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Engagement 6: Of Graduation and Goodbyes

8/28/2014

The last engagement on 24th of August started with a bang, but a gloomy kind of bang I would say. We knew it was our last day with the kids whom we have gotten close with for throughout the past three weekends, them whose noise we couldn't stand sometimes, whose smiles lit up the room, but at the same time, we wanted to end the Food Ninjas Programme with positive hearts, like a ninja would. Of course, we had to start the day with Shimy leading 'Go Bananas!', a war-cry which have became significant among the group.

Since it was the closing of a great 6 weeks of engagements, we invited the kids' parents over for a graduation ceremony during the second half of the day. Prior to that, the kids took time to complete their Food Ninja workbook with worksheets we have been giving out each engagements which contained information and outputs from each session. We wanted to make sure the kids had something to take back home after each engagement and something to refer to. We provided them with colour pencils and materials to decorate their hardcovers of their workbook.

Next up on the fun and informative train, we had the kids to decorate a fruit platter for their parents. It was a great innovative way to get kids pumped up to eat fruit and design the patterns and the structure their fruit platter as well. We had various kinds of cut-up fruits prepared beforehand, like watermelon slices, pieces of orange, grape, slices of starfruit and also bananas. It was really nice to see the kids let their creative juices flowing.

We had a quick game session and snack whilst waiting for their parents to arrive. Although the turn up wasn't as many as we expected due to the understandable early Sunday morning timing, but it was great that 4 parents actually came and some cousins and siblings of the kids were present as well.

The graduation ceremony started with a short introduction by Chris from the UNDP/UNOPS/UNFPA Staff Association, Charmaine from AIESEC in Sunway and Will from AIESEC UK who represented all 5 international interns to talk about their experience working on this project and how the project came about. Shortly after, we showed a video montage compiled by the interns, of what we have been doing throughout the 3 weeks. The kids got excited when they saw their own faces on screen! On top of that, we selected some of the kids to share what they've learnt throughout the engagements and what was their favourite parts. It was a good platform for them to step up and raise their opinions.

We had the privilege to have Sharen Lim, a UKM nutritionist graduate to discuss with the parents on healthy eating and how to make healthy food attractive enough for kids to want to consume. It was nice seeing the parents engage in positive conversation about their meal preparations with Sharen and the volunteers.

After that, it was the graduation ceremony that we did. Each kid who has been to all our engagements gets a certificate of participation, a Food Ninja badge and a Ninja Bandana! They were all very excited to have their pictures taken with their bandannas and badges.

After the ceremony ended, it was really goodbye time. We all hugged and took a lot of group pictures of commemorate 3 weekends of hard work and camaraderie. It has been a very awesome journey from hosting the soft launch and hoping there were kids on the first engagement to now, having 18 Food Ninja graduates whom we have been attached dearly to through merely 3 weekends of fun. We hope that the messages we shared stays in their minds and lifestyles.

And of course, we ended the day with a resounding 'Go Bananas!'. It would certainly be not right if we didn't.

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Engagement 5: The Amazing Ninja Challenge

8/25/2014

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Food Ninja had our final engagement with the children on the weekend of 23rd August. On Saturday, we wanted to visually show the children the effects of eating too much salt and sugar, because in the previous weeks, we have observed that a lot of the kids buy sugary snacks and junk food from most of the stalls nearby. So, we figured it would be a good idea to tackle some of the issues which affects the kids directly.

First activity of the day, Samanata and Will talked about foods that contains high amount of salt and sugar and what would happen if we don't have them in moderation. Too much of salt and preservatives will come to hair loss and an unhealthy heart and too much sugar on the other hand will decay our teeth and increase our risk of having diabetes. After the short presentation, we got the kids to get to work on a weighing experiment, weighing out the sugar and salt content of four different foods - a packet of Super Rings, a packet of Tiger biscuits, a small carton of Milo and a small carton of cordial drink and recording the data down on the whiteboard. With the figures on the board, it provided proof that Super Rings had more salt than in Tiger biscuits and that Milo had lesser sugar content than a cordial packet. I think the kids enjoyed it as the home-made weighing scales added a fun element to it.

The next activity was The Amazing Ninja Challenge where it was a treasure hunt concept in which the kids had to complete challenges in each station to get clues as to how to find the 'treasure' at the very end. In our case, each station will provide you with a piece of a 4-part puzzle which you can assemble it together once you've completed all four stations. As for intermission, we provided the kids with water as well as a banana to level up their energy because there were a lot of running around involved in this activity.

The Pass the Parcel station, facilitated by Samanata required the children to pass the parcel whilst the music was on. Once the music stopped, they would have to peel off the outmost layer of the parcel and retrieve a type of food written on a piece of paper. The group will then had to go to the tree with all elements of the MyPlate and match it with the food. This station was a good station to recap and recall what we've learnt the previous engagements.

The next station required them to find Kharisma under one of the building blocks. In this station, it was a recap on what foods go where in the MyPlate system. The kids were required to match a series of random foods to the specific portions on a MyPlate template. It was a huge advantage for us translators as Kharisma, being Indonesian, could communicate some words in Indonesian with the kids. Overall, it was nice to see that through the many weekends of having the MyPlate system fresh in their minds, they could match most of the foods to their right food portions.

It's always a funny scene to watch when the whistle was blown after 15 minutes. How the kids would just fled in search of the next station when they knew the whistle has gone off. The station with Will and Amy awaited them over at the blocks opposite Block B. At this station, it was a Pin the Donkey-esque activity where a child was blind-folded and given a piece of paper with either a good or a bad habit. The rest of the team had to shout out directions for the blind-folded kid towards the right mahjong paper on the wall. In the end, we had a mahjong paper with good habits and another mahjong paper with bad habits. It was a good way to test out their teamwork as ell as their familiarity with good and bad habits.

Will was at the final station where there was a lot of balloon-popping involved. The children were asked to sit on the many balloons scattered on the grass and inside each balloon, there were caricature drawings of the following: cavity-filled mouth, bald head, a weak heart, healthy teeth, healthy heart and healthy hair. The children had to take pictures with them as well as discuss on the implications of eating too much sugar and salt.

Upon completing the task given from each station, the groups were given a piece of a puzzle for them to complete after all four stations. When all groups got back to the community hall, they started to put the puzzle together and complete The Amazing ninja Challenge with glee.

As part of the decorations for the graduation the next day, we provided the children with little triangular pieces of coloured paper for them write down what they've learnt throughout the 5 engagements that we had and also activities that they enjoyed most. We then stringed all flags together and made a long string of flags to be hung up.

Overall, it was definitely a very tiring-yet-fruitful day, for everyone.

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Engagement 4: Incorporating Healthy Lifestyles

8/21/2014

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August 17th started off with a little collaborative puzzle put together. Since the previous day, the children learnt about spacial mapping and have mapped out their favourite places to eat around the neighbourhood, each group were given a part of a 4 piece map puzzle which signified a part of the PPR. After putting together the pieces, we distributed print-out pictures of the kids with their chosen 'healthier snack alternative' taken during the Ninja Quest on the previous day. They were asked to paste the pictures according to which stall they went to and in the end, all four groups put together their individual pieces, creating a collaborative map puzzle of Kota Damansara.

The next session introduced healthy lifestyles to the children. We emphasized on the fact that in order to be healthy overall, we must not only have a good balanced diet, but also practice healthy lifestyles like brushing your teeth twice a day, go out for a walk and clipping your nails etc. We made it a fun movement game where the children had to line up according to the AGREE or the DISAGREE line when Will called out a statement. This required the kids to move around and thus, keeping them alert at all times and interested as well. After that, we also used the statements for a game of Charades where the groups had to act out a certain healthy habit picked out at random and the rest of the groupmates had to guess what habit it was.

Merging healthy lifestyles together with the MyPlate system we introduced to the children the previous week, we came up with MyPlate Relay which was done outside! It was nice to do something out in the sun, instead of the usual classroom-like setting. The MyPlate Relay was something like a competition. Each child, in turns, were to pick a picture of a kind of food and an action that they have to act out to move to the other side of the playground. Once ont eh other side, the children had to paste the food picture onto the correct portion on the MyPlate. It was great to see the kids all pumped up and very supportive amongst each other. I might add that it was also very amusing to see how they jumped, skipped, did the crab walk and dance to the other side of the playground.

After two rounds of running around, we ended the day with a short recap and feedback session in the room. We were not surprised when the children wrote down that they liked the relay as well as the expedition most.

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Engagement 3: Ninja Quest!

8/18/2014

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On the 16th of August, the 2nd week of Food Ninja was underway! After a long week of prep, planning and brainstorming according to some of the observations done the previous week, we decided on doing a spacial mapping activity as the main activity of the day.

We started the day with our Food Ninja rollcall, 'Go Bananas!' which has become a famous favourite among the kids, as well as a good mood booster. After getting everybody hyped up, Will led a short recap quiz and group discussion on what they've learnt the previous week. It was nice to know that most of them remembered the gist of the portions and the consequences of eating junk food.

Since the theme for the day was to map out the area with places they normally eat, we introduced the kids to maps in general with a map of their home, Kota Damansara and what a map's functions are. To give them a little inkling of what personal maps were, Amy guided them in a simple mapping activity whereby the children were given a sheet of paper and a stash of colour pencils and they were required to trace their palms onto the paper. At each finger tracing, they were asked to write down games or activities they like to play and places they play them at on the palm area. With all that information, we then asked them to connect the places they play with the activities with conjuring lines. With that, a simple 'map' of activities played by the kids and where they play them is created.

Next up! We adjourned to the next room and got the kids involved in building a super cool 3D spacial map of their home, Kota Damansara by using recyclable materials like cereal boxes, toothpaste boxes, milk cartons and tin cans. We asked the kids to identify and point out the places they usually go to for snacks and food and then each kid got to 'build' and put together the places using the materials provided. It was a very different and fun approach in getting the children involved in mapping out their home and their frequent hangout places.

Based on the places pinpointed by the kids, we all set out to the first ever 'Ninja Quest' which was an expedition to those places and collect data on foods found there and an healthy alternative from the same stall. Each child was geared up with a 'Ninja Expedition Checklist' which had spaces for them to fill in the data as well as a to-do list. The rain did not dampened spirits but oppositely, it made the expedition a little more challenging, very wet and definitely more fun!

A wet and engaging experience for both children and volunteers, that expedition was. After the quest, we all gathered back into the room with their spacial map and the children were then given little miniature flags to list down what healthy alternatives they found in those stalls and flag it on the 'stall'.

We ended the day with a group picture with the spacial map and did 'Go Bananas!' as a high closing note.

The group doing 'Go Bananas!' to end the day!

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Engagement 2: You Are What You Eat

8/13/2014

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We started off the day with healthy berry oat biscuits and a packet of milk, as a nice way to start off the day and also to provide them the energy to last them the whole session. It was Engagement 2 on a very sunny 10th August and the theme of the day was 'You Are What You Eat' with a clear message of the kinds of food to eat less of and the kinds of food to eat more of.

We had both Will and Shimy do a demonstration on what would happen if we were to consume healthy food and the same for if we consume junk food. The kids enjoyed the animated demonstrations of both of them, acting as the healthy superhero and the other as an unhealthy person.

After that, we introduced Ninja Amy who hates junk food and would slash any junk food in sight. We had the kids bring food wrappers from food they've eaten and from there, they'd present the wrapper to Ninja Amy to be determined whether it was going to be in the healthy pile or the 'Eat Less' pile. By the end of it, there was two graphs of Eat More and Eat Less, created by using food wrappers, which helped us in mapping what kinds of food the kids usually eat.

After that, using the food wrappers as well, we all got our creative juices and cutting-and-pasting skills out and created an unhealthy monster on mahjong paper. First the kids had to collaboratively draw the outline of the monster using markers. And then, by using the cut food wrappers, fill the monster up and lastly give it a name. This was where we saw that a lot of the kids were really creative in terms of thinking outside the box and creating something new and out of the ordinary. Some groups came out with a three-headed monster, some came up with a sleeping monster because it eats a lot of junk and etc.

The session ended with the kids writing down what they enjoyed and what they learnt throughout the whole two days of engagement. We realized the kids absorb information better when information is conveyed through a fun creative activity which requires them to run around, laugh or work on something.

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Engagement 1: Around the World with Food!

8/12/2014

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On Saturday, the 9th of August marked the launch of 'Food Ninjas!' where the Thumpers engaged with the kids of PPR Kota Damansara officially for the first time! For the past few weeks, we have been having facilitating trainings, brainstorming sessions and prep meets and now, it was quite pleasing to see it all come together finally. Activities of the day were surrounded by the theme, 'Around the World with Food'.

We saw familiar faces from our previous few engagements with the kids during the Soft Launch and during the Global Village, and also some new faces as well which pumped up our motivation even more. We started the day with an energizer ice-breaking game before splitting the kids into groups for the following activities. How the game went was that each kid will have to remember every person's name. The little twist which made it a tad bit tricky is that they had to add a type of food which starts with the same alphabet as their names, before their names. Although the kids took a little time to understand what game master Samanata and Charmaine, who was the translator for the day, was trying to say, when they got the hang of it, they went on a name-calling roll.

After warming up the session with the kids, the international interns took the floor and introduced their country and what they have for breakfast there. It was a great opportunity for the kids to get to know the different countries in the world as well as interact with new foreign friends! By using slides, each intern talked about their country and gave a little snippet on what they eat for breakfast.

Will talked about hot cross buns from the UK, Samanata spoke about Aloo Paratha, a kind of potato-stuffed flatbread from Nepal, Amy talked about Youtiao which was pretty familiar to the kids as Cha-kueh as we like to call Chinese deep-fried bread in Malaysia, Shimy talked about Ayiesh which is also a kind of dry flatbread usually eaten in Egypt and Kharisma introduced Nasi Jagung which is well, self-explanatory - Rice with corn usually eaten with chicken and some vegetables on the side.

After getting to know the different breakfast the interns have in their respective countries, it was their turn to showcase what they have for breakfast! Each kid was given a postcard with a country outline on one side for them colour in and the other side, a space for them to draw what they eat for breakfast. Pictures of cereal, Nasi Lemak, fruits were some of the favourites among the kids.

We moved on to the next activity which was introducing the MyPlate system where it emphasized on food portions using an aerial outlook of a plate. On the plate, it features four sections - Carbohydrates, Protein, Vegetables, Fruits and a cup at the side which signifies Dairy. The kids were given each a worksheet with the plate and another with a selection of foods which they had to colour them in, cut them out and paste them onto the plate according to food groups. It was a fun and interactive way to learn about food groups and portions.

The day ended with a fun game of Zip! Zap! Boing! which tested their concentration and quick-thinking skills. It was overall a successful first engagement for us and we really look forward to our next engagements.

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Food Ninjas' Soft Launch

8/4/2014

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The Thumpers with some of the Food Ninjas after the painting session

Introducing Food Ninjas!, a series of workshops and fun activities held throughout three August weekends by the Thumpers in the PPR, all promoting and introducing the importance of a healthy diet and lifestyle. The first engagement will be on this Saturday and to recruit some kids and get the message out there, we did a soft launch last Sunday at the PPR.

The soft launch consisted of giving out promotional materials, an interactive banner-painting session as well as a series of fun and games.

Will, Shimy and Michelle putting up a Food Ninjas poster at the playground

As part of the soft launch, we put up promotional posters at strategic areas like the lifts, the bulletin boards as well as the playground, and gave out flyers to the residents and kids. There was also an interactive banner-painting session held at the playground where kids came by and put their stamp on the Food Ninjas banner by painting on their favourite food on the banner. Colourful acrylic paint and brushes were provided and the kids had a swell time, despite the scorching hot weather that day.

The crowd began to build up towards the middle of the day.

They were so focused on painting within the lines, it was incredible to watch.

After lunch break, we headed back just in time for game time! We gathered with the children who stayed back for the game session in the community hall and played a series of three fun games, conducted by our international interns with Charmaine who was the translator for the day.

Game numero uno was Animal Musical Statues, which was a revamped and remixed version of the classic musical statues. When the music starts, the kids had the dance around and strike an animal pose once the music stops. Amy led the game with the help of a nicely-sketched instruction board by Jinn from Friends of Kota Damansara.

Conducted by Kharisma, the second game we played was 'Fire in the Mountain, Run, Run, Run!' where the kids had to run around, shouting to the same chant until Kharisma shouts out a number in which they had to group themselves accordingly. It was funny to see how once Kharisma shouts out the number, everybody goes into panic mode and hurried around slamming themselves into a group.

Grouping up was not an easy task when you have <20 kids running around the room

The last game we played was an English game called 'Toaster, Mixer, Elephant', conducted by Will. This game required all kids to stand in a circle and pay great attention to the person pointing in the middle. If the middle person points to you and shouts out either 'Toaster, Mixer or Elephant', you'd have to do a series of movements together with the people beside you.

At the end of the day, all of the children had a lot of fun and went home with a banana as a healthy snack to bring home. It was a very fun and successful soft launch which hopefully got the kids interested in what we were going to be doing for the next few weekends.

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Engagement 6: Of Graduation and Goodbyes

Engagement 5: The Amazing Ninja Challenge

Engagement 4: Incorporating Healthy Lifestyles

Engagement 3: Ninja Quest!

Engagement 2: You Are What You Eat

Engagement 1: Around the World with Food!

Food Ninjas' Soft Launch

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