Environmental issues are a global concern nowadays and children are not in contact with nature as much as they should be or used to be.
Today’s society, with the growing use of technology from the earliest age has resulted in children who are detached from nature.

Environmental awareness and sustainable development are imperative today because of major climate changes and ecological problems.
Because of that, it is our duty as educational workers in ECEC to raise the awareness of our children about the importance of taking care of
nature.

Children today are using modern technology from the earliest age and it is not possible to ignore this or try to prevent it, our motivation
is to show children how to use ICT in an appropriate way by exploring nature with use of it.

Since every partner country is an expert in some field related to ecology, nature and ICT our aim is to compare our differences and learn from them.

According to this we have set the following objectives:
– strengthen European dimension in the participating schools and build up capacity for cross-border cooperation
– promote importance of ecology, sustainable development, environmental awareness and rational energy consumption on local and
european level
– educate responsible citizens
– stimulate all senses while spending time outdoors
– use nature as media for learning
– introduce ICT as a media for exploring the nature
– encourage teachers to think ‘outside of box’ and create stimulating environment by transferring indoor activities outside.

In each school all teachers will take part in the project activities (around 90 teachers) and we have set the criteria for choosing those who will
take part in mobilities. All teachers have motivation for improving their educational practice and gain knowledge and competences in the area
of ecology, sustainable development, outdoor learning and introducing ICT technology in educational work. As we previously mentioned,
every partner is expert in one field of education so teachers in each partner school have a strong background in relation to the project.

In order to achieve project objectives we will have four LTTA in partner countries. First LTTA will take part in October 2020 in Croatia. The
main theme of this LTTA is ecology and sustainable development (How to teach preschool children ecology, Steps towards sustainable
development, Composting, Recycling paper, How and why working with clay, Waste is not garbage)
Our second LTTA will take part in February 2021. in Estonia the main theme is ICT and outdoor learning (Outdoor learning, ICT in learning
process, Using tablets and different ICT learning devices outside)
Our third LTTA will be held in Italy, in May 2021. The main theme is gardening and biological plants (Decoration of recycled material bag, How
to teach science in preschool and primary school towards sustainable development and respect to environment, Environment education in
Montessori kindergarten, Land art).
Our last LTTA will be in September 202.1 in Croatia the main theme is Follow up.

Between these LTTA we have timetable for activities which will take part in partner countries and will be regularly published on projects
website, eTwinning group and web sites of each institution.

One joined activity is gardening, our plan is to grow plants, herbs, seeds which are typical for each country so children can learn about our differences. From this point they will learn about climate differences also.

Using ICT technology children will monitor and document the growing process. Another activity is Partner’s days which will take part before LTTA,
children will learn about partners countries and using Skype/Zoom/Teams they will communicate with each other. For Christmas time children will prepare
gifts and postcards for partner schools using recycled paper and waste materials.

These are some of the expected results and impact of the project:
-children will acquire an understanding of their global environment, their relationship with their environment, environmental issue and problems
-children will acquire an appreciation of their environmental, active concern and motivation to maintain and improve the quality of their environment
-children will develop thinking and action skills for the prevention and resolution of environmental problems
-Increased implementation of activities promoting sustainable development
-Increased implementation of active learning methods
-Increased use of new technologies in work

Every institution will change their curriculum according to the outcomes of this project. Activities which we will start during the project, new methods, skills and knowledge will remain as part of our everyday work with children. Also, children will continue to grow their own food. While
participating in european project and bringing our partners to our schools and kindergartens we will become more recognized as experts in our own communities, and we will become more acknowledged also on european level.