual offering added value to society and discipline social integration. On the basis of this problem, under the coordination of Turkey, we have met three schools from Macedonia, Romania and Turkey and decided to pursue our Project named ‘The SENDs Are Acting in Life’ Our most fundamental need was to produce solutions to uncover own potential of our student with special needs and to annihilate obstacles that they have countered and will countered.Facilitating the access of individuals with disabilities to health, rehabilitation, supporting education and employment, ensuring social equality for their success and mobilizing all the possibilities for environmental planning will make an important contribution to the solution of this problem. Education is an extremely critical topic for the employment of people with disabilities and for the prevention of poverty or social exclusion.We have selected the partners of the project, considering our personal initiatives and according to that there are experienced institutions carrying out educational activities on eTwinning in the field of special education, and also that the student profile is similar to our student profile We provided the needs analysis by conducting online meetings with other stakeholders. Basic and common problems of all partners; The socioeconomic status of many of the student families is low profile, a significant part of the student parents are disorganized families, the social exclusion of students due to the limited communication skills, anger attacks and aggressive behaviors, and the high level of post-school employment anxiety of the students. We believe that people with disabilities who are educated in schools can not generalize learning with classical education techniques, and supporting students with a production and art-based model will make learning more permanent and enable student integration into society.Our project will be realized under these two main titles. Production and Art. In 3 countries, 3 different production activities and therapeutic art activities will be held. In Turkey; professional skills will be gained in the field of organic farming and cooking with ecological production and gastronomy activities. Therapeutic studies will be carried out in the fields of painting, traditional crafts, earthen ceramics and music. In Romania; decorative objects such as ceramic works, vases, flower pots will be produced and professional skills will be gained in the field of cooking with gastronomy activities. A composition consisting of traditional music and dances will be prepared and a theatrical performance will be performed.In Macedonia; In the field of wood material production and restoration, professional skills will be gained and therapeutic studies will be carried out in the fields of painting and music. At the end of the project, a 3-part documentary film will be created and the reflections of workshops, professional skill workshops and art therapy workshops carried out in each country will be shown to students and teachers. The goal of our project; to enable students to develop skills based on production and art, and to participate in social life and express themselves with confidence. In addition, it is the rehabilitation of students and their parents, teachers to learn different methodologies, to support students' self-confidence and entrepreneurship, to facilitate their integration with the society, to get to know the culture of other societies. Our project is in the long term; It aims to encourage employment of disabled people by contributing to social production, developing lifelong learning skills in students and teachers, tolerance to different cultures, and creating awareness and sensitivity in all segments of the society, employers and awareness.

"<< Background >>This project proposal is the result of the analysis of the needs and willingness of teachers from six kindergartens to improve their pedagogical and digital competences for the application of the STEAM approach in children's education. All of us, treat pre-school education with responsibility and high professionalism, and strive to apply new developments in pedagogical theory and practice. In recent years, there has been more and more talk about the STEM skills that active people in the labour market should possess. Jobs in the real world are interdisciplinary. Rarely does a job require only one set of knowledge and skills. Preschool is a sensitive period in a person's development and is best suited for laying the foundation for interest in science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics. Hence the need to teach children how different science disciplines integrate and work together. They have unlimited access to lots of information. Education is no longer about memorising facts. The need to think critically and sift through information comes to the fore. What differentiates STEM from traditional education and science is the learning environment. In practical terms kids can learn the scientific method and apply it to everyday life. We recognize the fact that continuous advances in technology are changing the way children learn, connect with others, and interact with each other every day.A variant of STEM is STEAM, which includes A /Arts/ - arts and design. Artistic design and the arts are an important part of the STEM-based education, as creative thinking and the unleashing of creative talents are essential to the development of innovation. Many STEM lessons involve model building and simulation situations. STEM and STEAM reflect real life and encompass the 4 principles identified as key to 21st century education: creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication.Teachers across all partner institutions share that one of the most significant issues for implementing STEAM learning is the lack of practical guidance and resources for organizing a stimulating and safe learning environment. By combining the knowledge, best practices and creativity of the teachers involved in the project, we will create an educational resource that will motivate and encourage teachers to implement and organize an exciting, inspiring, innovative and safe STEAM environment in the kindergarten. We will encourage them to clear up the educational process of unnecessary didacticism, rigidity and strict regulation and to tailor it to children's interests, wishes and abilities. STEAM helps to foster a love of learning. And the most important gift that education has to give a person is the love of learning.Raising and educating children is a family priority. They are our partners in the process of training, educating and socializing children. For this, the focus of our activities will also be to familiarize the parents with the innovative STEAM approach and involve them as active participants in the project activities.<< Objectives >>STEM, as an approach integrates learning in science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics. It allows kindergarten children to move beyond the acquisition of theoretical knowledge and into the practical application of what they have learned. Preschool is the most sensitive period of human development. It is during this period that children acquire the vital knowledge, skills and attitudes they need for a successful future. The dynamically changing social and economic environment demands specific competences from active people. Educational institutions - kindergartens and schools - face the challenge of creating an educational environment that fosters children's natural curiosity and interest in the world around them. The aim of this project proposal is to improve the educational environment and to make education more interesting, useful, accessible and stimulating for children by improving the pedagogical competences of teachers to implement STEAM learning in the kindergarten. In this way we will achieve a better quality of pedagogical work and ensure a significant positive impact not only on the direct participants in the project activities, but also among a wider group of interested parties - parents, local community, other children, other educators. After analysing the needs of children, teachers and school authorities, we have set the following specific objectives for the partnership: 1.To develop children's natural curiosity about the world around them, their creative potential, their skills to observe, develop hypotheses and draw conclusions, to seek solutions, to make improvements and innovations. 2.To develop children's active learning skills through observation, exploration and experimentation; to develop critical thinking, observation skills, concentration, dexterity and imagination.3.To form positive attitudes towards engineering, technology, mathematics and programming and to form attitudes to participate in teamwork, to stimulate activity and independence. 4.To educate children in the spirit of European society and cooperation by creating virtual friendships with partner kindergarten children. 5.To motivate teachers to extend the methodological approaches used to meet the project objectives, and to organise an effective and safe learning environment that evokes positive emotions and a desire for activity from children. 6.To encourage school authorities to maintain capacity and develop European traditions in school education. 7.To make parents part of the project idea and objectives in order to achieve a lasting effect after the completion of this particular project. 8.To involve representatives of public institutions in order to implement the project activities and promote the results.9.To improve the ability of educators and children to use new communication and information technologies.<< Implementation >>All project activities are oriented towards achieving the objectives of the partnership. For better operability, the project is divided into modules, allowing sufficient time for the organisation and implementation of the respective activities. Each module will cover one main educational area of STEAM education and will include theoretical training for teachers, practical activities for children as well as reporting and analysis of the activity. Family-focused activities are also planned for each module. The overall aim is to provide a positive, stimulating and safe STEAM environment for the children. In the organisation and implementation of the work programme, we will take into account the dynamically changing health situation in Europe and we are ready to reorganise the implementation according to the conditions. Project Management:11.2021 - start of the project, selection of a management team in each kindergarten;12.2021 - first transnational project meeting 01.2022 - conducting a survey on teachers' knowledge and attitudes to implement STEAM education in kindergartens; 04.2022 - second Transnational project meeting; 06.2022 - conduct a survey among teachers about the benefits of working in the Science module, data analysis 11. 2022 - presentation of an interim project report.12. 2023 - final Transnational project meeting;Project activities:02- 04.2022 - Science module;09- 11.2022- module ""Technology"";12.2022- 02.2023 - module ""Construction""04- 06.2023 - module ""Arts""09 - 11.2023 - module ""Mathematics""We will conduct two massive, open online courses /MOOC/:06.2022 ""STEAM learning in the kindergarten-a step forward to the future""01.2023 ""A kindergarten without toys - prevention of children's addictions to objects""We will conduct six LTT trainings for teachers:01.2022 - ""STEAM education in the kindergarten - nature, principles and methods of implementation""05.2022 - ""Involving Parents for Effective STEAM Training""10-2022 - ""Comparative analysis of curricula and educational content in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics""03.2023 - ""Role of sites of public importance in promoting STEAM education in the kindergarten""06.2023 ""Project-based Learning in the kindergarten. STEM technologies, strategies and applications.09.2023 - The impact of STEAM education on the formation of key competences in childrenIn 11.2023 we will lead a final Scientific practice conference ""STEAM Learning - a step forward to the future"" The distribution of topics within quarterly modules allows each participant to implement different initiatives on the topic. By sharing them with the others, we will achieve one of the project's objectives of exchanging good educational practices and ideas (organizing children's holidays and observations; visits to various sites of public importance related to the activities; making decorations from recycled materials; school for parents and joint initiatives with representatives of the local community; making herbaria and products from natural materials; mini-labs for paper; building an ecosystem in each kindergarten; children's creativity, exhibitions, voluntary initiatives, charity campaigns etc).In July and August there are almost no kindergartens that carry out educational activities, so no mandatory initiatives have been planned for this period. We have targeted the activities towards families and parents, and we foresee to organize exhibitions with the products of the joint work of children and parents during the month of September. The duration of the individual modules allows for the adjustment of the activities depending on external or internal factors.Monitoring and impact evaluation procedures will be developed (every six months).Together we will set clear and measurable indicators to track progress.<< Results >>Expected outcomes can be defined as tangible and intangible results:Children:Will have received:- new knowledge and competences for personal fulfilment and development, for active citizenship and social inclusion; - lasting knowledge about the environment, nature and the way of life of children from other European countries; They will have created:- a lasting interest in science, technology, construction, arts and mathematics;- an attitude to work independently and in teams, to solve complex problems; They will have acquired the skills for: - searching for possible solutions to problem situations; They will have developed:- their creative talents, -a desire for research and experimentation. Children with reduced abilities will have gained the confidence and self-esteem to participate in various STEAM activities, will have developed socially relevant experiences and attitudes that will be useful to them throughout their lives.Teachers will have:- Enriched their professional competences through exchanging experience and ideas with colleagues from other European countries; - gained knowledge about education systems, programmes and innovative practices in partner countries; - learnt useful techniques for organising a supportive STEAM learning environment; - improved their language and communication competences; - increased their professional self-confidence and will be motivated to continue working towards enhancing the prestige of their school; - increased their pedagogical and digital competences; - gained new knowledge about the nature and principles of organising STEAM education in the kindergarten; - enriched their skills in creating developmental STEAM situations; - changed their attitudes towards applying innovative approaches in their work.Schools and kindergartens participating in the project will have established active relationships between their management to support the implementation of project activities, as well as exchange of experience and good management decisions.By actively involving parents in project activities, they will:- will have increased their confidence in educational institutions and education as a value;- will have acquired knowledge and practical skills to build STEAM environments at home and sustain children's interest in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.Other teacher colleagues from the partner countries will have received information about the nature of STEAM learning in the kindergarten and the project activities through the various dissemination initiatives.The local community, businesses and associated partners will have received information on the nature of STEAM learning and the opportunities for European twinning.The tangible results of significant importance are:- E-Book STEAM training in the kindergarten;- Proceedings of an international scientific and practical conference;- Project website."

The project is a strategic partnership involving exchange of good practices. It aims to mitigate educational losses caused by the pandemic by supporting preschools teachers and parents who are the main providers of education for young children. It will realize this aim by focusing on digital tools and teacher-parents relationships. It will initiate cooperation between different stakeholders-universities, local authorities, preschools and a counseling centre and facilitate sharing expertise and exchanging good practices.During the lockdowns throughout Europe, many children had to stay home and were deprived of stimuli which is instrumental for their academic, psychological and social well-being. Teachers and parents had major difficulties finding appropriate online resources for using at home. The project addresses crucial needs of preschool institutions with professional help from universities and commits to providing hands-on experience for the educators. In this regard, the project aims to* support teachers of pupils aged 3-6 years by developing their ICT skills at least by 25% and providing resources* improve preschool teachers’ capacity to supplement education at home by increasing the number (at least %30) and quality of pedagogical activities involving parents * increase the variety of practices for preschools by %35 through promoting exchange of good practices The project aims to achieve following tangible results:* interactive eBook of good practices in preschool education. The contents will be collected from partner organizations and associated partners. This free and open online educational resource will enable preschool teachers to share online resources and to incorporate them into their own teaching. * a massive open online course (MOOC) to train preschool teachers to develop their digital competencies and soft digital skills. The content will be specifically designed for preschool education and include modules such as technology supported pedagogies, online content creation tools, and game-based/gamified instructional designs. The course will be piloted in partner preschools.*a project website, social media accounts, a logo and an eTwinning project.For the proper management of the project, there will be 3 transnational project meetings held in Turkey, N.Macedonia and Belgium. Within the project, a total of 27 teachers of pupils aged 3-6 will attend 3 short-term training events in universities and counseling centre. At local level, all preschools will carry out various school-based and local activities. LTT 1 is organized around the concept of exchanging good practicesLTT 2 is on pedagogical issues focusing on parent-school interactions and how we can develop them. LTT 3 the final selection and evaluation of good practices.With the interactive eBook of good practices and MOOC, more than 800 teachers will be reached in partner and associated organizations. Teachers of pupils aged 3-6 will incorporate digital online technology into their teaching practice better.They will use newly developed interactive eBook and implement activities at home in collaboration with parents. They will better address the needs of their pupils with innovative approaches.The project will also benefit pupils of target preschools, their parents and the whole communities of partner preschools. All partners will be able to connect with their stakeholders to promote the quality of preschool education. They will have the opportunity to learn from other cultures and other societies as well as to establish long-lasting professional relationships,broaden horizons and promote multicultural values.Through this project, long-term, open access and state-of-the-art digital outputs will be developed and opened for access for everyone.The eBook will be freely and easily available for everybody interested to download, to write comments, to give reviews and to add new content.In addition, the MOOC produced within the scope of the project will be a permanent course on a virtual platform (Anadolu University’s Akadema).In the long term, we expect the main outputs of the project to be disseminated and be part of curricula in European countries. It is also expected that they are part of the teachertraining course at universities.

"With this project our aim is to encourage children through values-based education to start noticing dangers around us, how to prevent them, how to act out in a case of an emergency and how be more caring towards each other. In addition we would like to arise teachers and adults awareness about how to have necessary skills, tools, knowledge about preventing dangers and giving first-aid and how to pass all that to our children. The three main objectives of our project are:• Children: children learn and experience through value-based education to notice everyday life dangers around them; how to prevent dangerous situations and how to help an injured person if needed.• Teachers: teachers learn and share primary knowledge, use and create practical skills and tools to teach children to notice dangers from their everyday life, how to prevent them, how to call for help and how to give first aid if needed.• Produce: free ware first aid kit (electronic material) in 5 different languages.Regarding to this project we have a coordinating project team of 7 people from Estonia who will be in charge of running this project and partner countries such as Norway, The Republic of North Macedonia, Romania and Bulgaria. Each partner will delegate 4 employees to each transnational project meeting. All our partners have participated at least in one Strategic Partnership and one of our partners, Romania, has an experience of being a project coordinator. We feel that our partners are a good fit for this project, because they bring diverse strengths, new insights and specific competences, as described separately in the partner organization sections.This phase of filling in the project application form has shown, that all the partners are highly motivated and ready to work towards common goal. We all stand by equality, diversity and involvement - our common interest is to prepare our teachers in that sense to be innovative, brave, motivated, highly skilled and collaborative.During the project implementation phase we will have 6 transnational meetings and workshops where we will brainstorm and work out new materials (worksheets/games), come up with the situation descriptions and agree on terms of making educational videos according to the criteria we are currently implementing. During our last meeting in Tallinn, the host organization will hold a big local childrens´ event called ""Hea inimene Gala/Good person Gala"". We hope to make a great impression to our project partners and they will carry out the event in their own countries and that valuable tradition would spread all around the Europe!In between these transnational meetings we will have local project meetings to make local time-plan for implementing the work and eTwinning video meetings to make arrangements for upcoming training.This project will teach participants how to use methodology and materials, that we will work out all together. We will work towards developing high quality early childhood education and care systems and our goal is to make first aid as a part of each participants kindergartens´ curriculum. Project partners will learn how to use project knowledge and materials in their everyday learning and teaching process. We consider it to be an asset for an organisation to develop and maintain sustainable learning process what this project will certainly endorse.We also believe there is a great need to work out practical materials which our teachers and children can use in their everyday life learning/teaching process. Also it is a good material to use as a training material for staff. First aid kit will be used in organisations everyday learning and teaching process. It will be free ware to share with other kindergartens in participant countries because it will be both in english and their local languages.There will also be local project blogs in each partners´ language that will have review and latest updates about our project work for all the target groups that are interested. At the same time we will have international webpage/blog running where we will post our activities in cooperation with our partners in English. Partners will write articles in schools magazines; do a Erasmus + space presentation panel to their kindergarten; and use similar ways to make our project work as visible and approachable for public as possible. The outcomes of the project, open license first aid kit, will be directly transferable to other educational institutions on primary level; youth centers; Centers for Extra-Curricular Activities schools, even on other public and private institutions that deliver services to the public. Our intentions is intensive dissemination and wide using of our final product to maintain our projects´ sustainability."

"The main goal of our project partner schools for pre-school education is to provide sound education foundations for our 4-6-year-old children. In all partner schools;-By using concrete educational materials, the educational environment has been created for children to learn by living and doing.-Montessori education units consisting of daily life, sensory, mathematics, language, and cosmic education tools have been created to develop the basic skills of our children in creativity, language, self-care, mathematics, and science. In Asım Kocabıyık Kindergarten, as Montessori materials are not designed according to children's interests and needs and educational activities that encourage children to use Montessori materials, the children participating in Montessori education, such as language, self-care, independence, taking part in the group, interest in mathematics and science skills were not developed and Montessori training activities were terminated.In order to apply Montessori methods, techniques, which are used as a common method in European countries in developing basic skills of preschool children in creativity, language, self-care, mathematics and science in the classrooms; cooperation with 4 preschool education institutions from 4 European countries based in Turkey, Italy, Slovenia and Macedonia that are possessed of Montessori materials, that have different experiences about the problems and solutions in the application of Montessori education method will be made.Within the scope of cooperation between 4 preschool education institutions;-Montessori materials will be designed in line with children's interests and needs and the classroom environment will be updated.-The work that appeals to children will be selected and materials will be added to and removed from the classroom to facilitate their independence.- Individual development of children will be evaluated.-The method of intervention to the use of materials will be taught- Children's interests will be directed to Montessori activities in the classroom.-We will share experience in preparing Montessori activities where daily life, sensory, mathematics, language, and science education materials will be used.As a result of the cooperation with experienced institutions in applying Montessori teaching methods, our goals are as follows:-Using the Montessori units, we established in our classes in an efficient way.-To give our teachers the ability to prepare and apply Montessori training activities.-To provide our children with basic skills in the fields of language, daily life, self-care, mathematics, and science by including our children in a training process using Montessori materials.-A booklet of Montessori class design examples is to ensure that at least 120 Montessori activities and a ""Preschool Montessori education plan"" are prepared, which include the use of daily life, sensory, mathematics, language, science materials.Project activities will last 24 months. 4 transnational staff training activities will be organized to prepare Montessori class material, daily life, sensory, mathematics, language, and science education departments and Montessori training plan. 4 pre-school teachers and 1 English teacher from each country will participate in all transnational educational activities.C1- A booklet included Montessori class design. 20 Montessori activities in the 1st and 2nd months of the academic year will be prepared.C2- Daily life, 40 Montessori activities to be implemented in the Sensory unit will be prepared.C3- 60 Montessori activities to be applied in Mathematics, Language and the cosmic education department will be prepared.In C4, a ""Preschool Montessori education plan"" will be prepared, which includes at least 180 teaching hours to be implemented during one academic year in partner schools. Activities prepared within the scope of the project will be implemented by giving education to students in all schools. The implementation of the activities in partner schools:- An educational environment will be created in all of our schools where children will learn by doing, living, trying.-The use of concrete and realistic teaching materials in group games will improve our children's creativity and social skills.-Language-developing activities will prepare our children for reading and writing- Mathematical activities will support the recognition of numbers, counting, matching, and skills of four operations-Cosmic educational activities will increase children's interest in science-With sense education, children will actively use their five senses-Daily life activities will improve children's self-care skills.Improving the basic skills of children will contribute to the achievement of the common goal of the partner schools in “To provide our children with strong educational foundations in the preschool period”."