ISSUE 6 | DECEMBER 2013 Live Together It’s fun for all ages at HDB’s Welcome Parties! LIVE TOGETHER LIVE WELL MY LIFE STORY 2 Making Learning Fun 8 A Walk to 18 From the Block to Remember the Big Screen HDB Issue 06 Cover and back V6.indd 3 11/22/13 5:11 PM Live TOGETHER Contents Live TOGETHER 2 Making Learning Fun 4 A Trip Back in Time Live WELL 6 One Park Fits All 8 A Walk to Remember Live HAPPY Making 10 Going Full Circle 11 Crime Watchers 12 A Chance to Shine learning fu n At HDB’s Outreach to Young Live GREEN and Youth (OHYAY!) roadshows, 14 Engaging and Educational students learn how to be a 16 Reusable Solutions good neighbour through games and quizzes. My LIFE STORY group of “aliens” landed at Red 18 From the Block to the Swastika School on 14 August 2013 Big Screen — however, their agenda was not A Wilson Pang world domination, but to teach students how to be good and eco-friendly neighbours. Known as the HeartlanD ; Photos Beanies, these ‘extraterrestrial’ visitors are part of an animated video presentation G featured in HDB’s Outreach to Young and Gene Khor Youth (OHYAY!) roadshow. Launchednched Text in November 2009, thee OHYAY! roadshows aimm toto share HDB’s communityty goalsgoals with the youths, and engagengage and nurture them in Life Storeys is a twice-yearly publication by the building community bondsnds Housing and Development Board. Filled with lifestyle features, this newsletter features stories and in the heartlands. To date,e, happenings from your neighbourhood so that you the programme has reachedhed can know your community a little better and play out to around 103,000 a more active role in community-building. You can primary and secondary also access the electronic version of Life Storeys at lifestoreys.hdb.gov.sg. students around Singapore.e. 2 HDB 06 2-3 live togetherV3a.indd 2 11/22/13 5:11 PM Students learned how to be good neighbours through e-games Challenge because I could play it with my classmates. Landing on spots which described bad neighbourly habits prevented us from fi nishing the game and we Students putting will remember not to do those together jigsaw puzzles to reveal things in the future.” eco-friendly tips OUT OF THIS WORLD From the planet Woka Woka, up at the school. For example, the fi ve HeartlanD Beanies have students could learn about come to Singapore to teach neighbourly behaviour through everyone to be good and eco- the Good Neighbour Challenge friendly neighbours. Here’s what board game. While the aim makes each of them so special. was to fi nish fi rst, this journey could be accelerated or delayed • Greenie’s favourite hobby depending on where the player is gardening. With just a landed. Landing on a spot which light touch from his fi ngers, described neighbourly behaviour plants will sprout and fl owers — like volunteering to help with will bloom. crime prevention — would move • Croobie likes clean air, as a player forward, while landing airborne impurities make him on one with un-neighbourly choke. He dreams of building behaviour — like hanging Students concentrating on the Good the ultimate environmentally- Neighbour Challenge board game dripping laundry — would send friendly super-hovercraft. them backwards. Through diff erent scenarios There were also jigsaw • Rubie always believes in played out in an animation video, puzzles that, when put together, reducing fi rst, before reusing the HeartlanD Beanies share tips displayed tips on making fl ats and recycling. She applies this on being considerate, responsible more eco-friendly such as philosophy to her handicrafts, and friendly — as well as eco- installing water thimbles in taps and makes beautiful things conscious — neighbours. “I liked and setting the air-conditioner out of unwanted items. [HeartlanD Beanie] Greenie the temperature at a minimum of Pang • Ernie goes into spasms most because he 25°C. On top of whenever he senses excessive looks the cutest,” “I enjoyed learning jigsaw puzzles, Wilson energy usage within a 5m said Primary 2 there was a about being a good radius. As a result, electrical student Arin Kesuma computer game Photos appliances within that range ; Herbert. “I learned neighbour through where players will shut down. many important earned points Khor playing all the eco-friendly tips diff erent games” by navigating an • Winkie’s ears can hear the Gene G from watching avatar through slightest sounds from the Text him, like to always ~ DARYL CHUA, PRIMARY 4 STUDENT an HDB fl at and furthest corners, like that of switch off the lights making it do a leaking pipe’s. He can also when I leave my room and to good deeds like keeping the lift freeze water fl owing from any have more plants in our home to door open for a neighbour. appliances when he hears the help cool it naturally instead of “I enjoyed learning about sound of water being wasted. wasting electricity by using the being a good neighbour air-conditioner.” through playing all the diff erent games,” said GAME ON! Primary 4 student Tips on neighbourliness Daryl Chua. “My were also conveyed through favourite was the interactive game platforms set Good Neighbour 3 HDB 06 2-3 live togetherV3a.indd 3 11/22/13 5:11 PM Live TOGETHER ‘Five stones’ is a game that all ages A trip can play back in time New residents of residents of Punggol Residences. Punggol Residences Welcome Parties are events which have been organised by were given a glimpse HDB and Residents’ Committees of kampung life at the since 2006 to provide residents Welcome Party held in newly-built HDB estates with a for them recently. casual and fun-fi lled atmosphere Triplets and new residents (L-R) Joe, Jack and James Lai are, to know their new neighbours coincidentally, also part of HDB’s esidents playing capteh, and grassroots leaders better. Heartland Ambassadors Programme a traditional game where The theme of this event was Rthe player tries to keep ‘Old School’, and so there were and chisel, making a ‘ting ting’ a feathered stalls promoting sound in the process and giving shuttlecock in "I enjoyed interacting food and games the candy its name. the air as long that were as possible with the many popular in the A BRIGHT IDEA by repeatedly residents who signed kampung days. The ‘Old School’ theme was kicking it, and up for the tours, and the Residents played the brainchild of fi ve Singapore a stall selling games such as Polytechnic (SP) students from ice balls — ex perience defi nitely ‘fi ve stones’, the Diploma in Integrated Events fi nely-shaved which uses fi ve & Project Management course. boos ted my confi dence ice packed into small triangular This collaboration with HDB was a round shape in speaking to people" cloth bags fi lled actually their school project — and topped ~ SP STUDENT ABIGAIL WONG, PART OF with sand or the fi rst time that students were with coloured THE WELCOME PARTY PROJECT TEAM seeds, or sunk involved in the planning of a Kay Hian Tan syrup — to their teeth Welcome Party. This is one of the gleeful children. Such scenes, into kacang putih (sugarcoated ways that HDB hopes to engage reminiscent of Singapore’s peanuts) and ting ting candy. more youths in community- ; Photos bygone kampung days, were For those who are not familiar, bonding initiatives. brought back to the present ting ting candy is a slab of malt The group was led by second- at Punggol Walk as part of a sugar which the seller breaks into year student Pavithra Bai. “Our Gene Khor Welcome Party held for the new smaller pieces with a hammer teacher presented us with a few Text 4 HDB 06 P4-5 Live Together.indd 4 11/22/13 5:12 PM potential organisations to work back from those golden days students acting as tour guides. with and we chose to work was kampung spirit — the “We felt that as an introduction with HDB because we felt that camaraderie and neighbourly to their estate, an air-conditioned interacting with residents from bond between residents. To bus tour showing them where the diff erent walks of life would be do this, interactive activities diff erent amenities and facilities are a good experience,” said the were planned, like the ‘Find It would be more comfortable,” said 19 year-old. “We decided that With Your Neighbour’ game. group member and second-year a kampung-inspired theme Participants had to gather a list SP student Abigail Wong, 20. “I would be nostalgic for older of items like packs of tissue, hair enjoyed interacting with the many residents, and interesting for clips and watches from their residents who signed up for the younger ones as they could fellow residents in the audience, tours, and the experience defi nitely experience activities that were while fi nding out their names boosted my confi dence in speaking commonplace before their time. and block numbers. In doing so, to people.” It is our hope that these two they got to know more about During the tours, the student generations would also have their neighbours and learned guides pointed out interesting something to talk about and to work with them to win. The landmarks like the historic Matilda bond over afterwards.” residents were also keen to help House, which was gazetted in One more thing the SP their neighbours, with many February 2000 for conservation students hoped to bring off ering up their items without by the Urban Redevelopment being asked! Authority, and amenities like supermarkets and clinics.