“WE LOVE OUR PLANET” STORYTELLING CONTEST 2024

Themed “Protect our Ocean!”, this year’s edition of CDL’s “We Love Our Planet” Storytelling Contest edition continues to encourage family bonding through storytelling and home video production, while aiming to unearth young eco champions and their families to develop their love of nature and to take action to protect our planet.

This year, in the lead up to World Environment Day 2024, the contest is jointly organised by CDL and East Coast GRC, and aims to continue CDL’s My Tree House’s legacy of educational programmes, while featuring the young eco champions amongst us.

To view last year’s winning submissions, click here.

Click here to submit your videos

Contest Format

In celebration of World Environment Day on 5 June, contestants are required to choose and tell a story relevant to the theme “Protect our Ocean!”
Contestants can adapt their stories from existing book titles or create original storylines.
At the beginning of the storytelling, contestants are to introduce the book title and author that they are using for storytelling. If the storyline is original, this should be mentioned at the beginning of the story.
At the end of the storytelling, contestants are required to share a statement, roughly about a minute, on the lessons that they have learned from the story, as well as aspirations to help conserve the planet (e.g. I will use less single-use plastic, I will not support wildlife animal trade, etc.).
To participate, the contestants will film their storytelling performances and submit their video links on Google Forms.
The video should not exceed 5 minutes.
The video should be in landscape format.
Voice over is not preferred. The video should show the participant narrating.
Video editing is welcome but not a must.
Contestants under Preschool category can take part as an individual, or with the support from one immediate family member (e.g. parent, older sibling).
Deadline for submissions is Sunday, 21 April 2024, 2359 hrs.
Top finalists will be invited to present their storytelling in-person at our Singapore Sustainability Academy to a panel of judges on Saturday, 18 May 2024.
Videos with the most inspiring comments on lessons learned from the stories and aspirations to protect the planet would also be featured in a short video. The video and announcement of top winners will be shared on social media and on the organisers’ webpages on Wednesday, 5 June 2024, on World Environment Day.
Prize presentation for top winners will take place during East Coast Family Fiesta on Saturday, 8 June 2024.

Contest Categories

INDIVIDUAL – Preschool (support from one family member (e.g. parent, older sibling) is allowed)	3 to 6 years old
INDIVIDUAL – Lower Primary	P1 to P3 (or equivalent)
INDIVIDUAL – Upper Primary	P4 to P6 (or equivalent)
FAMILY – Collaboration between at least two family members, one of which must be a child, from the same household – Contribution should be split relatively equally	No age restriction
ALUMNI – Returning winners from past years to participate in this category	No age restriction

Prizes

	1st	2nd	3rd	Consolation (4th and 5th)
Preschool	$600	$300	$200	$100
Lower Primary	$600	$300	$200	$100
Upper Primary	$600	$300	$200	$100
Family Team	$600	$300	$200	$100
Alumni	$600	$300	$200	$100
Special recognition for schools with high participation	One tree planted under ClimateForce initiative; eco-friendly plaque; $500 CDL vouchers

Note: Prize money will be City Developments Limited vouchers

Scoring Criteria

Judging Panel for Finalists

Rules and Regulations

FAQs

1. Can I create my own story?

Ans: Yes, you are welcome to create your own story. You can also incorporate parts from an existing story into your own.

2. If I am reading from a book, must I show it throughout the video clip?

Ans: You can show your book at the beginning like a show-and-tell. If it is an original or adapted story, you can state that before telling the story.

3. Must I read aloud the entire story in the book?

Ans: You can read selected extracts from the book, similar to what Sieu Pin did during his storytelling demonstration in Storytime@My Tree House. However, it would be useful to provide a background of the story so that the audience is able to follow your storytelling.

4. Do I have to read from a book, or can I read from an electronic device?

Ans: Yes, you can read from an electronic device if you wish. But remember to engage your audience when reading aloud the story.

5. Can I submit more than one entry?

Ans: Each contestant is allowed to submit one entry per category.

6. Must I present the book title, author and the publisher before reading the story?

Ans: It is a good practice to do that as part of your introduction.

7. What are the copyright considerations when reading from a book?

Ans: It is fine to record one’s storytelling of a book for personal use. However, there may be copyright considerations if the consent of the publisher is not sought and one publicises it on public platforms, such as social media. As the video clip is sent to CDL and the judges for judging, it is not considered as publicising on a public platform.

8. Where can I get ideas for green stories?

Ans: NLB has specially prepared a compilation of e-books for this contest. Click here to access them.

9. Can you provide any examples that we can use as a guide as how the contest wants the storytelling to be presented?

Ans: Since we want you and your family to use your imagination and get as creative as possible with your submission, we’re shying away from providing any sort of “examples” to ensure that people will not fall into the trap of aligning their submission with the provided example. There is no perfect answer to this contest, any and all types of videos will be welcomed with open arms!

10. Does my child have to be speaking the entire time or can I chime in and help? What is a good balance?

Ans: You can definitely participate, but your child should leading the video for the majority of the time. A 90%:10% balance would suffice.

11. If we upload our submission and decide to give it another go, can we re-submit?

Ans: As long as you submit your new video with the name “VERSION 2” at the end, and let us know via email that you’ve submitted twice, you should be good to go!

12. How long should my video be?

Ans: There is no minimum requirement for the video length, but it should not exceed 5 minutes, where possible.

If you have other queries about the contest, please email [email protected]. We will try our best to respond to you as soon as possible.

	Storytelling Performance Note: video editing is welcome but not a must	Eco Aspiration Note: Must be one-minute long	Relevance of story to theme
	20% Fluency 20% Expression of story/mimicry 10% Creativity	15% Fluency 15% Clarity of thought in protecting our planet 10% Passion	10% relevance
Individual-Preschool	50%	40%	10%
Individual-Lower primary	50%	40%	10%
Individual-Upper primary	50%	40%	10%
Family	50%	40%	10%
Alumni	50%	40%	10%

WE LOVE OUR PLANET