YMCA SCC @ Si Ling (Jan – Jun 2016) Newsletter
YMCA of Singapore – Impacting Lives, Nurturing Community Champions
Special Picks: • Friendship is expensive… Right? • 4th Annual Storytelling Compettion
June Highlights: Act 3
2
Are we doing enough? 2 Dancing is not exercise! 3 Is this what awaits us? 3
It’s 2016, what we will look forward to… Happy New Year! Welcome to another year! Thank you to our parents who have entrusted us yet again to care for their precious young ones…
We look forward to getting to know the primary ones and all our parents better as we move forward. There are some very exciting programmes lined up this year like our very first sport cup stacking competition where all the children will spend about 12 weeks in term 2 honing their speed and accuracy skills at stacking cups!
As you might have seen we have a new teacher Mr Christopher who will be working with the P5s n 6s this year. Please join us to welcome Look out for more exciting him. events in the upcoming months via our monthly letters!
Friendship is expensive… When this theme came up most of the children expected to know all there is to know about the subject. They were very pleasantly surprised that while they were right about some traits a good friend should have… They found out that a true friend will not allow their friend to do something wrong or continue to do
the wrong thing. Friends help one another through difficulties. True friendship is not based on money or how much one should spend on their friends. They learnt that having friends is a way to discuss and work out or solve issues that would otherwise be difficult for one person to manage.
The children made new friends from our sister centre from Jurong West at East Cost Park on 18th March where they interviewed one another and played games that required them to remember their new friends’ names and simple information about them!
Page 2 of 4
Let music be the language of love!
A snapshot with the cast of the performance
“Their performance exposed the children to beautiful and creative artistic expressions.”
The children cooperating to form a surprise puzzle on one of the 3Rs and what describes this particular ‘R’
The June holidays got off to a great start with Act 3 international! The arts company kindly sponsored tickets to one of their performances on 31st May.
The Awake LOVE Orchestra’s musicians sang, played their instruments and harmonised in a fusion of melodies, magic and passion. Their performance exposed the children to beautiful and creative artistic
expressions hence opening hearts and broadening minds that created awareness for the arts. The children enjoyed this performance on communicating through music!
Are we doing enough? During this theme of Reduce, Re-use and Re-cycle the teachers re-visited some of the familiar ways to save our earth like using both sides of a piece of paper and re-using plastic shopping bags to line our rubbish bins!
Then we introduced the children to the term ‘UPCYCLING’! They learnt what up-cycling means it is to create a product of higher quality or value than the original.
To re-inforce this theme of not only re-cycling the children went to Marina Barrage on 3rd June to have a walk through the sustainable Singapore Gallery with its 6 galleries. After the visit, they played games using recyclable materials!
A date with Punggol GRC & Pasir Ris Crest! On 2nd June Punngol GRC along with the students of Pasir Ris Crest Sec treated our children to a day of fun!
morning of putting what they have learnt during character value lessons into practice! They were given different We all met up at scenarios and were YMCA HQ for a asked how they
would react? They discussed their results with our volunteers and after lunch they went over to Plaza Singapura to watch ’Angry Birds’ the movie!
Page 3 of 4
Dancing is not exercise! In following the theme of getting active from 2015, the teachers extended the get active movement in Singapore to ‘Healthy Living’!
Vegetables, 30% Protein, 15% Healthy Fat and 15% Carbohydrates to 50% fruits and vegetables, 25% protein and 25% carbohydrates!
In this theme the children re-visited what the basic food groups were and then learnt what a ‘healthy plate’ means.
They also learnt that there are good and bad fats and our bodies actually do need both these fats in moderation to maintain a They did not want to healthy lifestyle stop! together with … EXERCISE!
They learnt that in recent years a healthy plate has changed from a 40%
This brought us to the Health Promotion Board on 10th June. The children met up with their new friends from Jurong West 2 again for the exhibition followed by the main event… an hour of fun and dance (exercise) called ‘Power Up for 60’!
The children from both centres pump up their adrenaline for a 60minute session of aerobic workout and strength training exercises.
Is this what awaits us? ‘Future World’ … This theme really got the children thinking. They began to transfer information that they learnt from the first theme for this June holidays of the 3Rs and began to work out that what happens in THEIR future very much depends on how they behave towards earth now. They wondered whether people would still drive with cars that have wheels.
Would we as The children humans still ‘eat’ interacted with the with forks and 16 spectacular art knives/spoons or installations. One would we eat such installation is artificial food… the one you see on the right where As the extension to are this theme, we paid drawings brought to life in a visit to the Art real-time! science museum of Singapore on 21st June. One of their exhibits aptly named ‘Future World’ is a permanent exhibit from a Tokyo-based art collection of "ultratechnologists"
The final installation in the museum is simply called space and this installation captivated all of us the most!
“Future.”
Our kids showcasing their artistic side! Their works of art were scanned and displayed on a living art wall in the gallery where their drawings came to life!
We All Have a Story to Tell
YMCA SCC @ Si Ling ADDRESS: 61 Woodlands Ave 1 Singapore 739067 PHONE: (65) 6269-0115 MOBILE: (65) 9728-7464 E-MAIL: slscc@ymca.edu.sg
This annual competition started in 2012 and has grown steadily since its inception.
In telling their stories, the children exercise character values such as respect, care, orderliness and Students are encouraged to take teamwork just to part to come out of name a few. their comfort zones.
One very evident benefit that the children take away from the entire process is, they become a little more confident when speaking in front of their peers!
Editor’s Note
Look out for the update in the next issue!
2016 has had a very interesting start with another batch of primary ones that we welcomed.
As we look forward to our nation’s 51st birthday I am constantly reminded that all our students have grown so much and
just like Singapore they have the potential for so much more growth! The next 6 months will be another exciting journey!
About Our Organization… We’re on the Web! See us at: www.ymca.org.sg
A few of the children using newspapers, crayons and water colour paint to produce a new picture
YMCA of Singapore is a volunteer-based Christian organisation that seeks to serve and impact all members
of the community, regardless of race, language or religion, through programmes, services and
Our very own ‘Olympians’ playing ring toss during our Olympics theme…
enterprises to develop the body, mind and spirit.
The kids and one of our teachers being absolutely mesmerized by the sheer multitude of lights and patterns at the Art Science Museum!