by Linda | Mar 14, 2016 | Blog
Are you a cyclist? Would you like to make your cycling events have an impact on the future of South Africa?
By cycling for Singakwenza and using your event to raise funds for Early Childhood Education, you will not only get to wear this stunning cycling shirt with pride, but you will also have bragging rights to the fact that you have sponsored a Waste2Toys workshop in a rural community. Through this sponsorship, we will be able to teach up to 35 caregivers, parents and community workers about the importance of learning through play, and how to make resources from recycling.
Everyone is a winner when you cycle for Singakwenza! Email us on info@singakwenza.co.za to find out more details.
by Julie | Mar 14, 2016 | Blog
“Purpose is the reason you journey. Passion is the fire that lights your way”. Our purpose was to take our Waste2Toys workshops to some communities in the Eastern Cape. The passion that lit our way came in abundance from the parents, educators, community workers and children that we had the privilege of teaching. What an amazing experience to be able to drive almost 3 000km through 3 provinces, and encounter the enthusiasm and commitment that we did in the 118 delegates we taught. The exciting part is that these delegates have daily contact with more than 3 500 children!
We encountered a little oasis at our first stop in the middle of Lingelihle Township near Cradock. The school that Alfie Blume, Mrs Ncede and Mrs Beja are running is such a special little place, with a small patch of green lovingly nurtured in the centre of a dry and dusty community. It is so heartening to see a township school where the principal and teachers are so enthusiastic about education. We shared our ideas with all of the Junior Primary teachers, as well as some educators from other schools in the township and neighbouring farm schools. The warm response we received had very little to do with the 39 degree heat we experienced!
St George’s College in Port Elizabeth hosted our next workshop. With delegates from APD Nelson Mandela Bay, Early Inspiration Practitioner Support Services, local farm schools and school outreach pupils, there was a buzz of enthusiasm and energetic participation in all the activities, and we are very grateful to Catherine Logie for coordinating this for us. Some of the St George’s College pupils were discussing how they could involve the local old age home in the process of making resources for underprivileged creches in the area – what a great way to involve the community!
Marianne Crane, from Woodridge College and Prep School, was the person who sparked this journey to Port Elizabeth. She included teachers and pupils from the local community, as well as pupils, teachers and parents from Woodridge, in the workshop. There was a wide range of ages present, but always the same smiles and laughter when we got them to test the toys they had made! When even the headmaster joins in and makes a skipping rope from bread bags, you know that this is a special school.
Our final workshop was hosted at St Francis College. Caryl Logie, a retired teacher, coordinated a group that included teachers, creche caregivers, members of the local church that work in the community, creche mentors, remedial educators and Grade 7 pupils. This enthusiastic bunch of people participated fully in all the activities and left with their bag of samples that they had made, ready to inspire the children they are involved with. It was such an awesome morning!
A journey of this nature would not have been possible without generous donors, and a huge shout out needs to go to the two major sponsors, Barloworld Transport and the Emirates Airline Foundation, who made this trip possible. It must be wonderful for them to know that thanks to their donation, more than 3 500 children now have access to the toys and knowledge that Singakwenza shared. What a great investment!
by Julie | Feb 9, 2016 | Blog
Babies can see colour as well as adults from around the age of 6 months, and they learn to match colours before they can name them. Colour is an adjective (or a word to describe an item), which makes it harder for children to name. Red can be associated with a ball, a sock, an apple or a car. When you show a young child a ball, sometimes you tell them it is red, sometimes you tell them it is big, sometimes round, sometimes bouncy, etc. Then you ask them “What colour is this?” and the child has to decide which of those adjectives you want. By giving children items to match while you name the colour, you can help your child to start to see the items that look the same are all called “red”.
Our activity is made from the strip of an egg tray with blobs of colour cut out of magazine pages pressed into the bottom. The child has to find the correct “home” for the lid he is holding. The caregiver will be saying, “You are holding a red lid. Can you put the red lid into his red home?”
(P.S. Look at the beautiful pincer grip this child has! He is not only learning his colours, but also preparing his fingers for holding a pencil!)
by Julie | Jan 23, 2016 | Blog
Playdough is such a wonderful material for people from 1 to 100 to play with! You just need to have a lump of fresh playdough placed in your hands to start to discover the many benefits of using playdough with children:
• It is a great activity to strengthen your child’s fingers and hands, ready for writing, drawing, cutting, etc.
• It works all the muscles in the hands.
• It allows for your child to be creative – today he can make a cow, tomorrow he can make a car and the next day he can make something completely different, using the same lump of dough.
• It helps release tension and anger in a safe way.
• It is a soothing texture to play with.
• It can be used to reinforce shapes and numbers.
• A “snake” of playdough is the best thing to use when introducing children to cutting for the first time.
• It is useful when working on eye-hand co-ordination activities, especially with the younger children, as it is very forgiving, and your child doesn’t need to do it perfectly to get it right.
This recipe lasts for ages if you store it in an airtight container. If it gets a little dry, wet your hands and pat the water around the playdough and store overnight. The next day, it should be workable again.
It is non-toxic, so don’t worry if your child checks to see if it is edible. It tastes pretty awful, though, so he may need a sip of water after tasting it. And if he is still gagging after you think you have taken it all out, check the roof of his mouth as it sometimes gets stuck up there like peanut butter does.
Try it yourself. Give your child some playdough and take some for yourself, and discover a whole new world of creativity and stress release!
by Julie | Jan 21, 2016 | Blog
What a lovely way to start the year! Sunshine Bakery ran a competition at some of the schools around Pietermaritzburg last year. The schools that collected the most Sunshine bread bags were awarded prize money for their school and a charity of their choice. Clivia PrePrimary won the competition and gave Singakwenza R5 000, and Prestbury Primary school was a runner-up and gave us R2 500! Thank you SO much to Sunshine Bakery, Clivia PrePrimary and Prestbury Primary, for giving our children the gift of education!
In addition, the bread bags the schools collected were given to us to be used in our ECD programme to make balls, skipping ropes, swings, etc. What a great competition!
by admin | Dec 3, 2015 | Blog
The children in the Occupational Therapy groups at our creches had fun this past week!
They didn’t realise how many skills they were developing with tracing around their non-dominant hand (bilateral fine motor), cutting it out (bilateral coordination and eye hand coordination),colouring it in (finger strengthening and eye-hand coordination) and sticking them onto a piece of paper (creativity and synthesis)! Thanks to Mags, our OT, for all the amazing work she has done with the teachers, trainers, parents and kids this year!
