Kinder in the kitchen in Perú

The volunteers at out kindergarten school at Alto Chiriguana, Perú have been coming up with great, creative ways to get the kids to be as creative as possible. Unfortunately, Latin America is well known for its copying teaching technique. The kids are constantly made to simply copy off of the board, which limits their creativity and makes it difficult at older ages to know how to let their imagination flow. Lead by Laura and Olga, the kids at Alto Chiriguana have been having pretend play time! The government just provided the school with lots of pretend kitchen equipment for the kids and if Phoenix was not in the school, it probably would not be used.

Some of the kids were cooking on the stove, others served the ‘food’, and the lucky ones got to eat! At the end everyone participated in making sure the dishes were properly ‘washed’. The kids loved this part and we had to literally pull them away from the water in the end! At the beginning it took a little while for the kids to get into the pretend play as they don’t often get the opportunity to do things like. However, once they realized what the volunteers were allowing them to do, they were in heaven. Surprisingly enough, some of the toughest boys in the school were the ones that liked it the best! Great work girls for coming up with this idea. This is something we’re going to have to keep going to make sure the kids’ creativity grows and doesn’t get lost.

Kinder in the kitchen in Perú