garodia international centre for learning newsletter 2016...

Garodia International Centre for Learning

Newsletter 2016-2017, Week 32-34


153 Garodia Nagar, Ghatkopar (East), Mumbai 400077 +91 (0)22 2506 1133 www.gicl.edu.in

Pre-Primary

Games are good to play,

At any time of the day,

It helps one to stay,

Fit and fine all the way.

Who does not like to play games?

Everyone does, be they young or old.

With a gleam in their eyes, children of

T2 were all excited to know about

some games played in the olden

days- Satoliya, Gutte, Gilli Danda,

Kancha, Shatranj,etc. They were

awestruck when teacher told them

that she had played these games

when she was small like them. A

healthy discussion of why, where and

how one plays, helped the children to

differentiate which games can be

played indoors and which outdoors.

“Oh! Rules have to be followed for

games also” voiced the children.

Playing board games one does not

get bored. Although not physical it

requires mental ability to play certain

games made the little minds of T1 to

think. Their doubt was cleared when

they actually got to play a few games-

Snakes and Ladders, Ludo, Dominoes,

Junior Uno.

The little ones of nursery were taken

for a nature walk to the Lion’s garden

where they got to observe the

different types of trees, plants,

shrubs, leaves etc.

They felt the moistness of the grass,

dryness of the bark, softness of the

petals and admired nature. Activities

like sorting of leaves, sowing a seed,

music and movement where they

pretended to be a seed and grow

slowly into a plant quenched their

inquisitive minds.

Come January, India celebrates the

harvest season. One of the first

festivals of the year is Makar

Sankranti.

It was amazing to see how our

preschoolers created a humongous

kite using various art and craft

techniques. “Til-gul ghyaa, aani goad-

goad bola” was the slogan our

children were cheering as our little

chefs made Til-gul laddus.

Here’s a shout to the fun filled Night

out

Playing and enjoying with their

friends,

Fun here never ends!

Yes, it’s the time of the year when

children of T2 eagerly await their

night out. It was a pleasing sight to

see the children of T2 striding in with

their trolley bags and gleaming faces

looking forward to the evening full of

adventure and activities.

Playing exciting games that

challenged their stamina, strength

and fine/gross skills and jumping as

high as they could children of T2

thoroughly enjoyed each and every

station.

Garodia International Centre for Learning 153 Garodia Nagar, Ghatkopar (East), Mumbai 400077

+91 (0)22 2506 1133 www.garodiainternational.org


Post dinner, children gathered under

the star studded sky and watched the

movie ‘Finding Dory.” The evening

ended with them tucked in their beds

in a cozy tent. It was a pleasant sight

to see some of them hugging their

favourite soft toy and sleeping in the

quietness of the night.

Rise and shine for it was time to get

some sun and have loads of fun…

After a warm up round of exercise,

children rode their bicycles and went

home with wonderful memories.

It was a fun-filled week for the

children of T1, as this week continued

with the topic games. They enjoyed

games such as Quack Quack goes

mother duck, Kho-Kho, Dog and the

Bone and so on.

To enhance their creative skills, they

also learnt step by step drawing using

different shapes and patterns to

create cute animated pictures such as

a pig and a mouse in their drawing

book.

Fun Friday saw the little chefs of T1

making a seasonal strawberry

milkshake as a part of their circle

time activity wherein they got to

learn about different winter fruits.

“Love Nature, Stay Close to Nature”

saw our little nursery children learnt

about few trees and flowers such as

coconut tree, rose, marigold and

sunflower.

An outdoor activity was held where

our children experienced and enjoyed

bark rubbing. Words such as hard-

rough, wide-narrow, long-short

enhanced their vocabulary.

The week ended with a bang where

our little ones drank refreshing and

delicious coconut water.

Primary

Mumbai Meri Jaan

Learning about Mumbai, its rich

history and culture, famous

personalities, popular cuisine and

places of interest gave an insight on

our beautiful city.

Grade 1 children had a finger licking

time trying out the famous ‘chaat’-

Bhel. It’s delicious mixture of puffed

rice, sev, tomato, potato, onion and

sweet-sour-spicy chutney made it a

memorable experience.




Opinion writing as a part of their

write steps topic saw children

grouping themselves and asking

‘should children be allowed to watch

television?’ to their classmates and

teachers wanting to know their

opinion and reasoning on the same.

It was interesting to get different

opinions –some of them agreeing

while others disagreeing but learning

to respect the differences at the

same time.

Comparing lengths

From learning to measure objects

using hand spans; proceeding to

measure different lengths using

paperclips, buttons and even erasers,

to lastly learning to compare lengths

with the help of a ruler; was

definitely a fun filled hands-on

experience.

Get to know your plants

better! Second graders are now learning

about the parts of the plants and

their functions. To gain better

understanding we created a visual aid

foldable which would explain the

working of the various parts of the

plant like roots, stem, leaves, flower

etc.

The objective was to help the kids

grasp the concept without trying

hard. It was achieved successfully

through engagement of their fine and

gross motor skills in the process as

they drew, labeled and colored their

petty potted plant foldable!

Young Researchers in

Making! Students of grade 2 got an

opportunity to conduct research

based on various topics related to

their subjects. We collaborated with

ICT so as to enable them to use the

resource of the internet at their

disposal. We also encouraged them

to take down notes in pointers and

phrases in order to imbibe the skill of

note-making in them. They jotted

down points from their research on

the author ‘Michael Morpurgo’ who

has written the story ‘The Mountain

Bear Adventures’ in their Oxford

book. They were very curious to find

more facts about his life, awards,

other books etc. and displayed their

research on a splash board in class.

They also researched about the

districts of Maharashtra and about

their unique features for their SST

unit. The objective was to develop

their confidence and to give them a




taste of what it is to pursue a topic

ahead on their own and create their

own findings.We are so proud of our

tiny, young researchers who know

that the world is waiting for them at

the click of the button

Being Persuasive!!! As a revision for persuasive writing in

English, Grade 3 students were given

a task of convincing their classmates

for a product they had designed and

priced.

This gave an opportunity for the kids

to enhance their vocabulary,

imagination and creative thinking

skills and also they got a platform to

interact with the class as a whole in a

better way. Children enjoyed a lot

and were able to convince their

classmates to their best. They came

out with best of tag lines and design

for their product.

Describing yourself through

your Name!!! Students of Grade 3 in their English

class were revising the concept of

Adjectives through an activity. They

had to draw a jelly fish and write their

name on it.

Then from each letter of their name

they had to write an adjective that

suits them. The students were

extremely expressive and came out

with excellent adjectives that suited

them and their personality. This gave

a brain storming session for them to

look out for adjectives from the

letters of their names.

The students of grade 4 experienced

studying in nature. The class was

conducted under a tree with bright

sunlight. Children could feel the wind

blowing through trees and smell the

earth.

They enrich their vocabulary with

words like shade, bark, leaves,

branch, roots, bud, flower etc. They

could breathe in fresh oxygen and

rejuvenate their body to stay fit.

Some songs were recited with the

background music of birds chirping

on trees.

A Proud Moment

Esha Pillai budding artist won

Consolation prize in Kalavedh 2017

which was organised by JJ School of

Art:Mumbai. There were 3500

students who participated for this

event. This venture proved to be a

great exposure for our kids who

enthusiastically participated.

Hearty congratulations to Esha Pillai

from Grade 3

Types of Pollution Grade 5 had an interactive session on

pollution. Discussing the different

types of pollution (Pradushan)

namely noise (Dhwani), water (Jal)

and air (Vaayu) was discussed

through a presentation by each

group. Having an informal short skit

enabled the students to understand

the problems and solutions and gave

an insight on the adverse effects.




This activity saw a lot of team work,

confidence and excitement.

GICL Technology Whiz Kids Grade 1 explored the web in an

entirely new way by beginning

Google search with an image. They

also learnt about the text tool which

is used for typing text on Paint.

Grade 2 was very excited to research

online about district and features of

Maharashtra.

Grade 3 got acquainted with the

different formatting tools to align

text and picture on MS Word.

Grade 4 learnt Powtoon software

which helps to create animated

presentations. Students were very

enthusiastic to sign up for this

amazing free software to create

awesome presentations.

Grade 5 used Picasa an image

organizer software to edit photos.

Students created very good collages

on Picasa by applying different

effects.

Concept of naming websites was

introduced and students came up

with very knowledgeable and

interesting websites which will steer

the curiosity of the audience. Each

website was webbed and placed in

the spider’s web in the ICT Lab.

Kites and dreams soaring

high!

Our 1st and 2nd graders have done

print making using ear buds in their

drawing. Children were so

enthusiastic to use paints and ear

buds as a printing tool in any topic of

their choice. The aim was to enable

them to showcase their creativity

using this interesting tool.

In craftwork they learned to make

flowers with simple folds using our

flag tri-colored marble paper which

then became their Republic day

activity.

Grade 3 students learned shading

as a technique and used it on paper

which they made into kites. Kite

being a symbol of Sankranti, it helped

them to associate with the feeling of

festivity and joy. Also we asked them

to write what they would like to be in

the future and we could peep into

their dreams and ambitions for

themselves through this art activity.

Students of grades 4 and 5 also

made their unique kites. In this

artwork they were to use different

techniques like doodling and fine

designing. Knowledge of color

scheme also was the assessing

criteria. Like using of gray scales,

warm and cool color scheme. Finally

they had to write good qualities of

their personality in creative

handwriting fonts. They enjoyed this

topic, which helped develop many

perspectives and art skills like

techniques of drawing and coloring,

development of creative handwriting

and took us on a little journey of

what our kids’ perceptions are about

themselves.




Perseverance Ever thought of giving up on a

challenging situation in life?

Let's ask the same to our little GICL

students and I am sure they would

tell you a - - NO.

Well, this was the topic in the

personal skills class. The value of

Persistence was taken up this week.

The class began with a hands on

activity, including a bowl of water.

This bowl was a symbolising the

challenges faced in life. Then there

were some clay balls, which due to its

density sank in the bowl of water and

there were some paper boats, which

floated in the water.

The clay symbolised, the defeatist

attitude of giving up or letting go

during testing times. Whereas the

paper boats symbolised the positivity,

resilience with which people rise and

shine during tough times, just

because they are perseverant and do

not give up. This activity was then

followed by sharing the biography of

Ms. Sudha Chandran, who is a well-

established Bharathanatyam dancer

of India. At the age of 16, she had to

amputate her leg due to an accident.

However, she never gave up her

passion and fought with her fears.

She pursued her career with an

artificial leg and continues to remain

an inspiration for many.

Our students were not only

motivated but were amazed with her

perseverance.

We Salute you Ms. Chandran!

Way to a healthy living

With Sports Day round the corner, it’s

essential to pump in nutrition to the

little sports stars.

Here are a few tidbits,

1. Keep well hydrated until the final

day – helps to relieve muscle cramps.

2. Build up carbohydrates in your

daily meal – plenty of fruits, whole

cereals, potatoes (not fried).

3. Snack on healthy nuts and dry

fruits – for power packed

performance.

4. Avoid snacking outside to keep

away from stomach infections.

5. Pre Sport Meal – The day before

Sports Day - ensure meals are protein

and nutrient dense

Sprouts, soya, dals, eggs, paneer are

excellent options.

6. During the Game – Plenty of water

with Glucose powder, or Health

drinks like Enerzal.

Aerated drinks and cola beverages to

be completely avoided.

7. After Game – quickly pop in

bananas to restore the energy lost.

Have a wonderful Healthy Sports Day.

PRIYA KARKERA

PEDIATRIC NUTRITIONIST

Secondary

Improving Civic Services

The concept of local self-government

is indigenous to the Indian soil.

The mission is to create a strong and

effective democratic local self-

government throughout the rural and

urban communities by promoting

unity and and co-operation among

the people.

The students of Grade 6, in their

Social Studies class made a chart on

the functions of the Municipal

Corporation, Municipality, Zilla

Parishad and the Panchayat Samiti.

According to their understanding

they wrote different functions on the

sheet. Some stuck pictures of the

various functions of the government

while others opted for drawing the

same and thus had an opportunity to

demonstrate their creative and

artistic skills.




The activity helped them to get a

better clarity of the various functions

of the local self-government.

Creating cell slide!!!

Students of Grade 6, in their

laboratory revised the concept parts

of microscope, making cell slide using

onion peel and studying various slides

under microscope.

In this activity, the students of grade

6 had the opportunity to learn how

the slides are being made and

preserved.

According to their understanding

they discussed the functions of

various parts of microscope and

studied the various cells like plant

cell, animal cell, fungi and protozoa.

The continued emphasis through the

activity encouraged students to

participate, communicate, and reflect

the acquired knowledge in a creative

way!!

The Aamby Extravaganza

On 21st & 22nd January 2017, the

students of GICL, from Grades 6, 7

and 9, participated in the Inter-school

Language Fest ~ Extravaganza –

“ROMANCE” organized at

International School Aamby (ISA).

This multicultural festival is meant

not only to promote the study of

Hindi, Spanish and French languages

and cultures, but also to give

students a unique opportunity to

meet students from other schools

and enrich their language learning as

well as cultural experience.

The students accompanied by Ms.

Shivani Gupta and Ms. Vidya Rao

stayed in the hostel rooms of the

boarding school and as the students

put it “Not only was it a wonderfully

comfortable experience, but a good

learning curve as well.” Our students

took part in multiple competitions

organized by ISA in both Hindi and

French. Contests included picture

description, video description, poetry

recitation, story writing, quiz, tableau

and many more.

They won a plethora of prizes across

all the competitions in both the

languages. In the overall tally of

points GICL finished second only to

The Shriram School, Delhi and

secured a place ahead of the hosts

who came third. All in all, this was a

truly indelible experience and we

look forward to participating in this

language extravaganza in the coming

years.

Inter-school German

Spelling Bee Contest 2017! GICL was once again the proud host

of the inter-school German Spelling

Bee 2017 in the Mumbai region. This

year too the response was

overwhelming. Bombay International

School, JBCN International School,

Chandrakant Patkar Vidyalaya and

Digambar Patkar Vidyalaya were the

active participants along with the

host school GICL.

The contest began on an enthusiastic

note. As the contest progressed

further with a variety of rounds such

as matching the picture with the right

word, guess the jumbled word, we

could see the students actually

enjoying the competition. Thus, the

flow was smooth and it just got

better and better.

The spelling round was definitely a

challenge for the students, which

they managed with grit and

determination. A round on the

cultural aspects about Germany

added a new face too the

competition. The contest was




organised at two levels: German A1

(basic) and A2 (advanced) levels. GICL

students of Grades 8 and 9

participated in level 2 and bagged the

1st prize followed by JBCN

International School. Bombay

International School emerged

winners in level 1 followed by

Chandrakant Patkar Vidyalaya. The

German Spelling Bee is now a popular

contest in the Mumbai region and

students are already looking forward

to the next Spelling Bee. See you

soon!!!

IBDP

Mathematics and the real

world

TOK students seek to find out how

knowledge is constructed using

various Ways of Knowing (WOK) and

by considering what constitutes

knowledge in various Areas of

Knowledge (AOK).Our IBDP 1

students explored the AOK of

Mathematics using the Knowledge

framework in an extended session

where they actively engaged in

research and critical thinking.

The various concepts taken up for

inquiry in this Math AOK session

included; how we use math to make

sense of the world, how far we can

trust its certainty, how it defines

patterns in real world. The session

involved exciting activities for

learning like the ‘Treasure Hunt’ to

discover the mathematical patterns in

real world, the ‘Think Pair Share’

strategy to argue on the question, ‘Is

Maths invented or discovered?‘. The

students also did extensive research

and created a ‘Timeline’ showing how

Mathematics developed over the

ages.

At the end of the session, the

students were given the opportunity

to engage in active reflection by

making their learning visible on an

exit slip with questions.

Understanding TOK through

collaborative learning. Collaborative activities can act as a

catalyst to higher order thinking. The

exchange of ideas in groups

motivates learning and promotes

critical thinking. On Sat 7 Jan 2017,

students from our school met with

students of Goldcrest International,

Nahar International & Dr. Pillai Global

Academy in an event hosted by

Goldcrest for such a collaborative

learning exercise in TOK.

The entire day was an exciting

journey of activities where the

students from all the 4 schools got

the opportunity to engage in a

process of inquiry, communicate their

ideas and reflect on others ideas in an

open minded manner. The students

were put into mixed groups called

Factions. The factions were named as

Interpreters, Explorers, Predictors,

Quantifiers, Visionaries, Inquirers,

Crusaders; each faction

corresponding to an Area of

Knowledge (AOK) in TOK.

The members of each Faction worked

collaboratively in designing a creative

logo, motto and a Code of conduct

for themselves based on the

methodology and concepts followed

in their respective AOKs.




The afternoon session of the day was

followed by giving them two Real Life

Situations from which the students

extracted Knowledge Questions.

They were given the platform to

communicate their understanding

and perspectives in both oral and

written form during the presentation

hours that followed. They had to be

open –minded learners who will not

simply accept claims at face value, at

the same time; learn to balance

skepticism with belief.

garodia international centre for learning newsletter 2016...

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