What we do
Shaping conscious and responsible citizens who contribute positively to their environment
OUR TRIMESTER UNITS & PROJECTS
Our academic year is divided into three trimesters, each with a central theme and a final project focused on our local community. The entire process of each trimester is aimed at gaining new learnings and discoveries, culminating in a final project presented to our school or larger community at the end of the cycle.
FINAL TRIMESTER PROJECTS
1. Community Health Fair
Outside the Box hosts a public community health fair in collaboration with local health-promoting organizations and businesses like CEPIA, ASEMBIS, Laboratorios Navarro, and Universidad Latina.
2. Community Outreach
During the Connections theme each class completes a community project that addresses important issues that students discover throughout the unit.
3. Film Festival
Complete with Hollywood stars and a red carpet, students create unique short films, proudly demonstrating their findings about the cosmic world, Earth, and the scientific principles of our planet.
How does learning happen at Outside the Box?
Dual Language Program
The Outside the Box students are immersed in an intentional, integrated and coordinated learning environment where they spend half of their day learning in English and half of their day learning in Spanish.
Station rotation model
Our station rotation model provides each student not only with daily one-on-one sessions with their facilitators but also allows them to move more naturally and frequently during their learning time. They work independently and with peers in a variety of engaging, hands-on experiences.
Systematic and rigorous teaching of basic skills
We provide a stable, consistent routine and structure, along with systematic and rigorous teaching of basic skills, equipping our students with the tools they need to thrive.
Interdisciplinary Community Projects
Our community projects are a unique combination of science and social studies content connections that also integrate literacy and math skills. The socialization of these enriched projects allows our students an authentic experience to share their knowledge with the community and celebrate their success.
Field Trips
Engaging in frequent, well-planned field trips serves to ignite curiosity and passion within individuals. At Outside the Box, our educational program extends beyond conventional classroom teachings by incorporating a diverse range of field trips around our beautiful Guanacaste.
Socio-emotional learning
We have daily dedicated spaces to learn about our inner world and how to identify, navigate, and express different emotions, aiming to cultivate healthy relationships with those around us. We utilize songs, stories, role-play, case studies, etc., to explicitly learn how to put kindness, care, compassion, respect, and empathy into practice.
Sustainability and Nature
In partnership with The Clean Wave, we host monthly beach clean-ups at the Brasilito beach that aim to keep our community beautiful and clean. We are also part of the Dona Tapa Project that collects plastic lids to repurpose them into walkways that make public beaches accessible to wheelchair users.
Art, music, and drama
Art, music, and drama are embedded in our curriculum and serve as powerful vehicles for language and knowledge acquisition. On any given day, you can find our students singing in class, playing instruments, enjoying poetry, practicing skits, presenting reader’s theater, or creating comics, collages, and paintings as part of their learning journeys.
Mobile Library
We are proud to partner with BiblioBrillo to create a mobile library that will enrich our students’ experiences and provide access to literature to thousands of families in the area contributing to bridging the literacy gap.
La Cocina de OTB
Each day La Cocina de OTB serves homemade, delicious, and nutritious snacks and lunches prepared with local fresh products and lots of love!
On-site external support
We coordinate with the best specialists in our area to offer our students the opportunity to have external support on site when needed. We have the services of language therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists and learning specialists.
OTB Traditional Events
- Independence lantern parade
- Cultural day
- Trunk or Treat Brasilito
- Friendsgiving
- Día del amor y la amistad
- Celebración de la Anexión de Guanacaste
Outside the Box Practices
We spend the first few minutes of school preparing our minds and bodies for learning each day. What do you need to be ready to learn today? Music, movement, play, a quiet time reading, or something else?
Each Monday morning we start off the week by getting together as a learning community, sharing successes, current events, making community decisions, celebrating the costarican culture, and singing the Guanacaste and Costa Rica anthems.
For our students, crafting weekly intentions involves making a personal learning plan for their upcoming week. It’s a process where they decide what they want to achieve, how they want to spend their time, and what ways they will contribute to the community. By setting goals and priorities each week, students can stay organized and focused on what’s important for their learning and activities.
Each group closes the day with a closing circle time to connect more as a community, reflect back on their shared experiences, and express gratitude. It’s a moment of closure, where everyone has the opportunity to share their thoughts, feelings, and takeaways from the activities of the day. This practice fosters a sense of community, promotes mindfulness, and provides closure for each day.
Each class has a special job at OTB, from taking care of our plants and materials to helping others check out books or manage our ‘Tienda. Every two weeks, the 5th-6th graders pay the rest of the students who are able to exchange the OTB money they earned for fun goodies in the store. The objective is to make each student feel like an important member of our school community and to let the kids organically explore money management.
