Thursday, April 22, 2010

Mural Painting with Phil Yeah

On the 27th of February, Phil Yeh along with his lovely wife Linda and a few of his KL based friends Glen and Jill paid the Mentari Project a wonderful and artful visit. They came with the intentions of painting a Mural on the shutters of the new Mentari Project Center and also 4 canvas painting for the kids to paint.

Before we start on the event, here is a small introductions to the artist, Phil Yeh.

Phil Yeh is and american cartoonist that travels the world promoting arts and literacy for over 20 years. He does Murals at schools, museums and other locations and talks to the kids about the importance of reading. He has many books under his years of illustrations wheree his main character is the Winged Tiger. you can check it out at http://www.facebook.com/l/270b8;www.wingedtiger.com

The day started of wih Phil creating the drawings on the canvas for the kids to paint.


As Phil was drawing on the canvas, the other volunteers helped to apply the varnish on the shutters.
Above are Glen and Jill who along with Afif was the architect of this event.

A few volunteers from CIMB hard at work painting a sun on the fully varnished shutter.

As the volunteers busied themselves with the Mural outside, the kids are busy with their own pieces of art inside the center.

On your marks, get set, Start Painting!

Every kid has a turn at the brush. Its all about teamwork by taking turns.

Phil donating to the our modest library with his wonderful book featuring his favourite character the Winged Tiger.

Phil teaches the kids how to become a cartoonist by drawing

Phil took time off to tell the kids where he came from with the help of a world map.

Phil teaching the kids to add more detail to the work.

The girls very happy with their work of art.

We even had the time to teach the kids a song. above is Paulyn trying to teach the kids "Heal The world" by the late Micheal Jackson.


Group photo ending an amazing day with the one and only Phil Yeh.

Thank you to all the Volunteers, the kids, Glen, Jill, Afif, Linda and Phil for making this day a wonderful memory.

Friday, January 15, 2010

The Mentari Project Center

Salam and hello everyone.

We've moved from the 10th floor; sharing premises with a kindergarten to our own place still at Block 8 but now on the ground floor in a shop lot. We remain true to our vision of providing a place where the Mentari kids can have a fun learning experience while becoming independent learners. we were very lucky to find a place that had tiled floors and walls with a dream location that was right in front of a drink stall owned by a parent of a Mentari Project pioneer student.

Here are some pictures of the Mentari Project Learning Activity Centre. 

Shelves courtesy of Mr KS Lau who donated them.


Our picture wall of past activities as arranged by the kids themselves
 (Yes, we need stronger adhesive!) 

Our main classroom where we will conduct our weekly classes. 


Finally our mini library / reading corner. 

Sadly the weather took its toll on our banner. Therefore there aren't any pictures from the front of the center. 

It is still a work in progress but at least it's a good start. Anyone who would like to contribute to make this place a better place for kids to come and study and hangout can just come over at No. 3 Block 8, Ground floor (B8-G-03) PJS 5/4 Desa Mentari or contact us at mentariproject@gmail.com. 

 We had our first class on Saturday 16 Jan for the Year 4, 5 and 6.  We started with a short BM Comprehension Mini Test and English Quiz for baseline and diagnostic measures and continued with an ice-breaking cum grammar session with the 'Tall, Taller, Tallest" game. Next time we'll follow up with exercises on comparatives and written sentences using the comparatives. 

We want to kids to listen actively and check their vocab in both BM and English so we played the Echo game which had the kids give the name of an animal. The child next to them will translate it into BM and then name another animal. The most unique animals named were "hyena aka dubuk (Irwan checked the dictionary for all of us for that one), dolphin,owl and kangaroo". Next time, we'll have categories and sentences. 

The main activity for the kids was one that combined a written task (writing a thank you note )  with creative thinking (designing a card) using both BM and English. The kids worked in groups and came up with different cards to thank our benefactors - those who donated furniture and materials and sponsored the centre and all our activities. 

The kids who finished early then gravitated naturally to playing board word games or reading the books at the mini-library. All in all in was a fun first session. Here's hoping that today's Sunday class with the older kids be an even better one. 

Special Thanks to Paulynn and Fei Yi for entering the fray with great enthusiam and gusto! Aidil, Syafiqah, Nad and even Hanif were the seniors who came to help out their juniors and they did a great job. Thanks kids!





Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Mentari Project Open Day 2010

Salam and hello everyone, 

We now have come into our third year since the Mentari Project started. We sure had some ups and downs over the past couple of years and now it is time for the Mentari Project to encounter a new chapter. 

As some of you know, the Mentari Project has finally acquired our own premises for our weekly activities. This sunday on January 10th, 2010 at 2pm, we will be organizing our Open Day 2010. We will be registering new kids, introduce what we do to new volunteers as well as commemorating our new premises. 

Therefore, we invite everyone to come and join us and meet the kids of Desa Mentari. Also, we would really appreciate any suggestion that would make the Mentari Project a sustainable success. 

Below are the basic details of Mentari Project's Open Day:

The location : Taman Desaria, Desa Mentari, PJS 5/4 Block 8 B8-G-03.
The date      : Sunday (10/1) 
The time      : 2 pm until 5 pm

here is a link to a map of our place:


(look for PJS 5/4) 

p.s we do need a few volunteers to help us out during the registration of the new kids as well as the preparations before the Open Day. Anyone who are willing to help can contact me at mentariproject@gmail.com thank you. 

Warm regards,
Yasir Osman.

Feedback

Please give us your thoughts on how the sessions went- ideas on how to improve, what you gained after your session, your views on the children and any thoughts you want to share.