Tag: Animals

Craft for Kids: Tiger Mask

A long, long time ago, tigers roamed the virgin jungles of Singapore. Changi, in particular, was very popular with the tigers, who swam across the Straits of Johor and landed at an area called Fairy Point.
1 tiger v1 flattened
These days, the only live tigers you will spot are the ones in the Singapore Zoo. The last wild tiger on the island was killed in the Choa Chu Kang area in the 1930s. Still, tigers are very much part of the island’s rich, varied history. Here’s a easy fun way to bring them to “life” for the little ones in the family.

A Note to Grown-Ups: This activity is ideal for children aged 5 to 8, with adult supervision. Younger children (aged 2 to 4) will need lots of help with cutting and gluing the bits together, and drawing in the tiger’s mouth. But you can be sure they will have as much fun, if not more, pretending to be little tigers around the house!

TigerCraft
You will need:
White paper plates
Penknife
Orange paint & paint brushes
Craft sticks or ice cream sticks
Scissors
One sheet of black construction paper
One sheet of orange construction paper
Black marker pen
Glue
Clear tape

  1. Trace and cut out two holes in the paper plate using a penknife, like in the picture above. These are for the tiger’s “eyes”.
  2. Now paint the reverse side of the paper plate and the ice cream stick orange.
  3. Set them aside to dry completely.
  4. Draw 2 triangles on the orange construction paper. They should be the same size, roughly measuring 6x7x7 cm. Cut them out.
  5. Draw 8 triangles on the black construction paper. They should be the same size, roughly measuring 4x7x7 cm. Cut them out.
  6. Draw another triangle on the black construction paper. This is for the tiger’s “nose”. It should be curved on one side and measure roughly 3 cm on the other 2 sides.
  7. When the paint on the paper plate is dry, glue in the two orange triangles near the top of the plate. These are the tiger’s “ears”.
  8. Next, glue on the black triangles: two between the “ears” in the centre, and three on each side below the “ears”, like in the picture. These are the tiger’s “stripes”.
  9. Glue on the last triangle, the tiger’s “nose” just below and between his “eyes”.
  10. Use the black marker pen to draw in the tiger’s mouth, like in the picture.
  11. Lastly, tape on the ice cream stick to the back of the paper plate. You are ready to play tiger!

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Infestation of Rats and Centipedes

Do you see lots of rats in the scene of early Singapore on page 14? Why do you think the artist drew so many rats? There is good reason for that. Read on and find out.

Early Singapore was a colourful place, with merchants and pirates, coolies and colonials. But it was also full of animals. Sometimes there were so many of them, there would be a plague and the people had to deal with them as best as they could. Munshi Abdullah, the famous scribe and linguist of 19th century Singapore wrote about such an occasion.

Rat infestation by Pipi - Copy - Etched - Correct

 

In the 1820s while William Farquhar was still governing Singapore, there came a great infestation of rats. Do you see them picking at food and crumbs on Pg 14 of The Little Singapore Book? There were so many rats they overran warehouses and homes, chewed through the wood, stole food and ransacked the godowns. Even Munshi Abdullah’s pet cat was attacked by a pack of large rats one night. So big were they that their hefty weight could knock a person down if he wasn’t careful out walking at night.

They were a real nuisance and people began to complain.

But without rat catchers and pest busters then, what could Farquhar do? First, he asked everyone to try to catch the rats. But all they did was complain and hope their neighbours would do the deed.

Seeing that the rat problem was still there, Farquhar then offered to pay one ‘wang’, or coin, for every rat caught and killed. With this reward, everyone sprang into action and started catching rats with every ingenious idea they could think of. For about a week, thousands of dead rats were brought in every morning, and Farquhar was kept busy paying the people a wang for each dead rat.

But the numbers never fell. There were as many dead rats brought in every morning. Could people be bringing the same carcasses in day after day?

So Farquhar ordered a large trench to be dug and all the dead rats were buried. This seemed to do the trick. From that day, fewer and fewer rats were caught every day and soon, the plague of rats was over.

But it was peaceful for only a short while.

Soon after, people in Singapore became bothered by centipedes. Have you been bitten by one before? It can be very painful.

That’s what happened to lots of people when they were walking along Singapore River, or even when they were at home. The Munshi complained that all he had to do was sit at home for a while, and a few fat centipedes would drop from the ceiling onto his lap and promptly give him a few good bites.

When Farquhar heard about this problem, he again offered a reward of a ‘wang’ for every centipede caught. This plan worked again as people once again devised ways to catch the offending creatures and made every effort to hunt them down. Hundreds of centipedes would be brought in every morning. This time, they were promptly buried. After a few days, the numbers dwindled until finally, the Munshi wrote: “The lipan (centipede) war was also ended and people ceased to mourn from the pain of their stings.”