The main theme for our SSDB 2019 is raising environmental awareness and learning ways to care for our environment by ‘ going green ‘. We designed our SSDB activities with the aim of encouraging potentially life-long disposition towards caring for our environment.
WORLD WATER DAY
During World Water Day, we taught the children about the importance of water, especially on how essential it is for living things (e.g. animals, plants, humans, etc.). The children were next tasked to create their own poster. Thereafter, they promoted water saving tips to their neighbours.
Children discussed among each other on what should they include in their water saving tips poster. During the process, children learnt social skills, environmental awareness and teamwork.
SAVING WATER - BUDDY SYSTEM
Children are active learners and keen observers, as well as leaders. The Buddy System pairs K2 children with the N2 and N1 children, teaching the early years on how to wash their hands without wasting water. During this transition time, K2 children were provided with opportunities to guide their younger peers while N2 and N1 children learnt good social behaviours.
SAVING WATER - COLLABORATING WITH PARENTS
Children brought the water saving tips that they had learned to share with their family. Parents collected rice water after washing their rice. Then, parents guided their child to reuse water to water the plants. Thereafter, they created a poster to share the knowledge with the class on the different ways they reuse water at home. Additionally, parents brought the rice water to school for their child to water the school plants.
LAUNCH PARTY
During the SSDB Launch Party, children kicked off the party with a ribbon cutting session. They also invited their parents to recite the SSDB pledge with them. Then, parents brought their own plants to school and guided their child in planting the plants. Thereafter, they recycled materials – CDs, old clothing, brooms, etc. – to create a scarecrow for our ‘Kindy Garden’. They also made use of drink cartons and plastic bottles as flower pots.
Meanwhile, the K1 children were tasked to pick up rubbish from the surrounding school environment .
MOLLY BUS – REDUCING PAPER USAGE
We encouraged children to reduce paper usage by borrowing books. Children were provided with an opportunity to enter the Molly Bus, a unique experience of reading books on a stationary bus. Thereafter, children went with their parents to the National Library Board, encouraging them to read books in the library. We also taught the children that using old books donated from their friends or hand-downs from their elder siblings will also helped in reducing the demand for printed books and paper usage.
PARENTS WORKSHOP - EARLY YEARS READING PROGRAM
We organized a parents workshop to encouraged parents to read books with their children hence nurturing their oral language skills. We also made used of this opportunity to inculcate to the parents the notion of going green by borrowing books from the library rather than buying books.
LEARNING GOES WILD WITHIN SCHOOL COMPOUND
Nature is the best learning environment for children. Children cultivate their sense of wonder and curiosity while observing their environment. During their observations, they had constructed the knowledge that pollution (e.g. land pollution, water pollution, etc.) had endangered certain species of animals – pangolin , rhinoceros , etc.
LEARNING GOES WILD IN SINGAPORE ZOO
Children were provided opportunities to interact closely with animals and plants. They learnt facts about the animal species, their features and living preferences.
GOING GREEN WITH OUR NEIGHBOURHOOD
Singapore is known as the Garden City which could be seen from the various plants and trees in our environment. N1 Children were encouraged to create tree crafts using recyclable materials – toilet paper rolls. They were also exposed to the plants which could be found in our neighbourhood. A Pioneer Merdeka Citizen kindly volunteered to share his wide knowledge with the children, teaching them about the characteristics and species of each plant.
LEARNING GOES GREEN AT FORT CANNING PARK
We brought children to the Fort Canning Park, witnessing their exhibitions to celebrate Singapore’s Bicentennial. Children observed the Spice Garden and gained awareness on the characteristics of some of the spices and their worth in the past.
CREATING CRAFTS WITH RECYCLED MATERIALS
Children recycled egg shells by painting and pasting on the shell, designing their own Easter Egg. Thereafter, they also recycled drink cartons and created their own Easter Rabbit.
This is the second time our K2 children had the opportunity to visit Pioneer Primary School . The K2 children teamed up with their older peers and together designed a flower pot with meaningful thank you messages written on it out of recycled materials .
Parents collected lots of recyclable materials – plastic cups, plastic spoons, plastic bottles, etc. Children utilized these materials to create different arts of wild animals and creepy crawlies.
N1 children designing their tree art piece using different basic shapes cut from recycled materials.
Children creating birds using different types of recycled materials .
KINDY GARDEN
Children are exposed to the life cycle of plants as well as the importance of plants. They were provided with hands-on experience of planting a plant into the soil. The children were also taught how to care for the different types of plants in the Kindy garden .
Children worked together as a school cohort to set up our Kindy Garden. They were assigned different roles to create banners, plant labels and plant descriptions for the Kindy garden.
Children were exposed to knowledge of Dengue Mosquitoes. They learnt about its life cycle, how do one prevent dengue mosquitoes from breeding, etc. Then, they created a poster regarding dengue mosquito prevention, displaying it in our Kindy Garden. This reminded people on what to look out for and how to prevent Dengue Mosquitoes from breeding.
As the saying goes, ‘Mother Nature is our best teacher’. During the process of setting up the Kindy Garden, children discovered the existence of earthworms. They were surprised and awed that earthworms were living in the soil that they have planted. Additionally, while taking care of the plants, they discovered that caterpillars and butterflies were attracted to the lime plant. They tend to breed on the lime plant as well. Through these observations, children also learnt about the life cycle of butterflies.
The Kindy Garden consist of a fruits and vegetables section. The children followed the schedule given to water and tend to the different fruits and vegetables. Once the vegetables and fruits are ready for harvesting , the children harvested and consumed the fruits and vegetables .
During the process, children learnt to appreciate their food as they learnt about the hard labour required to grow these food. They also learned how gardening tools improves the efficiency of gardening.
Children were encouraged to draw their favourite plant in the Kindy Garden. This not only provides an opportunity to develop the children’s aesthetics but also a chance for them to have closer interaction with the plants, enhancing their knowledge and observation skills of nature.
In addition, to complement their appreciation of Chinese culture, the children made used of the skills they had learned in their ‘ Chinese painting ‘ classes to draw their favourite flower in the Kindy garden. This provides the children with another platform to develop their aesthetics and explore their creativity.
