It’s 9 AM in the morning, we are travelling to the village to meet the kids from school during the summer break. I am joining the volunteers from Greentin organization, to assist and participate in the activities they have planned for them. It’s my first time making activities with kids and I am curious to see how they will react to the different games, they are really eager to play! First question they asked when we arrived was “Are we going to do something today?” It was nice to see how the kids behave so comfortably around the volunteers and their happiness when they see them. Once we are there, it’s their work to follow our rules, and our purpose to meet all their expectations, to have a fun, play dynamic games, learn and enjoy. And I am sure their expectations include a lot of games! They need a lot of different activities, otherwise they lose focus and attention, it’s a challenge to keep them entertained and focused for a long time. A challenge that Greentin’s volunteers don’t fear and manage very well. I learned that not only do we need to prepare well for the activities by planning diverse games for the kids, but that sometimes we can just follow their lead and develop their ideas. Praise their creativity and join them!
We went to two different schools, spent two mornings in each school and although it was only a short term experience for me, it was quite meaningful and I very much enjoyed the time I helped develop some of the activities. The energizers, the games with obstacles, making a paper kite, singing and dancing songs, a treasure hunt, charades, prison ball, promoting sports, including one morning dedicated to volleyball, when two volleyball professional players joined us to teach the kids volley and they all played in teams. Kids really like activities that require movement, to run, to catch, to jump, to dance, to play team sports. I believe sport activities play a very important role, the exercise is good for their health, they like it and they have fun. Team sports also teach them about cooperation, mutual aid and support, working in teams, increasing their team spirit.
In four days together with the Greentin volunteers, and the volleyball players we manage to develop many different activities with the kids. Not only did we promote sports, encouraging the kids to do more exercise, but we also played didactic games, such as trying to allocate different ingredients and foods into the right categories of the food pyramid, teaching the kids about a healthy diet highlighting the importance of eating vegetables and fruit every day in stead of sweets and burgers. If playing, learning and having fun at the same time was the goal, then I believe we accomplished it.
Thank you Greentin for this opportunity!