Dios Los Ninos schoolchildren ended their week-long reading and dyslexia awareness campaign by dressing up as their favourite fictional character.
The school’s educators joined in the dress-up on 28 October and performed a skit of the Wizard of Oz. The little ones had to bring the book their character was from to school, and they were asked to guess what each other’s characters were and where they were from. They then enjoyed a picnic on the school grounds.
The rest of the awareness week saw pupils take out books from the local library and task themselves to read to their parents for at least 15 minutes each afternoon. They also participated in an alphabet-shopping exercise, where each pupil picked out a toy from the toy box, forming a sentence, incorporating the name of the toy.
The juniors either had to make a sentence with the word or sound out the word, while the seniors researched the dictionary definition of the word, found matching adjectives and formed a sentence.
Besides word-related activities, they were asked to paint a picture of their favourite book covers, design their own book covers and convert them into Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. They were also asked to create their own money, which they then used to purchase books from the school library.
Principal Leonie de Kock, said the activities were designed in such a way so as to incorporate all the learning areas.
Licensed facilitator, René Christiane, who practices the Davis dyslexia method and has worked with some of the school’s pupils said, “If parents suspect that their children are dyslexic, they can take a free test on the dyslexia.com website with an educational psychologist. The key is not to leave it too late.
“Parents need to be understanding and know that their child is trying and they should be aware that help is available,” she said.
As of next year, Christiane will have her own practice at the school.
Details: Dios Los Ninos 083 394 3511.
