The past fortnight has seen visits to Sarkehj Roza, a multigraded learning session, a visit from a celebrity, a cleanliness drive and other interesting class activities. It is interesting to note that a lot of sensitization has taken place towards cleanliness, personal hygiene, old people as well as people with disabilities and ecological balance.

LOWER KINDERGARTEN: As part of their unit I am special in my surroundings the children collected stones and pebbles from the campus. While collecting, they also sang the rhyme “Mickey on the railway track..” After coming to class, they sorted the pebbles according to texture and sizes, and then they counted them. They then sang the rhyme “One two buckle my shoe…”. The students also listened to the story “The thirsty crow” where they counted the pebbles that the crow throws into the pot. Students have also learnt poems like “Bits of paper...” and “Teddy Bear...” The students learnt stories “Monkey and the Cap-Seller”, “Fox and the crow”, “Grapes are sour”. The students wore masks of parts of a computer and held hands to understand the connections of each part. Students are doing a strokes assignment in art to understand the concept of lines.

HIGHER KINDERGARTEN: The students learnt counting 1 to 10 in mathematics through the poem, “One Two Buckle my shoe…” and also did worksheets, where the children joined dots according to the number’s pattern and identify the animal. They also learnt the concept of one-to-one correspondence, where they played a memory game. Here they students had to find their partner through the flash cards given to them, (for example, the hammer had to find the nail, the railway track had to find the train). After which they answered a worksheet where they matched two objects. The students listened to stories, “Goldilocks and the three bears”, Three little pigs”, “Monkey and the Cap-Seller”, “The Thirsty Crow” and represented their understanding in different ways. The students worked on poems like “Mary had a little lamb”, “Incy Wincy spider”, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5 – once I caught a fish alive…” and “Eating Cherries…” They drew smileys on the computer using the software “Paint”. In art, the students created a football ground on their sketch books and made the football from paper art.

In GRADE 1, as part of their unit I am Responsible children are working on cleanliness. They have learnt about their personal hygiene through the song “Here we go round the Mulberry Bush”. As part of multi-graded learning with grade 7, the children made their own dustbins using recyclable material. In Science, they made information posters where they drew smileys and wrote “USE ME”. The students also wrote a message for the tree that they had planted on the first day of school. The children made cutouts of flowers in the art class and stuck it on the dustbins in each and every class. They also explained to the students how important it is to use a dustbin and have clean surroundings. The students made wind-chimes of specific shapes to understand the concept of shapes.

In GRADE 2, as part of their unit The Human Body the children drew bar-graphs depicting their height and understanding who is taller or shorter in class. They wrote letters to a part of their body. They also wrote inland letters and postcards to each other which they posted in their own improvised mailbox hung outside the classroom, they even wrote a letter to their parents that they posted. The students took their shoe and took a print of it, from here they worked on the sole of a foot. In Hindi, the students created a story after looking at a village scene. In social studies, they observed what people wear and discussed it with their peers. They surfed the internet with the teacher’s help and found out clothing of five different regions of India. In art they created a pen holder, using magazine cutouts. In computers, the students drew parts of a computer depicting its connectivity and its add on features. They played Twister to understand coordination, balance and direction and played Mastermind, where they crack codes.

In GRADE 3, as part of their unit Our Hobbies and Interests, the children went on campus and listed the things they saw around. Using the word list, the students created a story. “A MAN IN THE LOST ISLAND” (see bottom of page for story). The students made lemonade in the cafeteria and explored the hobby of visiting new places, for which they visited the temple near the school. In art the students represented the football ground in their sketch books. The students learnt the place-value till thousand, learnt ascending-descending order, writing numbers in figures and words. The students learnt to make smallest and biggest four-digit numbers after they were given 4 single-digit numbers. The students have begun exploring the cursive script as part of hobby, from here they will pick up calligraphy.

In GRADE 4, as part of their unit My City, the children are studying monuments of Ahmedabad. The students, under Social Studies, did a research on the history of Ahmedabad, the important monuments, museums, modern Ahmedabad and festivals. The students visited Sarkhej Roja, a heritage monument, and did sketching of the monument from different angles. The students observed the lake  and then understood how water pollution takes place. From here the students then collected information from various sources like internet, newspapers and library on pollution. The students then worked on worksheets related to pollution. They also wrote and drew reflections of their visit. The students were given a newspaper cutting of Sidi Syed Ki Jaali, they were asked to reproduce the same image, using only mono-chromic (Black and Brown) poster colours. After this, students took photo clippings of various monuments of Ahmedabad like Shaking Minarets, Rani Sipri’s Mosque and Sidi Basheer’s Mosque and reproduced these images using pencils as well as black pen or black sketch pen.

 In GRADE 5, as part of their unit Our Country, the children learnt about how information can be gathered through various sources. They then tapped these various sources like books, internet and people to get information on Ancient India. The students also studied the extent of the Harappan Culture in link to Ancient India. The children represented the architectural planning of the Harappan cities. As an extension to the Harappan study, the students learnt to write paragraphs on the toys, ornaments, lifestyle, uses of metals in that period. They also wrote messages to their friends. They also studied the trade and occupation. In art, the students collected information about art and artists of India. They created flying saucers and paper bags where they stuck the collected information. In science, the students conducted experiments on optical illusions and light illusions. They also learnt to write secret messages, and the scientific chemical reactions that take place to create a secret message. The students have made models and charts on computers and understood the concept of which are the parts of computers and which are the add-ons. They learnt to surf the net and created their own email IDs.

In GRADE 6, the Project under study is “National Parks and Sanctuaries and Farming”. The children studied the “Chipko movement”, it historical significance and the how it is a landmark in the movement to save deforestation. The children prepared a skit on the same and presented it to the whole school. The students created their own props as well as sets for the skit, in the arts class. In mathematics the students are working on geometrical concepts, where they made their own Tangram puzzles and then created various designs. The students, through this, understood the properties of various quadrilaterals. In science, the students prepared charts on crops, which they will grow on campus. The students have worked on the magazine “Sanctuary Cub”, where they read articles in it and held discussions. In computers, working on the theme of a class party, the students are making invitations, return gifts and checklists to organize their party. They have also made Powerpoint presentations on various topics.

 In grade 7, the Project under study is “Natural Calamities, Epidemics; Industrial revolution and Pollution”. The children presented a food chart on the food that they eat at ‘Osiris’. The students created a Powerpoint presentation on various sustenance processes. As part of multi-graded learning, they helped students of grade 1 prepare dustbins, from recyclable material, as part of Cleanliness week. The students have learnt to collect, organize and represent data through bar-graphs and pie-charts. The data was collected from library and campus through interviews. They are now working on data collection of natural calamities. They researched about the causes of earthquake and various earthquakes that have occurred worldwide, they then presented a skit on it. From the ten different mediums used in art, the students have completed line drawing, pencil shading, pen shading, charcoal, dry pastel and oil pastel. In Hindi, the students have given a tune to the poem “Aap kiske saath hain” by Hrivanshrai Bachchan. In computers, the students worked with Adobe Photoshop, created layouts using available cliparts. Then they used Photoshop and created new images of existing objects around them.

Lower Kindergarten students painting stones as part of counting activity. The students then did various counting activities using different coloured stones.

Higher Kindergarten children during an art session, making flowers using origami technique.

Grade 1 students during a cleanliness drive on campus. They created awareness about cleanliness and hygiene. They visited various classes and explained how to use a dustbin.

Grade 2 students taking prints of their sole. They worked on the concept of footspan and also understood the concept of measurements from there.

 
Grade 3 students took a visit to the Rancharda Temple, which is under construction. They made observations and held discussions.

Grade 4 students at the Sarkehj Roza, sketching various parts of the monument.

Grade 6 students present a skit on the Chipko Movement at the Osiris. They created their own props and sets during the art class and also studied the importance of reforestation in link to the project.

Grade 7 and Grade 1 student during a multigraded class. Grade 7 students helped the Grade 1 students create dustbins using recyclable material.