Significant percentage of the daily created amount of solid waste can be reused with very low efforts, but unfortunately it continues to damage our environment. This is why necessity of urgent actions in the sphere of waste selection and recycling are key precondition to ensure long life of our planet.The children in kindergartens were ideal target group to be presented a way how we can reduce our carbon footprint on the Earth and help our fragile environment. The project teached young children about the ecological challenges facing the world today and showed them how, through a recycling and waste management project, they can help address these challenges by composting food waste that was used to grow fruit, vegetables and flowers in their schools’ gardens. Implementation of the project activities led to establishing of the strategic partnership between different type of organizations (local public bodies, kindergartens and civil sector) gathered together to give their contribution for enhancing the quality of early childhood education.Following the new trends of pre-school education and good practices, and also the available technologies, it appeared that the best approach was LEARNING BY DOING when they can DO IT by themselves. The main aim of this project was to develop age appropriate framework to teach pre-school children about reusing and recycling much of the waste they daily produce and improving the quality of work. This was realized by increasing of the kindergarten’s teachers competences and skills for development of own approach to importance of waste selection and recycling, as essential concept for assisting them to encourage the pre-school children to undertake their own pilot projects especially in using and promoting of composting and production of eco-products.Partnership of the project included different types of organizations: local government of Ludbreg (CRO), public utility Vodovod (MK), three kindergartens - Radost (CRO), Pavlina Veljanova (MK) and Radost (BG), one SME Lucera (CRO) and two NGO - LAG (MK) and CSEG(BG). Local public bodies, SME Lucera and NGOs prepared document for development of strategic transnational partnership among local public bodies, SME, kindergartens and NGOs from three municipalities (Ludbreg, Kochani and Pazardzik) for increasing of quality of pre-school education.Pre-school teachers were trained for implementation of waste selection and recycling and learning by doing methods for composting procedure and establishing of eco-gardens and they were working with pre-school children on practical tasks. Trainers had responsibility to deal with preparation of education materials (Handbook) for theoretical and practical education on using of OER, waste selection and recycling with composting; NGOs carried out dissemination of the project results, organization and realization of the events, realization of trainings and establishment of project’s web page.The main activities foreseen in the frame of the project were following: management and coordination of the project; transnational meetings (3); theoretical and practical short term joint staff training events (3); development and printing of the intellectual outputs (Strategic document and Handbook) development and maintenance of the project web-site; preparation of brochure, leaflet and fact sheets for the project activities; organization of media publications and press releases for the project activities and results; preparation of presentations for final dissemination events.Foreseen methodology which was used on the teacher’s trainings was a mix of theoretical and practical approach. Participants were given the theoretical information required to effectively create and implement their own teaching solution in their classes, with aim to increase knowledge of pre-school children. Also teachers were trained to get familiar with composting technology, its advantages, real “on site” implementation in Eco-gardens and analysis of results.The main impact, aim of the project, was to promote new learning approaches and networking as a great opportunity for more efficient pre-school education. Cooperation among teachers and among other authorities and responsible persons for education, with potential implementation of good practices in pre-school education, by realization of planned activities in developed document for strategic partnership, was desired long-term impact from the project.

"The project ""Little people for big changes"" reflects today's need for global change, so that our future and our children' one will be safe and healthy. It was born from the need for children to appreciate our environment and to have responsible attitudes and behaviour. The project will include 6 preschools in different countries Sweden, Romania, Turkey, North Macedonia, Greece, and Italy.Our purpose in developing this project is that the children, who will be independent adults,will be able to take responsibility for the environment and to save the Earth's resources,by being able to use sustainability. Also,we want to give the adults involved understanding and awareness about how important it is to be economical, to recycle and to be able to use other tools such as digitization to avoid wasting Earth's resources. Another goal is to develop the children's identity and independence and confidence in their own ability which is linked to the children's creativity and ability to interact and communicate with the outside world. Our idea is that working on projects at the preschool will build and create meaning and expand children's learning in such an extremely important subject as Nature's and environmental saving.We will use the storytelling methodology which is an important part of teaching in the kindergarten because learning is both more effective and lasting when the lesson is conveyed through a story. In our project the imaginary story with two characters, two mascots ""tree Charlie and captain Eko"" help children learn new vocabulary, learn and build important concepts such as respect of nature, of the environment where they live, pollution and manmade harm done to our nature .The two mascots will lead children towards a better comprehension, literacy, art, math and science concepts, fine motor skills and the comunicative ability . Teaching and fantasy can happily coexist in order to reach our objective to make children aware of “sustainable development”.They will be responsible for the future.Participants will be involved through events, workshops, games, activities, and shows in order to create a profitable collaboration network with small pupils.To reach project’s purpose and our goals and objectives, we planned 6 main activities:C1-Sustainable Development in Early Education for the sustainable environmentC2-An apple a day keeps the doctor away-COMPOSTC3- A TREE as a friendC4- Learn, play, love natureC5- Hundred toys - NO WASTEC6- The Importance of Clean Environment We will develop the Key European competences and active citizenship and soft skills.STEAM activities will be carried out with manual activities,sensorial workshops, outdoor games,use of waste and amorphous material,simple scientific experiments, gardening and discovery activities in the surrounding area, songs and poems, conversations, stories, dramatizations, and shows. The mascots Tree Charlie and Captain Eko are the integrating background of the whole project.The little students will use ITC: Ipad, LIM, computer, interactive table, robotics, 3D printer, and educational software.They will be learning with interactive games, online coding, ebooks, QR, activities with augmented reality to promote cooperation and collaboration between partner schools. We will also work with cultivating plants using recyclable materials, recycle their old clothes and fabric into some useful clothing or masked clothing, planting trees and taking care of them, workshops with the children and the teachers for making toys and constructions from natural materials, creating objects by 3D printer.The project will include various groups including preschool teachers, nurses, kitchen staff, principal, educational developer, school administration staff, children , parents and granparents, members of local authorities, volunteers of ecological associations and also local residents. In order to be able to measure if the project objectives have been met or not, in each partner country, an assessment team will be established for both LTT and local project activities. The coordinator of the project will supervise the evaluation and dissemination of project results in order to make sure the project will have a sustainable impact. To extend the impact of ""Little people for big changes"" project and ensure the effects nationally and some echoes internationally.We will also develop a parallel E-twinning project under the guidance of our partners who are experienced in using this platform. Dissemination and exploitation of results will provide an extension of the project beyond its lifetime.The sustainability will be guaranteed through long-term free open-access to partners' websites.Using methodologies such as cooperative learning, problem-solving, learning by doing, peer to peer, peer tutoring,etc. will influence the quality of education in partner kindergartens by exchange of experiences and new methods of teaching in the field of environment protecti"

"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."

Environmental problems are the deterioration of the balance between natural life and living beings. The biggest feature of environmental problems is that it is not local but global. The environmental problem occurring in any place affects the whole world negatively. Considering that there is not enough awareness about air, water and soil pollution, and that the only living thing polluting nature is human, it is necessary to gain this consciousness at a young age. It is necessary to contribute to the conservation, improvement, development, sustainability of the environment we live in and the destruction of existing environmental pollution.The aim of our activities is to make children and society sensitive to environmental pollution and to draw attention to what people can change. To see the reflection of the cultures and to determine the next road map and to produce different solutions to the environmental problems. The best practices and experiences gained through these partnerships will be shared.One of the starting points of the EU 2020 strategic plan is climate change in the world. It is seen that the biggest factor that causes climate change is environmental pollution. In order to reduce environmental problems, the first way to be followed is to educate individuals who are environmentally conscious. The role and impact of education is very big in transforming the consciousness of nature and environmental protection into the way of life and creating behavior as the environmental consciousness develops in children. Sensitivity to environment in children is particularly evident in 9-10 years of age. The environment provides an unlimited laboratory environment in education. One of the criteria for Europe and the Kyoto Protocol is to provide a dynamic education for the new generation of environmentalist individuals for the healthy environment. As stated in the proverb, one way to raise awareness of society effectively and widely is to raise and educate our children, who are the smallest members of the society, correctly. The main aim in education is to provide children with a love of nature together with the environmental awareness of the future. Generations that are conscious of education will be a guarantee of a more livable environment in the future. Our project aims to educate individuals who are aware of environmental problems by providing active participation of individuals and who knows how to solve these problems. In addition, the planned activities will enable the students to discover, love and protect the environment by tightening them, entertaining them, and sharing them with nature. In this context, sharing the best practices and raising awareness in our children in cooperation with the public and civil society organizations is the starting point of our project. With our project, we aim to protect the existing environment, create a new environment and gain the habit of using energy resources consciously. As a result, concrete results such as development of environmental awareness, increasing environmental awareness, active participation in environmental activities and taking part in the solution of environmental problems are expected in individuals and the social environment in which they interact.Sustainability of our project will be ensured by making new projects related to E twinning. Project will be carried out by Turkey, Greece, Lithuania, Hungary and Macedonia. The activities will be evaluated in terms of the effects they have achieved in achieving the objectives of the project. Evaluations will be done qualitatively and quantitatively in three different areas.1.The effect of the activities on the participants.2. Effect of activities on students.3. Effect of activities on teachers and stakeholders.We will publish and present the purpose and scope of our project on the website we have created for our project. We will organize meetings and presentations with our target audience teachers, students and other stakeholders. We will prepare a dissemination plan. We will share our experience, activity results, e-mail and meetings with the teachers who do not participate in the mobility in line with this plan. The results will be integrated into the courses by associating them with the subjects. E-booklet will be published in national and international platforms. Thus, we will carry the awareness of the project to the international level.