Early childhood years are important because it is the period when children should receive education to improve their cognitive,social,emotional and physical skills.Precisely,it is the time when children form habits to shape their lives in future and that is why a well-planned and implemented education and care is necessary. Recently,EU has prioritized both the quality and quantity of preschool education to increase the number of employed people,especially mothers and to provide the best possible start for the future by keeping the quality and quantity of ECEC services high as stated in Communication from the Commission in 2011.Considering this,we have come up with a project to increase the quality of preschool education.Our main aim was, through project’s topic and activities, to increase the quality of ECEC services, to develop children’s “learn to learn” competence,one of the key competences, and contribute to decrease the number of early school leavers in parallel with 2020 targets from the Communication from the Commission(2011).The specific focus on the project is developing“learn to learn” competence in preschool children,involving it in the preschool education through natural activities and train the teachers about using“L2L” activities.We use“nature as means for children to use and develop creative thinking and problem solving skills,learn to manage their own learning,create new objects from natural materials and in general to “L2L”.We worked as 7 partners;5 schools,one universtiy and one Quality AssuranceIns.These non-school partners provided with high quality and each used of their expertise in the Project.Each partner was very experienced in their fields.Most of them have done many EUProjects. QA partner prepared a QA Plan and did necessary quality checks for each activity.They assessed the whole project and deliverables with their assessment tool INKA.To guarantee the quality and good collaboration in the project,we also worked with an External Evaluator.To plan theproject,we carried out a questionnaire to parents and a needs analysis to teachers in partner schools.Regarding their results, we planned training activities to introduce the “L2L” inclusion in preschool education. And we also had two preparatory meetings in Greece and Belgium to decide our road map during the project. We prepared a work plan.During the project, 4 transnational meetings were done with different purposes like evaluation of materials for pilot and final implementation.2Teacher trainings on L2L werealso organized.The teachers developed activity plans after the training.Totally,60 activities were used in final implementation.“EL2LE Guide for Teachers” was prepared. We organized workshops for teachers and parents to be aware of the “L2L”implementationsand learn activities to do with children at home.Kids continued developing “L2L”at home. We developed a Moodle platform for uploading “L2L” presentation,activity plans to practice “L2L”,results for other teachers to Access for free and reach the Project documents.It was an OER and will be a contribution to have common European implementations.This open virtual platform had local,regional and European level impact.The virtual platform and its material reached a considerable number of local and regional schools across Europe and this gave chance to exchange good examples. A research paper on“opportunities and obstacles in 21st century “learn to learn”competence:what works, what doesn’t and what needs to be done”was prepared for a strong impact in European level and uploaded there.Moodle platform was easily accessible and free for everyone to be a member and use the resources available there.The teachers wishing to observe“L2L” activities are able to visit our schools and also share their photos with us while doing activities with children.And with Road Map,output of the Project, we offered recommendations to the policy-makers and European Commission and aimed to change in curriculum to adapt“learn to learn”competence in ECEC programmes and make a crucial contribution to European educational system.To disseminate our results,we used our website and different communication channels such as LinkedIn,websites and also project’s Moodle platform.Weprepared newsletter.At least 30 schools will subscribe to Moodle platform infollowing2 years.Each partner school will continue teacher and parent trainings with different teachers and parents from their region. By starting to develop“L2L”competences in preschool,which was necessary for people’s future career life,we aimed to increase the number of well-qualified staff in labour market in the future.At the end of the Project,each partner organized workshops and we had an International Final Conference in Istanbul to disseminate our results.

"In the ""100 steps"" project collaborated 4 kindergartens and 1 primary school across Europe, using their experience and knowledge to find diverse ways to use ICT in pre-school education.The project was inspired by a growing problem where children have become physically and socially inactive because of influence computer games, smart devices and television. Instead of banning the devices, our plan was to use them as a motivational tool in teaching. So we decided to find ways to use these tools to motivate the children to be physically active, communicate and collaborate.The general aim of the project was to find ways to integrate ICT with physical activities. In line with the goal, the project focus was on improving teachers' ICT skills. A survey, conducted before the start of the project, revealed that teachers have some ICT skills but they are one-sided and not very used in teaching process. The extra focus was on outdoor learning as it offers many opportunities for physical activity.The direct target group of this project was teachers of the participating organizations who benefit from the project:- learning tools for different activities in different environment- advancement of the pedagogical competences of early years education through the European exchange about the topic- improved skills in using ICT tools in teaching- get to know and to understand different European school systems- teachers acquire new teaching methods- improvement of foreign language competence (English)Indirect target groups were:- Children - all the activities were children oriented. Project activities contributed greatly in development of several key competences of pre-school children. - Parents, who were encouraged to be physically active and creative with their children, they facilitated implementation of many project activities and their feedback emphasized quality of this project.During the project we created so-called ""Creative Backpack"" that consists different educational materials to the preschool teacher, as of: description of activities, described physical activity game collection, video collection of appropriately understood and suitable experiments for the preschool children, introductions of ICT tools used during the project activities, and the like. ""Creative Backpack"" is a handy tool for either novice or for an experienced teacher, as well as for parents who are looking for new ideas how to spend quality time with their kids. The added value of the project was the possibility to carry out it transnationally. The teaching materials that are created throughout the project were prepared by kindergarten teachers and are considering especially the needs of an early childhood education. As an International group found creative solutions because the professional training, experience and knowledge of participating teachers were different but complementary.Our project results will stay in digital form and freely accessible by others as open educational resources at Project website, eTwinning Platform, school websites, EU Dissemination Platform."

When teachers present the child’s achievements portfolio to the parents they often focus only on the content, but not on how to present it to the parents, in order to help them fully understand and engage them in further cooperation. The understanding of importance of successful cooperation between teachers and parents and our intention to bring more professional approach of the feedback in the preschools brought our partners organizations together. Within this project we would like to share the best practices and to combine together the experience and knowledge of different European countries.The aim of this project is to encourage more effective cooperation between teachers and parents in preschool in order to contribute to the development of high quality early childhood education and care systems. The following objectives have been set to achieve the project’s aim:– to investigate how teachers provide the feedback to parents about the child’s development in the preschools; – to define the elements of high quality feedback and share the good practices how to implement those elements in the preschools;– to prepare, test and publish the methodological recommendations for preschool teachers how to provide high quality feedback to parents.The project teams of 3 members from Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria and 2 members from Greece will participate in the mobility activities. Those teams will be represented by: headmistresses, preschool teachers, child support specialists. Apart from the project’s team the important role in the local project activities will be given to all members of preschools communities.Project activities are planned according to the project’s aim and objectives and will cover whole project period. There will be five Short-term joint staff training events organised. During the first workshop in Lithuania participants will learn about the high quality feedback components in preschool. Second workshop will be organised in Latvia to share the best practice examples how ICT tools can be used to provide more attractive and interactive feedback to parents. During the third workshop in Romania our teams will analyse the most common case scenarios based on real data from preschools. Workshop in Greece will be organised to discuss and evaluate the difficulties which teachers faced when were practicing feedback to parents at their preschools. At the end of the project the Closing conference in Bulgaria will be organised to present project results along with the workshops on practical presentations how to use the publication of methodological recommendations in every day work. Between the mobilities the local activities will be organised at each partners’ school and will contribute a lot to the quality of final project’s results. The project will start with the information seminars to teachers and parents. Also at the beginning and at the end of project the surveys for teachers and parents will be conducted. To practice the feedback delivery skills teachers will have individual meetings with parents. Workshops and round table discussions will be organised before mobilities and after. Also there are dissemination activities planned at local, regional and national level.Based on the project’s objectives, the following results are expected:- teachers will gain knowledge about high quality feedback and how to apply its elements in communication with parents;- teachers’ and parents’ motivation to communicate and cooperate will increase; - teachers will develop the digital competences while working with ICT tools;- methodological recommendations for preschool teachers how to apply high quality feedback to parents will be published and disseminated. The project will have the impact on the higher quality of feedback provided by teachers to parents about child’s development. Also we expect that the cooperation between teachers and parents will increase and it will bring positive changes not only to the project’s participants, but to the whole preschools communities. The potential longer-term benefits can be indicated to the following groups of schools community: - teachers will build more successful cooperation with parents;- child support specialists will receive more accurate information about child’s development from teachers;- parents will receive the individual recommendations for their child’s development;- child will receive a full-fledged education based on close cooperation between teachers, child support specialists and parents;- administration staff will introduce the main principles of effective cooperation between teachers and parents in their educational programs.The experience gained during this project will provide all partner preschools the expertise and confidence to share their good practice with other preschools in the area in order to build the networks and spread the message about the importance of high quality feedback in communication with parents.