St. Robert Bellarmine Center for Learning

Hiraya Productions staged “Adarna. 2088” in Dagupan last November 17 at the Dagupan City Astrodome. The play is a modernized version of the Filipino classic Ibong Adarna by Jose de la Cruz. This version likewise injected the timely themes of climate change and the extreme importance of caring for the environment.

The audience of mostly school-aged children, including a number of SRBCL pupils enjoyed the upbeat staging of the play and greatly relished the use of modern music and dance.

SRBCL appreciates and promotes these kinds of activities since it affords its pupils a chance to appreciate a wide range of art forms that can at times be sorely lacking in provincial areas such as Pangasinan.

Typhoons and class cancellations notwithstanding, SRBCL was still able to pack activities into the semester to make the pupils’ learning more rounded. Extra-curricular activities meant to extend and enhance the classroom lessons were included as much as possible to make the learning more meaningful to the pupils.

COMMUNITY TOUR:  The preschool pupils were given a tour of Dagupan City highlighting the different community places that children learned in their Communication Arts class. A visit to the police station and fire station where they were graciously accommodated proved to be very educational to the pupils.

GARDEN PLANTING: The Grades V and VI HELE classes tried their hand at vegetable gardening, an activity which unfortunately very few children nowadays try and enjoy.  Conversely, the pupils approached the activity with much enthusiasm, interest and skill.

FILM VIEWING, LECTURES & RESEARCH TIME: As much as practicable the pupils were given a chance to view films related to their lessons to engage more of their senses. Lectures aided with PowerPoint presentations and short films were also an additional feature this school year.  To extend lessons further, pupils were given more time to research on topics using the Internet.

The culminating activity of SRBCL for the semester  last October 28, Wednesday was a day of exhibits, film showing, games and activities that promoted awareness of international cultures and the importance of the environment.

The children were treated to a display of dioramas depicting the different features of the world’s continents and some chosen countries. A collection of dolls wearing international costumes was also part of the exhibit.

To enhance the pupils’ learning on the environment the preschoolers watched a film on one the world’s more lovable endangered animals, the panda. The movie, “Panda” chronicled the tedious and painstaking transfer of two pandas from the protected wilds of China to a zoo in the United States.  On the other hand, the grade school pupils watched one of the award-winning documentary films prepared by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), “Planet Earth.” The film tackled the importance of caring for the environment and the animal species that we now have. It showed and discussed in graphic detail the delicate situation existing in animal habitats worldwide.

To round off the experience and to inject a dose of fun in the activity, most of the grade school pupils enjoyed a game or two of Bingo. The pupils gamely participated in the fund-raising activity of the Grade VI class, the proceeds of which will contribute to their Science project fund.  The two winners for the black-out Bingo games were Queenie Chelzea Estrada and Angela Aguinaldo.

For the activity, the pupils were encouraged to wear costumes or souvenir shirts from different parts of the world or shirt with environmental slogans on them.