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Our three new volunteers Sophia Eckert, Judith Schork and Katharina Wagner care for the sports programme for the children in Okakarara and also encourage daily learning through board games. This is how they structure the day: 

Our day starts with the sports lesson, alternating with one of the two pre-school classes, the two kindergarten groups or the toddler group. The kiddies come towards us beaming, and as soon as we shout „RUN!“, everyone knows what to do: first run three laps around the soup kitchen, then crawl through tyres, balance over the sandpit and hop through the hopscotch squares, while the children count out loud, the older ones already in English.

To bring a little routine into the schedule, we then all stand in a circle and do stretching exercises, an uncoordinated form of jumping jacks and hopping, and run through the room in different ways („like a lion, like a frog, like a horse“). Communication is generally rather difficult, as the preschool children still know little English, but with hand gestures and mime you can convey a lot, especially in sport.

After that we continue with different exercises that we plan on a weekly basis. There has already been the obstacle-course week: that means the kids had to go through our course of benches, tables, cones, ropes and a tunnel in order to learn various motor skills through play and improve their coordination. The following week was themed ball skills, where we practised throwing tins and bowling in small groups. Many of the children had never done this before, and it quickly brought smiles to everyone’s faces, until the teacher also enthusiastically broke the record. For another week we are planning a dance and are already curious to see how it goes down.

New to the daily routine is the board-game session from 11am. Here we sit with two groups of four children each and play games such as „Snail Pace Race“, dominoes or „Quips“, which mainly support learning colours and numbers. Sometimes the kids need several attempts to find the right English word („pink?!“ – „no“ – „yellow?“ – „noo“ – „blue“ – „Yees“!). We usually are not satisfied with Otjiherero. This requires a lot of concentration from the children, for whom board games are not familiar play materials, unlike for German children. Many have trouble with rolling the dice or keeping to the correct order. But we are happy every time, because we can already see lots of progress and everyone is always full of enthusiasm.

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Our three new volunteers Sophia Eckert, Judith Schork and Katharina Wagner care about the sports program for children in Okakarara and also promote the daily learning through games. So they make the day: 

Our day starts with gym class, with alternately one of the two pre-school classes, the two kindergarten groups or playgroup. The kiddies come forward joyfully meet and hardly we call, all know what to do „RUN!“: First three rounds to run for the soup kitchen, then crawl through the tire, balance on the sandbox and bounce through Hüpfkästchen, the children count out loud , the elderly even in English.

To get some routine in the process, we imagine after all in a circle and doing stretching exercises, uncoordinated form of jumping jack and bounce, run in different ways through the space ( „like a lion, like a frog, like a horse“ ). The understanding is yes generally more difficult because the preschoolers little English can, but with hands and feet you can really convey much especially during sports.

Then it’s showing different exercises on, we are planning on a weekly basis. There have been the course-week: that is, the kids had our course of benches, tables, hats, ropes and a tunnel through to thereby learn playfully various motor movements and improve their coordination. The next week was themed ball feel, where we throw in small groups doses and exercised bowling. This did not know many children and conjured quickly smiles on the faces of all those involved, to the teacher also excited broke the record. For another week, we plan to dance and are curious how that arrives.

New in daily operations is the company round from 11am. Here we sit with two groups of four children and play games like „pace, little snail“, Domino or „Quips“ that support especially learning colors and numbers. Sometimes kids need several attempts to find the right English word ( „pink ?!“ – „no“ – „yellow“ – „noo“ – „blue“ – „Yee“!). Because with Otjiherero we usually are not satisfied. This requires a lot of concentration for the children, for board games as opposed to German children no usual game materials are. Many have trouble cubes or going to adhere to the correct sequence. But we are happy every time again, because we already see a lot of progress and all always full of enthusiasm are.

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