Scout Founders Day & World Brownies Thinking Day 2006

The school was bustling with activity from 11:00am on 22 February 2006. The Cub Scouts and Brownies were celebrating Founder’s Day and World Thinking Day respectively. Teams of students had gathered to take part in competitions organized by the Scouts and Brownies to commemorate the event.
RE-Model was an event that took the school on a recycling frenzy as they built animal or robot models using recycled materials. Tent Pitching was an event where teams had to pitch a 6-man dome tent in the shortest possible time, while Cannon Launch saw teams learning the “Square Lashing” in order to assemble the Ballista.
Through these activities, the Scouts and Brownies helped to promote the themes of the celebration this year – To do a good turn each day, and to unleash creativity. The participating teams not only learnt skills from the Scouts and Brownies, they had fun as well.

“We learnt to tie the square lashing knot and had a lot of fun learning about how the armies of the past built and used cannon launchers. A special bonus for us was that we won the competition by launching the cannon that landed farthest away."

- Shawn Tan & Joshua Tan, 4-Tulip

“I learnt the importance of working as a team. Building the cannon launcher was not easy, but we managed to do it only because we cooperated with each other."

– Isabel, 5-Sunflower

“It was the second time I pitched a tent and it was great fun! I wish I could do it again. It also strengthened my friendship with my friends of the same team as we needed a lot of team work, especially to get the tent standing."

– Loo Yu Yang, 5 Tulip

“We brought our materials from home and assembled our robot in the canteen within 55 minutes. It was very fun as we also learnt that materials that we don’t need anymore can actually be used to create beautiful art!"

- Mr Zulkifli, 5 Hibiscus

(Originally posted on www.soaringeaglesscouts.org jointly by by Alvin Kong (5T) and Md Syakir (5R))

Yishun District Founders Day Celebration 2006

It was a bright Saturday morning when 60 of us gathered in school. Moments later, we were split into 2 groups and were off on our way to Sembawang Park. There we joined 500 of our brother Scouts and Cub Scouts of the Yishun District for an early morning run. But this was no ordinary run. It was the Yishun District Founder’s Day Cross Country Race.

There were 200 trophies up for grabs, 100 for each group. Group A set off on the run first, and Ikrimah came in first! He was surprised to see that no one else was behind him for almost a minute! After the cross country, we had a Cub Scout Amazing Race whereby we had to run to 4 different areas in the park, named after the significant places where Lord Baden Powell had spent some time of his life, like Gilwell Park.

There, the Cub Scout leaders explained the significance of the place and we had to complete tasks such as building a stretcher with our uniform and bamboo poles and answer some questions before we were given the next clue.

The day ended with a really long prize giving ceremony. Soaring Eagles bagged 2 out of 25 Scout Cross Country Trophies, and 39 out of 200 Cub Scout Cross Country Trophies. One of our teams also won the 5th prize for the Amazing Race Event! I am looking forward to our Unit Celebration of Founder’s Day in School this Wednesday!

Founders Day Exhibition @ WRPS

After days of working on end, the Assistant Sixers have something they can be proud of. The exhibition panels for the Founder's Day exhibition.
The exhibition will be on from Saturday 18 February 2006 to Saturday 25 February 2006.

Admission is FREE.

Attack of the Giant Caterpillars

The school was buzzing with excitement today as a strange sighting caught the attention of some students. This excitement was so contagious that every teacher in Woodlands Ring Primary School made their way to the Herb Garden just to take a look. Even Mrs Mano came for a short viewing and shared the excitement with the students and teachers present.

Soon, science teachers from various classes of the afternoon session began bringing their classes to check them out as well. So what exactly were they looking at? Caterpillars. Ahh yes... but not just any caterpillars. Gigantic ones!

Each caterpillar was about 8-10 cm long, producing huge brown pellet-like poop, the size of a casuarina seed! Students were really excited but kept very quiet so that they could hear the munching and crunching as the caterpillars chomped up leaf after leaf. The caterpillars would metamorphose within 4 weeks into Atlas Moths
Atlas Moths do not live very long. They quickly mate, lay eggs and die within 2 weeks after metamorphosis. Atlas Moth cocoons are used to make a durable silk called Fagara Silk, in northern India. In Taiwan, their cocoons are made into pocket purses! caterpillarscollage.jpg For more information on Atlas Moths, see here.