For this year’s SSDB project, the K1 and K2 children of Ace@Work Cashew Heights are collaborating with the elderly of St. Luke’s Eldercare @ Keat Hong Centre. Through this collaboration, the children will learn how to extend help and give happiness to other people in their own simple way.
The children had a month long preparation as part of the centre’s June Holiday Programme and Parental Involvement for an event wherein they’ll have an online meeting with the elderly of St. Luke’s Eldercare. The children created a puzzle to be given as a gift for the elderly. The puzzle is made of recycled cereal boxes which the children, together with their teachers and parents, cut and folded into cubes. They then decorated the sides of the cubes with different patterns and colours. The top and bottom part of the cube shows a puzzle piece of the past and present of Singapore, respectively. We also collected recyclables from Preschool Market to create a puzzle box holder.
The children also prepared two dance routines to be shown to the elderly. The dance routines included steps and routines that were suggested by Mr. Teo Kang Wei, Jiray, personal trainer at Genesis Gym and Ms. Choy Kar Qi, a Therapist Assistant from SGH. These routines will help to improve stiff/frozen shoulders, balance, knee joint stability, and core strength; enforce better posture; and develop balance coordination, and stability.
The event happened last 30 June 2021 via Zoom. To start off the event, the children showed their dance performance which the elderly enjoyed watching. Some were seen trying to move to the music.Afterwards, they had a dialogue session wherein the children asked questions to get to know more about the elderly. Then the elderly taught words and phrases in different Chinese dialects. Lastly, to cap off the event, the children and the elderly had their photos taken and said their goodbyes and gratitude towards each other.
Not only did the children enjoy the session but they also learned a lot from it. This activity made them appreciate what they have and be thankful for their loved ones. This also made them realise that helping other people can be done in different ways and communication is key to build bonds.
