Engagement 3: Ninja Quest!

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!