On 13th April, a group of 10 committee members, along with 20 UTM student facilitators, went to SK Sg.Boh for the second part of the “Toys for Friends” program. Two officials from the Johor State Education Department (JPNJ), Ms. Suhaila Ramli and Mr. Azhar Mohd Salleh@Khalid, were also present to support the program.
The program started at 8.30 am with some indoor language games such as “Queen, King, and the Gorilla”, “Broken Radio”, “Sinking Island”, and some sing-along jazz chants. These activities were aimed at breaking the ice between the students and facilitators and at the same time helping them acquire vocabulary related to “gratitude”. The students were then divided into two groups and sent to two classrooms, where they participated in “The Gratitude Tree” activity. During this activity, a facilitator narrated a story, and students were asked to listen carefully to enable them to extract the main ideas from it. This activity was designed to help them understand the concept of gratitude. The third activity involved reading letters and unboxing the toys given by their Idrissi friends. The students were asked to write response letters to their friends, expressing their gratitude, and the facilitators were present to help write sentences and translate words from Malay to English.
The program ended with a closing ceremony, where the headmaster, Mr Khairulakmar, delivered a heartfelt speech, followed by a speech by Dr Nur’ain Balqis Haladin, assistant chair of the Language Academy UTM. After that, the “Smart Collaboration” signature exchange between SK Sg.Boh and the Language Academy took place before the 30 participating students were presented with certificates, duit raya, and gift hampers. Overall, the “Toys for Friends” program at SK Sg.Boh was a success, allowing the students to learn English in a fun environment, practice the importance of gratitude, and bridge friendships between students who are fortunate and less fortunate.
