SHORT TERM EXCHANGE OF STUDENTS LTTA C4 ITALY
Italy LTTA C4 February 21-24, 2022
-children to explore their own cultural roots
-children to experience diverse cultures
-enable children to empathise with unfamiliar people/places/situations
-offer insights into different traditions and values
-help children understand how wisdom is common to all peoples/all cultures
-offer insights into universal life experiences
-help children consider new ideas
-reveal differences and commonalties of cultures around the World
On the first day the Italian team organised activities.
On the second day we had a possibility to present our traditional festivals. Four PowerPoint presentations were shown: Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) is a very colourful festival with some archaic traditions, Mother‘s Day, and two presentations of our local Smelt festival, which, although being quite modern and young, has become an indispensable part of Palanga. From the Italian team we learned a lot of details about Dante, his life, works, symbolism of his works and hidden meanings. This knowledge will be important foru s in Literature classes.
On Day three Bulgaria introduced us to their cultural heritage. The festival of Roses in Kosnak seems to be very attractive, filled with traditional folk dances, colourful national costumes and buckets of pink rose petals.Embroydery which the Bulgarians have been doing for centuries is their pride. The Italians went on to tell us about the traditional Venecian masks and the carnival as well as Venecian glass. We learned the origins of them all, how they are made and how important they are today.
On the fourth day the Italian team introduced us to some very interesting cultural heritage. Legends appear to be popular in Cicily as well as in Lithuania. We were amazed to hear them. One of them is ‘Opera dei Pupi in Sicily‘ – Sicilian Puppet Theatre. Also we learned about puppet schools in Palermo and Catania. It was sad to hear that today puppeteers can hardly make a living. Yet, fortunately, the tradition has not died out.
Then we learned about Vittoria, its architecture, history and beauty spots. The economy of Vittoria was also presented as well as the Cicillian carts. It was followed by a musical farewell from the Italian partners.
The Polish team presented the cultural heritage of Poland. The history of Krakow was presented. Surprisingly, Krakow has a Barbican as well as our capital Vilnius. We learned about life in Poland during Communism and how important Roman Catholic Church is to the Polish people. The story of Austwitcz was shocking. Rural Poland is very beautiful. Wielichka is impressive. The traditional dishes that were presented are not very different from some of the Lithuanian traditional dishes, such as herring and sour crout.
Literature,art and craft provide pleasure to listeners and readers. It is a relaxing escape from daily problems, and it fills leisure moments. Making time for recreational reading and using high-quality literature help to develop enthusiastic readers and improve achievement. Literature builds experience. Children expand their horizons through vicarious experiences. They visit new places, gain new experiences, and meet new people. They learn about the past as well as the present and learn about partner school cultures, including their own. They discover the common goals and similar emotions found in partner schools. Many arts educators have defended the arts in the school curriculum by emphasising their role in students’moral and individual development. So with the project activities, students learned new values and cultural heritage of Europe.Teaching students about literature,art and craft is a good idea—here’s why:
- It’s been proven that early exposure to visual Lıterature,craft,art, music, or drama promotes activity in the brain.
- literature,art and craft helps children understand other subjects much more clearly—from math and science, to language arts and geography.
- literature,art and craft nurtures inventiveness as it engages children in a process that aids in the development of self-esteem, self-discipline,
cooperation, and self-motivation.
- Participating in literature,art and craft activities helps children to gain the tools necessary for understanding human experience, adapting to and respecting others’ ways of working and thinking, developing creative problem-solving skills, and communicating thoughts and ideas in a variety of ways.
The literature,art and craft are central to the idea of education being about inculcating a love of learning, of acquiring knowledge. It is no accident that the arts are traditionally connected with the idea of being educated. Hence an educated person is assumed to be interested in the literature, art and craft .