NEWS, VIEWS & OTHER INTERESTING THINGS

Parents and teachers often ask us what kind of resources they should use to help their children or students learn to read. To assist, we thought we would share with you what resources we like to use in our literacy treasure chests, Book Boxes.

Many of the schools that we partner with severely lack or have no access to essential literacy and reading resources. At best, one or two books are shared between an entire classroom of learners, while fun games that support literacy learning are rarely available for children to use at school or home.

Because of this, we developed Book Boxes, which our volunteers use in their one-on-one sessions with learners. Our Book Boxes are filled to the brim with resources that are age- and stage-appropriate for the learners that we help. The resources go a long way in helping children master literacy skills, and ensure they have fun while doing so.

So what is actually in our Book Boxes?

Games

We’ve seen time and time again that if a child is having fun while learning, they’re a lot more likely to show interest in reading activities and remember what they have learnt.

Games also provide a great way for learners to gain confidence, and develop their lateral thinking, memory and perception.

We include a variety of games in our Book Boxes, such as Snakes & Ladders, Scrabble, chess, Jenga, Rummikub, memory and spelling games, and puzzles. Some games have more of a obvious literacy focus, such as Link ‘n Spell, while others, like Snakes & Ladders, help the learner gain confidence and build relationship with their Reading Helper.

Books

Each one of our Book Boxes contains around 40 books of a variety of themes and reading levels. Books include a picture dictionary, fiction and non-fiction storybooks, as well as joke books – which are always a hit with the learners. Many of the books are brightly coloured and contain pictures, both essential components for earlier readers to be able to relate words to pictures, increasing their comprehension and retention skills. We’ve also kept true to our roots by including books by South African authors, as well as books with African themes, such as The Lucky Lolo and the Very Big Boy, and Madiba Magic.

Guided by their reading helper, we encourage learners to choose their own book to read from the box. This helps to get their buy-in as they choose books that spark their interests and are at their reading level – rather than forcing them to read according to their grade.

Stickers

We are convinced that stickers are a universal favourite for kids of all ages, which is why we ensure our Book Boxes are stocked with stickers of various colours and pictures. They provide wonderful motivation and reward for our learners during one-on-one reading sessions.

Stationery

In addition to all of the essential tools needed to learn to read, the stationery in our Book Boxes includes mini white boards, chalkboards and play dough. We love using these different mediums to help children learn in a visual and creative way, such as using play dough to make letters or tell stories. For the more active learners, our boxes include soft stress balls that can be used to play word games or keep hands busy while reading.

Worksheets

No Book Box would be complete without a plethora of fun literacy worksheets that cater for every level of reading ability.

And with that, you can see why our Book Boxes play a key role in motivating and inspiring children to learn to read.

You can help us provide more learners with access to the books and resources they need to learn to read. Donate a book as part of our #literacy4good campaign.