November

Achievement Report

Title: Culture & Sports Olympics in El Cocal

Objective: Promote physical activity, teamwork and sportsmanship while also
learning about other countries and the Olympics

Summary: In November Volunteers prepared an Olympics competition in El
Cocal primary school with discipline, competitive sport and cultural tasks

Report:

GVI has been working with the children of the marginalized community of El
Cocal for three years now. Volunteers work hard to provide extracurricular fun
activities to supplement the classes the children receive in school. Due to having few resources and a small school size, children in El Cocal attend school half
days, so that teachers can teach two sessions per day: 1st cycle is 1st, 2nd and 3rd
grade, and 2nd cycle is 4th, 5th and 6th. This allows all grades to share the same
small school facility. However, this system, commonly used throughout Costa
Rica, does not allow for much time for the extras the non-academic classes
such as Arts, PE, music, hands-on projects and other fun activities that can give
a child a more well-rounded school experience. GVI assists by using our resources and volunteers to provide activities outside of classes to reinforce
learning in a fun and dynamic way. We use this time to both let the kids run
around and play and be kids, as well as to teach concepts and reinforce positive values.
The Cocal children love physical sports activity, so we often incorporate sports
into our lessons there to engage them and keep their interest. For this activity,
our international mix of volunteers hoped to teach the kids about other countries and expand their view of the world outside of Cocal, practice English vocabulary, and just have a lot of fun. Volunteers split the children in two teams
for the Olympics. Each child represented a country. Given that, volunteers had
prepared flags of the countries with some facts about each of them to teach
the kids. After that, the children have started the Olympic circuit with a different activity in each stop: from scavenger hunt type stop where they searched
for items with the word given only in English to traditional Olympic sports such
as volleyball, bowling, running races, soccer, and long jump.

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We believe it is important to do these kinds of activities for the children to

learn sports skills, discipline, competitive tasks and develop their knowledge of
other cultures. In a tiny community like El Cocal, with few opportunities for
students to travel further than nearby Quepos town or perhaps a larger town
in Costa Rica, they do not have such an understanding of how big the world is,
and how others live. The children enjoyed themselves while practicing healthy
activities,opening their minds about other cultures,and doing the activities as a
team, helping each other to reach a goal.

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