Well of Wisdom Junior Book Club (WOW Junior Book Club) reading lessons continued in three distinguished primary schools in Tembisa on May 18.
Sedibeng Primary School hosted their first WOW Junior Book Club reading session on May 18.
This session comes after the launch, dating back to February 23, when the Global Forum of Women Entrepreneurs (GFWE), in partnership with WOW Junior Book Club International and Marhulana Primary School, joined hands in the expansion launch of the WOW Junior Book Club hosted at Khula Sizwe Primary School in Tembisa.
Khula Sizwe and Marhulana Primary School had the privilege of having sessions held at their premises, which continued over the past weekend, while Sedibeng Primary held their first session.
Sibongile Mashaba, the facilitator, said the session was a bit challenging, since it was the first session of the year, but the teachers from the school was there to help teach and keep the order.
“The day went well as the children started to open up and show eagerness to learn. The teachers were very helpful in providing books and making sure the classes ran smoothly.
“Our biggest challenge was that most children are Sesotho-speaking. In terms of teaching and reading in English, we had to explain everything in their mother tongue to make them understand certain concepts,” said Mashaba.
Head facilitator of WOW Junior Book Club Yoliswa Zozo said the sessions were quite exciting.
“The children have passion. We tried to engage with them and adapt to their way of learning.
“Some of the activities we did was reading. Each learner would read a paragraph or two in front the class and by doing this we tried to encourage public speaking. They wrote down the words they did not understand from the book they were reading,” said Zozo.
Evodia Marabe, a teacher at Sedibeng Primary, said being able to read is a powerful weapon to equip yourself with and it is important for children to be able to read from a very young age.
“All the subjects they do require them to be able to read. It is important so they can write their examinations,” said Marabe.
“We invest in them so they can become ambassadors of our communities. We want to encourage them to become storytellers and writers.
“The books we gave them linked up with their school curriculum, which is good for improving their results.
“Giving a child a book keeps them off the streets,” said Marabe.
Facilitator Petunia Nyathi from WOW Junior Book Club at Khulasizwe Primary School also said they were tackling the importance of reading books and continuing from their last session’s work.
“We were doing book reviewing and the level on which they explain the storyline is amazing.
“This one boy blew me away when he introduced the storyline of a book he was reading, which was about ancient Egyptian history,” explains Nyathi.
“Our objective was to see if they know how to review books and they exceeded my expectations,” said Nyathi.
