Friday, 27 July 2007

Secret Code


This week’s session was organised by Lydia and myself and was dedicated to a single game called ‘Secret Code’ (even though we had 2 games planned). In this game, the boys were split into 2 teams and each team had to work together to score points by answering questions written on the white board. The catch was that questions were written in code. In the code, each letter that was required for the question was written as the letter that comes before it in the alphabet. If you have no idea what the sentence you just read means, then for example, the word ‘cat’ is ‘dbu’ in code and ‘Singapore’ is ‘Tjohbqpsf’. The concept of the game came from Jian Wen’s list of games (thanks Jian Wen) but Lydia and I came up with the questions and translated them into code.

Getting back to what happened for the session- Team 1 consisted of 8 members while Team 2 was made up of 9 members and both the teams were quick to grasp the concept of the code. Initially, team 2 was a little quicker, and soon, they were leading by 2 points. After the second question was answered, Lydia and I realised that the boys were deciphering the code too easily. Therefore, we improvised and started leaving out letters in the words for the boys to figure out. This was when the scores started evening out. It was great to see determination and competitiveness (although at times a little excessive) in the boys and hopefully, they apply this for their studies, sports and whatever they endeavor to do in the future. At the end of the game, the scores were even, so both teams were winners (however, we did not prepare any prizes). Through the game, there was (or I hope there was) suspense, laughter, disputes over Rabin’s handwritting and, paraphrasing Jun Han, ‘brain cells that were destroyed’. In contrast, I think the game was educational to those who did not know the answers to some of the questions. With any luck, most of us walked out of this week’s session with a little more general knowledge (except for one unlucky boy who had the projector screen fall on him twice).


Here is the list of questions asked:

1. Who is the president of Singapore?
2. Who is the prime minister of Singapore?
3. Who is the minister of education of Singapore? (No team could answer this question and it
was weird that both teams initially gave ‘Simpsons the Movie’. Other answers that were
given include ‘Balakrishnan’ and ‘Lee Kwan Yui’)
4. Who is the most recent FIFA World Cup Winner?
5. Name a book written by the author J. K. Rowling.
6. How many books are there in the Harry Potter series?
7. Who is the director of ‘I Not Stupid’?
8. How many days are there in a leap year?
9. Which month has that extra day?
10. What is the standard value of Earth’s gravitational acceleration?
11. Where will the two proposed casinos of Singapore be located?
12. What is nationally symbolic animal of Singapore?
13. Name another movie starring the lead actor of Diehard4.0.

Answers:
1. Sellapan Rama (S.R.) Nathan
2. Lee Hsien Loong
3. Tharman Shanmugaratnam (Ok, he is a little botak but not completely)
4. Italy
5. Harry Potter and the
5.1 Philosopher's/Sorcerer’s Stone
5.2 Chamber of Secrets
5.3 Prisoner of Azkaban
5.4 Goblet of Fire
5.5 Order of the Phoenix
5.6 Half-Blood Prince
5.7 Deathly Hallows
6. 7
7. Jack Neo
8. 366
9. February
10. 9.81
11. Marina Bay and Sentosa
12. Merlion/lion
13. Armageddon

Trivia on Jian Wen:

1. He was acted in a minor role in the movie ‘I Not Stupid’. He was only 17 then.

Ok..Just kidding

2. He has great taste in choosing cakes

again.. kidding


Yay! I’ve finally contributed my share to the blog! Thanks for the birthday celebration at the end of the session. Hope to have more great sessions with the rest of you guys : )

Tuesday, 24 July 2007

19th July Session Report cum Jianwen Birthday!



Alright chin han here, my virgin attempt at writing a blog, hope you guys dun bombard me....

Ok, the day started off with 7 of us...the usuals except for kash who could not make it because her friend was jetting off. Some were early, most were late. Apologise Rabin and Celine, we will try to be punctual next time. Boss Jianwen disseminated some information regarding formation of new blocks as well as tasks, stuffs that we may have to consider for next semester....

YOUTH centre head had a meeting the day before, to address the plans they need for the upcoming recruitment fair. One of them was to get hand-drawn poster designs from the boys from all blocks so that we can select the best one to represent us.

Meeting the boys, Jianwen explained to the boys the purpose of the drawings and they comply, though a bit unwillingly. But as it went along, we could see that most were actually using their creativity to come out with the drawings. Appreciated...

Today's session was planned for tuitioning, after the boys were done with their drawings, the volunteers proceed to give them one-on-one tuition. Things went smoothly, the volunteers tried their best to teach them and time past fast. Before we realised, the staff officer came into our room to tell us that we had exceeded the time and that the boys needed rest because they having early classes tmr.

Leaving the centre.....we proceed to the birthday celebration for Jianwen at Boon Lay market. Fun, food, laughter, pictures...a nice ending to the night. HAPPY 23RD BIRTHDAY JIANWEN ' )

Tuesday, 17 July 2007

Happy birthday Chin Han!!



The long-awaited-for post and photos are finally up! (:

7 of us made it for this session -- Jianwen, Chin Han, Rabin, Kash, Celine, Lydia, and Daisy.

In a nutshell, the session was a success. There were some teeny weeny totally insignificant hiccups at the beginning, such as us being 30min late for session, having the staff give us a weird look for being 30min late, and having to stall time with the boys till our more-than-30min late Jianwen arrived with the games. But when he finally did arrive and we got into the mood of the game, we began to really enjoy ourselves.

The first game went like this: Jianwen would write a string of incomprehensible words on the whiteboard, which sound the same as a particular phrase that we were suppose to guess. Divided into 3 teams, we cracked our brains and snatched to answer. After many rounds of quick wits and fast responses by the smart young boys, Jianwen ended the game and invited the losing team to perform a butt dance. It turned out to be Chin Han and boys. They graceously accepted the forfeit. Standing with their backs toward us, they swayed their butts rhythmically from left to right. Right to leftt. Left to right. (: After 5seconds they were awarded with a loud round of applause!

The second game was also an english word game. Jianwen would write a question on the whiteboard but the alphabets within the words themselves would be jumbled up. We were to decipher the question and provide with an answer. Halfway through the game, Jianwen posted a question "When is Chin Han's birthday?" To which we were all puzzled. How would we know when it is? It was found that his birthday was 2 days later. The next question read "Shall we sing a birthday song for Chin Han?" And then we realised what all this was leading to...

Jianwen had sneakily arranged for us sing a birthday song for our dearest Chin Han! And it just so happened that one of the boys (cant remember his name so we shall name him "shuai ge" for now) just had his birthday 2 days earlier. Upon inviting both birthdays boys to the stage, Jianwen ordered us to sing them a birthday song and "rock the house". And we did (:

After the session, the volunteers gathered at the waiting area and had another small celebration for Chin Han's birthday. We then stuffed ourselves with dounuts, which Jianwen repeatedly emphasized he had queued 1hr for. Thank you Jianwen (:

After which we headed for -- you guessed it -- supper. And this ws suggested by -- yes you guessed it again -- Kash. Upon jaywalking across the road rather then using the nearby traffic light, climbing the sharp prickly fence rather than walking around it, and mounting the slippery slope rather than using the nearby stairs, we made it to the hawker centre. Hopefully next time Kash's stomach will allow us to choose a more glamarous route (:

Friday, 6 July 2007

July 5th S U P E R uber tuition time

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Disclaimer:
If you think you will get sick of reading countless "super" words in one article, please dont read this.
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On that very fateful day, exactly 8 p.m. sharp, five brilliant superheroes, dressed in plain civilian clothes, flew silently as a ghost into Singapore Boys' Home to save the helpless, innocent, young boys from deadly mental atrophy.

The five superheroes taught them brain-hemorrhaging Maths and Chemistry with their superhuman superpowers for about an hour and once again, saved the day. Singapore Boys' Home returned to peace and prosperity but not for long as next week, the fantastic five** will have to battle and rescue the boys from the fatal sickness of boredom by playing super fun games.

After the super uber tuition was unanimously declared a resounding success, a discussion was held for the upcoming camps about what games can be organised. The superheroes dug deep into their super imaginations and brainstormed until dark black clouds started amassing in the night sky, followed by blinding lightning bolts and deafening thunder. That was when the heroes knew they had to stop using their super powers and head for supper. Besides that, Kash was also super hungry and since she was the most powerful amongst us, even with our powers combined, the four of us had no other choice but to go for a super supper.

Chin Han and JunWei took us in their superb cars for the supper affair which was of course, superb. The superheroes had fulfilled their duties yet again and headed back home, back to their mundane human lives, to get ready for the next battle the following week. Stay tuned for the next episode.

**number may change

Sidenote - Last time, there were tuition and games conducted at the same time in two rooms. Now, due to limited manpower, it was no longer feasible to continue on. Either tuition or games could only be done. Games were chosen as the boys prefer that. Now, tuition and games on alternating weeks is being implemented. The result on the first week, was a low response from the older boys. The younger ones were more keen.