Lincoln Corner 10 Year Anniversary Celebration at KB State Library

KB Lincoln Corner’s 10th Year Anniversary English/Environmental Day

It was a hazy morning, hinting at the heat that will be unleashed later in the day. It was Monday 18, April on the second floor of the KB State Library. We started 10 minutes late to allow for students to arrive. A few more trickled in and the total was 40 students from various Agama Schools from Yayasan Islam Kelantan (YIK). A sample of few of the Mahaad’s location are KB, Tumpat and Pasir Mas. Their ages ranged from 16-17. The male:female ratio was 1:3. It placed nicely into splitting into 3 groups for the stations activity. The proficiency level of the group was high. Kira mentioned it was better than what she is used to dealing with.

Fairuz and Hafiz who are from PPAK were instrumental in setting up the venue and assisting through out the day till the finish. Fairuz arranged the snack, gifts and lunch for the participants. Hafiz was on the ball for any tech support and he was the official photographer of the day. The partners at PPAK were very accommodating and pleasant hosts for the US Embassy Kl Event.

Kira and Jake were amazing, very helpful and interactive with the participants. Jake managed the mural station and Kira facilitated the postcard writing station. They were cheerful smiling faces and positive reflections of the US Embassy. 

The warmup activity was more impressive than anticipated. The group watched a touching animation called The Giving Tree. It’s based on lifelong relationship with a boy and a tree. The students were moved in the discussion afterwards about the importance of trees. A kisah of Nabi about a tree crying was relayed to the students and it further sparked the conversation. Many of the students displayed some of The Giving Tree themes in their murals. 

After a quick chant, we broke into 4 groups of 10 and made circles. Students held hands, while a hula hoop was inserted. The groups had to the pass the hula hoop around the circle without breaking their clutched hands. Students were encouraged to use English for all events. The boys won the first pass, but were unable to adapt to the eye closed Jedi style. All the girls were able to complete it before them with eyes closed. We also did one activity where the groups were split into smaller circles. The students had to hold the hula hoop on their fingertips and navigate it down to touching the floor back to level with their head. The activity encouraged communication. 

Jake and Kira facilitated a short open discussion about the environment with the students. It was a nice transition to the 15 minutes break time. PPAK provided drinks and snacks for the students in the adjacent room. 

A couple of chants got the kids’ focus back from break, then we watched the 8 minutes long animation, The Story of Electronics. After the viewing, the students were able to articulate the main themes of the film: Designed for the dump, toxic in toxic out, recycle, reduce and reuse. 

Next, we viewed a 3 minutes long video on Earth Day 2016. The conversation revolved around the themes of climate change and eco-consciousness. 

We then split the participants into 3 groups and assigned each group a station. Station 1 was Jake’s station where students got big sheets of butcher block paper and an assortment of pastels and markers for freestyle expression with an environmental message. Interestingly, a fair number of students were unfamiliar how to use the medium of pastels. 2 groups made collaborative pieces, while one group split in half to make 2 separate murals. The murals were judged by the students and the boys The Giving Tree inspired mural won. Each boy received a gift wrapped packet of seeds for a prize. 

Kira did a wonderful job with managing the post card station. She prompted the students to write to their friends about the state of the environment. The students used markers and pastels to make their post cards colorful. The students retained their own cards as a take away. 

I monitored the Marshmallow Challenge Station. The group would be split into 2. Each group got 30 pieces of spaghetti, 1 meter of string, 1 meter of tape and 1 marshmallow. They were given one objective; build the tallest self standing tower structure that could support a marshmallow on top. It was good fun and I was able to get into some side conversations about their aspirations. Every group was able to creatively plan and build self standing towers with varying heights.  

The stations went smoothly; however, we increased the time from 30 to 35 minutes per station. In retrospect, we could have stretched it to 40 minutes. The mural making station required more time than anticipated. Between the second and the third rotation, we paused to reassemble in our seats to hear a brief talk from Imam Sbari.

Imam Sabri is Imam Tua of Masjid Sultan in Kubang Kerian. It his a high profile masjid with proximity to HUSM; therefore, the Imam does part of his khutbah in English. He kindly agreed to give a 5 minute talk on the importance of young agama students to learn English. It was well received by the students, one of the Tumpat students commented on how cool he thought it was that the Imam could speak English. Many of their ears perked when they heard the Imam mention the catch phrase: Team work, makes the Dream Work. Imam received a token gift of appreciation. He indulged us with some photo opps before his departure. After a quick chant, then the students returned to their final station.

As for the signature event of the day, we went outside to the field behind Bazar Tok Guru and did an alphabet water ballon toss. Amazingly, there were no complaints of heat, because the lure of water balloons was too overwhelming. Unfortunately, the high temperatures popped some of the balloons in the basket so we only had time for one round. As per our schedule and much to Jake’s delight, the students cleaned up the field afterwards.  

We reassembled upstairs for the finale of an English Nasyid, “Give Thanks To Allah.” We skimmed the lyrics before we sang it for any blocking vocabulary. Then I played a karaoke style video of the song. Half way the through the song, I turned the music off. The students finished on a high note. Once last chant and we closed at 1:10pm. However, many rounds of pictures and a tasty lunch, we didn't finish till 2pm.

Kira and students at the Card Making station.

Jake and students at the Mural Making station

Imam Sabri & Khidar 'AB' Abdullah

I received a few notable comments. One Ustaz from KB, really enjoyed this event and expressed the need for more English programs.

 "Ooo Child, things are going to get easier, Ooo child things are going to get brighter."