My First Skool (Macpherson)

​The organization that our group is working with is My First Skool. Their school mission is to provide quality early childhood care and make education services affordable and accessible to families, and they have a vision to provide the students with a joyful and inspiring early experience for all that fulfills the needs of the child.

A few of us made a trip down to the MacPherson centre in order to better understand and empathise with the needs of the students, and thereafter cater our programmes to better suit their needs. The centre was indeed very vibrant and spacious, and had multiple outdoor facilities in the vicinity which could be the venue for our activities to take place in. From our discussion, we were informed that the centre caters to a diverse range of children, from ages 2 to 6, and they had varying needs.

We understood that the 2 to 3 year olds were of younger age, and hence are not fully ready to take on arts and craft projects or our storytelling session. Hence, we decided that though the prospect of being surrounded by very cute children was rather exciting, we are not fully equipped to work with them effectively yet.

We also understood from the discussion that the 4 year olds were the biggest age group in the centre, with about 18 of them, and many of them being very inquisitive boys. We realised that this means that when interacting with them, we would have to be patient and firm where appropriate, yet encourage their questions in order to develop their critical thinking skills towards their environment!

As for the 5 to 6 year olds, we found that of all the children, our programmes would benefit them most, as their language skills would have been advanced enough to understand our story as well as arts and crafts projects. We were also pleasantly surprised to hear that the centre already had a recycling roster in place, where the students would take turns to bring their recyclables to the recycling bin in the neighbourhood. Hence, we could capitalise on this pre-existing system and inculcate the value of recycling even more deeply in their minds.

After understanding these needs, we decided that we had to be adaptable when interacting with the children, as well as to remain patient when answering their questions or explaining to them. By including aesthetic as well as physical activities in our programme, we would be able to both entertain and keep them engaged, so as to better impart the values of recycling and loving the environment to them.

As 25th May draws steadily closer, we look forward to interacting with cute children as well as to spread the message of recycling more effectively!

- Aileen

#4Z