Written by: Ate Char Tan, Vice President-External
It was a rainy morning as we headed to Nicanor C. Garcia St. Elementary School in Makati. Today is the birthday celebration of Ate Thea, who is turning 25 tomorrow. She invited her friends from work and school to join her celebration. We have visited Nicanor Garcia Elementary and we were always welcomed by the adorable children. Today the energetic and cheerful first graders welcomed us as we headed to the events room. It was a long way up to the third floor and the children accompanied us all the way. While waiting for the event to start the kids danced to the popular dance songs Boom Boom Dance from the Korean girl group Momoland and Dame Tu Cosita, copying the Alien Dance. They also sang along with popular Pinoy music.
We introduced the volunteers to the kids by sharing their favorite games as kids and their celebrity look alike. The favorite games the volunteers played were popular Filipino games like patintero, agawan base, piko, tumbang preso, and others. Their celebrity look alike were Coco Maritn, Bea Alonzo, Melai, Hayden Kho, Chris Evans, and others. The volunteers then joined the kids who were already divided into four groups. It was the kids’ turn to share their favorite subject and what they dream of becoming in the future. Their favorite subject was math and most of them wanted to become doctor, soldier, teacher, and nurse. The teams also came up with their group name. The teams were Team Babies of Ate Thea, Team Patatas of Kuya Jansen, Team Jep of Kuya David, and Team Artistahin of Ate Jero.
The first activity we had was the ventriloquy performance of Kuya Mardax. The kids laughed at once as he introduced his six year old puppet Dada. He taught the kids the value of education as an important foundation. Dada also want to become a doctor and nurse just like the kids. He then made funny numbers like asking Dada to spell horse. Dada had a hard time spelling horse and end up making a funny horse sound. He also asked Dada to spell train and he ended up saying LRT. Dada sang the ABC song while putting in the GMA network’s song in between. The kids laughed as Dada kept replacing the lyrics with funny words.
The next activity we did was the Math Trivia. Each team had to form a straight line each holding a straw. Paper cups were placed at the end of the line. We then asked questions with numerical answers. The correct answer represented the number of paper cups that teams had to pass to one another using only the straws. The first team that passed the correct number of paper cups to the end of the line got a point. There were questions like how many colors are there in the rainbow, how many vowels are there in the alphabet, and others. The volunteers and kids had so much fun as passing the cups as fast as they could. The volunteers had to come up with the answer first then instructed the kids on how many cups to pass. Since the kids were small and the volunteers were tall it was a challenge to pass the cups to one another as the volunteers had to bend all the way down. In between rounds we also rearranged the team by asking them to form a line following a certain order, for instance shortest to tallest. Everyone laughed as they excitedly passed the cups to their teammates. In the end it was Team Patatas who won the game.
The next activity we did was the Fax Machine. Teams formed a line and sat on the floor facing the front. We showed the object to the last person of every team. The person then had to draw the object on the back of the next person. The person then had to pass the shape to the person in front of him until it reached the staring line. The person then would draw the shape on a paper and bring it to the front. The first team that came up with the correct shape got a point. It was funny watching as the shapes would always start correct then end up differently when the last person would draw it. The kids were placed at the end, making them the start. The were excited as they listened intently to Kuya Glenn as he showed them the shape. They then start drawing the shape on the back of the volunteers. The first shape was a triangle but the teams’ drawing were diamond, square, arrow. Everyone was laughing as we showed their drawings. The next shapes were circle, smiley face, and others. Eventually some of the teams got it correctly. In the end it was Team Babies who won the game.
After the activities the volunteers and kids enjoyed their lunch together. For dessert everyone had ice cream from Mr. Sorbetero. The kids and volunteers had second and third serving of ice cream. We gave prizes to the winners of the group games. We then called Ate Thea as we sang her a Happy Birthday song. She thanked her friends and the kids in joining her for her birthday celebration. Ate Thea gave out storybooks to each of the kids and they started reading at once. We then had our group photo as the kids hugged and thanked their ates and kuyas for spending their morning with them.
