VIA at Good Shepherd's Student Care Centre, 3-4 June

Hello Guides!

On 3 and 4 June, we had Values in Action (VIA) at Good Shepherd’s Student Care Centre!

Day 1

On the first day, Patrol 6 conducted baking activities in the morning, while Patrols 1 and 4 organised the Children’s Carnival in the afternoon!

For the baking activity, we got hands-on with the children at the centre as we worked together to bake delicious treats that they could bring home! It was definitely a fun experience guiding the children and helping them throughout the baking process.

During the carnival, there were different stations such as Jenga, Stacking Cups, and using chopsticks to pick up green beans. For every game they won, the children would receive a stamp and a prize such as snacks! Once they had all the stamps from the stations, they could then collect a special prize.

Here are some thoughts from the Year 3s on their experience!
Baking

On 4th June, for our VIA at Good Shepherd Student Care Centre, my patrol did baking. Initially, I was a little nervous because firstly, I do not really know how to bake but thankfully, the instructions were printed out and I could work with someone else which made it much easier for me. I was also a little worried that I would offend one of them unintentionally at first, but after some interaction, I realised that they were quite easy to talk to, and are mostly enthusiastic about this baking session, which I was really happy for. The whole session overran but when I saw their happy and excited faces upon receiving a muffin, I felt that all our effort was worth it. This VIA, like every other years, was extremely meaningful and fulfilling. I learnt to be appreciative of what I have, learnt to be patient and learnt to communicate with others better. On top of that, I had gotten a chance to bond more with my juniors and seniors. Hence overall, despite finding it challenging in the beginning, I eventually had a lot of fun and learnt a lot from the VIA.

Carnival

We had VIA at Good Shepherd Student Care Centre. My patrol was assigned to conduct a mini carnival together with P4. I was at the station where the kids had to throw or bounce a ping pong ball into red cups and they would be rewarded with sweets if successful. It was an activity that trained by multitasking skills as there were many children there and we had to constantly switch between marking their slips of paper, giving instructions and picking up the ping pong balls. It also trained patience and communication as the majority of the children there were quite young and we had to be able to deal with them in an efficient but gentle way. This activity was very meaningful as we were able to contribute some of our time to give back to the community.

During our VIA at Good Shepherd, my patrol was in charge of the booths for the carnival we held. I was stationed at the Jenga booth, where the children played a game of Jenga together to win sweets and snacks. I learnt a lot during this VIA as I got to interact more with the children and talk to them. It also required some patience and understanding as we had to explain the rules of the game. The children were very attentive and eager to play the games, which encouraged us. When the carnival first started, we had them line up at the booths to wait for their turn at the game. The Jenga booth was quite popular, so we tried to talk with the children while they were waiting in line. I felt that this was a very good opportunity to interact with others of a younger age group. Overall, I think this was a good experience especially because the children at the centre had fun and enjoyed themselves, which made me feel glad that the activities planned had put a smile on their faces. 

Day 2

On the second day, the Arts and Crafts activities were held by Patrol 3 in the morning, while Patrols 2 and 5 were in charge of team building activities in the afternoon.

For Arts and Crafts, the children were given an empty book to decorate, filling each page with different tasks from each stations such as "My Achievements". Personalising the look of their own notebook made it even more special!

During Team Building Activities, the children bonded with one another as well as us Guides by playing all sorts of games such as Mafia, Cup Stacking, and Broken Telephone! Most of these required some level of teamwork and cooperation, which helped us and the children improve on our communication skills!

These are some takeaways from the Year 3s about their experience during the Arts and Crafts activity!

During the Arts and Crafts Activity, the children got to decorate their very own personalised books! There were a total of 5 stations, with each station filling up a different part of the book, for example, "My Goals" and "My Achievements". The children were to go to the different stations and fill up the book! We had a lot of fun interacting with the children and helping them. Although some were shy at first, they eventually opened up and shared about what they had written on their books with us! This activity allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of why it is important to reflect and look back on our achievements even at a very young age, as it encourages and motivates us to keep trying. Even though I am quite awkward sometimes, being around the friendly children allowed me to initiate conversations with them more easily. I'm sure the children had a lot of fun decorating the pages with bright colours and drawings too!

Here are some reflections from the Year 3s on their experience with team building activities!

For the VIA, we were to do team building activities. Before the children arrived, we cut 3 pictures into 24 pieces each to hide around the hall for Treasure Hunt, the first activity. They were quite good at finding the pieces and we did not need to hint them much. Another group of older children played Mafia. When both groups were done we split all the children into 9 groups in order to form teams. We then were assigned to a team and we lead them to play games where they had to stack cups and whichever team finished first would get more points. They mostly enjoyed the cup stacking game. The next item they had to do was the Broken Telephone, where they had to relay a sentence down the line. They were quite distracted so we had to find ways to engage them. However, they still managed to do the activity but were quite bored. We got an opportunity to interact more with the younger children and learnt how to better interact with them as well as understand them more. We got valuable feedback on how to improve the activities we would hold there in the future.

My patrol was in charge of teamwork building along with P2. We had the children find some puzzle pieces that were scattered across the school hall. There were three pictures to be completed, and all the pictures depicted teamwork. After that, the children were split by levels, and they all played different games. The group I was in charge of played stacking cups first, where the children had to stack ten cups in a triangle shape and everyone had to take turns to build while they were being timed. The second activity is message passing. The first child at the front of the line were to pass down a message to the person behind her, and the last child was to tell us the sentence she heard. We played two rounds of this game, and both ended up with sentences that were quite funny. All the children were very nice to interact with, and I was surprised by their energy level and enthusiasm when they were finding the puzzle pieces as they ran around the entire hall for long periods of time. I had fun interacting with the children and resolving any problems they faced with each other, and this had increased my confidence level in interacting with people whom I do not know.

Although there may have been some worries during the VIA, it was ultimately a success! Hope that the Guides gained a lot of experience from this and that it was an enjoyable time for all!

Published by:

Hoong Yu Ning

50th Batch Secretary