This morning at the BABSEA
office, I helped Muan to collate together the applications from four gap year students
from United World College, Singapore.
Muan and I agreed that the checklist part of this administrative
activity was really important. We
discussed other parts of the volunteer programme, and I mentioned things that I
hadn’t yet understood.
The late morning meeting on
teaching approaches allowed for a discussion on how to engage groups at the JDC
more actively, as well as in workshops.
In particular, the discussion focused on the impending workshops and how
to develop documents with translators and outreach workers.
The teaching session at the JDC
was aimed at improving the girls’ awareness of food groups through playing board
games and kinesthetic activities. The
lesson was attended by 12 girls. Working
with T translating much of the lesson in Thai, the girls walked around the five
main food group signs and repeated the words loudly. Then we spun the bottle and individual girls
listened to the definitions of each of the different food groups before walking
up to the sign. This activity reinforced
the learning of the key vocabulary: carbohydrate, fats, sugars, proteins,
minerals. The girls then moved into
smaller groups with a board game each.
They were given 5 counters and we spun the wheel to specify each of the different
food groups with pictures and words.
They added counters to the pictures and we supervised them playing the
game.
In the next game, T and I
modeled “What am I?” a riddle game. The
girls showed some enthusiasm for this difficult activity. One girl read aloud in English one riddle and
then 4 other girls improvised a little, correcting their pronunciation of words
such as thin, red, and green. We played
5 riddles and then moved into a discussion of special foods for special
days. T asked the girls, “Which days do
you celebrate? At first they mentioned
the traditional customs before a few braver individuals said in English: “birthdays”, “Valentine’s day”. I asked them what food they liked to eat and
they replied – “Cake!” I asked them what food they would eat for breakfast,
lunch and dinner on their birthdays and remindered them throughout of the need
for a balanced diet. So they learned that
just cake, just fruit, just rice is not enough.
Soon they got the idea and they begun to mention delicious balanced
dishes such as omlette with pak choi.
The last game was a drama
game based on the Cinderella story. I
spun the bottle and specified who would be Cinderella and who would be her ugly
sisters. I then showed the
flashcards: who, what, where and
reiterated the game playing. I then
asked the ugly sisters to give Cinderella a task each to do using the word
“must”. They told her to clean the
toilet, cut the wood, and to water the plants.
Cinderella was very good at miming everything out and the game was fun. I then read aloud the “invitation” from the
King and Queen of Thailand, and I asked the ugly sisters what they wanted to
buy to go to the party. They chose,
glass slippers and white, high heel shoes.
We finished the game with three new tasks for Cinderella and then a
recap of the scene.
After the learning
activities, the girls rejoined the bigger group and continued to crochet. We packed away and then left.
In the afternoon, I discussed
with Paul a little about the upcoming workshop.
