Thursday, December 12, 2013

RCCI Christmas Celebration

This week in RCCI the club came together to create a Christmas party for the children. We worked collaboratively to organize food and activity responsibilities. The club decorated the room with balloons to create a Christmas feel for the children. One member of the club dressed up as Santa Clause. The kids were very excited about this!





As a club we increased our awareness of our areas of strength. We learned that we are great at ensuring that each student feels included and welcome. I believe that this skill is extremely important in the success of the club.
This picture was taken during the dance party. I am with two local students enjoying the Christmas spirit!

Helping Hands Christmas Party

This week in Helping Hands we threw a Christmas Party. The local children and OSC children really enjoyed this event. This party took a lot of planning.Firstly, we had to get help in sponsoring this event. We did this through writing and publishing a post about it in our school's newsletter. We had to ensure that there would be enough healthy food for each student. This is the final letter that was sent out in the school's newsletter:


Christmas is approaching and Helping Hands would like to lead a fundraiser for the local students attending the Borella Shelter. 

Helping Hands is the only primary community service group.  Meeting every Monday, this activity provides an opportunity for our students to engage with the children from the shelter through games and activities, teaching the children some English that will be useful to them in their everyday life and giving them the opportunity to use our facilities.  

Please support Helping Hands by donating any of the following items.  It is our hope to raise enough school supplies so that the children can have a better start to their new academic year beginning in January, 2014.

-pencils

-notebooks

-math notebooks (square ruled)

-single rule

-erasers
 
We have already purchased school bags for the children from money remaining from last year’s fundraising. Donated items can be brought to Mrs. Powell's Preschool classroom.

 It would also be greatly appreciated if you could support our Helping Hands Christmas party on Monday, December 6th.  You can support through providing the group of children (about 30 students) with healthy snacks such as apples, yogurt, biscuits, or a drink.  If you are interested, please contact Mrs. Powell via email at jpowell@osc.lk

 
Thank you for supporting Helping Hands!


The students loved their gifts. The smiles on their faces was a great reward for our hard work!

For the event we planned games and activities we would carry out. We chose musical chairs, carols, and a snowflake craft activity. I worked collaboratively with the other leader of the group to ensure that all these activities went smoothly. Overall I would consider this party to have been extremely successful!

Sunday, December 8, 2013

SAISA Basketball

We just returned from our six day basketball tournament in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The tournament was hosted by the American International School of Dhaka. On the first day of the tournament we played Dhaka and won 24-14. After that game we were able to increase awareness of  our strengths and areas for growth. As a team we agreed that we needed to foul less and shoot more three pointers. We decided that our strong areas were in fast breaks and rebounding.



 The second game of the day we played Karachi and won 41-5. In this game we considered ethical implications. We took out our strongest players in order to make the game more even. Through doing this we also showed good sportsmanship.

On the second day we played Lincoln. This was a very stressful and close game.In this game I showed perseverance and commitment. I was extremely tired and soar ,however I  continued playing the entire game. The team's hard work payed off, we beat Lincoln 31-17.




Our next game was against Lahore.In this game we worked collaboratively as a team. Each member of the team focused on passing and working together. Often it is easy to be selfish in basketball and make the play that makes you look best as oppose to what is best for the team. We won this game 40-17.

Our final day was by far the most exciting. In the semi finals we re-played Lincoln. We all went in extremely confident because we had already beaten them. In this game I developed my ball stealing and dribbling skills. I stole the ball away from the other team multiple times. In the end we beat them 38-25.

Our championship game was against Dhaka. This game was extremely exciting. Their entire school came to cheer them on. In this game we undertook a new challenge while trying a press defense. This game went into overtime. The whole team was nervous but we put our nerves behind in order to win. We won the game by one point. I was ecstatic and in disbelief in the moment of our win! We celebrated as a team by dancing on the court to our teams song. This was an absolutely amazing tournament and I can't wait for soccer to begin!