START SMALL DREAM BIG 2019
WALKING DOWN MEMORY LANE
Agape Little Uni @ Upper Serangoon Crescent Introduction
INTRODUCTION
In lieu of the National Day 2019 celebration, the nation is celebrating Singapore’s 700 years of history with the SG Bicentennial Experience. The event focuses on exploring our eventful past and how it has formed us. At the same time, discovering what it means and how it affects our future.
To show our support for this event, we have based our Start Small Dream Big (SSDB) 2019 project on the history of Singapore. Through this event, our children were able to understand what happened many years ago affect our living in the present and in the future, instilling the value of gratitude into their learning journey.
After a discussion with children, we linked our SSDB theme - Caring for our family and friends, coming up with the decision to invite their grandparents as the event’s guest and provide an opportunity for them to show their appreciation for their grandparents while taking a sneak peek into their grandparents’ childhood.
On the 3rd of August 2019, the children came in with their grandparents to take part in a carnival, which consisted of fun games and tasty food which were staples during their grandparents’ times.
PREPARING FOR CARNIVAL “A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE”
Children started preparing for the event since June 2019, they decorated invitation cards signed it off with their names to invite their grandparents to the event.
Children learnt to sing and dance memorable songs of olden days to put up a performance for their grandparents on the day of event. After weeks of practice, the performance was recorded and presented during the event. Some of the songs performed by the children were Rasa Sayang (N1A), Chan Mali Chan (N1B), 外婆的澎湖湾 (N2) and 茉莉花 (K1 & ST).
A specific event from the different centuries was also allocated to each class. The classes explored the different events and conducted different crafts or activities to document their learning.
For our Smart Toddlers, children explored Singapore as Temasek, where Singapore was a fishing village. The children made their own pond and paper fish. After that, they used wooden sticks to use as a fishing rod to ‘fish’ up their paper fish.
For Nursery 1A, the children covered the appearance of Sir Stamford Raffles, who was a significant figure in helping Singapore get to the stance she is at right now. They learnt about his contributions and made a collage of him out of recycled materials such as toilet paper rolls.
For Nursery 1B, the children explored the Independence of Singapore, which was a significant moment in our history. The children learnt about the meaning of the Singapore flag and its symbols. They also made a poster documenting the significance of the flag.
For Nursery 2A, children covered World War 2, which was a difficult time for their grandparents. They learnt about the suffering people had to go through during war and what were some propaganda events that happened during this period. After that, the children drew their understanding of this event and shared about it to their peers.
For Nursery 2B, the children explored Youth Olympic Games 2010, where Singapore had the honour of hosting the sports activities for countries around the world. Children learnt about the different sports that were held during the event and even recreated some on their own. They picked out objects from the classroom to recreate sports such as kayaking, rhythmic gymnastics, soccer and fencing. Some of the children even went home and conducted the games with their parents.
For Kindergarten 1, children were introduced to Mr Lee Kuan Yew, whom was a respected figure throughout his life, and his list of contributions to the rise of Singapore. To commemorate his achievements, the children drew a poster and shared their thoughts and feelings for Mr Lee Kuan Yew for the exhibition.
DAY OF CARNIVAL
The pictures and videos were added into the video montage, together with the performance videos, for the grandparents to view and enjoy.
To provide refreshments for the participants, a snack box was given out to each family. The snack box consisted of curry puffs, fishballs, goreng pisang, apples and water sufficient for at least 2 adults and 1 child.
A snack table serving old school snacks were put up; grandparents get to scoop the snacks and place them into paper cones, to make their own “Kacang Puteh”, which brought back many heartfelt memories on how they bring in their snacks into the theatres to watch movies in the past.
A carnival cannot be called a carnival without fun and games. A series of games and activities that were common pastimes during the olden days, were recreated for the grandparents to indulge in with their grandchildren. The games included Bingo - The Singapore Attractions edition, Ring Toss, Spinning Top, Tikam Tikam Question Board and Marble Shooting. Some of the older children even volunteered to assist as Game Masters to host the games.
Marble Shooting
Bingo - Singapore Attractions Edition
Tikam Tikam Question Board
Spinning Top
Ring Toss
Our Game Master & Parent Volunteer
After each game, the participants were given points according to their performance, which they could collate and claim prizes at the Prize Booth. The prizes include little tokens such as childhood toys (paper balls, yoyos, spinning tops, snacks).
Last but not least, to commemorate this meaningful event, a photobooth was also set up for the children and their families to take pictures of these memories to keep in their hearts forever.
As this is a community involvement activity, we asked for kind donations and sponsorships from our centre’s parents to support this event for the grandparents. All the funding and items used during the event were sponsored by generous Parents of Agape Little Uni @ Upper Serangoon.
