REAL – Responsible, Excel, Appreciate and Love are our kindergarten core values. It is a great privilege for Zion Kindergarten to participate in SSDB 2017 and embark on Service Learning with our students and families. Our aims for the SSDB projects are to instill values and shape the hearts of the little ones to love and care for their community and environment.
Hence, our first project involved a group of senior citizens who live just next to our kindergarten in the Ling Kwang Home for Senior Citizens. During the SSDB launch party, we invited them over to our kindergarten for a time of fun. Opportunities were given to parents to help wheel a small group of the residents over to the kindergarten from Ling Kwang Home. Further, we planned a time of game for our K1 students to interact and play with the residents. As a few of these residents require help to perform skills that require eye-hand coordination, i.e. passing a ball from one cup to another, our students and parents were expected to help whenever possible, thus learning to appreciate the needs of the elderly and be involved and supportive towards them.
Our Pre-Nursery students were given the opportunities to give a small pack of snacks packed by school as a gift for these residents. This moment of sharing is precious as it helps to bring the two distinct generations closer together, creating an opportunity for the residents to re-establish a bond with the community around them, and to feel valued and cared for. Though the residents and our students are not-related, but we hope that this collaboration effort helps our students and parents to be aware of our responsibility towards the elderly community around us, to make these residents feel included and valued in a larger community of Singapore.
