YMCA SCC @ St. Stephen’s (Jan–Jun2017) Newsletter
YMCA of Singapore – Impacting Lives, Nurturing Community Champions
Special Picks: • Life without ART?... • 2nd Annual Sports Stacking Competition • A time to remember
June Highlights: To be or not to be? 2 I’m too old to play with puppets… 2 Old school Fun! 3 SCC Operation Rainforest! 3
It’s 2017, what we will look forward to… Thank you to our parents who have entrusted us yet again to care for their precious young ones…
sport stacking competition in June! The children spend about 12 weeks honing their speed and accuracy skills at stacking cups!
Welcome P1s and welcome back to all the P2s to P6s! We look forward to getting to know the primary ones and all our parents better as we move forward.
We’ve also planned different themed topics to explore during the holidays!
There are some very exciting programmes lined up this year like our much anticipated annual
Look out for these updates in the upcoming months via our monthly letters!
Life without ART… When this theme came up for our March holiday week, most of the children expected to know all there is to know about the subject. Answers like, drawing, colouring and painting came up when they were asked what ART meant to them… Thus the exploration began… They found out that art is so much more than that. In ancient times drawings were used as a means to communicate...The boys put this into practice by drawing their very own flip comic book! They explored stop-animation, CGI and clay animation and learnt what a phenakistoscope is.
The also learnt that even a statue is a FORM of art. This is also true with the clothes we wear… ART in fashion! Now this subject drew many ‘mmms and umms’ from the boys when asked….”Is ART in fashion only for girls? Most replied yes BUT…they were surprised to find out that there is a healthy number of designers who are not only male but are well known celebrities like Justin Timberlake and even David Beckham! The boys then tried their hand at designing their very own tie dye towels with very good results!☺
Page 2 of 4
To be or not to be? The June holidays got off to a great start with the first week’s visit to the Health Promotion Board on 31st May for the ‘Active Detective’ carnival.
One of our boys, Leroy testing his accuracy skills at the Health Promotion Board!
Activities lined up on the day allowed the children to uncover tips to be active daily from different games stations and group exercise!
Occupation in the health industry is not limited to being a doctor /nurse/surgeon. This visit showed the students that another side of working in the health industry is to do research to find ways for everyone to keep healthy and plan for events such as this one!
How this translated to our theme of occupation, you may Prevention is better than cure ask. Well, this event allowed the as they say☺! children to see that an
I’m too old to play with puppets! This was the majority reply when the boys found out what they would be exploring in week 2 of our June holidays.
MUPPETS (which loosely defined means needing to be directed)!
His company was behind movies like ‘The Dark Crystal’, But as they soon began to realise, ‘Labyrinth’, ‘The Muppets (from ‘playing’ with puppets was in fact 2011) and many more! a way for some children and even The boys had so much fun at the adults to express themselves! workshop on 9th June making The boys showing off their paper bag puppets!
The children also briefly learnt different kinds of puppets from about Jim Henson who was different materials! essentially the ‘father of modern day puppetry (He called them
A time to remember…
Samples of the peace lanterns done by our boys!
Every year YMCA takes some time to remember all the innocent people who were gravely affected after the bombing of Hiroshima in August of 1945.
The cranes were made in memoriam of Sadako one of the innocent who suffered the after effects of the nuclear explosion in Hiroshima.
This year together with the making of peace lanterns, all our centres made about 3000 origami cranes to send to Japan for the annual Peace Lantern Ceremony on 6th August 2017.
The lanterns made by the children with messages of peace were floated down the Motoyasu River at dusk.
Page 3 of 4
Old School Fun! In the third week of June, the boys got to explore some traditional games. They re-visited popular ones like chapteh, goli (marbles) and gasing (spinning top). Then there were those that they had either not heard of or have not played. They learnt that quite a few of the games we used to play and still play today started hundreds of years ago! Also many games played in different parts of the world have similar aims and rules. The difference was what the playing piece(s) was made of. They especially enjoyed playing apples on a string. This game is a
variation of the game bobbing for apples. To end off the week, the boys were absolutely amazed when they made a trip to the Mint Museum of Toys on 16th June. This museum houses only 8,000 of a 50,000collection of vintage toys from as early as 1840! It is a private collection of Mr Chang Yang Fa who is an engineer! There was so much to see and take in that they boys did not want to leave! Another visit is a must to really absorb all the history and wonder of the world of toys!
SCC operation rainforest…
Above: Boys showing their handeye co-ordination skills in the game ‘Cats Craddle’ Bottom: Darren and Marcus in a game of apples on a string
Yes that is exactly what we are THAN ½ the world’s plant and doing…We are in the process of animal species? turning the centre into our very “Future.” It is called a rainforest because own ‘rainforest’. of the high amount of rainfall it But first we had to find out what gets per year. It is also hot and a rainforest is. So we embarked humid…just like Singapore! on a week-long ‘expedition’ to explore the rainforest of the The boys also learnt that there world. are four layers in a rainforest and that plants can only grow in We looked into the characteristics the top 3 layers. No plants grow of what a rainforest looks like, on the forest floor because the what animals and plants are suns’ rays just cannot reach all found in these precious parts of the way to the bottom. our eco-system. With all this information in hand Do you know that rainforests the teachers and boys have been ONLY cover 6% of the Earth’s working together to put our very The kids delving into their first attempt at ‘interior design’ surface any yet contains MORE own rainforest together. with the rainforest theme! ☺!
Ready, Set, Stack!
YMCA SCC @ St. Stephen’s ADDRESS: 20 Siglap View Singapore 455789 PHONE: (65) 6443-2461 MOBILE: (65) 9821-8990 E-MAIL: ssscc@ymca.edu.sg
This annual YMCA SCC competition started in 2016. The programme started as a way not only to keep the children occupied in between homework supervision time but also to develop good character values such as respect, patience and perseverance just to name a few.
Students who were trying their hand at speed stacking for the first time were encouraged to take part to come out of their comfort zones. All who took part in the competition showed great sportsmanship even in the face of defeat. They were overheard saying “Next year, I will do it!”
Editor’s Note 2017 has had a very interesting start with another batch of primary ones that we welcomed. As we look forward to our nation’s 52nd birthday I am constantly reminded that all
our students are just like Singapore when she was a young country full of potential for so much more growth! The next 6 months will be another exciting journey!
About Our Organisation… We’re on the Web! See us at: www.ymca.org.sg
YMCA of Singapore is a through programmes, services volunteer-based Christian and enterprises to develop the organisation that seeks to body, mind and spirit. serve and impact all members of the community, regardless of race, language or religion,
The boys during the active detective carnival jumping and grooving their way to a healthy lifestyle…
The children listening intently to our guide at the Mint Museum of Toys, while she explained about the history of the handmade dolls on the left…