Cherie Hearts @ Mountbatten: Showing Appreciation to Frontline Workers

The Kindergarten 1 children were being engaged in discussion about medical staff in Singapore being ostracised.

Due to the rise of news on medical staff being discriminated against, it spurred Cherie Hearts @ Mountbatten to make expressing gratitude and appreciation towards these frontline workers their theme.

To kick off ‘Kindness Starts with You and Me’, the preschool interviewed a parent who was a medical worker, to better understand the situation at hand and the trials and tribulations he might be currently facing. His story was subsequently communicated to the children, in hopes that that would better contextualise the whole theme.

Image of the Kindergarten 2 and Pre-nursery children watching the interview with a parent who is a medical staff.

Additionally, the educators would consistently provide the children updates about the COVID-19 situation and share about kind acts done by members of the public.

Image of Nursery children working together to paint Singapore Kindness Movement mascot, Singa the Lion.

All in all, the children enjoyed all the initiatives planned. All children from Playgroup to Kindergarten 2 were actively involved in the activities. Some of the activities included arts and crafts, music and movement, storytelling and puppeteering.

For arts and crafts, the children were involved in creating cards to be disseminated to the medical staff, as a form of support and gratitude to them.

Image of cards made by the children for the medical staff.

Image of the Nursery children dancing to ‘The Talent Song’.

As the educators wanted to bring some positivity to the pandemic, for music and movement, the educators and children worked together to compose lyrics and choreographed dance movements to the song titled “The Talent Song”. They recorded a video of the children singing and dancing to the modified song and disseminated the video to the medical workers to express their gratitude for their efforts in keeping our community safe. From this activity, children explored the possibilities of how music could be incorporated to promote kindness movements.

Image of the Playground children enjoying storytelling and puppeteering planned by the educators.

For storytelling and puppeteering, the educators made use of the resources given by the Singapore Kindness Movement and created digestible fables and used puppeteering to present the stories to the children. They also engaged children in a discussion to assess their comprehension of the story.

Image of the Pre-nursery children expressing their interest and eager to play with the props to re-enact the story.

The educators at Cherie Hearts @ Mountbatten wanted to share an important piece of advice in protecting ourselves against the pandemic, Quoted by the parent the preschool interviewed who doubled as a medical worker – "Wear your mask, wash your hands with soap and water, sleep early, take the vaccine if you can, and drink lots of water.”

Lastly, the educators at Cherie Hearts @ Mountbatten hoped that their initiative can inspire other schools to look into current issues and address them with the children, with the goal of making a change and giving back to society.