A School Readiness Programme - KaziKidz developed for the Pre-Primary level
KaziKidz Pre-Primary lessons have been developed and designed in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Namibia (UNAM) and in conjunction with the curriculum from Namibia.
The KaziKidz toolkit (with open access from https://kazibantu.org/kazikidz/) is a holistic educational and instructional tool for pre-primary and primary school teachers and arose from the project KaziBantu. The lessons have been designed in conjunction with the Namibian curriculum. The aim is to motivate learners through content, games and activities in a joyful way that encourages them to strive for and live a healthy lifestyle throughout childhood and adolescence.
By using KaziKidz teachers will be contributing to the wellbeing and health of their learners. Physical Education (PE) plays a critical role in holistic childhood education and development. To be physically active contributes to the development of physical competence and fitness, as well as to the cognitive, social and emotional development of children. According to World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, children should undertake 60 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily.
The Healthy Active Kids South Africa Report Card (2018) has shown that children, particularly from marginalized communities, do not achieve the minimal daily physical activity recommendations. Schools play an important role in making a meaningful contribution to the goal of achieving the recommended daily physical activity guidelines by incorporating Physical Education lessons into the school curriculum. Since some schools are affected by inadequate and poor infrastructure (e.g. a poor quality lawn), lack of equipment and large class numbers, an attempt was made to include these factors in the design of the presented lesson plans in order to have fun together with the schoolchildren. To make a meaningful contribution to health at schools, it is important for Physical Education classes to be conducted on a regular basis. Establishing class procedures and routines at the beginning of the programme may encourage order in class.
This KaziKidz Pre-Primary Teaching Material is based on the Namibian curriculum and was developed in 2023 with financial support from the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), Berne, Switzerland.