Welcome to , (Spanish for 'rich coast') a land of lush rainforests, giant sea turtles, tropical birds, and rugged mountain chains. With 800 miles of coastline of varied terrain, Costa Rica lives up to its name.

Costa Rica is small country in . It is bordered by to the north and Panama to the south. The Sea is to the east and the Pacific Ocean is to the west.

There are two major mountain ranges in the country: the Cordillera Volcanica and the Cordillera de Talamanca. As in many other Central American countries, Costa Rica suffers from occasional volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.

The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve is the largest cloud forest in Central America. Costa Rica is home to over 2,000 species of trees and 9,000 different kinds of flowering plants.

There are over 200 species of reptiles, the majority of which are snakes. There are many brightly coloured toads and frogs, including the poison arrow frog. The country is also home to hundreds of mammals including bats, and insects, such as vibrant butterflies and leaf-cutter ants.

Birdwatchers may get a glimpse of the endangered colourful quetzal bird, blue- footed booby bird, scarlet macaw, and toucans. The national flower is the orchid. There are over 1,200 species of orchids in Costa Rica.

Family is very important in Costa Rica. Children often live with their families until they are married. Leisure is treasured above work in Costa Rica. While work is necessary to earn a living, Ticos, as Costa Ricans call themselves, believe people should enjoy their lives.

1. Location: Costa Rica is a country in Central America, the Pacific Ocean is to the west and the Caribbean Sea is to the east. 2. Capital: The capital is San Jose. 3. Population: The population of Costa Rica is 4.8 million. 4. People of Costa Rica: Costa Ricans refer to themselves as Ticos (males) or Ticas (females) 5. Language: The language spoken in Costa Rica is Spanish. 6. Costa Rica’s Flag:

7. National Tree: The Guanacaste is Costa Rica's national tree. 8. National Bird: Clay-colored thrush is the national bird. 9. National Flower: Guaria morada, an orchid.

10. Currency: The currency used in Costa Rica is the Costa Rican Colone 11. Costa Rica contains more than 5% of the world’s biodiversity even though its landmass only takes up .03% of the planet's surface. There are more than:

• 130 species freshwater fish • 850 species of birds • 160 species of amphibians • 1,000 species of butterflies • 208 species of mammals • 1,200 varieties of orchids • 220 species of reptiles • 9,000 species of plants • 34,000 species of insects

Morpho Butterfly Craft

As it’s common name implies, the blue morpho butterfly’s wings are bright blue, edged with black. The blue morpho is among the largest butterflies in the world, with wings spanning from five to eight inches. These butterflies are found mostly in South America, Mexico, and Central America.

What You Need:

• Paper plates • Scissors • Blue & turquoise tissue paper • Glue • Black paint • Glitter

What to Do:

1. Draw a wide, big “v” at the top of the plate and a small “v” at the bottom of the plate 2. Cut along the lines for the outline of your butterfly 3. Tear tissue paper into small pieces and glue them on the plate 4. Use black paint to draw the body and add details to the wings (show them a picture of a real morpho butterfly)

Painted Ox Cart

The traditional oxcart, or carreta, is Costa Rica’s most famous type of craft. Oxcarts were used to transport coffee beans from Costa Rica’s central valley over the mountains to the Pacific coast. In many cases, oxcarts were a family's only means of transport and often served as a symbol of social status.

What You Need:

• Paper - 6 x 12 inches for body of cart • 4 inch square paper for wheel shape • Strips of paper • Glue • Pencil • Black sharpies • Oil pastels

What to Do:

1. Cut a rectangle shape for the main part of the cart as well as a circle for the wheel. 2. Divide the body of the cart into sections with pencil then add strips of paper for decoration. 3. Using the pencil draw on your designs. 4. Outline with sharpie all the pencil designs. 5. Fill patterns with bright coloured oil pastels.

Costa Rican Sea Turtle Craft

Sea Turtles live and breed along the Costa Rican coast of the Caribbean Ocean. There are seven species of sea turtles, 4 of which have been classified as endangered.

What You Need:

• Paper plate • Paint - Green, Yellow and Brown • Green foam sheet or construction paper • Scissors • Paint brush • Sponges • Glue • Black permanent marker • Pencil

What to Do:

1. Cut sponge into 4 pieces. Dip into green paint then apply over the bottom and sides of paper plate. 2. Dip sponge into yellow paint then apply some to the same area. 3. Dip a new sponge into brown paint and apply to paper plate, let dry. 4. Print and cut out template pieces. 5. Using the template, trace 4 feet, 1 head and 1 tail onto the green foam sheet or construction paper, cut out all the pieces. Draw two eyes and a smile on the head with the black permanent marker. 6. Apply glue to the head, feet and tail pieces and paste them to the paper plate, creating the turtle.

Costa Rican Sea Turtle template pieces:

Head Foot Tail

Foot Foot Foot

Five Marias (Cinco Marias) – Jacks

What You Need:

• Five stones (use larger items for young children to avoid choking hazard)

What to Do:

1. Children in Latin America frequently play Five Marias with small pebbles or stones they find on the roadside. 2. A player takes five stones and throws them on the ground. The player then picks one stone up, tosses it in the air and has to pick up one of the remaining stones before the first stone hits the ground. 3. If the player can do one successfully, he keeps going until all the stones are in hand. 4. He then throws the stone in the air and picks the remaining rocks up off the ground in groups of two, similar to playing jacks.

The Little Pots (Los ollitas)

Children play “The Little Pots” based on the activities they see take place at the market.

1. One child is a buyer, one is a seller and the other children play the “pots”. 2. The seller gives each “pot” a secret name, using market items like "beans" or "." 3. The buyer asks for market items until he chooses an item the seller has allocated to one of the pots. 4. The seller names the price of the item and the buyer has to pretend to remove the money from a pocket and count out the correct amount. 5. During the time the seller is counting, the pot has to run to a predesignated spot and back. If the pot does not make it to his place by the time the seller counts out the payment, the pot becomes the buyer.

1. El Aullido De Los Monos by Kristine L. Franklin

2. The Monkey Thief by Aileen Kilgore Henderson

3. The Parrot Tico Tango by Anne Witte

The humid rainforests of Costa Rica are home to the vibrantly coloured Red-Eyed Tree Frog. The body of this iconic amphibian is lime green with blue and yellow striped flanks, a white underbelly, red eyes and orange feet.

Costa Rica contains more than 5% of the world’s biodiversity. Biodiversity is the variety of different types of life found on the Earth and the variations within a species. In Costa Rica you can find 850 species of birds, 1000 species of butterflies, 900 species of plants and 208 species of mammals.

Welcome to kids kitchen…

The “Kids Kitchen” section is an exploration of food and cuisine around the

world, each month we will discover a new country.

“Kids Kitchen” includes the following:

• Kitchen/food/cooking activities: Each month complete new

kitchen/food/cooking related activities that will teach children important

life skills.

• Activity books: Each child has received a “Together Wee Can Taste the

World” activity book, which include different food related activities. Each

month help children work on a new activity in their books.

• Local Food: You will find information about local food in each country

along with some popular recipes. Explore new foods by making some of

these recipes with the children.

• Favourite Recipe: The children’s activity books

include blank recipe pages, one for each country. You

can use these pages to record a favourite recipe; pictures of

children cooking/eating local foods, or children can draw or

cut and paste pictures of local foods.

Knowing what are good foods and bad foods is important so you can be healthy. Here is a good way to sort foods and help make Smart food choices; Go foods, Slow foods and Whoa foods.

GO foods are lowest in fat, added , calories and are the least

GO processed foods. You can eat GO foods anytime! FOODS

SLOW foods are higher in

fat, added sugar and/or calories. SLOW foods are often more processed than SLOW GO foods. You can eat FOODS SLOW foods sometimes.

WHOA foods are very high in fat, added sugar and/or

calories. WHOA foods are WOAH the most processed foods. FOODS You should only eat WHOA foods once in a while.

Now that you’ve learned the difference between GO Foods, SLOW Foods and WHOA foods print and cut out the food pictures and help children sort them into the right categories. You can also cut additional photos out of magazines, build a collection of photos and continue to practice sorting foods.

Using different images of food items, place each food item in the right category.

GO FOODS

SLOW FOODS

WOAH FOODS

Costa Rican cuisine is known for being fairly mild, with high reliance on fresh and . Rice and black beans are staples of most traditional Costa Rican meals, often served three times a day. Costa Rican meals are nearly always cooked from scratch using fresh ingredients. Due to the tropical location of the country, there are many exotic fruits and vegetables readily available and included in the local cuisine.

Rice and beans are included in nearly every Costa Rican meal, even . Potatoes are another Costa Rican staple, part of the starch-rich Tico diet. and are the most commonly eaten , but chicken and fish dishes are also widely available, especially on the Caribbean coast.

The plantain, a larger member of the family, is another commonly used and can be served in a variety of ways. Ripe plantains (maduro) have a sweet flavour and can be fried in oil, baked in a or a sugar-based sauce, or put in . Green (unripe) plantains can be boiled in soups or can be sliced, fried, smashed and then refried to make patacones. These are often served with a bean dip or .

Gallo Pinto, which has a literal meaning of "spotted chicken", is the national dish of Costa Rica. It consists of rice and beans stir-fried together in a pan to create a speckled appearance. A typical Costa Rican breakfast consists of , fried plantains, an egg, and orange juice

For lunch, the traditional meal is called a Casado. Casado literally means "married man" in Spanish, acquiring the name from when wives would pack their husbands a lunch in a banana leaf when they left to go work in the fields. It again consists of rice and beans served side by side instead of mixed. There will usually be some type of (beef, fish, pork chop, or chicken) and a salad to round out the dish. There may also be some extras like fried Plantain (patacones or maduro), a slice of white cheese or corn tortillas in accompaniment.

At family gatherings or for special occasions it is very common to prepare Arroz con Pollo, which is rice with chicken mixed with vegetables and mild , and of course Salsa Lizano.

Gallo Pinto (Black beans and rice)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked black beans, plus 3/4 cup bean cooking liquid (can be made days in advance) • 3 cups cooked long-grain white rice, cooled (can be made days in advance) • 1 Tbsp oil • 1/2 onion, diced • 1 , diced (in Costa Rica, this would be a green pepper, but I love the red) • 1/2 cup diced celery • 2 large cloves garlic, minced • 1 tsp dried thyme leaf • 1/2 tsp kosher salt, or more to taste • 1/2 tsp fresh black pepper, or more to taste • Chopped cilantro for garnish (optional)

Directions:

1. In a large, deep frying pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Sauté the onion for 2 minutes, until translucent. Add the bell pepper and celery, and continue to cook for 3 minutes. Toss in the garlic and thyme, and stir for 30 seconds. 2. Gently pour the black beans and reserved 3/4 cup of bean cooking liquid into the pan. Stir well to combine, and try not to break up the beans. Bring the mixture to a simmer. Then, add in the rice, breaking up clumps with your fingers as best you can. 3. Stir the rice and bean mixture together so that all of the liquid coats the grains of rice, turning them a brownish colour. Season with salt and pepper (this dish needs a lot of salt to be authentically Costa Rican, so don't be afraid to add more than the recipe calls for). 4. Top with chopped fresh cilantro for serving, if you wish.

Oven Baked Sweet Plantains

Ingredients:

• 4 very ripe plantains (when the skin is yellow with spots of black they're perfect) • cooking spray

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450°F. 2. Coat a nonstick cookie sheet with cooking spray. 3. Cut the ends off of the plantains and peel. 4. Cut each plantain on the diagonal into 1/2 inch slices. 5. Arrange in single layer and coat tops with cooking spray. 6. Bake, turning occasionally, for 10-15 minutes, until plantains are golden brown and very tender.

Flan de Coco (Coconut Flan)

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups white sugar • 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk • 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk • ½ cup milk • 6 eggs • ½ cup shredded coconut

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). 2. Place 1 cup of the sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook gently, without stirring, but shaking occasionally until the sugar has melted. Continue cooking until the sugar has completely melted, and turned golden brown. Pour into a large, glass baking dish. Spread the caramel evenly over the bottom of the dish, then set aside to cool for 15 minutes before proceeding. 3. Once the caramel has hardened, pour the condensed milk, evaporated milk, milk, eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, and coconut into a blender. Blend for 3 minutes until smooth. Pour into baking dish over the caramel. 4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes until set. When done, remove from oven and let cool for 30 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the dish to separate the flan from the sides. Refrigerate overnight.