Sher Lin Lee

The school's social media presence had been dormant for an extended period. Teachers had no structured system for producing classroom content — materials were ad hoc, inconsistent in quality, and not reaching new families. There was a clear gap between what was happening in classrooms and what was visible to the wider community.

A teacher-facing content production framework — a repeatable, scalable system giving non-specialist staff a clear structure for creating social media materials independently. The framework included content categories, a production workflow, visual guidelines, and example templates, lowering the barrier so any teacher, regardless of digital experience, could contribute consistently.

I rebuilt and relaunched the school's social media channels using the framework, modelling its use in real time. Rather than a separate training session, teachers were onboarded through school operations — embedding the learning directly into their daily workflow.

Following a Birds of Paradise excursion, K2 children returned full of questions about birds — their appearance, habitats, behaviours, and the stories told about them across cultures. The pedagogical opportunity was to build a full semester inquiry around children's own questions, developing the dispositions needed for primary school: curiosity, perseverance, creativity, and collaborative thinking.

A semester-long inquiry curriculum titled 'Colours of the Wind', spanning science (researching local and international bird species, habitats, and characteristics), visual arts (observational drawings and clay bird sculpting), language and literacy (bilingual labelling in English and Mandarin, storytelling), and social-emotional learning. The physical environment was designed as a curriculum tool throughout — bird photography, natural materials, research displays, and documentation panels making children's thinking visible across the full semester.

A pivotal moment came when two parents — having noticed bird nests in their surroundings — independently brought in real, empty, disinfected nests as a gift to the classroom. This became a sustained science investigation: children observed the nests as specimens, examining construction and materials, measuring and recording their findings, then researching online together to identify the probable species. The nests then sparked a design challenge: working in groups, children built their own nests from open-ended materials, with one constraint — the nest had to hold together without falling apart. This took approximately five hours across multiple sessions, with children iterating and persevering before successfully completing their nests. The semester concluded with 'K2's Bird Paradise' — a full parent showcase where children presented their learning and invited families into hands-on stations: origami birds, nest-building, and Friendship Pearls.

Young children rarely have structured opportunities to understand what physical disability means — or to develop genuine empathy and agency in response to it. This project set out to build disability literacy and design thinking in K1 children, culminating in a real act of community service. The goal was to develop children as compassionate, creative thinkers who could identify a problem in the world and imagine a solution.

A semester-long inquiry and design project in three phases. Phase 1: children explored physical disability — the challenges people face navigating spaces and staying independent at home — and what tools could help. Phase 2: each child was paired with one classmate for the full semester. Together, each pair discussed the problem they wanted to solve, drafted blueprints, and built a prototype from open-ended materials — including a wheelchair with compartments to keep food and drinks fresh and accessible, and disability-friendly home models. Phase 3: each pair delivered a formal public speaking presentation to parents, explaining their device entirely in their own words.

Sustained pair work was a deliberate design choice — building communication, negotiation, and shared ownership from the outset, with four and five year olds navigating the full design thinking cycle together. I scaffolded each stage through questioning, documentation, and structured reflection. The semester culminated in two events: a parent-facing public speaking showcase, and a community visit to SPD Singapore, where children performed for elderly residents and presented handmade cards as personal gifts.

With students representing eight countries — Russia, Germany, China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, and Ukraine — there was a rich but untapped cultural resource within the classroom community. Children needed an experience that went beyond surface-level awareness to build genuine cross-cultural connection, while meaningfully involving international families, many navigating life far from home, in the life of the school.

A 10-week cookery and cultural inquiry programme structured around country-based learning groups. Each country was represented by one international child paired with one local child — ensuring every child belonged to a country team regardless of background. Within each group, every child sculpted one national food item from clay as a tactile making experience (for example, nasi lemak and roti prata for Malaysia; okonomiyaki and sushi for Japan). At least one parent from each international family was invited into the classroom to cook their country's national dish with the children — sharing the recipe, the story behind the food, and its cultural context. Each group also collaboratively created and performed an original song about their country. The programme culminated in a whole-school International Food Showcase, where groups presented their clay food displays, cultural artefacts, and performed their songs for the full school community.

Each week centred on one country and one family. I designed and coordinated the full programme — forming the country groups, sequencing the sessions, briefing each parent facilitator, preparing the classroom environment for cooking and cultural display, and supporting each group's song creation process. The pairing of one international child with one local child was a deliberate inclusion strategy — building genuine cross-cultural friendships and shared ownership of each country's story. The cultural artefact showcase required weeks of careful, structured coordination: both international and local parents were approached to loan culturally significant items from their home countries, and the collection process was managed systematically over several weeks to ensure a diverse, meaningful, and ample display that authentically represented each country. The final showcase was executed as a whole-school event, with children as hosts, performers, and guides of their own learning.

Very young children in a multicultural preschool needed an experience that built genuine identity and belonging — not surface-level cultural celebration, but deep inquiry into who they are, where they come from, and how they relate to one another. The school's Reggio Emilia approach called for child-led investigation rather than teacher-directed content, even with the youngest learners.

A multi-week inquiry unit built around the provocation: 'Who are you, and where do you belong?' The physical environment was the primary instructional tool — natural materials, family photographs, cultural artefacts, and open-ended loose parts arranged to invite exploration through play, dialogue, and documentation. Weekly provocations were shaped by ongoing observation of children's responses and emerging interests.

The unit unfolded through a cycle of provocation, observation, documentation, and reflection — with the learning trajectory adapted dynamically as children's interests emerged. Documentation panels made children's thinking visible to families and to the children themselves.

Children in underserved communities in Klang Valley — including high-risk youth in the Pandan squatter area and Orang Asli children on Carey Island — had limited access to structured educational experiences. Sessions were planned independently with no consistency across sites or volunteer teams.

A structured, replicable activity curriculum covering academic and recreational learning, built for consistent delivery by rotating volunteer teams across multiple sites. The curriculum included session guides, age-differentiated activities for the 2–15 age range, facilitation notes for non-specialist volunteers, and a post-session reflection format to inform ongoing planning.

I led and delegated to volunteer teams of up to 20 members, training facilitators in the programme approach and supervising weekly delivery. The programme was expanded into new community locations, with the curriculum adapted to each site's specific context and learner profile.