Saturday, April 2, 2011

Pre-session: 12 Mar 2011

Today marked the start of the new YRS season! We welcomed many new volunteers and kids :)

Here's our secretary Martini preparing the kids' files. They got a set of stationery, a jotter book, a magic card and a customised nametag with it :D

The volunteers having a briefing on the sequence of events for the session ahead

Getting to know the kids...

(Shang Quan's thought bubble: "if I'm too fierce with him, will he do kungfu on me?")

Our little monk :D

Since it was everyone's first meeting, we taught the kids the anthem for the season as well as the "5 golden rules"

Be helpful
Be polite
Take turns
Pay attention
Follow instructions

They also got to make their own identifiers/nametags. Very creative budding young artists at work :D (whoops we'll get a picture of them soon! :x)

Working hard to assess each child's reading competencies

Ice-breaking session/supper for the volunteers too after the kids went home

And Hong Seng got himself stuck in an awkward position.

The rest were only too happy to adopt him as their pet fish.

With a great team of volunteers, the upcoming sessions look set to be awesome! :)

~YRS Comm :D~ 8:53 PM

Welcome!

About YRS

Yishun Reading Stars (Social-skills Training And Reading for Students) (YRS) is a program which aims to enhance every child's social and reading skills. The children are aged between 8-11 years old and are referred by the Educational Psychologists from the Student Centre. Some of them have limited exposure to English in their home environment, while others may have learning difficulties. YRS hopes to equip the children with some basic strategies to help them deal with their emotional needs. More importantly, we want the children to realise that they are SPECIAL in their own ways!

*Do note that we have blurred the children's faces to protect their privacy. However, we still hope that our entries will give you a good idea of what we do!

Activities

YRS usually carries out 12 sessions every academic semester. Each session is tailored to themes with a primary focus on promoting social interaction.

We devote half of every 90 minute session to Guided Reading, where volunteers attach themselves to a child and read a story to, or if possible, along with the kid. The focus is on helping the kid to improve his/her oral and reading comprehension of the story, so that the ultimate goal of independent learning through a love for reading may be achieved!

Besides the regular sessions, we organise camps and outings for the children too! :)

Quotable Quotes

"As we lead the children through the Guided Reading session, it really touches the heart to see them improving bit by bit, especially when they remember words that were taught the previous session" - Laura Lye

"Yishuners are really a team that cares about helping these kids and no matter how much time we put into volunteering for Yishun Student Care Service, it’s all worth it." - Tay Ming Hui

Volunteering

Our current season will be running from 25 February 2011 to June, with a 3-week break in between from 19 April to 6 May due to exams.

The satisfaction from being able to mould and shape a kid's future is priceless, and only when you personally experience it can you then understand it, so come on down to YRS to shape a child's future today!