Day: 7 October 2015

Smile and wave!

Miss Ball and Sibo

Our teacher, Mrs Ball, gave us a teensy tip in class the other day.

She said we should smile and wave when cars stop to let us cross the road at the zebra crossing. She was specifically talking about the one outside our school – but then she said that any old zebra crossing would do.

We all looked at her.

Why?

Cars are supposed to stop at a zebra crossing to let people go safely across the road. But they often don’t. In fact, they speed up and zoom over it without even looking.

Wayne piped up that this really was true. He nearly got squished as flat as a pancake last week – expecting somebody to stop and they didn’t.

But Mrs Ball stood her ground. When somebody has the courtesy to stop and let you cross the road safely – it costs you nothing to look the person in the eye, smile and wave thank you. It’s a nice, kind gesture.

She reckons the world is often sorely lacking in basic human kindness.

People are so caught up in their own lives, with their own problems that they have forgotten how to be nice – for no reason at all.

That reminded me of the little smiling experiment I did at the mall a few months ago. I remembered that had worked too. When I smiled at other people – most of them smiled back at me. It also made me feel good. Plus I noticed that many of the people carried on walking down the mall, still smiling.

We had the chance to try out her idea later that day. A few of us were waiting in a group at the zebra crossing. A car coasted to a complete halt and let us all walk across.

I looked up, smiled and waved. Some of my classmates were also in the group. They did the same thing.

The people in the car smiled and waved back. They only carried on driving after we were all on the other side of the road.

Some kids that were also crossing (who’re not in our class) asked why we were waving and smiling at strange people. I explained to them what Mrs Ball had said to us.

They had just seen what a positive reaction we had received and agreed that it was a good idea.

Smile awhile!

Sibo

Your new word for the week:

Word:  gesture

Meaning:  movement or sign

Example… Smiling and waving when you cross at a zebra crossing is a nice gesture.

Weird ways of making things happen.

Sibo and Lizzie 2

I found out about a new thing the other day. Well, I mean, I am always learning new things – that’s why we go to school, but I did not learn about this at school.

It’s something called crowdfunding.

Huh! I hear you say. What on earth is that?

It’s when lots of people give a little bit of money so that a large amount can be raised so that something can happen. Like an event… or producing a music DVD, or publishing a book.

I thought it was quite a cool idea.

Say you want to do something – for instance my friend Ginny wants to bring out a Sibo (yes – yay – that’s me) book on Road Safety – “Sibo Looks Left” will be the title. But because times are tough and the schooling system is interesting, it is no longer feasible for publishers to just publish books willy-nilly anymore.

With crowdfunding, you put a sort of advert on the internet for your project. There are various different service providers who provide platforms for these adverts, and you have to pass certain criteria. They don’t just accept any project.

Basically you offer rewards for support (the support comes in the form of cash). For instance, in our case if you pledge R50 towards the book – you will receive a digi-book and get your name printed in the book as a supporter. There are other rewards too – like if you pledge more money you could have your company’s logo on the inside front cover… or… you could even have one of Sibo’s friends in the story with your child’s name. Cool hey!

It’s a fact – far too many kids get killed on the roads for stupid reasons.  Maybe this book will help a little bit. Gently inform kids (and their parents) about the rules of the road.

But here’s the most important bit – you will know that you have helped in the process of getting books given to children who can’t afford to buy them themselves.

They will get a free book which they can read over and over.

Yoh! I can’t bear to think that some people don’t even own one single book. That’s just terrible. But it’s even worse to think that somebody might get hurt or killed just because they did not realise what they were doing on the road was dangerous.

Buckle up!

Sibo

 

Your new word for the week:

Word:  willy-nilly

Meaning:  haphazard, random

Example… go find the example in the text above. (Sneaky hey!)