Leonardo 4 Children 2021

“Fables on Climate Action & Gender Equality”

European competition for 6-12 years old children

Winner nr 1: “The trash monster”

Topic: Climate Action
Authors: Domingos Neto, Henry Mallett, Isabel Albuquerque, Jack Molaeb, James Mullins, Larissa Rocha, Lucas Ferreira dos Santos, Maria Melo, Mateus Duarte, Mathias Tempero, Matilde Ribeiro Alves, Omar Jarrah, Savannah Waterhouse, Teresa Sobral
Teacher: Joana Pedro
School: Redbridge School, Lisbon, Portugal

Fable:
There once was an ant colony in an anthill who were big consumers. Each day, they would take the earth’s resources to transform and sell wrapped in single-use packaging. The packaging created rubbish and each piece ended up within nature. Outside of the anthill, a monster started forming. The more the colony consumed, the more the monster grew. One day, the monster went to the anthill and destroyed everything in sight, becoming even bigger and stronger. The rubbish spread around their home and the ants became very sick. A small group of ants left to ask Mother Nature for help. It was you who created this monster, you defeat it!”, exclaimed Mother Nature.
“Please!!”, cried the ants.
“I will help you under one condition, your behaviour must change! You have to reduce, reuse and recycle the materials you use”.
The ants all agreed. Mother Nature created a storm to defeat the monster unconscious. The ants quickly started recycling the rubbish that made up the monster, taking away its strength, until he finally disappeared. From this day on, the ants stopped using single-use packaging and recycled more. Their awareness changed.
Moral: Each piece of rubbish counts!

Winner nr 2: “Me and You: different but equal”

Topic: Gender Equality
Authors: Felicia Alvino, Mohamed Amlal, Jacopo Giuseppe Cappelletta, Clarissa Carapella, Nicholas D’Angio’, Sofia Di Tullio, Luigi Fiscarelli, Vincenzo Gallo, Christian Goffredo, Aurora Stella Grimaldi, Aurora Iannone, Annachiara Laquintana, Greta Pia Masullo, Giorgia Menta, Antonio Piscitelli, Alice Stellabotte, Aurora Tiene, Sofia Tortorelli, Giorgia Zichella, Alfredo Zinco
Teacher: Patrizia Scarimboli
School: XI Circolo San Ciro, Foggia, Italy

Winner nr 3: “Leonardo’s bubble”

Topic: Climate Action
Authors: Raffaele Braghiroli, Gaia Chiarion, Bicholas Giudici, Greta Montini, Enrico Puricelli, Enea Leonardo Scuri
Teachers: Marinella Iametti, Lidia Mantegazza, Chiara Cremonesi, coordinator of the group “Green Children”, Gallarate, Italy

Fable:
In a grey and sad city, factories arise and obscure the sky with dense black smoke. Old trees and battered flowers live nearby the factories; due to the polluted air, they breath hard and decide to talk to the factories about. To get factories’ attention, the trees tickle them; leaves and flowers sing out loud. 
“What is this noise? We are trying to work here ! Trees and flowers explain their difficulties, but the factories refuse to help them by emphasizing the uselessness of Nature.
“Poor creatures, they don’t know that plants, like us, enrich the air with oxygen” a tree reflects on… therefore it proposes to stop to produce oxygen for a while. In a short time the factories come to a halt because without oxygen the fuel cannot burn. “What have you done? We will all die! ” They scream in fear. The discussion is heard by a long-bearded young man dressed in yesteryear clothing: Leonardo. Once he understood the problem, he starts to scribble drawings and make calculations until he come out with his project: to close the factories inside a huge bubble, equipped with ducts that, by unburned fumes recycling, produce new energy without pollution and save trees that produce oxygen, essential element for the life. The factories, understood the importance of collaboration for the common good, approve Leonardo’s project. Then, all work together to make it happen.
Moral: Nature rebels against those who don’t respect it; it’s only with the good will and commitment that the problems can be overcome.
After all, there may be a little Leonardo inside each one of us.

Winner nr 4: “Tana saves all”

Topic: Gender Equality
Authors: Francesco Antonacci, Gabriele Azzarone, Aurora De Lorenzo, Mattia Di Giorgio, Aleandro Figurelli, Hekuran Lecini, Klaris Malko, Francesco Padovani, Aurora Pepe, Emanuele Piscitelli, Matteo Sheshi, Ennio Siesto.
Teacher: Filomena Salvatori
School: Istituto comprensivo Dante Alighieri, Foggia, Italy

Fable:
Once upon a time, lost in a distant forest, where an almost deafening stillness reigned, there was a peacock victim of its own beauty. Here is the story of the peacock and the Mia mole, which for many years has echoed among the oak leaves and chestnut trees. On a summer day, remembered by the animals of the forest as the hottest of all the days, the peacock was under the shade of the fir, exposing its plumage similar to a folding fan decorated in gold and blue. Observing the peacock, which was honoured by the chirping of the small birds, there were: squirrels, hedgehogs, blackbirds, raccoons, frogs and all snakes with non-poisonous tongues. A few steps away from them, however, the mole was sleeping alone. The peacock, recognizing her, said in a loud voice in front of the animals: “You see the mole, how it sleeps ugly and clumsy. What she does is useless, in our wood there is no need for her lairs! ”. After these words, suddenly, there was a great flood. All the animals took refuge by the mole, while the peacock was left alone with his pride.
Moral: this fable teaches us that we must not disdain the weakest, because each of us has a value.

Winner nr 5: “Mila’s car”

Topic: Climate Action
Author: Lola Muñoz Álvarez
School: CP Buenavista I, Oviedo, Spain

Fable:
This is the story of Mila, a girl who decided to build a “car for the planet”. It had a hose, kits, tools, an ingenious machine: a 3D printer that worked with plastic garbage, and wind power. When she finished it, she went to show it to her parents. Along the way, she met the three little pigs who needed the hose to calm the Big Bad Wolf ass, the Ugly Duckling who needed the tools and the medicine cabinet for his brother -who was stuck in the mouthpiece of a plastic bottle-, the Puss in Boots that needed wheels for a giant skate and the teenage Little Red Riding Hood, who needed the ingenious machine to reuse her grandmother’s medicine packaging. She split the car among her neighbors… but she was happy. On the way home, she noticed that the forest was engulfed in flames. Then the Big Bad Wolf, the three piglets, the Puss in boots, the family of ducks and Little Red Riding Hood appeared, and together they put out the fire.  She didn’t have a car anymore… but she had good friends. And that made her very happy.
Moral: if you help others, they’ll help you.

Winner nr 6: “Travel through time”

Topic: Gender Equality
Author: Lucia Esposto

School: Istituto comprensivo Maria Montessori, Chiaravalle (Ancona), Italy

Fable:
Leonardo invented a time portal. He turned the handle and “poof”! Here was Leonarda. She was exactly like him, except she was a woman.  She and her students were watching on the interactive board a YouTube video showing Margherita Hack and two aliens. Leonardo was really surprised: in Africa? In 2010? A female teacher? A female scientist? An interactive board? YouTube? Such a human progress!
A student asked: “Teacher, this gentleman looks like the statue in the school garden!” “Very good Leila, it’s him, with..” then Leonardo said: “It’s really me with the ornithopter”. During the break Leonarda touched the portal handle and suddenly they found themselves upside down in 1963! “Where are we?” “In the space shuttle of Valentina Tereskova, the first woman in space” “You see Leonarda, even in my times there was a great woman”. Then they found themselves during the Hundred Years War. “Hey you, pass me the sword!” “Leonarda, here is Joan D’Arc, a great female warrior who defended France from the English”. It got late, and everybody disappeared to go back to their own eras. “Teacher, the statue has changed its shape!” “It’s true Leila, Leonardo managed to let people of the past understand that, despite the genre and body differences, we still are unique and special beings.”

Winner nr 7: “Penguins survive”

Topic: Climate Action
Authors: Ilias Kathem, Chrysanthos Gregoriou, Constantina Ioannou, Petros Karatzias, Themis Constantinou, Aristos Michael, Mariam Polykarpou, Constantinos Sapalides, Michael Socratous, Eleni Stavrou, Vasiliki Stavrou, Dimos Christodoulou, Christiana Christou, Anna Talchouk, Nicholas Savva
Teacher: Alexia Alexandrou
School: Anayia primary school, Nicosia, Cyprus

Fable:
Once upon a time a female Emperor penguin lived on an iceberg in Antarctic sea. After a few years the Emperor penguin had a family. The small penguins had a big threat: the climate change due to changes in the sea ice they depend on. The ice started to melt slowly because of the climate change.One day an ice seal said to the Emperor penguins:
“Great news! The scientists have invented “snow canons” that will pump seawater up to the surface of icebergs, where it would be frozen into “snow” . They placed one snow canon, which is connected to a flotation, near our iceberg.
“The artificial snow will save Antarctic and our lives”, the emperor penguins screamed out of happiness.
Scientists found a way to save Emperor penguins and Antarctic life.
Moral: There is always a way!

Winner nr 8: “No plastics, yes sea”

Topic: Climate Action
Author: Enea Esposto

School: Istituto comprensivo Rita Levi Montalcini, Chiaravalle (Ancona), Italy

Fable:
Once upon a time there was a turtle that laid eggs on sand. Then it came a wave which pushed one of the eggs inside a big plastic bottle dumped on the beach. The water filled the bottle, which started its journey in seawater. The egg opened right there, under the sea, and Ronf was born, imprisoned between plastic walls. Travelling through the Gulf Stream, the bottle reached the Coral Reef and Ronf noticed a living being nearby that looked like him: Simba. The two little turtles wanted to play together, but the bottle in which Ronf was imprisoned did not allow that. Simba called for help: his friend Mr. Crab. Using his strong claws, he managed to break the bottle and set Ronf finally free. Thanks to Mr. Crab the two new friends managed to play with the ball together, and swim happy together in the seawater.
Moral: Only with the help of everybody, we will manage to keep the sea plastic-free.

Winner nr 9: “The climate change detective in 2021”

Topic: Climate Action
Authors: Maria Varvara Afantiti, Pavlos Azaizes, Antonis Bampanis, Evangelia Baxevanoglou, Niki Bountouri, Gerasimos Garbis,Erato Hatzikonstanti, Nikolaos Kontaratos, Nikoletta Kousouli, Artan Mehmet, Elpidoforos Petridis, Michaela Spilioti, Katerina Sykia, Themis Tentollouris , Rafaela and Christos Triantafyllou

Teacher: Margarita Dakoronia
School: 32nd primary school of Piraeus, Greece, in cooperation with pupils from the 3rd Grade of the 3rd Primary school of Chios, Greece (teachers: Despina Armenaki, Katerina Kypraiou) and pupils from the 1st Grade of the Istituto comprensivo of Merate, Italy (teacher: Roberta Colombo)

Winner nr 10: “We are superheroes”

Topic: Gender Equality
Authors: Bara Nescheret, Victorio Di Carli, Bara Stepankova, Karolina Jelinkova, Hugo Nydrle, Jonas Rabas, Emily Dolezalova, Klaudia Kousova, Mikulas Vitek

Teacher: Victoria Emciuc, Eda Sipek
School: Bambino International Kindergarten, Prague, Czech Republic in collaboration with Square Czech English International School

Fable:
It was a wonderful sunny day in the kindergarten. All the children were enjoying the warm weather, out in the playground. When all of a sudden grey clouds spread across the sun, filling the beautiful blue sky. The children all went in sadly because they wanted to play their games outside. But a child’s imagination has no limits and Eda was not an exception. As a huge fan of superheroes, he really admired Wonder Woman and Superman.
Eda suddenly had a brilliant idea imagining the grey clouds were supervillains out to ruin everyone’s fun. He quickly checked with his friends:  – Robert, Magda, Kate, Alexa and Martina, asking if they would you like to join him in with a game of superheroes?
“Yes, please!”  everyone shouted happily. “I want to be Captain America.” said Robert.
Magda chose to be the giant green Hulk. Kate was Wonder Woman, Alexa wanted to be Xena, Warrior Princess and Martina went with Spiderman. As soon as the game began hundreds of supervillains stormed the kindergarten from above. Luckily the superheroes were ready and determined to defend their tiny school!
Superman was super-fast and invulnerable. Spiderman was agile, climbing walls and swinging on webs, Xena used her amazing fighting skills, Wonder Woman had enhanced senses and superhuman speed, Hulk was the strongest of them all while Captain America had honour, intelligence and endurance.
They trusted each other and united to fight fearlessly against the baddies. Through their bravery, they emerged victorious! The villains were arrested and peace returned to Bambino. The grey clouds suddenly melted away and sun once more shone down.  Together they made the greatest superhero team the world had ever seen!
Moral: Superheroes can be both girls as well as boys, and because we are all super humans only by respecting each other we can fight the evil of discrimination.

​The competition allowed children aged 6-12 across the European Union to use and further develop their creativity and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) skills, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s example, to address a global problem such as climate or gender equality.

Object:

The “work” submitted for the competition is an original creation by one or more participating children choosing between two topics:

“FABLES ON CLIMATE ACTION”: the competition allows children aged 6-12 to use their creativity and their artistic and scientific skills to create their own original Fable to interpret the topic of climate action and environmental sustainability, addressing the problem and possibly proposing a solution.

“FABLES ON GENDER EQUALITY”: the competition allows children aged 6-12 to use their creativity and their artistic and scientific skills to create their own original Fable to interpret the topic of gender equality , addressing the problem of gender discrimination and possibly proposing a solution. 

Timetable:

• Open from 1 November 2020 until 31 May 2021
• Announcement of winners: 15 June 2021
• Award ceremony in Bruxelles: 1 October 2021

Scoring criteria:

• Creativity and originality
• Quality of illustration and visual impact
• Ability to address the issue of climate change or gender equality
• Number of frames
• Work is part of a class / team activity

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

APPLICATION FORM

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The Members of “Leonardo 4 Children” Juries are professionals and experts in children’s education, art, music, science, innovation, philanthropy, with international and multicultural experience.

The Jury for the competition included the following members: Konstantina Arvaniti, Margherita Mesirca, Denise Monas, Rossella Rusca, Maria Teresa Trisciuzzi, who with great enthusiasm and competence have carefully assessed the participating works and scored them on the basis of the following criteria: (i) ability to address the issue of climate change; (ii) creativity and originality; (iii) quality of illustration and visual impact; (iv) work as part of class/team activity; (v) number of frames. 

The works with the best scoring for each of the 10 Fables received an award, consisting in:

• publication on “Leonardo 4 Children” multimedia product and as part of the “Leonardo 4 Children” toolkit for raising funds and as donation to children in need;

• presentation at public events, institutions or public places, during concerts and events;

• “Leonardo 4 Children” award certificate;

• publication on website, social media and promotional material.

Partners and sponsors offered special awards, which would consist in special experiences related to art and science, such as for example:
visit accompanied by experts to art or science site;

• meeting with a famous personality or an expert in art or science;
• workshops on art or science.