VIA, 3rd to 5th June

Hi Guides!

On the 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th of June, patrols took turns going to Good Shepherd Care Centre to host some activities for the children there. P3, 6, 9 and 10 planned and ran a carnival, P5 and 7 baked, P2 and 8 did crafts, while P1 and 4 taught them dances.

P1 and 4

The patrols taught the children a dance, during which they bonded and had a lot of fun!

Here's a reflection from a patrol member:

For VIA this June, we went to Marymount Convent where we taught the P1-6s various dances. The 2 songs we chose were Uptown Funk and Hearts Upon Our Sleeves. However, due to time constraints, we could only teach one of the dances, It was fun interacting with the children and they were very friendly and welcoming Some of them were very quiet but as we talked to them, they slowly opened up to us, We demonstrated the dance once first before proceeding on to teach them. However, during the course of teaching, some of them got too excited and was a bit uncooperative. With some encouragement, they still managed to finished learning the dance, It is an enriching experience as we had the opportunity to work with people out of our comfort zone, We also learnt that it is important to stay calm during hiccups. It is also essential for us to be prepared before the actual VIA as it will help prevent confusion and make things more efficient. I am sure all of us had a whale of time during this VIA opportunity.

Good job P1 and P4! I'm sure they enjoyed learning your dance!

P3, 6, 9 and 10

Here is an overview of the carnival held by these 4 patrols, courtesy of P6:

Once we arrived at the Student Care, we started to set up the various booths. At 1130, the carnival commenced.  It was difficult to control the children who were screaming and running around, however, after a while, we got used to it.  We learnt that in order to understand the wants and needs of the children, we had to bend down to their eye level and speak to them.  Also, when speaking to them, we had to use a very gentle, firm and assuring voice.  This way, the children at the student care would listen to us and will be willing to open up to us.  Generally, the children were really joyful and lively as they went around the various booths to get points.  I appreciate this VIA as it made me better at interacting with little kids.

For the VIA, our patrol had 2 booths, 1 being a bookmark-making booth and the other being a "fishing" booth

As for the bookmark-making booth, we realized that the children loved using the ink pads and colourful stickers.  We had to speak quite loudly to overpower the noise around us. However, the children were really good kids and they listened to all of our instructions.
This experience has somewhat increased out sense of responsibility for the booth. It was very fulfilling to see the exuberant smiles on the children's faces, when we had seen them looking dreary and bored previously. Although they were rather aggressive at times, we were glad that our hard work paid off as the children all seemed to be having a whale of a time.

As for the "fishing booth", the children had to use a “fishing rod” attached with a magnet to catch the fishes that were attached with paper clips from a distance. After that, they were to answer the questions related to SG50 on the fishes. From the VIA, we learnt to engage the children in the game and to be more organized so that the children would not have to wait very long for their turn. Initially, there was a long queue at our booth as each child caught all the fishes in a short time and thus would have more questions to answer. The others would then have to wait for her to finish answering the questions before playing the game, resulting in a longer time. However, we improvised such that the number of fishes caught was limited. This way, the others in the queue can continue fishing while she answered the questions.

Overall, it was an enriching and memorable experience and it was very satisfying to see that the children had a good time.

P5 and 7

The main activity for these two patrols was baking.

P7 did rainbow cupcakes with the P4s-6s in the morning, and it was a lot of fun mixing the different coloured batter and spooning various colours into the baking cups to make different patterns and mixtures.

P5 had the later session and made chocolate chip cookies with the P1s to 3s. The children were receptive towards the idea and the younger children found the activity, especially pouring and mixing the ingredients, extremely fun and fulfilling. It made us satisfied to see how much fun the children had during the baking.

The children got to take home their baked goods and enjoy them. Yum!

P2 and 8

The main activity for these two patrols was craft, and they conducted their sessions in separate sessions in the morning and afternoon. It was extremely enjoyable. P2 taught the children how to do stained glass decorations with paper while P8 used ice cream sticks as their base materials to make simple mini structures such as the national flag, a plane, and then a clothes peg on which to hang the flag.