The Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM) has collaborated with Temasek Polytechnic to launch a writing competition, Write for Kindness 2012.
Write for Kindness 2012 is a national story-writing competition designed for secondary school students to showcase their creativity.
This competition aims to promote the message of kindness and respect to these young children through age-appropriate and culturally relevant stories and illustrations. The top five winning entries will be featured in the teaching materials developed for kindergarteners.
The competition will be piloted through a series of workshops. There will be a total of six workshops conducted on June 18 and 19 to equip the contestants with the knowledge on how to create narratives that incorporate and streamline messages of kindness to facilitate easier comprehension for the preschoolers.
These workshops will also emphasise the importance of instilling moral values, respect and kindness from a young age.
“This is a meaningful event for both the educators and students from the Diploma in Early Childhood Studies [and] School of Humanities & Social Sciences [in] Temasek Polytechnic,” said Dr Karyna Marthenis, Course Manager of the department of Early Childhood Studies.
“Respect cannot be taught through a top-down didactic approach. Respect between children and preschool teachers, and between children and their peers, can only be earned and learnt through mutual and reciprocal relationships.”
Thirty students from the polytechnic’s Early Childhood Studies and three alumni from Psychology Studies (with specialisation in Early Childhood Teaching) will be assisting the workshops, as well as the opening ceremony for Write for Kindness 2012.
A total of 26 teams comprising of 99 students from 17 secondary schools are expected to be participating in these workshops. On top of having their works published, the winning entries will also receive trophies, medals, bookstore memberships and monetary rewards from SKM.
“The Singapore Kindness Movement is very happy to once again partner with Temasek Polytechnic in their early childhood education’s outreach programmes,” enthused Dr William Wan, General Secretary of SKM.
“The past collaborations over the years have proven to be fruitful in nurturing the young with the moral values, respect and kindness and we look forward to more original and innovative stories that can be included in the curriculum of the kindergarten programmes.”
For more information of Write for Kindness 2012, please visit http://kindness.sg/2012/02/get-it-write-with-kindness/