On March 1, the SM Mall of Asia Globe lights up in purple signaling the joint celebration of Women’s Month and Fire Prevention Month 2026. The purple illumination and formation of the Venus symbol signifies dignity, justice, and empowerment for all women and girls, and marking the start of SM Cares’ month-long advocacy in partnership with the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP).

Mounted through SM Cares, the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of SM Supermalls, the 5th SM & BFP Nationwide Simultaneous Fire Drill engaged almost 30,000 participants composed of SM employees, tenant employees, security and janitorial personnel, students, mall goers, and residents of barangays near SM malls which was a 30% increase in participants versus the previous year. With the theme ‘Sa pag-iwas sa sunog hindi ka nag-iisa, kababaihan kasama mo!’, the drill strengthened coordination in emergency response, especially helping communities practice life-saving evacuation procedures. In addition, the Fire Square Road Show brought interactive fire safety education to the public across 16 participating SM malls, reaching 8,611 participants through demonstrations, equipment showcases, and hands-on safety activities designed for families, students, and community members.

Since we are contained inside the house and if you're losing ideas on what to do to keep the little ones busy, well here's something from HP Inc to flex their creative muscles.

Keep them entertained with new curated Print & Play activities from HP. Suitable for ages 2 to 12, kids can try out hours of craft making, mazes, dot-to-dot drawing and many other puzzles.

Whether you are looking for content to support your child’s home-based learning or trying to juggle work and play, you can find printable arts & crafts to create fun and engaging experiences to bond with your kids. With HP Print & Play, parents can choose from a range of activities that are best suited to their children’s needs to achieve the best possible learning outcomes.

Why We Print & Play - The HP New Asian Learning Experience Study

With the need to spend more time at home, parents are on the lookout for exercises that can stimulate a child’s mind and invoke a greater love for learning.


HP’s New Asian Learning Experience Study identifies millennial parents’ attitudes towards learning and how their personalities impact the way their children learn. Our study shows that while print and digital each have their own strengths, a combination of digital and print was most beneficial in helping children stay focused and engaged while they learn.

Parents in the Philippines said that printed materials were better used for activities related to art (61%), math (60%), and memorization (50%), whereas electronic materials better facilitated learning in music or auditory skills (60%).

HP Print & Play was created from a need to help parents bridge the gap between education in school and learning at home by supplementing their child’s learning while making playtime at home more engaging.

Parents can refer to the study findings to understand how to best use different formats to facilitate positive learning outcomes without taking the joy out of learning.

AGE GROUP	ACTIVITIES
2 to 4 years old	ANIMAL FUN – learn through play with cute animal buddies!   Find the Bunny’s Way Level: Easy Estimated Time: 10 Minutes Help! The little bunny is trapped! Tag team with your little one to save the poor rabbit and help him find his way through the maze – start from where the red arrow is pointing and exit through the green arrow.   Pro tip: after drawing the correct path, colour the different pathways to make it into a funky piece of artwork!
	Connect to see the Cow Level: Easy Estimated Time: 15 Minutes Little cow can’t find his spots! Can you help him? Get your child to finish the drawing while following the numbers with the dots. Complete the picture by getting them to colour it in.
	Build a Bird Level: Medium Estimated Time: 15 Minutes What is that you spot with your little eye, flying in the sky?   Try out some craft fun with your little one by getting them to make their own bird in three simple steps!   Pro tip: create more animals with the other paper craft activities to build your own animal farm.
4 to 8 years old	FRUIT FUN – learn through play with these fruity challenges!   Solve the Pear Puzzle Level: Easy Estimated Time: 15 Minutes It’s sweet and yellow with a nice crunch in every bite. Can you guess what I see? I see a pear!   Challenge your child to piece together the fruit with this puzzle.
	Put the Fruits Correctly Level: Medium Estimated Time: 20 Minutes Are you a professional packer? Sort the fruits into the right boxes! Work with your child to help put the fruits in the right boxes through the maze.   Pro tip: End off with colouring the different pathways to create a new artwork!   Applicable for 8 to 12 years old as well.
	Connect to see the Crab Level: Difficult Estimated Time: 30 Minutes Oh no! The poor crab is missing its pincers! Connect all the dots to draw all its missing parts. As an added activity, have your child colour the crab to create a special artwork that you can put on your fridge!   Pro tip: Join your child in a “race” to see who completes the activity first. Give it a go for lesser time if you want to train up their speed.
8 to 12 years old	CULTURAL FUN – learn through play with different cultures! Find the Elephant Level: Difficult Estimated Time: 30 Minutes It’s massive animal with a long trunk! Some of them grow very large tusks made with ivory. Can you guess what animal I see? It’s an elephant!   Find the elephant with this puzzle.
	Creating a Seventh Wonder of the World Level: Difficult Estimated Time: 40 Minutes Have you always wanted to explore the world and visit the seven wonders of the world? Take craft making to another level by having your little one build their very own miniature Taj Mahal!   Pro tip: aside from doing the craft, take the time to share some knowledge about India and the iconic site.
	Colour the Map Level: Difficult Estimated Time: 40 Minutes Mr Koala bear is cute, furry and always sleeping. What else do you know about him? Do you know where he lives? Get your child to colour the map of Australia based on their own interpretation.   Pro tip: use this time to teach about the different colouring techniques such as gradient colouring, or using watercolours aside from just coloured pencils.

 

Your Learning Buddy At Home
	HP Ink Advantage Small yet mighty, the HP Ink Advantage is designed to fit your child’s study desk. Aside from its wireless printing capabilities, this compact printer allows you and your child to easily handle most scan jobs, from plain paper to photos with HP Scroll Scan.
	HP Smart Tank Hoping to take learning to another level? Allow your creativity to flow with the HP Smart Tank which allows for high volume printing from your phone via the HP Smart App or your laptop – perfect for creating that journal of Print & Play activities with your child. What’s more, its spill-free refill system using Original HP high-yield ink bottles allows for convenient “replacement” of ink.

For the working class, it is indeed one of those days they are yearning for holidays and day offs. It is even great when this holidays or off days fall in a long weekend. This is one of the holidays that is expected aside from Christmas and New Year. Of course this free must be spent wisely it's either for leisure activities or just simply a good old-fashioned staycation.

Whatever the holiday is, long weekends poses great opportunity for everyone to try and explore something new. A change in the usual routine is always good and if it’s for trying something that benefits you, even better.

If you’ve always wanted to get started on your health regimen or improve it, the long weekend’s a great time to try. It gives you the liberty of assessing yourself and injecting new activities in the gym that will be even easier to track when you get help from a wellness program.

Making your long weekends so much better

Choose a science-backed, rewards-based wellness program that helps you understand your body better by knowing your health through a series of assessments to determine your Vitality Age, or how close your body's age is to your actual age. Then improve your health by reaching each of its recommended goals as you make wiser, healthier choices on your activities and lifestyle.

As you successfully reach your goals, you get points that help you elevate your Philam Vitality Status to get more out of your healthy choices. The more points you have, the more you’ll be rewarded with discounts on products and services you can enjoy whenever you want. For example, you can receive discounts to your gym membership at Gold's Gym as well as training equipment and clothing from Toby's and Garmin so you can continue staying active building your body.

Getting active during the long weekend doesn’t mean you’ll be abandoning your favorite leisure activities either.

Got an itch for travel and entertainment? Part of the sweet deals you can be rewarded with are for your airfare via Philippine Airlines or your tickets to SM Cinemas so you can catch the latest block buster hit! Who knows? You and your friends might even get a thrill of a lifetime on extreme theme-park attractions and physical activities with your discounted passes to Enchanted Kingdom!

If you also yearn for a little more "Rest and Relaxation", you'll definitely enjoy saving on hotel room bookings in hotels like Marriott or Seda.

The Philam Vitality wellness program gives you all these cool perks, and now that its integrated into BPI-Philam’s Wellness Series, it also allows you to get an upfront additional 20% coverage from your insurance, which may increase up to 50% when you consistently keep your Platinum Philam Vitality Status year after year.

If that sounds like a great deal you want in on, all you have to do is visit your preferred BPI or BPI Family Savings bank, meet a Bancassurance Sales Executive, and start your new journey to a rewarding healthy lifestyle today.

BPI-Philam’s always ready to answer your questions, so drop them a line on their Facebook page www.facebook.com/BPIPhilamOfficial or know more about their products at www.bpi-philam.com.