Who has been working in a kindergarten in Estonia knows who is Sipsik. This is a doll created by the Estonian writer Eno Raud, who speaks and thinks but Sipsik is also the name given to the kindergarten where I have the chance to do my EVS. Located in the center of Tallinn, Lasteaed Sipsik is one of the best kindergartens in Tallinn and sport and health are really important topics in it. A small gym has been built in the basement where a physical education teacher has activities with children twice a week for each group. A small adventure park is in the playground and a lot of different sport events and hikes are also organized every month.
However, whereas sport is really important in Sipsik kindergarten, team sports were not represented at all. On a kindergarten playground there was only a small basket in the sand that children never used. This was something hard to see for me whereas team sport occupied and still occupies a big part of my life. In my opinion team sport is an important element in education. Because of that I decided to promote team sports in kindergarten. And of course, as I am a basketball player and graduate coach, basketball was chosen for that. This choice was even more significant when Estonian national team was qualified for the Eurobasket in Riga last September.
So my project became totally clear: make Sipsik play basketball!
For this project, I decided to involve all the 134 children from kindergarten, not only the group where I am working. Sipsik kindergarten and its children needed first a new basket in the playground, to offer the possibility to the children to play basketball when they want and in good conditions. In order to introduce basketball to children, we would throw a special event. For this special event, I had to find some Estonian basketball coaches able to organize activities with children (from 2 to 7 years old), a bigger gym with several baskets, enough balls for children, and some professional players to impress children. The gym was found thanks to Südalinna kool which agreed to us to use their gym during school holidays. The coach and professional players were found with help of Howard Frier who is professional coach at Audentes sport school and was professional player in Estonia.
Finally the event took place on the 20th of October. Thanks to Howard Frier and with the help from our new gym teacher Doris Torilo, all the children had a lot of fun. Each child left the gym with a basketball medal made and bought especially for this event with the money given by my coordinating organization EstYES.
The second part of the project which is buying a new basket for Sipsik playground is also going to be a success after several difficulties. To find a good permanent basket construction that would be suitable for a kindergarten, and then to find the money for it was not as easy as I thought. Indeed, after a survey among many companies the cost was approximately 650 euros. But thanks to the help and support from Sipsik kindergarten headmaster Carmen Soo, we collected the 451 Euros from a market day in the kindergarten. Basket will be installed between the 16th and the 20th of November with an opening ceremony.
After that Sipsik and its children will have the opportunity to play basketball as much as they wish!
by Amaury Gengembre, the EVS volunteer from France
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