Table 3.

Final vCST Session Protocol

Choices for Main Activities		Resources Required	Delivery Notes
Session 1: Physical games
1. Throw a virtual ball 2. Question and answer – health and exercise 3. Chair exercise 4. Sit-down dance with the group song.		1. None required. 2. Create a set of question cards in different colours/numbers (physical cards or on PowerPoint). eg thoughts on healthy living; your favourite exercise; your exercise routine. 3. Use appropriate videos online or download and store on the computer in advance. 4. Find group song on internet or download to computer.	1. Pretend to throw a ball and say something about yourself. 2. Participants take turns to choose one card from the facilitator and answer questions in turn. 3. Share screen and sound function required. Facilitate the exercise session yourself if the internet connectivity for video sharing is poor. 4. Facilitate group dancing. “Share sound” function required.
Session 2: Sounds
1. Name the instrument. 2. Show and tell – musical instruments. 3. Match the pictures and sounds of everyday objects. 4. Listening to songs.		1. Find sounds of different instruments online (eg, piano, violin, saxophone, etc). 2. Participant to bring available resources. 3. Find sounds online (eg, car, doorbell, dog, etc.), and add matching pictures to a PowerPoint or activity pack. 4. Find appropriate songs on internet.	1. Play the sounds of different instruments and ask participants to name them. “Share sound” required. 2. Ask members to bring musical instruments and show how to use it. 3. Play the sounds to the group and show the PowerPoint on share screen. “Share sound” function required. 4. Play and discuss familiar songs. “Share sound” required.
Session 3: Childhood
1. Childhood memories worksheet 2. Draw childhood homes 3. Show and tell – childhood memories 4. Childhood snacks 5. Childhood toys		1. Create a worksheet with questions (eg birthplace, names of siblings, childhood address, favourite school subjects). 2. Participants need pencil and paper or provide in pack. 3. Participant to bring available resources. 4. Create a PowerPoint or worksheet with images and show in share screen or bring snacks and show on camera. 5. Create PowerPoint or print-out with pictures of childhood toys. Ask participants to bring childhood toys to the session.	1. Send worksheet in a resource pack, or for members to print. Give group time to answer questions, then discuss answers. 2. Participants draw their homes from memory and show group. 3. Group members to bring something that remind them of their childhood, eg, an object, a photo, or a food item etc. 4. Ask participants to describe the taste (is it sour or sweet?). Ask participants what their favourite snacks are nowadays. 5. Discuss what toys the groups” children or grandchildren play with. Ask how the toys nowadays differ from their own childhood toys.
Choices for Main Activities		Resources Required	Delivery Notes
Session 4: Food
1. Shopping task 2. Ingredients game 3. Cookery videos or recipes 4. Show and tell – food items		1. Create a PowerPoint or worksheet with images and prices of food items. 2. Create a PowerPoint or worksheet with images of food items. 3. Find YouTube videos or recipes to show on share screen. 4. Participant to bring available resources.	1. Ask members to shop for a theme from food items available (eg, breakfast/ lunch/ dinner preparation for a family of 4). 2. Ask participants to group foods and name the category and/or “make” a dish using different combination of ingredients. 3. View videos or recipes online and discuss. Ask participants to choose their favourite food or chef. 4. Ask members to bring some food items to sample that trigger particular memories. Discuss taste/texture/smell.
Session 5: Current affairs
1. Recent news stories 2. Discussion/voting on current affairs 3. Old and new newspaper articles		1. Find recent news videos, images, or headlines online. Ask participants to bring a copy of a newspaper. 2. Prepare questions on topics eg, Thoughts on social media, retirement age, telephone/ internet scams, sporting events. 3. Create a PowerPoint or worksheet with images of old and recent newspaper articles or headlines.	1. Discuss news story. “Share sound” required for video. 2. Facilitate discussion and voting. Encourage all to contribute. 3. Facilitate discussion and encourage all to contribute. Compare the current situation with the situations the participants faced in the past
Session 6: Faces and scenes
1. Then and now photos 2. Photos of people 3. Virtual tour 4. Movie clip		1. Create a PowerPoint or worksheet with images. 2. Create a PowerPoint or worksheet with images. 3. Use Google Maps on internet browser and share screen. 4. Video clip or movie song can be played on YouTube.	1. Present photos that show the past and present of the same place. Participants compare and describe the differences. 2. Show one face at a time, ask open questions, eg “Do you like what their clothes?”, “What might they be doing/thinking?” Then show two or more faces together, ask questions eg, “Who looks older/younger?”, “What do they have in common?” 3. If participants have finished the childhood home information in Session 3, use Google Maps to show participants what places look like now. 4. Watch a video clip or song from a famous movie and stimulate a discussion around the faces in it and where it was set.
Choices for Main Activities		Resources Required	Delivery Notes
Session 7: Word association
1. Fill in the blanks 2. Finish the song lyrics 3. Categories/themes of words		1. Create PowerPoint or worksheet with phrases with blanks eg quantities (a cup of…), or proverbs (A stitch in time…). 2. Find appropriate songs online. 3. None required. Can use shared whiteboard.	1. Show participants well-known sentences with blanks; ask the group to fill in the blanks. 2. Start songs and ask group to finish the lyrics. Use “Share sound”. 3. Name a category/theme and ask group to say as many related-words as possible (eg animals, word starting with Z).
Session 8: Being Creative
1. Paper folding 2. Paper cutting 3. Drawing portraits 4. Shared drawing 5. Virtual tour of art museum		1. Participants bring paper/newspaper or provide in pack. 2. Participants to bring paper or provide in resource pack. Participants use own scissors. Find video tutorials online. 3. Participants to bring paper/pencils or provide in pack. 4. Participants to bring paper/pencils or provide in resource pack. Facilitator uses shared whiteboard. 5. Find online video/images from local museum website. Create a PowerPoint or worksheet with images of artwork/paintings.	1. Follow online videos (eg, paper airplane, simple origami). 2. Lead the group to make some paper snowflakes and encourage them to develop their own designs. 3. Ask members to draw pictures of each other to share with the group. 4. Facilitator draws on shared whiteboard to. Group follow along and draw on a paper, then share with group. 5. Discuss artwork as a group. Suitable for a group who might struggle with drawing.
Session 9: Categorising Objects
1. Naming items in a category 2. “Name-place-animal-things” game 3. Categorising everyday objects 4. Show and tell – household objects 5. “Odd one out” game		1. Use virtual whiteboard. 2. Participants require pen and paper. 3. Create PowerPoint/worksheet with pictures of 10 everyday objects. 4. Participant to bring available resources 5. Create a PowerPoint or worksheet with images.	1. Ask the group to come up with a category/choose from a list (eg animals, foods) and name items in the category. 2. Pick a letter at random and ask participants to write down a name, place, animal, and a thing starting with that letter. Discuss responses. 3. Ask participants to group the objects based on different categories (eg, colour, usage, or where to find them). 4. Ask the group to find objects from home that are a certain colour, then categorise the items into groups. 5. Show 3 or 4 pictures (eg animal, food, faces) at the same time, and ask the group to point out the odd one out and why.
Choices for Main Activities		Resources Required	Delivery Notes
Session 10: Orientation
1. Country map 2. Travel recommendations 3. World map		1. Provide a country map to print or send in resource pack. 2. Provide a country map to print or send in resource pack. 3. Provide a world map to print or send in a resource pack.	1. Participants find/mark where they live or were born. Discuss whether they moved from an area to another, and how areas have changed. 2. Suggest places to someone visiting country for the first time. 3. Find/mark countries members have visited or would like to visit.
Session 11: Using Money
1. Price guessing task 2. Price matching task 3. Price of items discussion 4. Comparing old and new money 5. Online group shopping game	1. Create PowerPoint or worksheet with images of items (eg things to buy for a summer holiday). 2. Create PowerPoint or worksheet with images of items and a list of their prices. 3. None required. 4. Make PowerPoint or worksheet with images of old and new banknotes, and newer payment methods (eg credit cards). 5. Make PowerPoint or worksheet with images of items and prices.		1. Ask participants to guess the price of each object and total price. Ask the group which object is most expensive / least expensive. 2. Ask participants to match the price of each object with the prices. 3. Discuss how price of everyday items has changed in past 30 years. 4. Discuss how the money has changed, and how the value of money has changed. 5. Ask participants to make a shopping list with a budget, based on a context (eg, picnic, preparing a hot-pot meal, hosting a party).
Session 12: Numbers games
1. Adding up card values game 2. Bingo 3. Higher or lower card game 4. Snap card game		1. Facilitator and participants need to have a deck of playing cards each. 2. Use online bingo number generator and find bingo cards online (send to members to print out or send in pack). 3. Facilitator to bring a deck of playing cards. 4. Participants need to have a deck of playing cards.	1. Randomly draw 2 playing cards for each participant or ask them to draw 2 from their own pack of cards. Ask them to add up the points of their cards. The member who gets the largest point wins. 2. Read out numbers from the online bingo number generator. Participants should cross out numbers on their bingo cards. 3. Participants take turns to guess if next card will be higher or lower. 4. Members take a card off the top of their pile and hold it to the camera. Anyone with matching cards says snap and gets a point.
Choices for Main Activities		Resources Required	Delivery Notes
Session 13: Word games
1. Describe the word 2. Riddles 3. Rebus game 4. Hangman or crossword game		1. Create a list of words for participants to choose from. 2. Prepare riddles or ask the group to share riddles they know. 3. Find visual riddles/rebus puzzles online. Add to slides/worksheet. 4. Find crossword or hangman online games.	1. One participant chooses a word and describes it to others without saying word itself. Members take turn as listeners and speakers. 2. Solve the riddles as a group. 3. Ask the group to guess the idioms depicted in the pictures. 4. Share screen and ask al group members to participate.
Session 14: Team quiz
1.Group competition (eg quiz or favourite game from past sessions) 2. Recap of sessions		1. Create a true or false or “myth buster quiz” (or find one online) or reuse resources from previous sessions. 2. None required. For both activities: Participants bring tea/snacks to enjoy together as a celebration.	1. Put group members into teams, or if it is difficult for them to confer it can be an individual quiz. 2. Discuss how participants have found the group i.e. which sessions did they like best/least.