Operation Orion 2014 Goes Back to Primary School
Besides working on site at the village, we also travelled to 2 Primary Schools to interact with the students there!
We started off the session with self-introduction and exchanged our dreams and aspirations, before playing icebreakers and indoor games like charades and Pictionary. We also conducted art and craft programs such as drawing, colouring and Origami folding with the children. They were all very bright, full of energy, and at the same time very polite.
They also loved having their photos taken by our photographers and some of them even asked us to teach them how to use the camera and took photos of their classmates!
Look how enthusiastic they became after the ice was broken!
We then brought them to the courtyard to engage in outdoor games, followed by photo taking sessions.
Time passed so quickly. Before we knew it, it was time to leave…
Lessons learnt from conducting activities with the students here include: Not every activity is suitable for children of all Primary levels, for example Origami folding is more difficult for the younger batches of students. Also, not every class had the same number and type of students, so we had to be flexible and adapt to re-allocations of manpower. Overall, everyone had a great time and adapted to changes quickly, despite being exhausted from the non-stop, action-packed day. Kudos to the Programs Team for planning, leading and getting the logistics during the trip itself!
On a separate day, we travelled further away to a school up on the mountains, bringing with us what worked and the lessons learnt from the previous school visit. The previous time, we were allocated a full day to the students, but this time, we had only had a few hours with the children as they had to participate in curricular activities in the morning. Hence, we explored the mountains and did some trekking before heading to the school!
We did a better job this time, running the program with no delays! Props to our Programs Head, Fauzi, who gave clear instructions and regular reminders for us to move on to subsequent activities.
Very quickly, yet again, it was time to say Goodbye. Before leaving, some of us caught a glimpse of the students’ dorm rooms.
This time, the Pubs Team also managed to print out photos for the school and classes, leaving them with pieces of memories of us to keep!