21S07

For our SL Project with PCF Sparkletots centre (Potong Pasir branch), we came up with a video, a song, a dance as well as a lesson to teach the students on how to fold a paper boat to relate well to the theme of water. The video was to educate the kids on the importance of saving water by showcasing the devastating effects on animals and our environment if we waste water. The song and dance was to teach the children to turn off the tap to save water. At the end of the Zoom session, we taught them how to dance and sing the song ‘Turn Off The Tap’ so engage with them and make the session more fun. Last but not least, we taught them how to fold a paper boat for them to learn something new.

Firstly, the programme was daunting as it was my first time interacting with a group of children 10 years younger than me. I had to think of ways to sound more appealing to children rather than the usual mature audience that my school had. Overall, it went smoothly with the help of my friend and we managed to finish off with the children smiling and laughing.

Secondly, coming up with ways to entertain the children was also a challenging one. Rather than complicated words which I am used to using in my environment now, I had to come up with simple terms for children to understand. I now know how hard it is to actually communicate ideas with children and really look up to their teachers and educators.

Lastly, I am grateful to have an opportunity to partake in this heartwarming event where I got to challenge myself and interact with children. It was a joyous occasion as the children were really participative and I really appreciated that as I know not many would have given the effort to lend an ear to us. I believe that as a team and class we really did our best making their national day an enjoyable one.

- Chee Xian

I think this event was certainly quite meaningful to me, apart from it being an interesting way to celebrate our National Day, by giving back to society. I also made many fond memories which helped me grow closer to my civics group. The event most certainly wasn't perfectly executed but the flaws in it certainly brought a human nature that made the experience more fun and insightful. Most memorable was certainly the execution, where our preparation would have to come to fruition. Despite the technical difficulties, we learned to improvise appropriately to avoid tarnishing the effectiveness of the project as much as possible. The preparation phase was also fascinating as the brainstorming of novel ideas was inspiring and also getting opportunities to bond with fellow classmates. I think the main areas for our improvement is certainly to attempt a more thorough dry run to avoid technical issues.

- Julian

The service learning was an enjoyable and worthwhile experience. Through the planning stages, I learned the value of responsibility as group members would often laze and pass their own tasks to others due to the sheer number of members within a group and given a limited number of tasks. Thus, having to take on the duties of others has given me more insight in working in a group and also allowed me to value responsibility as a group member. I have also learned to enjoy the things I do as the planning process was made much more enjoyable when learning the dance moves with friends made me view a seemingly dreaded task a more fruitful one. When executing the project itself, I have a newfound respect for preschool teachers who have to have a true passion for engaging with children as it was difficult to truly and meaningfully engage with the children without cringing at oneself. Overall, I found this service learning to be an unexpectedly successful journey, not just due to the class’s successful efforts in engaging the children but also the many values I learned from it.

- Aric

I feel grateful for this experience as it enables me to be more socially active, have a strengthened sense of belonging to my community, as well as enhance my overall sense of purpose. It is rewarding to learn that our beneficiaries had enjoyed their time with us and also took away some knowledge that we had imparted to them. Being able to contribute to such a positive cause also helped me put things into perspective. I recall being the beneficiary’s age and I certainly had not been aware of the effort it took to arrange events like these back then, but now I recognised the efforts and positive impact we have made on the preschoolers involved. In hindsight, I think that the class had handled the event quite meticulously. Though we were met with obstacles along the way, such as having the event run faster than expected, as well as some technical difficulties, we had managed to improvise and resolve the hurdles efficiently with our outstanding communication skills.

- Melissa

Event went smoothly as a whole. The day was pretty fun and meaningful for both the K2s and myself. My group was in charge of making the video segment on how to save water. Despite our lack of experience in acting and video making and busy schedules, we managed to squeeze out a 5 minutes short skit for the children. It was a gratifying and benefitting experience as I learnt how to edit videos. On the day itself, it felt slightly messy at the beginning, but the class was able to organise the furniture swiftly. During the event, we broke into small groups and watched the emcees of the event amuse the children as well as the performers teach the children the water wally song in a cheerful and engaging way. It felt very meaningful and heartening to hear from the teachers at sparkletots that they found the emcees funny and that the children did the activity. For future events, I think we are more experienced and know what to expect when faced with technical difficulties, such as echoey mic etc. I think we can be more organised, especially when it comes to manpower as many are doing nothing during the event day itself. On a whole, the event was successful. We managed to end earlier than expected, and both sides of the Zoom ended on a good note! I'm delighted with the chance that we got to work with children and make their national celebration special. I'm looking forward to future SL events.

- En Qi