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To persevere is a human quality that allows to be constant in the continuation of what was started, in an attitude or an opinion. Perseverance is shown in face of obstacles and frustrations in the attainment of goals, and in the adhesion to previously established principles.

Perseverance is also a value to reach what is desired in spite of the negative things that can happen, and it is also very important who the student who wants to learn, because to study always implies patience and perseverance for the attainment of the wanted aims. For that reason it is said that perseverance is the basis of willpower.

It is not in vain that in the Spanish folklore there is a saying that says “He who perseveres, succeeds", indicating that one has to show perseverance to obtain what is wanted.

This quality can be taught in the child from a very early age, for this it is necessary to teach him the disposition to overcome difficulties and persevere to fulfil the tasks assigned. In this sense one has to carry out a systematic work in all the activities with our children, giving tasks that must and can be overcome, taking care that they are not over their possibilities to avoid frustration. For this, we will offer the necessary help and stimulate all signs of success no matter how little they are.

ACTIVITY No 1
"THE HARE AND THE TURTLE"

Summary of the activity: The educator will read the story "The hare and the turtle", and through questions the group will discuss the performance of the characters of the story, later, a there will be a physical activity: A sack race competition.

Objectives: To make the children know the importance of being perseverant in tasks.

Procedures:
• Narration
• Conversation
• Race competition

Material Resources: A circuit of two meters in length, hares and turtles drawn in fine cardboard, sacks or big bags for the race and objects such as cardboard or wooden boxes that will serve as obstacles in the race.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
Narration of the story "The hare and the turtle"

Once there was a hare that boasted that she could run faster than anyone, and she always made fun of the turtle for her slowness.

One day, the turtle proposed the hare to run in a race. The turtle knew that the hare was much faster than it, but she had a problem because she was very lazy and she became bored if she had to do the same activity and she lacked perseverance to finish it.

The hare began to laugh: "There is nobody that can win over me and not even a slow turtle; but I take the challenge!"

The race began, they started at the same time, but after a while the hare began to become bored, and seeing the slowness of her adversary she sat down to sleep under a tree.

"Go ahead, run, with a few jumps I will catch up with you anyway!"

The turtle, as it was, followed her way, slow, constant, without stopping.

Some time later, the hare woke up but when she saw that she still had much advantage over the turtle, she yawned and started to sleep again.

"I will sleep a little more...., this race bores me, the turtle goes so slow that I will reach her in a second!"

Time passed by and, finally, the hare woke up in a fright. She jumped, started to run, and seeing that the turtle was arriving at the finishing line, she ran and ran faster than ever, but it was already too late: The turtle had won!

The turtle turned around and she said to the vain hare:

"Those that go ahead do not go far if those that go behind are constant!”. "The one that perseveres succeeds!”.

2nd Part
The educator will ask a series of questions about the story.

Did you like the story?
What did the turtle mean when she exclaimed: "Those that go ahead do not go far if those that go behind are constant!”?
And what did it mean when it exclaimed "The one that perseveres succeeds!”? How is it possible that the turtle, being such a slow animal when moving and the hare so quick, has won the race?
Do you know what to persevere is?

"I am going to explain to you, to persevere is to do things until you complete them, when you do an activity at school or at home, although it is very difficult and takes a lot of work from you, it is necessary to insist, to look for the solution, without getting tired until you finish. If you leave it, it will be as with the hare, which failed, she lost the race for not being perseverant, by not dedicating herself well, for not taking care of what she was doing."

"It does not matter if one is a hare or a turtle to win a race, we are going to verify this now in our own race".

3rd Part
It consists of a game of competition. A race in sacks.

Two teams will be formed, one of the hares and one of the turtles, the runners of the team of "the turtles" will take on the sack with pictures of tortoise shells.

"The hares" will be identified by a hare drawn on their sacks.

The children will run in sacks in a circuit of two meters in which there will be located some obstacles that they must pass, and those who arrive first at the goal will win.

The educator, to end the activity will tell them: “Have you seen? It does not matter if you are a hare or a turtle; the race can be won if one runs well and with perseverance."

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
They understood the concept of perseverance.
They needed help to understand the concept of perseverance.
They ran in a constant way.
They stopped at some moment of the race and showed little interest in arriving at the goal.

ACTIVITY No 2
"THE PERSEVERANT LITTLE ANIMALS"

Summary of the activity: The puppet "Solomon" will ask the children the following question: Is the salmon a perseverant little animal? From this question we will develop the activity and use other examples of animals that are perseverant.

Objectives: To develop in the children experiences about perseverance.

Procedures:
• Questions and answers
• Conversation
• Picture
• Sample

Material Resources: Pictures of the salmon and the woodpecker and Solomon, the puppet.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
Solomon greets the children: "Good morning my friends, you already know me. Isn’t that true?"

"Yes, you know me, I am the wisest of the wise people, because I know everything and for that reason they call me Solomon."

"Today I bring a very beautiful picture for you. Do you know what fish is this?"

"This fish is a salmon, that in summer, overcomes the fresh water rivers to lay eggs and to have its little sons. When this moment arrives, thanks to its acute sense of smell, the salmon is able to return to the exact place where it was born, although this place can be thousand of kilometres up the waters, from the mouth of the river."

"When the salmons arrive exhausted from fighting against the current of the river, they prepare the nest so that the females can lay the eggs. After laying the eggs, they cover them and they leave them well protected so that the little salmons are born and they, the parents, return the long way but now to return to the sea.

"In this great effort some of them die, but others manage to arrive at the place where they were born, because it is only there where they will lay their eggs."

Do you think that this little animal is perseverant?

"The puppet lets the children express their ideas and later he explains what it is to persevere:

"To persevere is a very good quality, which allows us to be constant to obtain the aim that we may have. The person or the perseverant little animal fights against obstacles and difficulties as long as he obtains the result he hoped for, it is as when the runner runs a lot to arrive at the finishing line, as the turtle did in the story, and the salmon to lay its eggs and to have little fish."

2nd Part
The session begins with a new conversation between Solomon puppet and the children, to whom he says:

"What other little animal do you know that is as perseverant as the salmon?"

The puppet will let the children express themselves and later he will tell them:

"I know a little bird that, even if it rains a lot, or in the intense hot sun, or the freezing cold, it chips and chips away at the trunk of the trees until it makes a great hollow that will become its nest." (He will show the picture of the woodpecker).

"Can you imagine how many pecks it will need to make a great hollow in the hard trunk of the trees? It pecks the hard wood with great patience for hours; it has a very hard peak. Do you know now how it is called?"

The children will answer, and the puppet has to listen to all the possible opinions.

"Very well, it is the woodpecker; it is a very hardworking little animal. Do you think that the woodpecker is a perseverant little animal?"

The puppet lets the children express themselves and later he says:

"I think so, because it pecks and pecks for a long time until it finishes making its nest and it does so under the rain, in the wind and the cold.

The activity can be finished with all the children making a circle with the pictures of the woodpecker, the turtle and the hare, and singing or saying phrases about the stories.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
In the answers to the questions we detect that the children already have had some experience with some perseverant conduct.
They needed help to answer the questions on the little animals that act with perseverance.
Sometimes they have spoken of their own perseverant actions or of people who they know.
They praised the behaviours of the turtle and the woodpecker.

ACTIVITY No 3
"THE CHILDREN CAN ALSO BE PERSEVERANT"

Summary of the activity: The activity consists of telling stories and directed conversations to show the quality of perseverance in the children’s daily life actions.

Objectives: To teach the children to evaluate their conduct in relation to the value of perseverance.

Procedures:
• Conversation
• Questions and answers

Material Resources: Photos of children doing some action that can be related to perseverance, such as ordering materials in the classroom, working in the orchard, fixing toys, etc. A video in which children see themselves working or making some construction with blocks, individually and in a group.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator holds a group meeting in the classroom and he tells the children:
"You have listened to Solomon who told you about the perseverant little animals, now you are going to tell me what little animal or person you know that is perseverant and why. Remember what Solomon told you about the woodpecker, the salmon, and the turtle in the story."

The children will relate their experiences helped by the educator, who can show the photos to the group, and he will let the children observe by themselves while they give their opinion. We have to try to create a dynamic situation in which they express either their own or other people’s experiences.

2nd Part
The educator plays the video selected for the activity. When it is over he says:
"Are you as perseverant as the children in the scenes that we have just seen?"

The educator will explain and reinforce the value of perseverance before starting the discussion: "A child is perseverant when in a constant way he works on the task entrusted by his educator or his parents, and he takes it until the end, even if he needs a lot of effort to do it."

Here we will let the children evaluate themselves on their perseverance.

In order to help them it is possible to ask the following questions:
Do you take the tasks that your parents give you until the end, even if you do not like them?
Do you make an effort to obtain the things that you wish even if they are difficult?

To complete the activity the educator will stimulate with tokens or only with flatteries the children that, based on his daily observations and the parents’ information, have shown some level of perseverance, to a fair extent and according to possibilities of their age, and he will invite the rest to have perseverant attitudes explaining to them how they can do so.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
They evaluated themselves correctly on their perseverance.
They needed help to evaluate themselves on their perseverance.
Their evaluations have denoted good knowledge of this value.
They related some experiences referred to perseverance.

ACTIVITY No 4
"LET'S PLAY"

Summary of the activity: This activity is to complete a task assigned by the teacher to the children who, will have to cross a circuit sorting obstacles on the way.

Objectives: To verify if the children act with perseverance before difficulties.

Procedures: Practical action: Accomplishment of the task.

Material Resources: A basket, little sand bags, branches, a small wood plank or strip.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator will explain to the children how they are going to fulfil the task.

"You have a new task that is to clean the dry leaves in the outer area very quickly because the headmistress of the school is going to visit us and she must not find it dirty. The area has some dry leaves and we are going to gather them but one by one."

"To be able to complete the task you will have to cross a circuit in which you are going to find obstacles that you have to clear to be able to continue. (The educator will show the children the circuit prepared outside). First there are branches that you must clear to be able to advance (He will indicate the place where there will be branches) after a few meters there are several little sand bags (He will point to the little bags) that have to be gathered and taken to a basket that is in a corner, once the little bags are cleared it is necessary to continue the way and to cross a pool of water without wetting your feet, for this it is necessary to look for a small wood plank to put it over the pool so that it serves as a bridge, and you will continue walking until you reach the dirty part of the garden to gather the dry leaves."

2nd Part
We complete the task. The children one by one will do the task given. This activity can be done by the educator in two times, dividing the group in half if he thinks it is necessary.

If the school does not have an outdoor area or garden, the educator can do it with another type of work, for example to tidy up the classroom, always setting up obstacles, in such a way that the task turns out to be difficult.

3rd Part
In a group meeting the educator and the children will evaluate the work done, emphasizing how clean is the outer area thanks to the perseverance and the effort of each one. Emphasis will be made on how, in spite of the difficulties, the tasks that are assigned to us must be fulfilled. Each child has to evaluate his own conduct, if some try to evaluate others’, the educator has to try to turn the attention aside to each one in an individual way, because the purpose is not that the group evaluates each child.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
They suitably carried out the given route.
They needed help to carry out the given route.
They showed certainty and persistence in completing the entrusted task.
They fulfilled the task entrusted with help and the educator’s insistence.
They were able to evaluate their individual conduct.

ACTIVITY No 5
CRITICAL EXPERIENCE FOR THE EVALUATION OF THE BLOCK
"WHO CAN MAKE MORE LITTLE ZEROS?"

Summary of the activity: This is a critical experience to verify if the children have developed to a certain extent the perseverance to complete an entrusted activity.

Objectives: To verify if the children are perseverant to continue doing a boring activity until the end.

Procedures:
• Practical actions
• Explanation
• Questions and answers

Material Resources: Sheets of paper and pencils or fine markers.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator explains that they have to make a product that is to be given to the children of a nearby hospital or community centre. He must promote the identification and motivation towards those destitute children in his explanation with the children of his group.

A sheet of paper with the first line of little zeros or little circles drawn is given to the children, and the educator explains that they must continue making equal rows until they fill the sheet, which must have the same amount of zeros in each row, therefore each 0 must go underneath the other, for example:

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

(This first row will be already drawn in the sheet).

If the educator considers it advisable, according to the individual characteristics of his children, he will hand out more than one sheet but never more than two.

This activity will be only to check, and we must never use it as a punishment. When the children show signs of getting bored, the educator will start to stimulate them walking around the tables to observe who continues and who does not, or who turns aside to do another thing that attracts him more.

2nd Part
The educator will gather these observations in a notebook, on the basis of the following aspects:

• The child works constantly without interruptions until the end.
• How many times does he stop writing and what he does then, (For example: scratches his head, sighs, moves in the chair, looks towards another side, touches or talks to the mate who is next to him, etc.)
• If the child verifies and counts whether the row has the same amount of zeros and continues quickly.
• The expression of his face when he arrives at the end of the entrusted task.

3rd Part
The educator organizes a small meeting and will tell the children:

"I know that this activity is a little boring, for that reason I want to congratulate all the children who finished it."

He gives some tokens to the children who did it better and those who did it in a constant way until the end.

Then he will ask the following questions, now talking mainly to those who did not show much perseverance, although combining with those who had it.

"Why didn’t you finish the activity?"
“How were you able to do the activity until the end?"
“Why did you stop so many times?"
“Why did you move so much in your chair?"

And like this he will be asking all children according to the observations he has made.

In this way either the observations, or the works, and the answers of the children, will be very useful to the educator to evaluate this block.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
They worked in a constant way doing the activity until the end.
They needed the insistence of the educator to finish the activity.
Either in the execution of the tasks or in the answers they showed perseverant conducts.
They were not able to evaluate their own perseverance.
They raised diverse excuses to justify their non perseverance.