Go Green at City Square Eco-Mall
We had our Post-trip activity on the 6th of March together with students from the Little Green Champions Initiative from Lam Soon Community Centre. The Little Green Champions initiative is a programme established to increase environmental awareness in children and to empower them to champion environmental causes.
Together with these children, we had 2 main objectives to fulfill:
- Raise awareness of environmental conservation
- Encourage participants to take a more proactive stance towards their consumption habits by Reducing, Reusing and Recycling
Held in Singapore’s first Eco-Mall, the day’s activities were carried out in and around City Square Eco-Mall. There were many activities to bring home one message to the participants – even though they may be young, environmentally friendly habits can be easily incorporated into their daily lives.
Led around by IS mates as Group Leaders (GL), the students shopped at NTUC for environmentally friendly products, folded little boxes and paper frogs to see how old magazines can be re-used and challenged themselves on their drawing skills in Pictionary. They also fished for Coke cans as a team-building activity and fed cans into the can recycling machine, seeing first hand, their efforts in recycling. Being an Eco-Mall, quotes and facts were aplenty in the Mall, and the students noted them down as they filled up their crossword puzzles.
The enthusiasm the children had was definitely infectious. Seeing them scurrying around the Mall in earnest as they looked for their next station, talking loudly and happily to their new found friends, filling up their worksheets diligently as they noted down new and interesting facts, made us really pleased to bring some fun to them. Indeed, more often than not, it was our young friends that led their GL around the Mall :)
After a lunch at McDonalds, the afternoon activity ensued as a recap activity. The children were tasked to find their GL - clues were given when they could answer questions based on what they had learnt in the morning. Being really intelligent, they found their GLs in no time. The last activity for the day saw the children making a food chain with their given ‘identities’. In there, they learnt the interconnectedness of various elements of a Food Chain, and how environmental pollution threatens every living thing.
The Saturday was a day well spent for all of us - the children got to see how they are part of the new Green Revolution, while we got to share a little more of the message to be Green. Interacting with the young ones, uninhibited in their actions and always ready with a big smile, made us feel young :)
The success of today’s activity was a result of the team’s collective effort :) We crafted a detailed plan to ensure the relevance of each activity and accounted for the various logistical concerns. There was also a good mix of activities for the children – some required physical dexterity, others, mental acumen :D Our IS mates certainly did an awesome job; each GL helped their little group mates around the Mall, making the effort to share the Green message, every Station Master conducted their station well, and logistics was well-coordinated. It is certainly a lovely afternoon out - Great job everyone!
