Sundowner-based Seedlings and Flowers Nursery School gave the little ones their voting experience.
The children had a tangible understanding of what took place in the South African elections as well as the ins and outs of an election and what it means to vote.
Principal Jess de Bruijn explained that they felt it was important to teach all their pupils about what an election is, and why it is important. “Children always grasp a new concept best when they get the opportunity to see the concept in a tangible experience. With this in mind, we created our own Seedlings election.”
The Grade Rs went around to the other grades classes and asked all the children what their favourite food was, after that, they each chose a food to campaign for and created their own campaign posters and slogans.
Every little Seedlings from babies to Grade Rs had the chance to vote on their food-themed ballot, post it in ballot box and then received a thump mark to show they had successfully voted. The thumb mark seemed to be everyone’s favourite part.
“Not only has this been such an incredibly fun experience for our kids, but also such a wonderful learning opportunity. Both the lead-up to the event with all the campaign preparations and the voting day itself was incredibly exciting for all the children. They loved each event as it unfolded and all adored getting a voting mark on their thumbs once they had voted. Every child was showing this to each other for days afterwards and they all loved the fact that on voting day, they had a voting stamp just like their parents.”
She added that to be the change we want to see in the world, there is no better way to do this than by showing the children and educating them. It all starts here, from this age up.
“This event was even more of a success than we could have predicted. Something such as voting is a very big concept for children to understand but it just shows that any concept, no matter how big, can be introduce to children of all ages.”
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