20A05

Our project, casually titled “Besties with Lion Befrienders” aimed to engage the elderly in some exercises to promote the importance of keeping fit and healthy even as one ages.

Our class was divided into three separate groups, where each group had planned one activity for the elderly. The activities planned were Taichi, Zumba and Exercise Pong (Cup Pong with a twist!).

From these activities, we were able to engage with the elderly, as well as do the exercises along with them- through the incorporation of demonstrators for each activity, such that not only would there be a visual guide for the elderly, it also would not have been a one-sided effort where only the elderly were putting in effort into completing the exercises.

The overall consensus seemed to indicate that the SL Day Activity was largely successful despite certain small setbacks.

To conduct the reflections with the class, we had gotten them to do 321 reflections- 3 things they learnt, 2 things they did well and 1 thing which can be improved on. Through the consolidation of responses through google forms, we were able to get a feel for what the class thought.

It can be seen that the most common things which our class had learnt through this activity was that despite their age, the elderly were actually very receptive to the activities. In addition, it was very fun to be able to engage with them even over zoom.

Lastly, we had learnt to be patient- due to the multitude of technological barriers such as lag and due to the language barrier as well which we had tried our best to overcome.

The 2 things which the class performed well in was that we managed to complete all our activities despite all the technological difficulties as well as coordination and communication with each other- due to the different roles in each team such as emcees and demonstrators.

1 thing which we needed to improve on was greater foresight- we did not expect that one of the elderly who would be joining the session would be wheelchair-bound so we had to adapt some exercises on the spot such that it did not require standing.

Hence, ultimately, despite some setbacks, it was a largely enjoyable activity for our class to carry out and it seemed as if the elderly at Lion Befrienders had largely enjoyed the activities as well- as evidenced by how they even wanted to play another round of the game “Exercise Pong”.