Local activities
Poland: Scientific labs
Polish ‘Smarter…Greener…Safer…’ team took part in scientific labs organised by I LO in Zamość. They learned about substances polluting the natural environment and ways of preventing it. The labs incorporated elements of Chemistry, Physics and Biology.
Poland: Entrepreneurial education
‘Smarter…Greener…Safer…’ Polish project team visited the Educational Centre in Motycz Leśny where they took part in group activities incorporating entrepreneurial skills in scientific education. The activities involved problem solving strategies, decision making skills and integration of scientific subjects.
Croatia: Flowers from corn husk
Our county is known for growing corn, and corn husk has long been used to create useful (bags, doormats, coasters) and decorative objects.
Pupils together with their teachers Marija Toplek and Draženka Blažeka got acquainted with corn husk as a suitable material for creation of flowers, they learned different ways of paining, soaking and forming corn husk. We all tried to learn and make our own flower with the help of the leader.
Croatia: We read all, big and small
In collaboration with DND Čakovec in the project "Read All, Big and Small" 3rd grade students were guests at DV Bambi (kindergarten). We read the poem of Planet Earth, sang and together with kindergarten children they held an ecological workshop. From news print we shaped the miniature planet we live on and have to keep from pollution and destruction. In this way we celebrated together the Earth Day.
Croatia: Where did my plastic bag end?
School subject Nature and Society teaches us about environmental preservation, about sorting of garbage and waste, about taking care of environment that we live in but also about garbage that is not garbage. By recycling and reprocessing we preserve natural resources for new generations of students like us. The students of grades 3A, 3B, 3C and 3D learned about the activity of the Waste landfill in Totovec. They saw the waste sorting line from which dozens of cartons, plastic came out... They learned that 60 tons of garbage arrive in the landfill every single day, but also that it can only operate until 2020.
And then what?- we wondered.
Croatia: Be independent and free
The goal of the project is a preventative action to fight against drug addiction among children and young people in the town of Čakovec, and the project is supported by the Lions Club Zrinski Čakovec, the Police and the Public Health Institute of the Međimurje County.
The project includes children's councils of the Children's Town Council of the Town of Čakovec, from all primary schools in the Čakovec area. The forums will be organized for students and school staff, and the lecturers will be staff of the Police and the Public Health Institute in Međimurje.
There are 6 educational workshops on the following topics: what is drug addiction, how can we fight addiction, how to organize students' free time, but also how to work in a team, and how to be happy without these addictions.
Within the framework of the 2nd Project Workshop on the topic: Addiction (Alcohol, Smoking, Drugs, the Internet) a workshop was held on 8th February in the 1st Primary School Čakovec, and it was organized by the Children's Forum "Zmajići" with the hosts, Draženka Blažeka and Marija Toplek. The meeting of the participants was dynamic in the debate, and ended with the creation and presentation of posters and socializing.
Croatia: Building decorated boxes for waste disposal
Waste disposal containers are known to all students by their colour. Therefore, they needn't read the labels on them to properly dispose the waste in the appropriate container. But third grade students started to play and decided to create their imaginative, unusual containers for their classroom. Such containers encourage them to sort each and every small piece of waste properly.
Croatia: Development of skills for future jobs
As part of the Erasmus project, the pupils of class 4B spoke about the skills needed for work. Children are now growing up in the safety of their rooms equipped with a computer, Play Station, a cell phone that teaches them in a fast, easy-to-access entertaining way, but sometimes with too little imagination and creativity. We encourage them to learn as much as possible, take them to additional activities that will give them the necessary knowledge.
With that best intentions, we sometimes forget about the skills and competences that should be developed since early childhood. Today's pupils will not have the opportunity to develop them because no one sets such demands before them.
What attributes are needed for success?
- Independent thinking
- Taking risks
- Developed imagination
- Attention and concentration
- The power of learning from failure
- Flexible thinking
- Curiosity
- Making decisions
- Originality and creativity
- Solving problems
- Compliance
- Perseverance
- Speaking competence
That's why the pupils took saws, rasps and sandpaper into their hands, and prepared and processed wooden paint boards. In a dusty atmosphere and a little burning in their fingers, they demostrated whose board is better. New experience in work and the value of painting miniatures ended at the humanitarian fair. Student experience and satisfaction inspire them for new work challenges and acquiring of new skills.
Croatia: Smarter... Greener... Safer... Spring in 3rd grade
Students of the 3rd grade compete each year in the city park. And during this school year, they walked to the park. On the way, they were watching the changes in nature. They were comparing the things they observed in nature with the things they learned at school. The weather is getting warmer. Plants are lush: full of leaves and flowers. The park is filled with insects and birds are singing. The students also noted that the clothes they were wearing were much lighter than the clothes they were wearing in the winter. Park games are different to those in winter. In the spacious park they played football, "hunting", they were walking and enjoying the warm weather.
In the nearby small park they hung bird feeders on trees, which they made together with the association NOBILIS. The feeders were made of plastic bottles and shoe boxes. Feeders were carefully cut and painted to be more attractive to birds. They were careful to make the openings on the feeders large enough to allow the birds to enter and feed easily. The members of the association were treated with some food in the class, and the 3rd grade students carefully packed the feeders.
They also made joint photographs of their welcome to the spring: park and play in the park and the production of bird feeders.
Portugal: Arbutos Demo Joint Classroom
The"Arbutos do Demo Joint Classroom" was held on May 7th from 9.00 to 13.00. This happened only after three attempts, due to the bad weather conditions. This activity was part of the plan of the Erasmus + project "Smarter ... Greener ... Safer ...".
Organized in the form of orientation test, each of the fourteen points marked on the map proposed a new challenge, in which the three students from each team were invited to solve / fulfill tasks in the subjects of Physical Education, Arts, Portuguese, Natural Sciences, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and English. In this way we innovate in the way we challenge our students to learn and to acquire skills.
After some of them got "lost and found" and several miles walked beyond those marked on the map, in the end all showed faces of fatigue and joy. The Botanical Park Arbutos do Demo fulfilled once again one of its main functions: to help build "Powerful Emotions". Congratulations to all the 7th grade students for their participation. We believe that from those emotions good memories and good practices will be kept ...
