Loving the elderly with an act of kindness is a delightful way of bringing joy to their day as well as enlightens our hearts. The school would like to instill the value of Kindness to the children to let the children know that doing acts of kindness can be rewarding to both themselves as well as the recipients.
We made plans to organize an early National Day Celebration for the seniors at Evergreen Circle Seniors Activity Centre on 1 August 2018. The K2 children were involved in this project and their parents have been very generous in their donations of food items for the seniors. Prior to the visit, the children decorated the Kindsville paperbag provided by the Singapore Kindness Movement. They wrote short messages for the seniors, for instance, “You are awesome!”, “You are great!”, “You are lovable!” and “You are the best!”. After which, the children participated in packing the donated food items into the paperbags which were the “goodie” bags for the elders. They did so meticulously and were very focused throughout the packing process.
On the day of visit, the K2 parent volunteers mingled with the seniors as they streamed in and took their seats in front of the performance area. The K2 children performed Singapore folk songs like “Singapura, sunny island” and “小人物的心声”. The children and parents sat beside the seniors during the sing-a-long songs like “We are Singapore”, “Stand up for Singapore” and “陋巷童谣”. All of them sang the songs enthusiastically while waving their Singapore flags.
After the song and dance segment, we sang a birthday song to commemorate Singapore’s Birthday, with a proudly sponsored cake baked by one of the K2 parents who is a baker. The cake was later served to everyone during tea break.
The children and elderly sat together to begin the next activity – Colouring. The elderly and children worked in pairs to colour the templates provided. These include landmarks of Singapore like Merlion, Gardens by the Bay, Singapore Flyer . Some of them worked in unison as they coloured different parts of the picture, while some of them took turns to suggest the colours they wanted to use on the picture. Exchange of ideas, fun and laughter filled the air.
After the colouring activity, everyone adjourned for tea break and everyone enjoyed light refreshments along with the cake. The elderly had an opportunity to interact with the children and parent during tea break.
After tea break, it was time to bid goodbye to the elderly but before we left, the children presented goodie bags to the elderly. Goodie bag was filled with grocery items donated by children and parents.
We had an enjoyable time at Evergreen Circle Seniors Activity Centre. It was a refreshing experience for both parents and children. The elderly enjoyed the company and performance of the children. Parents were glad for this opportunity to serve together with the children. As for the children, it was a different experience to mingle with the elderly - a time to care and share with joy.
