Having fun with wood
KNYSNA - The wooden toy and accessory manufacturer JB Furniture Manufacturers recently welcomed local preschool learners on the annual woodworking tours where the children get the opportunity to build their very own educational wooden toy under the guidance of the factory staff.
The product the kids make during the tours each year is subsequently released as a DIY kit for the business' wooden toy brand, Stumped.
For this year's tours, the first since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic where the children didn't need to wear masks, about 200 children from six schools were bused from their preschools to the factory in the industrial area. The tours were held from Monday to Friday, 5 to 9 September.
At every visit, the preschoolers were first treated to a special educational talk about wood and its different uses, whereafter they enjoyed a tour of the factory and learned more about the various processes involved in woodworking. At the end of the tour it was time to make their special wooden toy, and this year it was a rain gauge called the ‘Amanzi Measure’ – Amanzi is isiXhosa for water.
The idea was chosen as it is a fun project, simple to build and a great way to get children interacting with nature. “The idea is that the children build the rain gauge from scratch and then paint or decorate it whichever way they like, making it their own.
“They can then put it outside on a post or a wall and every time after it rains they can go out and read how much rain had fallen,” said Shaun Gray, head of marketing for Stumped.
“Another reason we chose the rain gauge is to tie it in with the water cycle and teach the children where water comes from and how important water is to us, as well as the trees we use to make furniture and the toy they built. Every child also got a bottle of water to ‘test’ their Amanzi Measure with and drink when they were done. Overall it's a fun and interactive way to get children interested and excited about nature and give them something physical to keep and remember what they had learned.”