Pirates pigs buns and ravenous beasts teach children to read
22 October 2010
Bags full of pirates, pigs, buns, and ravenous beasts are helping pupils and their parents across Manchester to play together and learn to read at the same time.
The Playclub Project is the brainchild of Manchester City Council Children's Services and is designed to spark and encourage early reading skills and language development.
It has proved such a runaway success with mums, dads, and children that it is now being launched to schools nationally and even internationally.
There are two levels of Playclub Project - the first, Playclub Project 1, aimed at nursery aged children and their parents, and the second, Playclub Project 2, for Reception aged children and their parents.
The centrepiece of each project is a set of eight bags - each one filled with an exciting mix of things to stimulate learning.
These include CDs, rhymes to sing, books to read, and related activities to do at home - from fishing ping pong balls with letters on them out of the bath to make words, to making and selling currant buns, playing pirates and hunting letters on gold coins, or looking for insects in the park.
Each of the eight bags has different contents and comes complete with clear instructions for parents or carers on activity cards.
The high quality play bags are designed to be used at home every week over a six week period, with achievements being recorded and then celebrated in school through a Playclub card and certificate.
There is also a teacher's pack and CDROM with step-by-step instructions on how to run the project - with publicity templates, record sheets, ideas for workshops, evaluation forms and certificates.
One parent who is a big fan of the bags is dad Stephen Howarth who has used the bags with his five year old daughter Mackensie who goes to All Saints Primary School in Newton Heath, Manchester. He said: "It's such a great idea. Until we had the bags I hadn't done anything with Mackensie, now we're reading every night. The bags helped with imagination, and have really encouraged her to want to read books, especially if there are props with the books, like the gold coins, eye patch and pirate headscarf.
"Now she's trying to read all the time - billboards and shop names. We've both got so much out of it and Mackensie has become much more confident too. I think it's a really really good idea."
Every bag has a CD with songs and ideas for how parents can use the bags to make them more accessible, and the project has been particularly popular with families whose first language isn't English.
Rukshana Chuda, mum of five year old Seema who attends St Paul's School in Withington, Manchester said: "It makes it easier if you have English as a second language to have something visual in front of you. Something that you can get your hands on and do something with. The bags are good for this and are different because you've got a CD as well and it gives parents more information about what to do.
"Playing with the bags really helped Seema's development of words, sounds, and sentences, and I also learned from her. She loved bringing the bags home and helping make up stories, and didn't see it as homework at all - just fun."
Another parent at All Saints Primary School, Esther Omeregie, used the bags with her five year old daughter Cleopatra, whose favourite bag is the Dig Dig Digging bag that comes complete with a story book, builder's hard hat, and two play mobile phones. Esther said: "Everyone in the family sits down and joins in. It makes us be together, the girls, even the little one likes listening to stories and will ask questions."
Playclub Projects 1 and 2 have been so successful in schools that a third Playclub Project aimed at Year One children is being developed and is set to be launched next Spring, 2011.
Learning through play with their children in this way has also inspired some parents to join family learning courses and others have found that attending these courses has helped them use the bags more effectively with their children.
Councillor Sheila Newman, Executive Member Children's Services, Manchester City Council, said: "This is an innovative project that takes learning into the home and makes it fun for parents, carers and their children.
"Busy parents can often find excuses not to sit down and play games with their children. These bags are changing that - the parents who use them seem to enjoy them as much as the children!
"Furthermore they prove that sitting down with your child for half an hour a day can make all the difference to a child's language and reading skills and sometimes also to your own."
For further details about the Playclub Project and to order sets of the bags visit
In addition to the play bags a song CD featuring all of the songs used in Playclub 1 and 2 is available to parents at a special offer price of £2.99. Email: playclub.orders@gmx.com or telephone 0161 976 6775.
