Community Corner

Singapore Sam Hops Across the World to Teach a Classroom

Minnetonka's Melissa Saigh is teaching students about a new culture with the help of a stuffed frog.

A Minnetonka resident is using her trip to the other side of the world to educate a classroom of students about other cultures.

Melissa Saigh, her husband AJ and their 14-month-old daughter, Linna are living in Singapore temporarily for AJ’s job. The Saighs arrived in August and plan to return to Minnetonka in November. 

The family smuggled a guest with them on their adventures. He is a green stuffed frog who goes by the name Singapore Sam, and he has become a learning tool for a first-grade classroom in Minnesota.

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Melissa's aunt, a teacher at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Worthington, sent Singapore Sam with the Saighs to connect her students with other areas of the world. The story was featured recently in the Worthington Daily Globe.

The Saighs have snapped photos of Singapore Sam at all the places they've visited in Asia, such as Thailand, Chinatown and the Singapore Flyer.

Find out what's happening in Minnetonkawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"Every now and then, I Skype with Mrs. Johnson's first-grade class at St. Mary's, and the kids can ask questions about basically anything they want," Melissa wrote in her Minnesota Baby blog. "Mrs. Johnson says they have been following our adventures in Singapore daily."

Melissa is a former television producer and Minnetonka Patch reporter turned full-time stay-at-home mom, mommy blogger and on-air brand ambassador.


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