9x5 A Weekend Review

As the academic year progresses the classes are nearing the end of their second unit. The school celebrated some festivals and has seen various presentations during the assembly. Two major competitions were held at an all India level within the school campus.

PRIMARY YEARS PROGRAMME (PYP)

In LOWER KINDERGARTEN, for the ongoing unit ‘Who am I’ , in English, the students had learnt rhymes ‘The Body Parts’, ‘Rolly Polly’ and ‘Brush Brush Brush’. They watched the movie ‘My Friend Ganesha’. The students brought their own photograph and a family photo to make them aware of the relations within the family. They were taken to the library to show the ‘Flash cards’ and teach them ‘Good Manners’. They can now follow instructions given in English. They can now also speak small sentences in English viz. ‘Push my chair, Pull my chair, May I come in’ etc. They have learnt to do various types of pattern writing by joining the dots from top to bottom and left to right. They have learnt to speak a few lines on various occupations which they had selected for their performance in the assembly thus learning communication (speaking & presenting) skills. They did an activity wherein they have recorded their voice on a C.D. They have learnt to count their classmates, school buses etc. They have learnt to identify various shapes like circle, square, triangle etc. As a part of Personal and Social Education, they have learnt to arrange the class before leaving. They have learnt to take care of the things in the class. They have learnt to co-operate with their buddy by listening to him or her. They have made ‘The goody bag’ with the help of cardboard paper by cutting, pasting and folding. They also learnt to make a caterpillar from a green coloured paper, thus enhancing their Gross motor skills. They have learnt to identify different types of moods through actions like dancing, eating, crying, drinking, singing, sleeping, running, being happy, sad etc. They have learnt to play the ‘colour’ game.

In HIGHER KINDERGARTEN, as a part of their ongoing unit ‘Family and Friends’, the students learnt the rhyme ‘My family’. A situation was given to the students where they had to converse with their friend over a phone call. This helped them develop the communication skill of speaking & listening. They can also dramatize any situation given with correct use of the English language and appropriate expressions. To reinforce the concept of family, students watched the movie ‘Shrek’. To know about the history of their family the students prepared their own family tree. They also discussed many interesting facts about their family members. The students learnt to identify numbers up to ‘15’. The students completed few worksheets based on writing patterns.

In GRADE 1, the ongoing unit is ‘What was it like when you were young’. The students while being proud of modern amenities and the techno-savvy environment in which they are studying today were made to understand that it was not always like this. The students learnt through a power point presentation about the means of communication in the olden days and its progress to today’s time. They understood how it has brought the world closer. The students were made aware that times were very different during their grandparent’s childhood days. The home environment, school environment, teaching methodologies, stationery, mode of travel and games played then were all very different when compared to todays. They were exposed to games like playing with marbles, string and top, five stones, etc. They also learnt to play games like Snake and ladder, Ludo, Blind Man’s Buff and Hop scotch. In computers, the students did an activity to learn and identify the parts of computer.

In GRADE 2, students have finished with their first unit – ‘Human Body’. Assessment was conducted for that unit. The new unit that has been initialized is ‘Public Places’. As a part of this unit, the students went for a field trip to ‘Himalaya Mall’. The students have also learnt about the different public places (Museums, Amusement park, Public Urinals etc) and the importance of these places. They have learnt about the criteria for a place to be classified as a public place. The difference between a public and a private place; rules and regulations to be followed and things to be taken care of, before making public places, were also learnt by the students. They learnt about ‘Time’ as a continuation of the topic ‘Measurement’. They specifically learnt how to read the time from a digital clock. The students performed various activities to learn ‘longer-shorter’ sequence. The concept of fractions and place value was also revised. Students learnt foot steps and hand steps in the dance form ‘Hich’.

In GRADE 3, for the ongoing unit ‘Creating a better world’ the students were given more practice in creative writing. Stories were read out to them and the students were expected to give the stories a proper ending. Moving a step further, activities were also carried out on story building where in students were taught how to build up a story step by step. ‘Respect goals’ were set where the students chalked out how they are going to respect themselves, others and the school environment. The students carried out a reflection on the life of the leaders (Nelson Mandela, Gandhiji etc.) and prepared a collage on the same. A poem ‘My Dream’ was also introduced. The students are learning poetry recitation with correct intonation. They also learnt to depict their understanding of the same through pictures. The movie ‘Gandhi’ was shown to the students. After watching the movie the students also wrote a reflection explaining which parts of the movie touched them the most. The students also listened to a 6 minute speech by Gandhiji. The students continued reading ‘The Tales of Robin Hood’. They were introduced to the dictionary and were taught how to look up for words. Recapitulation of certain concepts in Mathematics was carried out where the students were encouraged to solve simple problems on addition and subtraction (mentally without using pen and paper).

In GRADE 4, as a part of the unit, ‘Our city’, the students performed a skit ‘Our City - Ahmedabad’. As a stand alone unit in English, the students studied Hans’s Christen Anderson fairy tales. The students prepared 3-D/2-D models of future Ahmedabad city. In dance, the students learnt hands and foots steps on English music and then learnt the third step of rock dances on count beats. Various assessments were conducted for the unit ‘Our city’. For English and Humanities, an Open ended task was given. For English, assessment was conducted in the form of Skit presentation and Report Writing. For Maths, an assessment was taken for the topic Data handling.

In GRADE 5, for the unit ‘India’, the students were read out a story ‘Exploration’. They interpreted the plot of the story and identified similarities with the poem ‘India’ by W.J. Turner. The students made a presentation on ‘India’. ‘The Blind Dog’- Malgudi Days was read to the students, where they interpreted between the lines and understood the development of the plot of the story. The students were taught the format to be used while writing friendly letters. They wrote a letter to their friend who studies abroad, telling him/her what all he/she does in his/her school. The students were narrated another story from ‘Little Women’ and then they wrote a review of the story heard, enhancing their communication skills (listening & writing). The students also viewed the movie ‘Gandhi’ and then they wrote a paragraph about their opinion on the movie. The students read two nature poems- ‘Daffodils’ by William Wordsworth and ‘Pleasures of Nature’ by Swaroopa Rani. They critically appreciated the poems and formed sentences from some of the selected words in the poems. Students were made accustomed to the figures of speeches ‘Similie, Metaphor and Alliteration’ with suitable examples. The students researched about animals and their limbs. They also studied about how different animals and insects breathe. Diagrams were drawn for better understanding. Students in groups, created charts on animal life. The students learnt about the desert and plateau regions of India, the kind of lifestyle the people have and the major crops grown there. The students were exposed to the coastal areas of India and the islands of India. An assessment was also taken where the students had to make power point presentations on India and a neighbouring country. They then studied about the constitution of India and the rights and duties enjoyed by the citizens. The students made a power point presentation on what is origami & History of origami. The students went to the Zoo for sketching of wild animals and birds. They watched a slide show on theory of colours.

MIDDLE YEARS PROGRAMME (MYP)

In GRADE 6, as a part of their unit, ‘Influence of revolutions on the family values, patterns & attitudes’, in English, the students made a factory booklet for the novel, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate factory’. They have made portrait sketches of characters of the novel. They have also described the characters of the novel in their notebooks. The students visited ‘Amul Chocolate factory’ in Anand. ‘Grandparents Day’ was celebrated by the students within the School Campus. They had spent time with their grandparents and played games with them. The students also gifted their grandparents a small booklet written specially for them. In Maths, the students explored the exponential form. Then they learnt the concept of monomial, binomial, trinomial and multinomial. They learnt the terms related to the algebraic expressions such as ‘like and unlike terms’. They also learnt the addition and subtraction of the like terms. This was followed by the addition and subtraction of algebraic expressions. In Humanities, the students tried to relive the past. As a subject specific module they studied about ‘Sources of history’. To preserve the past, students chalked out a plan of action, and put their action plans on charts for preserving the dilapidated ancient monuments. In Science, students completed the topic of energy. The teacher introduced the topic ‘The universe’. They researched about different types of galaxies and then presented their findings to the class. Students learnt about different types of nutrients and their importance by solving worksheets. Students prepared charts showing different source of vitamins and minerals along with their deficiency diseases as an assignment. They learnt the basic concept of deficiency disease and had a discussion session with grade 8. Assessment for the topics Universe and Nutrition was conducted. In Computers, the students have learnt about advertisement (What is an advertisement? Types of advertisement. How to make an advertisement.) The students have created charts on different types of advertisement. In Design Technology, the students have completed the topics history and use of cardboards and have prepared charts for the same. In Visual Art, the students researched about various woodcut artists and their art. The students prepared a chart on woodcut. The students submitted their scrap book as a part of their assessment. They have started polishing their wood piece for the better understanding of practical aspects of woodcut.

In grade 7, for the unit ‘Detective’, in English, the students continued with the module of ‘A study in Scarlet’. They did various activities like debate, role plays etc. They also wrote character sketch of Sherlock Holmes. The students have started finding out about the significant speeches by Winston Churchill. They have read various speeches and have summarized it in their own words. The students also did various activities for vocabulary building. In Maths, the students learnt the concept of Flowchart, how to make flowchart using symbols, what the purpose of flowchart is and where they are used. They made different flowcharts for different tasks, e.g. making tea, going to school or swimming pool or for shopping. Students learnt how to create and in what form, are flowcharts used in computers. In humanities, the students started with a subject specific module ‘Islamic Civilization’. They studied about Islam & different other religions through activities. In science the teacher explained different definitions of acids and bases. Students searched for different types of acids present in different fruits. Students learnt about acids and bases. Students recalled their previous knowledge of elements and compounds which was then linked to the knowledge of mixtures. They understood the difference between the compounds and mixtures. They also explored the types of mixtures with their examples. Worksheets, puzzles and assessment format were given to them. The students went for a field trip to City Pulse to attend a lecture on short film making. They were shown the movie-‘Machines in motion’ on force and motions. In Visual Art, the students completed their power point presentation as a part of their assessment on the topic ‘Masks in various regions’. They also have completed their mask making using various papers and have started making a mask using clay.

In Grade 8, as a part of the unit, ‘Time machine’, in English, the students did various activities for vocabulary building like spelling games, word puzzles etc. They continued reading the novel ‘Time Machine’. There have been role plays, script writing, debates and various other activities related to the novel. The students have also done an introduction to the book ‘Letter to Daughter from Father’. The students collected information and made presentation on Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. In Maths, the students learnt how to plot ‘box and whisker’ & ‘stem and leaf’. The students also explored the applications of these plots. They also practiced some of the bar, line and pie graphs. In humanities, the students began with Middle Ages in Europe. They studied about different aspects of the Middle ages-the spread of Christianity, Charlemagne, Black Death and the effects of crusades. In Science, the students were introduced with the concept of resistance and its units. Students were provided support material for reading and learning. Students performed various activities and solved worksheets. Students performed experiment on Ohm’s law, learnt how to connect the circuit and how to take the readings. Students had learned about different types of germination and the factors affecting seed germination. Students had germinated 10 types of seeds and took care of their seedlings. Students took an assessment on health and hygiene. They were introduced to the concept of transpiration along with an activity of morphology of leaves. In Visual Art, the students as a part of stained glass designs, created designs on glass and filled glass painting colours to understand the practical aspects of stained glass.

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Lower Kindergarten students learning to play Bongo.