By Alicia Carter | Communications Coordinator
Hello,
Your support means so much to our community. You make it possible for children, youth, and adults in our community to be engaged and contribute positively to the world around them. You create opportunities for learning, for better nutrition, for creating art, and ultimately, for kids to be kids. Because of you, there is a safe place in our community for children to play. And, we believe in the power of play.
Play is a key component of learning at all ages. It lights up the brain and promotes long-term memory retention. The foundation of who we are as people is laid largely through play and ultimately determines our future aptitude. Through our theme-based, fun and playful approach to learning it is exciting and memorable. This was exemplified in many of the activities children and youth completed this term!
In the Early Childhood Development (ECD) classrooms children playfully paraded around the Thanda centre in masks inspired by the book Elmer by David Mckee. In the book, a multi-coloured, cheerful elephant explores diversity and inclusion when he tries to change his colours to blend in with the other elephants. In the end, we learn the other elephants love him just as he is and together, they dance and celebrate.
Our ECD Facilitators spent a lot of time exploring new themes, ideas, and games to create a unique, age-appropriate Creative Learning Curriculum for early learning, too. We have seen games with tennis balls, bean bags, and wheels focusing on physiological and social skills, as well as, art activities that align with a specific theme during story time. Another favourite is discovery walks! On these walks, children explore Thanda and discover something new in the world around them. Last week, they looked for items that started or included the letter ‘T’!
In our After-school Programme, we held two book festivals as an opportunity for students to showcase their work, gain new knowledge, and have fun with students from other schools. A notable activity was from studies on astronomy and solar systems. In one performance, students spoke as different planets and gave some key facts, including the exact kilometres the planet is from the sun - wow!
We see learning is a lifelong process and as an opportunity to play in everyday life. Too often we are asked to grow up and stop playing. By giving the gift of play to so many children in our community, we encourage you to seek out a childlike openness this summer and to ignite a different curiosity for the world around you. Play brings joy, and we cannot thank you enough for giving all that you do to our community!
Love, Thanda
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