By Rod Amner
Over 100 enthusiastic children of the St Mary’s Development and Care Centre (DCC) delighted in the reading of a Nali’bali story about a lost kitten called Ginger to mark World Read Aloud Day on Wednesday, 7 February.
‘The Lost Kitten’ was specially written for World Read Aloud Day by South African child author Stacey Fru and was performed in isiXhosa, Afrikaans and English by centre staff.
St Mary’s DCC literacy coordinator Brendan Williams asked the children questions about the story before they were invited to make their own kitten masks.
St Mary’s DCC provides development and enrichment programmes for 160 young children. The children come into the centre every day for breakfast before school. They return for lunch, get homework assistance and participate in enrichment activities, including Scouts, the literacy programme and a life skills programme called ‘Flourish’.
Williams said St Mary’s intermediate children had developed a love of reading, but there was still work to be done to help them read for meaning. At the Foundation Phase, the centre concentrates on remediating early literacy problems before they reach Grade 4.
Ten Social Employment Fund (SEF) workers help the permanent staff manage the centre’s various programmes.
@NalibaliSA #nalibaliwrad2024.
