The Potentiality of University Extension to Stimulate …
705
The extensionists may perform their dynamics in the rooms that accommodate
one or two children; or in the Toy Room, where the pedagogues and volunteers
use to stay. The extensionists only get inside the rooms whose doors do not have
the isolation or contact restraining sign. In the Toy Library, on the other hand, the
pedagogy professional gets involved cooperating to children’s participation in the
project’s activities, such as facilitating relations not only among the children, but
with other people inserted in the context as well as the professional team. There is
also space destined to the doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals and cleaning
staff. These professionals can follow the extensionists’ movements and watch the
storytelling while they are doing some procedures or cleansing. Moreover, the public
in these health services is not restricted to the children and professionals, there are
also adolescents and caregivers. Both children and adolescents use to be accompanied
by parents or tutors, who end up participating in the interventions after all, whether
in the storytelling or in the conversations.
In the Basic Health Unit of Embaré, the project’s intervention happens while
people are waiting in line for service and it takes approximately one hour. Since
this is a location with a dynamic routine, the extensionists try to not interfere in the
working process. When children are normally waiting for some medical consultation,
they used to stay in a waiting room where the project’s interventions are made. So
the same activities done in other working fields as initial activity, storytelling, free
playing and final activity happen, but the children would change during the period
according their consultation. Children’s companions, healthcare professionals and
cleaning staff can interact during the storytelling and other activities.
In the Family Support Center/Daycare center the storytelling, the games and workshops normally happen outdoors. The work is done with most of the classes, reaching
a variable number of (maximum) 70 children per intervention, aged 2–7 years. The
schoolchildren wait for the project’s extensionists. Then, the extensionists start with
an initial activity with the intention to approximate and integrate the group. After
that, the storytelling is presented. The kids often ask the extensionists to tell the
story more than once. So the extensionists retell the story or invite the children to
do that. The invitation allows children to reproduce their own version, contributing
to the creation of connections between the children and the extensionists. It also
contributes to stimulate their own creativity. After this moment, a “free time” to play
is proposed. It consists of workshops about creating materials and games in group.
The aim of the final activity is always to promote children’s relaxation before the
extensionists say goodbye for them.
Before making the workshops of recyclable playthings, we collect the materials
with children’s relatives, making them multipliers of the recycled practices executed
by the project, thus expanding the sustainable awareness and re-signification of scrap
metal for families. Inside the daycare a space named “Sucatoteca” was created, where
the recycled playthings that children create are kept. This space provides a connection
with the action’s pleasure of giving another meaning for the materials. Furthermore,
“Sucatoteca” allows the formation of a valorization sense and pride of the objects
created by them. Most of the crated toys can also be taken home by the children, they
ask to take them so that they can show their relatives and friends.
705
The extensionists may perform their dynamics in the rooms that accommodate
one or two children; or in the Toy Room, where the pedagogues and volunteers
use to stay. The extensionists only get inside the rooms whose doors do not have
the isolation or contact restraining sign. In the Toy Library, on the other hand, the
pedagogy professional gets involved cooperating to children’s participation in the
project’s activities, such as facilitating relations not only among the children, but
with other people inserted in the context as well as the professional team. There is
also space destined to the doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals and cleaning
staff. These professionals can follow the extensionists’ movements and watch the
storytelling while they are doing some procedures or cleansing. Moreover, the public
in these health services is not restricted to the children and professionals, there are
also adolescents and caregivers. Both children and adolescents use to be accompanied
by parents or tutors, who end up participating in the interventions after all, whether
in the storytelling or in the conversations.
In the Basic Health Unit of Embaré, the project’s intervention happens while
people are waiting in line for service and it takes approximately one hour. Since
this is a location with a dynamic routine, the extensionists try to not interfere in the
working process. When children are normally waiting for some medical consultation,
they used to stay in a waiting room where the project’s interventions are made. So
the same activities done in other working fields as initial activity, storytelling, free
playing and final activity happen, but the children would change during the period
according their consultation. Children’s companions, healthcare professionals and
cleaning staff can interact during the storytelling and other activities.
In the Family Support Center/Daycare center the storytelling, the games and workshops normally happen outdoors. The work is done with most of the classes, reaching
a variable number of (maximum) 70 children per intervention, aged 2–7 years. The
schoolchildren wait for the project’s extensionists. Then, the extensionists start with
an initial activity with the intention to approximate and integrate the group. After
that, the storytelling is presented. The kids often ask the extensionists to tell the
story more than once. So the extensionists retell the story or invite the children to
do that. The invitation allows children to reproduce their own version, contributing
to the creation of connections between the children and the extensionists. It also
contributes to stimulate their own creativity. After this moment, a “free time” to play
is proposed. It consists of workshops about creating materials and games in group.
The aim of the final activity is always to promote children’s relaxation before the
extensionists say goodbye for them.
Before making the workshops of recyclable playthings, we collect the materials
with children’s relatives, making them multipliers of the recycled practices executed
by the project, thus expanding the sustainable awareness and re-signification of scrap
metal for families. Inside the daycare a space named “Sucatoteca” was created, where
the recycled playthings that children create are kept. This space provides a connection
with the action’s pleasure of giving another meaning for the materials. Furthermore,
“Sucatoteca” allows the formation of a valorization sense and pride of the objects
created by them. Most of the crated toys can also be taken home by the children, they
ask to take them so that they can show their relatives and friends.