VIA at Good Shepherd Student Care, 30 May and 1 June 2018

Hello Guides!

On 30th May and 1st June, our guides carried out our Values In Action programme at Good Shepherd Student Care Centre. We prepared a variety of activities for the children there to have fun!

Day 1

P3 Jasmine was in charge of the ‘Music and Movement’ activity for the P1s and 2s in the morning and for the P3-6s in the afternoon. P1 Bougainvillea and P2 Ixora also prepared a Children’s Carnival with a wide variety of games for all the children in the late afternoon!

Day 2

P5 Sunflower did baking with the P3-6s in the morning and the P1s and 2s in the afternoon. Afterwards, P4 Orchid and P6 Morning Glory did Arts and Crafts with the children, with P4 in charge of the P3-6s and P6 with the P1s and 2s.

Reflections by Year 2s:

For my patrol, we taught the children how to bake chocolate chip cookies. The children were very hyped over the activity, and as much as they would like to have as many turns as they could to make the cookies, they are considerate to one another as they allowed one another to take turns to help out in the making process. There was one girl in my group who was very shy and reserved, and she didn't speak up much to have her turn. Two of her friends then included her without any prompting, which I find very heartening to know that young children have compassion for their friends and are not selfish. This activity made me gain more experience on working with children and how to communicate with them. I have enjoyed this very much as the children with their positive attitudes made me happy.

When we went to the Good Shepherd Student Care Centre for VIA, my patrol was assigned to the arts and craft activity with the children. We had planned to fold origami and paint with them. Before we began the activity, we had to set up the stations and prepare the materials needed to carry out the activities. We were very excited to interact with the students, and tried our best to ensure they would have fun and enjoy the activity. We helped them to set up paints in palettes and provided them with egg cartons to be painted as “fairy houses”. They were very creative when painting it, and were excited to bring their own creations home. After drying the paint, we stuck small toothpicks with paper attached as a “flag” to decorate them. The students had big smiles on their faces and seemed very happy when carrying out the painting activity. This gave us a great sense of satisfaction as we knew the students had enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun talking and painting with them, and we were glad they enjoyed the activity we had planned. I think this VIA was a good opportunity for us to learn to be more patient and interact with others well.

For the VIA at Good Shepherd Student Care Centre, my patrol and Patrol 3 did a Children's Carnival. I had been assigned to a booth where three children would play together as a group. Two children would use a garbage bag to toss a ping pong ball and one child would catch the ball in a cup. It required teamwork and the children could win prizes. It had been an excellent opportunity to interact with children and thus improving my social skills. It was quite a fun experience as it was different than normal CCA and I learnt more on how to interact with younger children.

For the VIA at Good Shepherd Student Centre, my patrol was doing arts and craft. We were split up into three groups, each doing different art works. I was supposed to help out with teaching the students there how to make fairy houses using egg cartons and paint for decoration. Through the process, I was given the opportunity to interact with some of the students and thus had gained deeper insights in their lives. This experience allowed me to be more considerate towards others' feelings and helped train my social skills. In addition, I was given a chance to see the world through someone else's viewpoint. It also allowed me to reflect on myself and to be more appreciative of what I have and how fortunate I am. However, I felt that I could have been more interactive instead of just talking to one or two students so as to make them all feel more included. Overall, I personally felt that despite it being a rather tiring day, I was satisfied at the end of the day after seeing the students' happy faces at their art crafts. I think that this VIA is extremely meaningful and enriching and I look forward to next year's one.

Reflections by Year 3s:

As I have done VIA twice at Good Shepherd Student Care Centre already, I thought that I had enough experience to deal with the children there. However, my VIA activities for the last two years were baking, but this year my patrol had to do Crafts instead. As such, while largely the same, the experience was slightly different from before. Unlike before, I had trouble getting the children engaged in the activities as some expressed the desire to skip certain activities they were not interested in. Even so, I could tell that the children had fun making the items and giving their opinions on each other’s handiwork. They were, for the most part, enthusiastic in making the items, namely, an aeroplane made out of used toilet rolls and ice cream sticks, a laurel wreath out of constructions paper leaves and an owl origami. Although we had to help them with certain parts they couldn’t do on their own or needed our supervision, it didn’t dampen their spirit in making the items on their own. Despite my worries, the VIA went better than I expected and I was glad to have contributed to their joy then!

During our VIA session, we set up game booths for the children at Good Shepherd Student Care Centre and there were simple prizes (snacks like oreo and mamee noodles). For the booth that I was manning, we set up a Jenga game for the children. They were required to form groups of 3s to play the game and the person who caused the Jenga tower to fall will be the loser and have smaller prizes. Because the first few players took a very long time to complete the game, we decided to set a time limit and it can increase the challenge level as well. As we also did not prepare sufficient gifts, they could only play one time each and it caused some disappointment. Regardless, the children enjoyed the game a lot and they had vibrant smiles on their faces while they were playing the game.

That concludes our VIA experience!

Published by:

Yu Ning

50th Batch Secretary

Year 3 SJAB Sharing, 31 October 2018

Hello Guides!

For this 集合, the Year 3s did something different from our usual activities. While the Year 1s and 2s were busy, the Year 3s conducted a sharing session with the St. John Ambulance Brigade(SJAB).

During the sharing session, the Year 3s had to teach the Year 1s from SJAB some basic hitches and lashes, such as the timber hitch and the square lash. To better facilitate the teaching, we were split into three roughly even groups. The Year 1s were given some time to practise their lashes, with the Year 3s guiding them along the way. Afterwards, they could put their newly learnt skills to practice as each group was to build a baggage rack.

Reflections by Year 3s:

Although I already have some experience teaching my juniors, this was the first time I was in charge of juniors from a different CCA altogether. As such, I was really nervous and did not interact much with them at first. Over time, however, I got used to it and was able to teach them more effectively. Moreover, it was a really enriching experience as while we were teaching juniors that had little to no prior knowledge, we could also learn certain aspects of the SJAB that differ from Guides. I especially enjoyed watching them build the baggage rack, as they proved that they gained something fruitful from the 集合 and could put it to good use. Overall, I believe that this was a successful 集合.

The SJAB sharing was really a enriching experience. Even though we were not the ones being taught, I learnt so much through the sharing. I learnt to be patient and firm while teaching the St John’s Year 1s how to tie lashes. It was also a good way for me to revise my lashes and enforce my own knowledge as having to teach any skill well requires one to have an in depth understanding of the skill. It was a good opportunity for us to interact with juniors from another CCA. They were very obedient and open to our comments and we were able to broaden our perspectives while having a good time.

Despite my worries over needing to teach Year 1s from another CCA, it was surprisingly not that difficult. They picked up how to tie lashes rather quickly and worked together well, something I assumed they learnt from their own CCA. They were good listeners and took our advice well when practising their lashes. Also, they looked to be having a good time when tying the baggage rack, which is something I was glad for as it meant they were receptive to our activity. During this sharing, I too learnt alongside them. While they were learning how to tie lashes, I had to pick up how to teach them effectively - I couldn’t be too fast or they would not understand; couldn’t be too slow due to the time; had to be concise when explaining or they wouldn’t tie the lashes correctly. We had to teach everything right the first time as there was only this sharing session for them to learn. Furthermore, the fact that we were teaching Year 1s from another CCA and were thus in charge of their wellbeing as well as having to uphold their expectations of us made it a different experience from teaching our own Year 1s, who we would be interacting with for a significantly longer period of time. In conclusion, this SJAB sharing session was a rather fulfilling experience.

The SJAB sharing session was a really unique experience for me. It was different from teaching our juniors, as we did not have as much time to teach the St. John Year 1s and could not follow up on the teachings afterwards - we needed to teach everything they needed to know quickly and concisely. In addition, I experienced some grievances in that some of the Year 1s preferred to talk with each other instead of tying the lashes for the baggage rack, or that some of the lashes were really loose and caused the baggage rack to slant. Despite these, the other Year 1s more than made up for my frustrations as they were eager to learn and tied the lashes as best as they could. Although some were quick to learn and others were less interested, all of them learnt the necessary skills and could apply them, no matter the difference in skill level. Even if some of the Year 1s were not as enthusiastic when it came to the activity, I feel that this 集合 was a success for the most part.

Hope that this 集合 was a fruitful experience for everyone!

Published by:

Yu Ning

50th Batch Secretary