It is our first time participating in the Start Small Dream Big campaign in MapleBear Serangoon Gardens.
Our kindergarten 1 and 2 children collaborated with Ling Kwang Home for Senior Citizens for this joy-giving project. This project raises children’s awareness of the people within the community and caring for the elderly. It also fosters children’s empathy, kindness and love for others when giving back to the community.
When asked what they can do for the elderly, the children suggested a song and dance performance.
“Music is the universal language of mankind. When words fail, music speaks.”
Upon hearing about the collaboration, the children were excited to visit and perform for the elderly. Considering their audience’s genre of music, the children heard different songs from the 70‘s to 90’s and finally voted on one that they loved. They also spent many days creating and learning dance steps to accompany the song that they chose. Some of the chosen songs were Chinese folk song “茉莉花” , “Never gonna give you up” by Rick Astley and “小城故事” by Teresa Teng.
However due to the covid-19 situation, we were unable to head down to perform live. Yet, we did not lose hope and arranged to have a virtual performance for the elderly instead! The children danced with gusto despite not performing live. They were excited seeing the happy smiles on the elderly’s faces.
Other than the performance, the children also prepared a fruit basket to send to the Home. They helped with the placement, wrapping and decorating of the fruit basket. The little ones from our school wanted to join in the fun and helped to decorate it with stickers.
We extended the joy-giving project to the parents by raising funds to purchase requested art materials for our senior citizens to enjoy. Children participated by completing their “Happy Chores” through doing some household chores and earning the money to give back to the community.
The children in senior kindergarten recorded their learning journey through Start Small Dream Big in their journals. In it, they reflected on what they have achieved as a team, how they have contributed to the community through their actions, and the new skills they learnt in the process.
We would like to thank all of our parents and children for participating and contributing to this joy-giving project. We hope this will spark children’s interest in helping others around them and extending their love beyond their families.
