"Rapid development of science and technology addresses the main educational systems' challenge - The progress and prosperity of country needs to rely on innovative talents of science and technology. Kids are important talents for future progress and development of society, it’s necessary to update early childhood curricula in order to keep up with this international trend and address the growing need for STEAM Classroom programs in early childhood education. EU is faced with a challenge and a successfully implemented STE(A)M-focused classroom as an education approach, very soon can been easily recognised as a key force in the progress toward high quality preschool education for all kids.Main project aim is to promote the synergy among the experience of different socio-economical organisations and Kindergartens, with aim to include best expertise in everyday learning process. Concept of STEAM classroom is consisted of two main parts : - Appropriate working space (kindergartens will ensure a working space /classroom/) where specially designed equipment and tools appropriate for kindergartens kids age will be installed- Educational part (a ""learning by doing"" based methodology appropriate for kindergartens' kids age will be developed by experts and adopted with kindergarten teachers in the frame of the training events). Main project objectives are: to improve quality and attractiveness of early childhood education process in regions of four municipalities from Croatia, North Macedonia, Turkey and Bulgaria; enhance pre-schools teachers’ competences and skills by increasing of their theoretical background and introducing learning by doing method for STEAM related topics ; establish strategic partnership among different socio-economic types of organisations (public body; educational institutions; National, Regional and Local NGOs) for increasing of quality level of education process.Specific objectives of the planned activities in the frame of the project are to: develop own and innovative STEAM classroom - based educational approach with large transfer-ability potential; design and implement a special (appropriate for kids age) equipment and tools for practical work with kids in the STEAM field that will cover four main topics: Basic Science; Renewable Energies; Energy efficiency & Ecology; and Art; improve kids' skills through the alternative forms of teaching especially encouraging experiential learning and team work /in the frame of long-term teaching assignment/; establish transnational kindergartens' teachers network by using of eTwinning networking platform and to create of a long-term strategic partnership for transnational cooperation in the field of education.The project have two main target groups:• Teachers from kindergartens from Town Ludbreg-Croatia, Town Kochani-North Macedonia, Town Kushadasi-Turkey and Town Velingrad-Bulgaria.• Children who attend educational programs in the above mentioned kindergartens (with note that final beneficiaries of the project activities will be also all next generations of children that will attend the kindergartens' programs in the future).The long term expected results from the project realisation are:- New innovative educational approach for implementation of STE(A)M related topics in kindergartens that can be used in education of the current and future generations of kids that are attending their educational program;- Implementation of STE(A)M classroom as educational environment as well as attractive and efficient learning methodology in the pre-school teaching process;- Established teacher's network by using of eTwinning module as the main pre-request for further partnership and cooperation in increasing of teacher's skills and competences by exchanging of good practices;- Created strategic action plan for transnational cooperation among different socio-economic organisations from regions of Kochani, Velingrad, Kushadasy and Ludbreg, in the field of pre-education with aim to stimulate its development by using of best practices and innovative education methods;- Increased attractiveness of the education process for kids in kindergartens with implementation of learning by doing educational methods;- Increased awareness on regional, national and international level about the importance of STE(A)M classroom and benefits that this education method is offering for more attractive and efficient education process in pre-schools (through dissemination material, project multiplier events, ect.)- Consequently increasing the interest of larger number of the kids to choose a technology oriented career/educational path which will ensure the European labour market with increased number of engineers and technologists and with this to contribute to the competitiveness of the Union’s economy."

Linguists suggest that foreign language education at preschool not only develops intelligence andcapacity to understand in the mother tongue, but also makes problem solving and critical thinkingabilities stronger. It is also scientifically proven that multilingualism, among many others, developscreativity, open-mindedness, flexibility, cognitive abilities, communication and confidence. Inaddition, being exposed to different cultures at early ages is proven to have beneficial effects later in life in terms of flexibility, better global citizenship and accepting differences.The project Childhood of Collaborative Language Teaching (CHOCOLATE) has arisen from these facts. We, as a group of partners have seen that, developing a multilingual and multicultural environment in our schools is a necessity in order to ensure that our very young students become better European citizens in the future with stronger key competences and start their primary education better-equipped.The project activities, covering not only the preschool pupils but also teachers and families are going to be far-reaching. The target language is going to be integrated into the school through all kinds of activities. Our methods will be based on the daily lives of our students and we will teach foreign languages through cultural games, music, art, drama and ICT. Teachers are going to get foreign language education and will improve themselves. Parents are going to be involved by participating in activities such as the organized contests and informatory meetings. The institutions will become more international and they will be equipped with better competences and better teaching quality.We expect our pupils to get knowledge about other languages, lifestyles and cultures, to use what they have learnt on a certain level in related activities, to have a more extended vision particularly on their way to being a global citizen, to be more self-confident and tolerant to differences.The project has 6 preschool partners from 6 different countries in different parts of Europe. This wide geographical scope will provide us to exchange good practices and very different opinions about the project topic. There will be 4 LTT activities which will be aimed at developing teacher competences and preparing lesson plans and sharing our practices.The main results, in addition to the attainments our students, teachers and institutions will get, will be the lessons plans and the e-book which will be open learning resources. We expect a minimum of 5000 people to benefit from our activities.The project, both in short and long term, is going to avail children, teachers and all other participants to gain knowledge about foreign languages and correspondingly other cultures and lifestyles, to be more coherent and compatible, to focus on the human values by accepting all kinds of differences.We aim to make all our students to love learning languages and cultures as much as they love CHOCOLATE.

"Kindergarten Hrastnik had his internal 3-year project about experiments and he found that this type of learning is the closest to children, and at the same time children do not use it too much. After preliminary correspondence, we found that we are facing similar challenges and have similar interests in the greater involvement of experiments in the process of learning in kindergarten. We all have the same interest in improving our own skills in this field, but at the same time we felt the willingness to work and the drive to achieve common goals. Together with partner kindergartens across Europe, the project has become international, giving added value to all participants. Within the project, children from kindergarten, employees, children outside the kindergarten, local community and other partners will participate in the project. The project addresses experimentation, especially in speech and movement (our weakest area). At the same time, we are aware of the insufficient inclusion of ICT technology in education (from employees to children), to poorer linguistic competences of employees, and therefore, on the basis of the joint analysis, we have selected the appropriate partners. Objectives:O1. Improve the professional competence of teachers in developing the experimental abilities of children by sharing good practices in the design and implementation of experimental activities for children (thereby improving their pedagogical practice and language competences)O2. Strengthening the experimental skills of pre-school children involved in 4 thematic projects on experiments (and thus the opportunity for greater success at further levels of education, better empowered children)O3. Creation of (in mixed groups of preschool children - teachers) experimental activities with words, motor skills and nature conservation - ICT support (and thus the design of experimental paths, experimental corners and classrooms in kindergarten and in the place - publicly available linking preschool children and place).The project will include a total of about 800 children and 100 employees from 5 countries: Slovenia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey.Activities- international meetings with the purpose of organizing the project, training and exchange of good practices;- joint activities in 4 thematic areas: experimentation in words, in nature, in the field of motoring and ICT technology;- the individual activities of each partner of the project in their local environment.Methodology:- * ASSESSMENT SCALE (employees) , PARAMETER for parents and exteriors, adjusted QUESTIONNAIRE for children, MEASUREMENT OF FREQUENCY of the use of an individual experimental corner, DIARY ACTIVITY (every recording of data in time)- * OBSERVATION: observation criteria for the staff for observing the child (words, pictures, photos, products), * STORIES OF CHILDREN- children's thoughts, ideas, comments; FLEXIBLE RESEARCH ; ANALYSIS of content of the particular actions (with the partners).Expected results :- e-books of experiments in the field of ""experimenting with the word"", ""nature conservation experiments"", ""ICT experiments"", ""motoric experiments"";- a common set of tools for evaluating the experimental abilities of children for each thematic project;- four thematic projects carried out by employees together with children and the development of experimental classrooms in the environment from the fields of the project;- better cooperation between teachers, children and parents;- involvement of children with special needs, from a low-social support environment, children of immigrants from other linguistic and cultural areas.The objectives of the project are related to the priorities of developing appropriate and high-quality skills and competences, by encouraging the acquisition of skills and competences and social inclusion, as teachers will develop didactic strategies and professional competences in the development of experimental skills in all children, regardless of their particularities.Participation in this project contributes in the long term to the development of the organizations involved, since the partners intend to use the results in day-to-day work in the kindergarten and continue to carry out certain activities:- The teachers involved will become persons in the unit who will share their knowledge with other colleagues. They will all develop similar projects in the next school years, with use of expertise and design resources.- Created products - experimental classrooms, corners, materials - will be permanent. Care for their maintenance, editing and updating will continue after the project expires. This will always be accessible to everyone.- The achievement of children in the acquisition of experimental skills and participation in an international project will increase the quality of our organization and increase its reputation in the local and national environment."