Start Small Dream Big 2020 : Appreciating Healthcare Heroes

o Appreciating the hard work and sacrifices made by our healthcare workers in the midst of the COVID-19 situation.

o Creating an awareness on the current pandemic situation that is creating a global change which will impact the future generations.

The whole world is greatly affected by this global COVID-19 pandemic. A pandemic which started to spread like wildfire all of a sudden. It started off as an outbreak in Wuhan city. Within months, countries worldwide were affected by this virus as well. Singapore is one of the countries that was affected by this.

From school going children to those in the work industry, everyone is currently leading their lives differently. Even though we have been through this before in 2003 during SARS outbreak which is now deemed as not as severe as what we are experiencing right this moment. Many things started to change rapidly for people in all walks of life. This is something that none of us would have wanted to happen.

In the midst of the COVID-19 virus outbreak, we are so involved in taking care of ourselves as well as our loved ones by following the appropriate precautionary measures such as washing our hands and wearing a mask or trying our best to stay indoors. However, it can been seen in numerous newspapers and blogs on how our healthcare officers are being treated. We have to keep in mind that these healthcare officers are in the frontline. This means that they are risking their lives daily to protect and take care of us. To support our healthcare officers, our centre embarked on a small initiative titled: Appreciating Healthcare Heroes!

We wanted to utilise our time wisely and hence dedicated March Holiday 2020 for the Start Small Dream Big (SSDB) 2020 project, all while anticipating that there might be a school closure. Thus, the SSDB project was tied up with the March Holiday programme. The two main initiatives were the Bouquet making and the March Holiday programme based on activities related to COVID-19.

This was one of the initial activities that we started off with for the SSDB project. The N1, N2 & K2 children and their families were involved in this. The children had to create a bouquet of appreciation. Our Singapore healthcare workers have been fighting the battle relentlessly for us while putting their lives on the line. To show our appreciation for them, we got our children to embark on their first SSDB initiative to create a bouquet. Together with the children, the parents penned down their appreciation notes for the healthcare workers. The messages were collated to form a bouquet. This bouquet together with some chocolates was presented to the healthcare workers at Tan Tock Seng Hospital. Due to valid reasons, photography was not allowed during the presentation of the appreciation bouquet.

The children from N2 to K2 engaged in varying activities that helped to create the awareness of COVID-19. The topics were on Healthy Eating, Active Kids as well as Germ Avengers. Through this, we tried to instil healthy eating in the kids so that they live an active and fit life to reduce the chances of falling ill or contracting diseases.

The Nursery 2 children were engaged in the topic on ‘Healthy eating’. As we know, eating healthier is a step towards a healthy living. The children are still shaping their attitude towards food and forming the basis for their future eating habits. At school or at homes, we can encourage them to eat healthier by including a lot of fruits and vegetables in their diet. Educating them the importance of nutrition will be also be a form of building block towards healthy eating.

The Kindergarten 1 children were engaged in the topic on ‘Active Kids’. Physical activity is a crucial part of a child’s development and well-being. Being healthy will help reduce the risk of contracting viruses in their body. We explained to children that they have to participate in at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise every day. Stay strong! Stay Safe!

The Kindergarten 2 children were engaged with the topic on ‘Germ Avengers’. It was to teach the children about their immune system and the importance of healthy habits like proper handwashing. Through this, we hoped to make the children understand why certain habits are important for their lives and how they can incorporate it in their lives daily. 

Finally, we ended this SSDB project by engaging the children with the SSDB journal show and tell. The children penned down their thoughts on how the SSDB project had an impact on them. Especially after the reopening of the centre, the children expressed the following:

• “Mummy and daddy stay home to work. I also stay at home”.

• “I did so many things with my family at home. We also look after each other”.

• “One day we stand at the window and clapped hands for the healthcare heroes. So many people clapped hands also”.

• “Mummy said we stay home to be safe from the virus. Many people are in the hospital. I never visit my grandmother also”.

• “I miss school and my friends”.

It was a good closure for the children as they were reflecting on how they have been impacted by this COVID -19 situation during the circuit breaker period as well. This is good for teachers as well as we got a peek into what the children were feeling and going through in this pandemic.

The children also had a chance to role play as doctors, nurses and patients. They reminded each other about social distancing by checking themselves for symptoms such as fever, cough and flu. Through this, we hope that they themselves would practise these social distancing measures.

Our final presentation of showing gratitude to the healthcare community