The last meeting of Erasmus+ Europe films Europe group was held in Giannitsa, Greece, from 6th to 9th of June. Teachers from all four countries finalized the final report, evaluated and reflected upon the work that has been done in the project during its three-year period. The results of all our hard work and the experiences gained can be seen here on the official website of the project.
Even though this was a serious meeting with the purpose of finalizing the project, we had some time to see the beautiful Thessaloniki, where we took the bus tour around the city and learned about its rich and beautiful history. We made a short stop at the beach to refresh our batteries and in the evening said goodbye to each other at dinner, where we also exchanged gifts to remember each other and this beautiful, enriching experience.

 

DAY 6: 27th May 2019

In the morning, we attended a heartfelt closing event where we said our last goodbyes and exchanged parting gifts, which has become a nice tradition among our group. Saying goodbye is always tough, but we take comfort in the fact that we will always have our memories to remind us of the good times with our friends. And to make everything even easier –- we will always have movies that we made in the course of our common project meetings. Take a look at them in our »Video« section and see for yourself why this project was so special.

DAY 5: 26th May 2019

The second day of our stay in Cuxhaven began with a hearty breakfast, which was followed by one last stroll along the coast. We visited a local grocery store where we were able to shop for small souvenirs. We spent the whole Sunday afternoon in the company of our peers at our host parents. The day of our departure was approaching and we wanted to make every last minute count…

DAY 4: 25th May 2019

We took the bus to Cuxhaven, which lies just off the North Sea. In the past days, we were spoiled by sunny weather, so we had a hard time getting used to the windy, cold and rainy northern climate. We put on all the clothes we brought with us, borrowed rubber boots, or as the Germans call them, “”Gumistiefle”,” and stepped boldly into the sea. We were immediately captivated by the fascinating phenomenon caused by the moon in these parts: the tide of the bay in the morning simply disappears due to the tide, leaving behind a swampy area where many interesting animals find found their homes: from the smallest, single-celled living creatures, to the most diverse species of molluscs and colorful birds who prey upon on them. After lunch, we embarked on a unique adventure that you cannot experience anywhere else: on a horse-drawn carriage, we set off on our way across the “vanished” North Sea and truly enjoyed the view. When we went for a walk along the coast in the evening, we were surprised to find that the sea had “returned”. The evening ended with a spontaneous exploration of the beach, a scoop of ice cream and an assortment of games at the children’s playgrounds, where we spent the very last ounces of our energy.

DAY 3: 24th May 2019

Early in the morning, synchronous clapping and tapping of the pots echoed in the school hall. What followed were classes of dancing, ball games and drawing of one-eyed monsters. In the afternoon, we set off to explore Scheeßel. We visited a beautiful church in the center of the village and enjoyed the mighty sound of church organs. Our trip across the city ended at the Meyerhof, a museum where local craftsmen were happy to share with us a couple of tricks from their playbook with us. We also learned a lot about the distant and more recent history of the area. We learned how the yarn was made and how prints were used to produce beautiful patterns on various fabrics. We tried crafting as well and made our own sample bags. Tomorrow we will make our way to the North Sea and we can hardly wait to soak our feet in it… Brrr!

DAY 2: 23rd May 2019

Well- rested and full of energy we headed to the school, where we attended various workshops prepared for us by the German teachers. We were pleased to test the outdoor playground, which offers plenty of space for relaxing and socializing during breaks. We learned how to sing an Italian song in music class, and we also learned to accompany our voices with xylophones and metallophones. We loved the yoga class, where we stretched our bodies and expanded our minds.
In the afternoon, we went for a visit to the water park, where we spent two carefree hours jumping into the water and riding slides. We worked up quite an appetite and were really happy when we returned to the schoolyard, where our peers’ parents were waiting for us with a delicious meal.

DAY 1: 22nd May 2019

Pupils from Slovenia and Germany met for the last time in Scheeßel, Germany, where our Europe films Europe team was joined by a group of Polish pupils who are also participating in the Erasmus+ project. The Slovenes’ journey to the remote town in the north of Germany began at the Vienna airport, from where they flew to Hamburg, the second largest German city. After a quiet and relaxing flight, we had some time to explore the city, which is known as one of the most important European ports. We witnessed first-hand many of the city’s most important buildings, including the picturesque Elbphilharmonie and the remains of the St. Nicholas’ Church. We even visited the Chocoversum, one of the world’s most famous chocolate museums. You can tell by from the photos that the tour of this museum was really sweet!
Upon arrival in Scheeßssel, the Slovenes were very happy to meet with their German friends once again. We had a brief introductory meeting, which was ideal for saying hello to our Polish peers and taking our first group photo! We ended our first day’s activities on a cheerful note and headed for a well-deserved rest. As the day ended, we were already looking forward to the events up ahead!

Our Erasmus+ friends from Germany and Greece came and visited us again between the 13th and 18th of May. With the use of their own ideas and interpretations of the Slovenian national anthem Zdravljica, they made a unique stop motion animated movie combining clay and paper. The movie can be watched  on our official website along with other movies that were made in this project.

When we had a well-deserved break from filming, we cooled off in the Thermania Laško pools and listened to a Slovenian folk tale Janček Ježek in three different languages (can you guess which?). We visited a local icon Herman the Fox in his den, where we experimented and played with awesome toys. Our taste buds tasted sweet honey and we learned a lot about beekeeping and everything that can be made from honey in a small family run business Perger. After that we went deep underground and experienced the life of miners in the mine museum in Velenje.

The visit came to a close with a great ceremony, where we ate homemade deserts, thanked our parents and said goodbye to our guests. Thankfully it will not be a hard goodbye yet because we will be seeing our German friends again next week!

 

Im Jahr 2018 reichte Frau Eilers den, von der Medien-Gruppe in Scheeßel/ Deutschland erstellten, Film “The Prejudice” beim Filmwettbewerb “Die Filmklappe” ein und dieser erhielt den zweiten Preis. Die beteiligten Schülerinnen und Schüler erhielten als Preis Kinokarten, die sie am 10. April 2019 im Mobilen Kino Scheeßel einlösen konnten. In diesem Zuge wurde der ausgezeichnete Film auch dem Kinopublikum vorgestellt.

Greece was the location of our third pupils’ meeting after Germany and Slovenia. It was well attended as they all were so far. There were 8 pupils from Slovenia, 6 from Sweden and 6 from Greece. And we were welcomed by our Greek hosts who proved to be one of a kind.

During this meeting we were invited to see and learn about the rich Greek history, get familiarized with their customs and experience the local food. But as always we were most interested in how our Greek friends live and what they do in school.

We were greeted by a special get-together of all the Greek pupils who waited for us outside their school and the headmaster had some kind word to welcome us. It was only logical we immediately became friends as all the pupils took a genuine interest in us.

The days went buy very quickly and we were amazed as to how many activities we were able to cram in our schedule. We attended a cooking class where we made cookies, we made Christmas cards and attended an acting workshop. We were also taken to the museum in Pella where Alexander the Great was born and we visited Thessaloniki. There we visited a film museum where we also made a film and in the final days of our visit we were able to play with lego robots where we tried our hand in programming them.

It was a sad time when we realized we had to say goodbye and go home, but we were consoled by the fact that we will all meet again soon in Sweden.

 

 

 

Slovenia visit – 13th to 16th September 2018

The beginning of a new school year is also a start of the second year of our Erasmus+ project, Europe films Europe. This is the time when we make assessments on how well we did in our first year as well as make detailed plans about this year.

In order to do so and do a good job while at it the partners meet for a short partners’ meeting in Slovenia between 13th to 16th September 2018. The meeting took place at III. osnovna šola Celje as the host and our idea was to make a short evaluation as to what we had achieved and where we want the project to move ahead in 2018/19.

All the partners were happy to participate and make plans. We have been successful in forming a questionnaire for pupils and parents involved, we furthermore agreed on how to proceed with eTwinning which we want to make a part of our projects and we set the dates of our next meeting.

A lot of work in a short period of time. Hopefully our effort will show in the near future so we invite you to check our web page regularly for more updates.

“This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.”

After our initial meeting in Germany it was now time for the participants of the Erasmus+ project to meet again. The location of this second meeting and pupils’ exchange was Slovenia. The meeting took place in Celje, Slovenia’s third largest city where III. osnovna šola Celje, one of the project partners, is located.

Some additional information about Celje can be found here:
https://www.celje.si/sites/default/files/celje-en.pdf

Slovenian pupils were extremely happy with the prospect of hosting their newly acquired friends in their homes and were great hosts to 6 Swedish, 6 German and 4 Greek pupils. In fact there were so many families who wanted to host not everybody was able to. But we are sure there will be more opportunities to do so in the future.

The object of our meeting was to discuss the ways of helping those who have problems assimilating and entering a close-knit communities for whatever reasons. But we primarily focused on pupils who come from abroad or those who have special needs which prevent them from being as accepted by their peers as they should be.

To do that we asked a professional film crew to join us during the meeting and help us learn a new film-making technique which is know as the stop-motion technique. This is a very interesting way of making a film and you don’t actually need a film camera to do so. A simple phone or ordinary camera will do the job.

We were able to film two joint projects which can be seen here:

In addition each country has brought a film they had made prior to coming to Slovenia which have also been shown to the local public. All movies can be viewed in the VIDEO section of our page.

Besides the film workshops our guests were taken around the city of Celje to see its main sights as well as Ljubljana, our capital. It is always a great experience to see something new and learn about the culture of a nation. But what we believe our guests were most delighted about were some art and cooking workshops we have prepared for them. In the art workshops the pupils were trying to portray »Herman the Fox«, a well known local children’s character in Celje and make their own »kurent« doll that is useful in February for driving winter away. In the cooking workshop the children prepared their own sweets and deserts for after lunch time and they have also made Slovenia’s best known cake, the »potica«. And it was a great success as well. We all wanted seconds.

All in all the meeting was fun and educational and we invite you to check out some of the meetin’s photos.

“This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.”

Finally, it was time for the whole group to come together and meet for the first time. Teachers and pupils from Sweden, Greece, Germany and Slovenia have come to Scheeßel for their first live meeting and it was a truly wonderful event.

     

After some work at schools on our individual movies it was time to show our work and meet new friends. Pupils were happy to get to know their German hosts who were kind enough to invite them to stay in their homes. All the reservations and concerns about language barriers were soon gone, because children always find a way to communicate.

The meeting itself had it all…lots of work, fun and interesting activities. New flavors and different food, new friends, new places to visit, a trip to the North Sea and much, much more. But why only talk about all the wonderful things that happened during our stay in Germany if we can show them to you as well.

Enjoy our gallery. And see you in May 2018 in Slovenia!

Every project has to have an official logo and since we are a very serious Erasmus+ project we have decided to make a proper competition and choose a logo that will best represent the gist of our project aims… friendship, co-operation, integration, assimilation, openness and multiculturalism.

 

A tough job for sure but thanks to the pupils we had many great and innovative ideas. The problem was choosing only one when there were so many interesting possibilities. And since it was impossible to choose just one we decided to take some ideas from different logos and put them all together into a new one.

 

We believe this was very much in the spirit of our project and that we did not only listen to one voice or settle on one idea but rather worked together in finding a common ground and hence create a joint logo that will carry the idea of our project forward. We invite you to take a look at some of the ideas our pupils put forward.