Building Life-skills for 150,000 children

Greetings from Team Toybank!

“Play is often talked about as if it was a relief from serious learning, but for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” — Fred Rogers

The new academic year brought about a sense of excitement and hope for what lies ahead—a post-pandemic time where children can regularly attend school, engage with learning in the classroom and continue to play with their friends. As schools and our Play2Learn centres slowly re-opened after the summer vacations, our team was ready to kick-start our in-person play sessions and interactions with the children and teachers. The teachers welcomed the children back to school with Play, creating a safe and happy learning environment in their classrooms for every student, with the support of our Programme Officers. We are humbled, yet take immense pride in our team who have ensured that the progress we have made for our children won’t reverse. 

Toybank - Development through Play, has been delivering its hybrid Play2Learn programme to 60,000+ children across 12 districts in Maharashtra and 4 states and 1 Union Territory in India. The programme guides and supports 19,500 caregivers through 645 support groups and 420+ Play2Learn centres (as of 31st August 2022).

We are happy to share updates of the work brought together by the Toybank team across Maharashtra, with your support. We look forward to continuing to create safe, happy learning spaces with opportunities for them to learn and holistically develop through Play! 

• 600 Play2Learn sessions were conducted by our Programme Officers and partner teachers. While our Programme Officers conducted in-person Play2Learn Sessions once the schools reopened after the summer break, our partner teachers also incorporated our Play2Learn activities into their daily lesson plan, even solving the Play2Learn sheets on the blackboards inside the classrooms in order to make the classes more engaging. 

• Through WhatsApp Support Groups, we delivered102 Play2Learn digital activities that are being professionally designed by a curriculum developer, to include age-appropriate content aligned with their academic curriculum, life skills and socio-emotional skills. The teachers also used our  Play2Learn sheets as a tool in their classes when schools reopened in June, to enable children to acclimatize with ease into the classrooms in a post pandemic work, thus making the session more engaging and fun for the children.

• Between April’22 and Aug’22, we conducted Power of Play Workshops for 489 teachers from 180 centres, which supported them in aligning play-based learning with their academic curriculum and effectively using the Play2Learn digital activities and board games at the centres. The workshops were geared to: 

1. Reconnect the teachers to the benefits of Play-based Learning and re-orient them about the Toybank Hybrid Play2Learn Programme
2. Train them on new games and how to effectively use them inside classrooms as a part of their daily classroom teaching to build a healthy Teacher-Student bond
3. Maintain a strong relationship between our field programme officer and the teachers to ensure effective facilitation of Play2Learn Sessions and better classroom management as they integrate play into their classes.

“While we are all from different schools and don’t get to meet each other often, together we learn to understand each other's point of view and cooperate to solve the puzzles. I believe that students will also learn the importance of listening, responding and collaborating through these games,” said Deepika Bhaskar, Teacher, Dadar Woollen Mills Municipal School (ICSE), after attending the Power of Play workshop.

“This is my first training session. I haven't attended any such session before as I just joined the school 2 months back. Through the training, I learned how we can teach children through Play. I really liked the games: ‘Multiplica’ and ‘Multiples and Factors’ as they teach the children the 4 mathematical functions of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. I was impressed with the game and will use these games to teach children math,” shared Gaikwad Saibho, Teacher from Shree Chatrapati Shivaji Jr Basic School,  Nanded during his post-session feedback interview.

• Replacement of 6467 Games across 234 Play2Learn Centres: After permissions to conduct in-person meetings came through post the reopening of schools after the summer break, our POs were able to conduct stock checks at the Play2Learn Centres and initiate the process of restocking games and play material. 

Story of Resilience:

“Living in a low-income family that resides in the slum areas of Dhobi Ghat, Rajesh (name changed) wasn’t exposed to many spatial-skill building games or toys at home. When our Programme Officer introduced a new game called Tangram to the class, Rajesh was super excited to see it. He loved the vibrant colours and challenge the game posed. Initially, he couldn't figure out how sharp shapes like squares and triangles could build a rounded shape like a heart. 

When he got stuck, he raised his hand and asked a Programme Officer to guide him. After a little guidance, Rajesh together with his bench mate put together a heart with semi-circles. The 7-year-old slowly understood how simple geometric shapes like circles, triangles and rectangles can come together to form complex shapes of heart, parallelograms, as well as shapes of animals. 

Building spatial ability at a young age will lay the foundation to comprehend subjects like geometry, 3D objects and build spatial intelligence that’s needed to pursue professions in design, engineering, architecture and more.”

—Story shared by Alisha Lobo, Programme Officer in charge of Play2Learn Centre U148, Abhinav Dhyan Mandir School

Investing in Play to make mental well-being and learning accessible is the need of the hour. We must come together as a society to rebuild children’s childhoods and their future outcomes. Your support will ensure 60,000+ children continue to Play, learn and become resilient!

Thank you and Happy Toybanking!

“Play is not frivolous. It is not a luxury. It is not something to fill in after completing all of the important stuff. Play is the important stuff. Play is a drive, a need, a brain-building must-do. It builds knowledge as much as empathy. We could not be fully human without it.”

— Jeff A Johnson and Denita Dinger

Greetings from Toybank!

The pandemic has and continues to deprive 188 million at-risk Indian children’s safe spaces of learning and play. 2022 began with the third wave of COVID-19, throwing what became the ‘new normal’ off-track once again. Children had barely gotten used to going to offline schools again, when they were required to shut down yet again. While the lockdown was for a shorter time, the impact it had on the lives especially of at-risk children was immense, making it even more imperative for us to ensure we continued to provide them with access to Play to ensure their learning and development continues. 

Toybank, through its Play2Learn program, provides safe play and learning spaces for 60,000+ at-risk across 12 districts in Maharashtra, 4 states and 1 Union Territory in India to be developmentally on track in their mental and behavioral well-being. The program guides and supports 13,695 caregivers through 634 support groups (as of 31st March 2022).  Even in the midst of the pandemic, our ethos is firm, ‘It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men (and women’)'. The progress in socio-emotional development and mental well-being of our children has continued to be the core focus. 

Despite the continued uncertainties and challenges faced, with your support, Toybank continues to ensure that at-risk children continue to engage with learning through play to holistically develop to become well-rounded, responsible adults in the future. We are happy to share updates from our work over the last few months:

We Played!

• We disseminated 1078 Play2Learn activities where children from various age groups and learning levels learned holistically with our curriculum-aligned activities. These activity sheets aided in the development of integral life skills like critical thinking, socio-emotional well-being, and cognitive skills, while also aligning with their academic curriculum.
• 396 Physical Play2Learn Sessions were conducted by our program officers and our  partner-teachers while following social distancing rules. Children played board games in groups of two or three under teachers’ supervision to ensure their safety.
• 15 Digital Play2Learn Sessions were conducted by our Program Officers. These are curated with a sequential session plan by the team to encourage peer learning, boost children’s learning with the Play2Learn Kit and break the ice among classmates through group activities. These sessions gave the children the opportunity to become more curious and build on life skills.
• 28 student volunteers facilitated buddy sessions with 15 Toybank children as part of The Buddy program. These sessions included getting to know and building a bond with the child, discussions around aspirations and about emotions, strengths, routine and habit building. The Buddies give the children a platform to have social interactions which have been drastically hit due to the pandemic.
• Distributed 1800+ games across 55 Play2Learn centres as schools and Play centres reopened post the third wave across Maharashtra, ensuring children were able to learn through Play!
• In January, over a course of 6 days, close to 300 teachers from 55 schools across Beed and Osmanabad districts attended the ‘Power of Play Teacher Trainings’. The training sessions support in aligning play-based-learning with the academic curriculum, while also supporting the teachers to effectively use the curated activity sheets and play material at the centres. Here’s what the teachers said about their experience:

“The mental and physical development of our children through these games will be very good and our school will benefit from these games. The whole world knows the work that Albert Einstein did, but very few people know what he had to go through. Today the work that Toybank is doing in association with our school and teachers is very good.” shared Mr Kulkarni, Education Officer, Beed District 

“I find joy in teaching children and helping them learn new things everyday. Seeing a smile on a young child's face motivates me. They are the new generation and therefore I like this work.”- Shared Mr Gopichand Pawar, Teacher, Osmanabad District during the Teacher’s workshop.

We’re rebuilding childhoods!

Story of Resilience: Inclusivity through Play: How teachers brought the Play2Learn center home

Ishaan (name changed) lives 3 kms away from his school, in the middle of a field, and is unable to get to school on his own, due to his physical disability. Prior to the lockdown his parents or teachers would still manage to routinely visit him at home so that he didn’t miss out on learning. Though the pandemic disrupted this and he missed out on an entire year of schooling. The isolation from his teachers and limited access to education or play made him quite unhappy and disinterested in learning.

When schools reopened, two of Ishaan’s teachers—Dinesh Kothade and Ganesh Thaur took the initiative to start teaching him again but were confused about how to rebuild the gaps in knowledge and recalled Toybank’s Play2Learn Center games. They began using these games to teach him through play. 

With the help of a special educator and the teacher’s constant play-based teaching, Ishaan once again began learning and playing. He was overjoyed to be able to count, read alphabets and kickstart his learning journey once again with rings, blocks, colors, and shape-based games from the Play2Learn Center. The play sessions tapped into his intrinsic need to learn and develop new skills that most children his age explore during their school days. Ishaan finds great joy and an immense sense of accomplishment when he completes a task or learns a new concept. Ishaan eagerly looks forward to his teachers sharing  new Toybank games so that he can continue his learning journey. 

(As shared by his teachers during feedback calls)

 Investing in Play to make mental well-being and learning accessible is the need of the hour. We must come together as a society to rebuild children’s childhoods and their future outcomes. Your support will ensure at-risk children continue to Play, learn and become resilient!

Thank you and Happy Toybanking!