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!