ACTUALLY I CAN DO IT MYSELF: LITTLE HEROES - ETWINNING PROJECT 2026 - Curriculum Integration – 5th Grade Counseling and Guidance - Romania and Turkey

Publicat în 28. 06. 2026 de Violeta Măzăroaie | Etichetat cu: collaboration dissemination, project, curriculum, etwinning

FEBRUARY 2026

1. Student and Teacher Introductions
SC1 (Specific Competence 1): Adopting positive attitudes towards oneself and a healthy, balanced lifestyle.
1.1. Identifying personal resources and age-specific development opportunities.

Students can use safe Web 2.0 tools (such as Avatar Maker, Voki, or Canva) to create an avatar and a short description of themselves (passions, qualities). This serves as the perfect lesson on how to present oneself safely and positively in the online environment, fulfilling the syllabus requirement of Myself in the online environment.

2. School Introduction and the Project’s Padlet Page
SC1 (Specific Competence 1): Adopting positive attitudes towards oneself and a healthy, balanced lifestyle.
1.1. Identifying personal resources and age-specific development opportunities.

Filming the school introduction video can be organized as a group activity during class. Students reflect on their school space: What do they like about their school? What are their favorite places? They can work in teams (one team films the classroom, another the school yard, and another a Welcome message). Uploading these materials to Padlet transforms the virtual board into a collective digital project of the "Myself and my class/school" type, fostering a sense of belonging to the group.

3. Student Posters (Collaborative)
SC1 (Specific Competence 1): Adopting positive attitudes towards oneself and a healthy, balanced lifestyle.
1.1. Identifying personal resources and age-specific development opportunities.

Presenting the posters to their peers and displaying them on the mobile whiteboard in the school hallway will provide students with validation for their hard work.

4. Logo Selection
SC1 (Specific Competence 1): Adopting positive attitudes towards oneself and a healthy, balanced lifestyle.
1.1. Exploring personal values and preferences.

The moment students vote for the official logo can be transformed into an exercise in argumentation and self-awareness of their own tastes. Before voting, students answer questions such as: Why do you like a specific logo? What does it convey? This helps them define their aesthetic preferences and visual values.

MARCH 2026

1. My Morning Routine
SC1 (Specific Competence 1): Adopting positive attitudes towards oneself and a healthy, balanced lifestyle.
1.2. Analyzing sources of stress and its consequences on health and well-being.

Before students photograph the materials illustrating their routine (brushing teeth, breakfast, making the bed), a classroom discussion takes place regarding time management and reducing morning stress. Additionally, discussions are held on how a chaotic morning (waking up late, rushing for the bus, skipping breakfast) becomes a major source of stress that ruins their well-being for the rest of the school day. Presenting an organized routine serves as a positive example of best practices for a balanced lifestyle.

2. Wish Tree
SC1 (Specific Competence 1): Adopting positive attitudes towards oneself and a healthy, balanced lifestyle.
1.1. Identifying personal resources and age-specific development opportunities.

Instead of writing down merely material wishes (e.g., a phone, a video game), each student must reflect on wishes related to their personal development, school, or relationships (e.g., I want to be braver when speaking in public, I wish we would get along better in class). Hanging these wishes on the tree becomes a public activity of embracing and taking ownership of their own goals and values.

3. WordArt Activity
SC1 (Specific Competence 1): Adopting positive attitudes towards oneself and a healthy, balanced lifestyle.
1.1. Identifying personal resources and age-specific development opportunities.

Children answer questions such as: What do I know? What can I do? What do I like? or What does a happy life mean for a 5th grader?. We collect a series of words related to the project, its title, and other personal values.

4. Planting and Caring for Flowers
SC1 (Specific Competence 1): Adopting positive attitudes towards oneself and a healthy, balanced lifestyle (5th Grade).
1.1. Identifying personal resources and age-specific development opportunities.

Concurrently, we address long-term responsibility (caring for the plant) and how connecting with nature or a practical hobby can considerably improve their mood when they feel overwhelmed by homework or exams.

APRIL 2026

1. Masked Drama (The Irresponsible Child)
GC 2 (General Competence 2): Harmonious relating with others in school and extracurricular contexts.

2.1. Recognizing a variety of emotions experienced in relation to oneself and others.

2.2. Providing positive feedback in relations with others.

This activity involves initial discussions about the emotions a child experiences when they do not take ownership of their responsibilities (fear of failure, shame, guilt) and what those around them feel (disappointed parents, upset classmates). The children choose to create puppets to use instead of characters, utilizing the mobile stage in the classroom. At the end of the play, peers in the audience talk about what they liked in the actors' performance, using sentence-completion prompts such as: I liked it when M. played/interpreted....

2. My Responsibilities at School (Photo Collage)
GC 2 (General Competence 2): Harmonious relating with others in school and extracurricular contexts.
2.2. Providing positive feedback in relations with others.

Students take photos of one another (with permission) while performing a responsible action: a classmate turning off the light when the lesson ends, another distributing school supplies or throwing plastic into the recycling bin, and another collecting trash and taking the bin to the dumpster. This photo collage becomes an opportunity for each child to publicly recognize the positive behaviors that maintain cleanliness and harmony in the shared space.

3. Little Chefs Without Fire – My Local Dish & Recycled Clothes and Toy Exhibition
GC 4 (General Competence 4): Making decisions related to continuing education and career by utilizing information about oneself, education, and occupations.
4.2. Identifying occupations from different fields of activity and their benefits for the individual and society.

These two practical activities lead toward career guidance. To highlight the role of a chef as well as that of an entrepreneur, the children decided to organize a product fair and a culinary exhibition. The product fair featured traditional Romanian dishes, while the exhibition focused on traditional dishes from European Union countries. The culinary exhibition was held in May on the occasion of Europe Day. The children shared their mothers' and grandmothers' recipes, as well as their own, with their schoolmates.
Regarding the toy exhibition, the children had the opportunity to share their passions, as well as exchange toys and books with other classmates, which sparked real joy. For the eco-costume parade made from recycled materials, the students set up a costume-making workshop after organizing a collection drive for the necessary recyclable materials.

4. April 23 Puzzle Activity (Jigsaw Planet)
GC 2 (General Competence 2): Harmonious relating with others in school and extracurricular contexts.
2.1. Recognizing a variety of emotions experienced in relation to oneself and others.

The date of April 23rd served as a catalyst for a communication exercise. Solving a digital puzzle in teams drives students to collaborate under time pressure, providing an excellent opportunity to discuss afterward how they felt, how they managed setback/failure if the pieces did not fit, and how they organized themselves. On this occasion, we also organized a reading workshop with the students in the school library, as well as a reading workshop with their parents.

MAY 2026

1. Environmental Cleaning
SC 1 (Specific Competence 1): Adopting positive attitudes towards oneself and a healthy, balanced lifestyle.
1.2. Analyzing sources of stress and its consequences on health and well-being.
SC 2 (Specific Competence 2): Harmonious relating with others in school and extracurricular contexts.
2.2. Providing positive feedback in relations with others.

Through environmental cleaning and care activities, the participating children became aware that a clean and orderly environment reduces visual and mental stress, thereby increasing the community's well-being. The physical cleaning activity carried out in teams served as a great teambuilding opportunity and appealed directly to their civic spirit.

2. Acrostic Poem
SC 2 (Specific Competence 2): Harmonious relating with others in school and extracurricular contexts.
2.2. Providing positive feedback in relations with others.

Students collaborate with other peers to create a stanza based on the project's slogan. For each accepted line, the team must argue why the metaphor or word chosen by a classmate is suitable and how it completes the team's overall idea.

3. Collaborative Story
SC 3 (Specific Competence 3): Reflecting on the motivation and effectiveness of strategies for learning progress.
3.1. Identifying personal and contextual factors that facilitate/block learning.

Creating a digital book in mixed teams engages students in collaborative work and helps them think together to accomplish a final, team-driven end product.

4. Virtual Exhibition
SC 3 (Specific Competence 3): Reflecting on the motivation and effectiveness of strategies for learning progress.
3.2. Presenting learning progress using varied communication methods.

The Padlet page brings together all the products created from February to May. Students discuss the project outcomes and observe how their digital, social, and communication skills have evolved from the beginning of the project up to the present day.