MARIKA CAMILLERI a Year Two class teacher at Dun Mikiel Xerri primary school, shares her experience of a Comenius project, the main objective of which was to integrate music through the curriculum thus motivating young pupils to learn in a pleasant way and appreciate music.
As coordinators for the third and final year of the Comenius 1 Project, Dun Mikiel Xerri Primary we were invited to call on Kindergarten Number 1 School, in Poland, at the end of April for a three-day partners’ meeting. Carmen Said, the assistant head and myself participated in the closure meeting on behalf of the school. The Polish host school is situated in Kruszwica; a quiet and rural area near the beautiful Goplo Lake.
Those present shared their views about the challenges and successes of this three-year musical journey in our respective schools in Malta, Poland, Greece and Romania. The main objective of this project was to integrate music through the curriculum thus motivating young pupils to learn in a pleasant way and appreciate music. The final aim of the project was to produce a musical tale. During this meeting all the countries shared their experiences about the work this production involved. A symbolic character from each partner country travelled in search of the four seasons, and they finally ended up in Malta celebrating their union in a typical village festa and enjoying summer days by the sea.
We had a warm and cordial welcome by the head of school Lidia Walinska, the teaching staff, pupils and their parents in a special assembly where the young children aged three to eight delighted us with their lovely voices and joyful dances. Each class presented pleasant musical activities such as mimes, songs and dances which were very much appreciated by the partners, and pupils from each class gave us a gift which they made for us with their own tiny hands during their craft lessons. On the second day, the pupils gave us a brilliant performance of the musical tale which was called Winter, since the seasons were the central theme of our tale.
During our three days at school we had discussion workshops in which all partners delivered a presentation on each season of the musical tale. Romania’s theme was the autumn season, and the Greeks focused upon spring. The participant countries highlighted their traditions, history and culture through costumes, songs and dances in these productions. Summer was our theme and we presented a video of our pupils’ rehearsing at our school with a short introduction about our locality and a powerpoint presentation produced by myself together with pupils’ work and material produced by the school’s collective effort. Our production was performed on stage in May and a video of our Summer Musical Tale was sent to all partner countries. The partners highlighted the challenges tackled to produce costumes, props and script writing. During the workshops we discussed the dissemination of information, resources and ideas among the participant countries through the project. We also discussed the musical activities held at our own respective schools throughout the last year, musical instruments and exhibitions made by pupils with the help of teachers, parental involvement in musical activities and the development of the Log Book. The relevance of music in our pupils’ lives and the enjoyment of learning about their foreign European countries through music was an objective, which was successfully fulfilled by all partners.
We were guests at an exceptional musical concert performed by gifted young students at the Juliusz Zarebski Music School and also discussed participation in the Comenius project with the heads of the school at a high tea. The partners’ team was guest at the launching of a musical CD named The End of a Musical Journey produced by the Kruszwica Kindergarten at a dinner by the local government, which all the teaching staff and parents’ council attended. Guests were entertained by a popular pop band made up of young artists. We also heard some pupils performing songs from the school CD. A local journalist followed our three-day partners’ meeting and we were interviewed for a local newspaper. We also had a very interesting visit to Torun, which is Copernicus’ hometown and the capital of European culture, where our Polish friends accompanied us to the Planetarium where we travelled millions of light years away from earth, and we experienced medieval Polish baking traditions at the Gingerbread Factory Museum. We also went high up on the Mouse tower, which is a famous local attraction in Kruszwica.
As a class teacher, I strongly believe that by the observation of everyday school-life at the Kindergarten and sharing of ideas through these Comenius projects, the teacher widens his/her knowledge and brings back to school new and effective methods to upgrade teaching strategies to a higher professional standard.