Hi Guides!
On 30th and 31st May, Guides visited Good Shepherd’s Student Care Centre for VIA. Guides were split into different groups and conducted baking, craftwork and carnival games for the children there. We all had lots of fun and here are some reflections by our Guides!
Baking
Guides baked some cookies with the children. Through this activity, Guides were able to communicate with each other and bond with their new friends!
Reflection from a Year 3 in P2:
For our patrol, we did baking with the kids from Marymount Convent School as part of our VIA. Personally,I felt that it was a very meaningful and insightful experience. We arrived at the school earlier to prepare the ingredients for the baking of the cookies. During that period of time, I felt that there were a lot of things to improve on. Firstly, we could work with a sense of urgency. Even though the VIA was not a proper 集合 session, we could still have worked faster to measure and prepare the ingredients needed. Secondly, we could take the VIA more seriously. For example, during the actual baking session, there were some people who used their phones, went to another table to chit-chat and some wandering around with nothing to do. We should have taken the initiative to talk to the kids, try to make them feel more comfortable and make a memorable experience for them too, or if we had nothing to do, we could have helped to clean, wash and dry the dishes that were not necessary any more. In addition, something else that we could have done better was to be more familiar with the baking session before the actual day. Many of us were not aware of the two baking sessions that we would have on the actual day and were quite clueless. We should have watched the video thoroughly and carefully so as to be more prepared. However, despite the few things that we could have taken note of and improved on, there were definitely some things that we did well. This includes our enthusiasm and excitement to meet the kids and give them an exciting and fun experience. Overall, I felt that this was an experience that I will always remember and this experience also helped me to realise how blessed I am since some of the kids I worked with had some disabilities. I am touched by their resilience and enthusiasm to learn how to bake and I hope to be able to learn from them and apply these values to my everyday life as well.
On Day 1 of VIA from 0920-1245, we had a baking session with children aged 7 and 8 years old at Good Shepherd’s Student Care Centre. During this session, we baked with these children and were able to get a chance to interact with them. First, when we arrived at the Student Care Centre, we had to prepare 5 batches of ingredients. Since we were inexperienced and this was a new environment for all of us, we accidentally made a mess on the table while we were preparing the ingredients. This caused trouble to others and the ICs had to clean up the mess when we were making the cookies with the children. In the next round of preparing the ingredients, we were more careful and aware of our surroundings while we poured the ingredients in the bowl. We also improved from the first time as we realized that having one person prepare the same ingredients for everyone was more efficient and effective than each group preparing their own ingredients. Hence, through this, we understood the value of teamwork and effective communication more deeply. In the first round of baking with the 8-year-old children, I was working with my fellow batchmate, to teach the children how to bake. We had to teach 4 children, two of whom are on the quieter side and 2 are on the noisier side. The 2 more active children kept running around, causing ingredients to splatter on the floor. We had to take turns in looking after the 2 children while the other engaged with the 2 quieter children to prevent them from feeling left out. Though it was extremely tiring for both of us, through this, we learnt to be more patient while taking care of children younger than us and how to engage them. In the second round of baking with the 7-year-old children, we were allocated to 4 quieter yet understanding children. They were able to work together as a team and took turns stirring the mixture. My batchmate and I found this extremely heartwarming as they were already able to understand the value of patience and teamwork from such a tender age. At the end of this VIA session, we were heartwarmingly thanked by the young children for baking with them. The 4 children that we were allocated to us went up to us and thanked us personally. Both of us were extremely touched by their actions. This session is truly an eye-opening one and we learnt much from this experience. Knowing that we would be interacting with these children in the years to come, we would take this experience and improve on it, strengthening our connection with these children and ensuring that they would also enjoy the following VIA sessions in the future.
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Craftwork
For this activity, Guides made flapping butterflies using paper, straw and tape as well as origami tulips. Guides were able to interact and guide the children on each step.
Reflection from a Year 3 in P3:
Our patrol went with Patrol 4 on Day 1 to do Craftwork together. Before that, we were asked to watch this video on how to make a flapping butterfly. It was quite complicated and I was scared that it would not work well. When we went there, the first thing we did was let the kids colour the butterfly however they wanted. We did not talk to them much at first since they were busy doing their own thing. After they coloured the butterfly, we then proceeded to make origami with them. This required more interaction with the kids as we had to teach them how to make the origami flower. The kids from the table I was at were very fast learners and quickly learnt how to make the flower. Since I brought origami paper with patterns, I shared it with the kids from my table and they were very happy to make a flower which was differently patterned from the other kids. One of the kids at my table was so interested in folding origami that she made 6 flowers! She also told me that she would be giving them to her parents, and I found that really sweet of her. We still had more time after that, and we taught them how to make a flapping bird. They found it hard to do so but eventually did it and were happy to bring them home to show their parents. I also folded a phoenix for them since I knew how to do so, and one of them brought it home. After that, we proceeded to complete the flapping butterfly. Since it was rather complicated, it was hard for us to teach them but we managed to do it in the end. Even though it couldn’t flap very well, the kids were still satisfied with it and went around the room to show their friends. Overall, this Values-In-Action (VIA) session was really fulfilling, and I managed to bond with the kids from my table a lot. They even gave us their own cookies that they baked earlier in the day, and it was really delicious. I am looking forward to our next VIA session with them.
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Reflection from a Year 3 in P4:
For VIA, we went to Good Shepherd Service Center to look after a class of Primary 1 children. We taught them how to make a flapping butterfly craft. Before the activity, I was quite nervous about how we were going to teach the kids to do it properly as some parts seemed like they might be hard for them to understand. However, I was also looking forward to it. When we arrived in the room it was already interesting as the children were all very talkative and bubbly, even when they barely knew us. We had to balance between relating to them as young children and guiding them through the activity. At times, it was quite hard to get them to stay on task as some would keep getting distracted, but we tried our best to help them. As such the activity went by more slowly, but the good part was that the children would learn more than if we just helped them do everything ourselves. The distribution of coloured markers was also a problem at first as there was only a certain amount of each colour that worked and thus not enough to satisfy the children. My group had to ask them to take turns and be patient with them no matter how chaotic it became. In general, my main takeaway was to set a good example as their ‘caretakers’. The VIA was so fun and I think we all enjoyed getting to interact and know the children better. I found it slightly sad that they were in childcare during the school holidays, which is supposedly a time away from school to relax. Thus, I was glad that we got to brighten up their day in a meaningful way. I would definitely do it again if given the chance.
Carnival Games
For Carnival Games, a total of 9 booths were set up, A Cup of Water, Recreate the Photo!, Chapteh, Hula Hoop Human Chain, Stack Stacks Stacking, Twisting Tongue Twisters, 1,2,3,4,5, Once I caught a fish alive!, Tic Tac Toe reinvented and Counting Ping Pong
Reflection from a Year 3 in P5:
For our VIA which was on day 2, our patrol and patrol 1 went to Good Shepherd's Student Care Centre to host a carnival for the students there. We had a total of 9 booths, with a rewards redemption as well. When we arrived, we had to set up our booths and prepare ourselves to engage the students with our booth's activities. After we set up the booths, the students started streaming in. Soon, the carnival began. I was in Booth 1: A Cup of Water. My job was to refill water guns, tick the student's cards after they have completed the activity, as well as mop up the water surrounding the cups. It was stressful at the start as it was a new experience for me as I had never really interacted with children. The total time for the carnival was around an hour and a half, and it was overwhelming as we constantly had something to do, as the water guns ran out very fast. In addition, there were many children waiting to play and we had to change our plan and let multiple children shoot into the same cup instead of just one. This saved a lot of time and we were able to use all the water guns efficiently. However, another problem was that the floor was very wet. We tried our best to mop it but it was not drying in time, hence it was a dangerous hazard for the children as they might slip and injure themselves. Overall, it was a fun and new experience for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, I felt that we could have interacted and engaged with the students more because I could tell that we were all overwhelmed with the tasks we had to complete and that we couldn't properly interact and engage them properly. However, one thing that we did well was our sense of urgency and perseverance. We were all stressed and overwhelmed with the number of kids and the tasks we needed to constantly fulfil. But we all worked as fast as we could. All of us wanted to let the children have a fun and enjoyable experience in that carnival and we tried our best to make it memorable for them.
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Reflection from a Year 3 in P1:
On 31 May, my patrol and Patrol 5 had our VIA session at Good Shepherd Student Care Centre. All the students who participated in our carnival were primary school students from primary one all the way to primary six. There were nine stations in the carnival, and I was in charge of the station which required participants to stack a card tower with Uno cards. Another Guide was also in charge of the activity together with me. While setting up the stations, we had to move many tables to make way for stations, especially the ones that took up more space. For my station, because it did not take up too much space and we were going to use the canteen tables and benches anyway, we did not move the tables at all and went to help the other stations after setting up a card tower ourselves for the students to reference while they build. I think it was good that I went to help out, but I think I should have thought ahead more because later on I realised that we still needed to shift the tables because we needed to make space for the students to queue up. We then hurried to move the tables as the carnival was starting soon. When the students arrived, I was pretty excited because I had never helped with running a carnival before and I thought it would be fun. When the students started arriving at my station, I thought it would be difficult to maintain order and get them to queue up because there were so many people. However, after splitting the work with the other guide at my station, and thanks to the cooperation of the students, we had them lining up in neat rows in no time. While watching the students build the card towers, we also had to motivate them from time to time and sound friendly enough, so that they would be able to enjoy the carnival. From this experience, I have learnt that patience is important, when I was setting up the model of the card tower for the students to reference, I kept failing, and only when I had calmed down and became more patient did I manage to build the tower. Teamwork is also important, since without splitting work with the other guide assigned at my station, I would not have been able to manage the station so efficiently. This VIA session has been a very valuable learning experience for me.
Hope everyone made some new friends and enjoyed the VIA!
Published by:
Yuanxin
54届 Secretary
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