Journeying Together January 2017 Vol. 8

In this Issue:

Celebrations & Festivities Guest Lectures Creative Corner

Awards and Accolades Inter House Activities Beyond the Classroom

Special Assemblies Empowering the Educator Students Corner

Pongalo Pongal!

Amidst great fervour and enthusiasm, Pongal was celebrated in the traditional way. Hari Shree

grounds became a village courtyard decorated with rangoli and thoranams. Every minute detail was

attended to including worshipping the cow, pongal in a vengala panai, sugar cane, folk dance, music

and much more.

Celebrations and Festivities

The three days of January are when the whole of Tamilnadu comes alive to a joyous celebration of the Pongal

festival. This is often dismissed as old-fashioned. But do you know there are scientific reasons behind most of these

age-old Pongal practices?

Bhogi: Burning of old and unnecessary things is customary on Bhogi day. In villages, the weeds, dry leaves and

other wastes are burnt for a reason. The pile is burnt outside the field the day before the harvest, and the wafting

smoke drives away the pests from the fields, clearing it for harvest the next day.

Clay Pots: On Pongal day, Clay pots are usually used to prepare Pongal. The clay pot preserves all the nutrients in

the food, making it tasty and healthy.

Jallikattu: This age-old sporting tradition helps to identify the best and the strongest bull for breeding. Many

farmers approach the owner of these bulls for their cows. The A2 milk produced thereby is extremely healthy and

fresh.

- Amrutha Nathan, Grade VIII

Republic Day Celebrations

Republic Day is the day when we celebrate the culture and heritage of our country - from Kashmir to

Kanyakumari, from Gujarat to Arunachal Pradesh, a day celebrating democracy, equality, liberty and

justice.

The Indian tri colour was hoisted by the Principal and the School Mentor, filling the hearts of all

present with pride and honour. The entertainment programme put up by the students of Grade IX

brought forth the spirit of patriotism.

Nandith of grade XI conducted a session for the

Computer Science students of grade IX. He

introduced them to his computer projects

including artificial intelligence, augmented

reality and video games. He shared his resources

with all the students and encouraged them to be

interested enough in the subject to go 'beyond the

syllabus'. Grade IX truly loved the experience

and awaits Nandith's next session!

- Lavanya G M, Grade IX

Peer Learning

Career Guidance session for grades

XI and XII by Ms. Jayashree of

Balas Education and Counselling

on the various study opportunities in

Australia, Singapore and Malaysia.

Guest Lecture on Cyclonic Patterns for

grade VIII by Mr. Pradeep John, a weather

blogger who blogs under the name Tamil

Nadu Weatherman.

Guest Lecture on Agriculture for grade VIII

by Ms. Radha Varadarajan, who specializes

in agriculture and sustainable development

practices.

Physics Comes to Life - A spectrum of fun activities

were conducted for the students of grade IX by

Mr. Jagan from Discovery Kids. This interactive

session brought out the connection between Science

and everyday life.

Guest Lectures

Motivational Talk by Mr. Raja Krishnamoorthy for Grade XII

By using effective analogies, Mr. Raja Krishnamoorthy made the students realize that giving too much

importance to the past and future would only result in unnecessary regret and anxiety and that the

present is a gift which must be cherished. He also gave pointers on how to do away with distractions,

sort priorities, focus on goals and become more responsible individuals.

This is what the students had to say:

As the graduating batch of the school, we felt that this session was really helpful, as it gave us some

clarity on how to tackle certain situations and obstacles which we may face sooner or later. One thing

that everyone took home from the session was that it does not matter what one chooses to pursue as

long as they do it to the best of their abilities.

- Anjana Suresh and Sanjana Suresh, Grade XII

Dr. Alan Richard Chambers from the

University of Southampton in U.K. spoke to

the students of grade IX on opportunities in

Engineering and how they could be part of the

technological future.

Career Guidance Programme on Chartered

Accountancy - Interested students and parents

from grades IX to XII attended a session CA

as a Career by Mr. Karthikeyan and

Ms. Santhoshini, chartered accountants from

Virtus Academy.

Adis Stress

Appreciating the Diversity in Nature!

Leaf Art by students of grade V

Creative Corner

A jigsaw of vibrant colours and patterns!

Tie and Dye project by the Art elective students of grades IX and XI

Creating Awareness

Students of grade IV made slogans and

posters on deforestation as a part of

their Social Studies learning activity.

Awards and Accolades

Champions at the Shri Isari Velan Tournament

In Basketball, our Under-17 Boys team emerged winners and in the Under-13 category, our girls

team was the runner-up. In Football, our firstUnder-13 Girls team won the tournament and in the

Under-12 category, the boys team emerged runner-up. Gururaj of grade XI and Gitanjali of grade VI

got Most Valuable Player Trophies.

Tejas Nageshwaran of grade VII was

awarded the Black Plaque.

Saketh Tenkashala and Mahendra Kurup of

grade VII and Siva Visagan Karthikeyan

and Kishore Palaniswami of grade VIII

also won awards

Junior Level ANCQ Winners

Zonal medals of excellence:

Grade VI Advaith Menon and

Krishna Karthikeyan

Grade VII Mahendra Kurup

School Toppers:

Grade VI Mugil Vignesh Shanmugam

Grade VII

Gold Saketh TG

Silver Aditya P Prakash

Grade X Aishwarya Venkatesh Grade VIII - Amrutha Nathan

16th National Cyber Olympiad Level 1 Winners

Senior Level ANCQ Winner Super Senior Level ANCQ Winner

Harshini Gargeya of grade IX Revathy Iyengar of grade XII

Ms. Pankhuri Agarwal, lifestyle therapist, conducted

sessions on Healthy Food and Healthy Body and

Emotional Empowerment

Resource Speech

A session for grades VI to VIII by

Mr. Rahool Saksena from the Art

of Change team on the theme of

Self Discovery

1st International Company Secretaries Olympiad

Medals of Excellence for Zonal Rank Holders

Sonali B and Nachiammai of grade XII

1st International Sports Knowledge Olympiad

Medals of Excellence for Zonal Rank Holders:

Grade VI Yoogi Kovendhan

Grade VII Aditya P Prakash

Grade VIII P Kishore Kumar

Inter House Activities

Grade VI Elocution in

Hindi on the topic

Rashtrabasha ka samman

Grade VII and VIII - Elocution

in English on the topic Mind

Games in Advertising

Grade IX and XI Quiz on the

topic Proud to be an Indian

Beyond the Classroom

Grade VIII Field Trip to Semmozhi Poonga

The erstwhile Woodlands Drive-In hotel is now the land of woods. This poonga is

home to over 500 species of plants and 100 species of trees. The moist air, dense

flora and exotic plants separate you from the city. This trip gave us a hands-on

learning of the different characteristics of various plants.

- Thoshika B, Aakash.M and Sahana Bharadwaj, Grade VIII

Heading towards Board Examinations

Pooja and Hall ticket distribution

Journey of a Loaf

As we entered the factory,

The yummy smell of bread,

Got into our noses,

And made us lightheaded.

The guide first introduced,

The little baby dough,

Who had just come out of the mixer,

Oh, how he glowed.

Smiling sweetly at us,

He said,

Would you like to meet my family

All the older loaves of bread?

He led us along,

To the divider machine,

Where they all got divided,

It shone with a silver sheen.

Then the little dough said,

We get sent to a warmer home,

Where we get tanned and toasted,

And we're never alone.

For there is always a person,

We call him the baker,

He is the cook version of that guy mister maker.

As we walked into another room,

Smiling and laughing,

The sound faded away,

For our mouths had fallen open and were hanging.

For there were great stacks of bread everywhere,

Cooling or getting cut,

And the little dough said,

We get covers, like a new hut.

And we knew what he was talking about,

It was called packaging,

And they did it so fast,

I wondered how they were managing.

As we left the factory,

We each got a cream roll,

Which was devoured in seconds,

Oh, it truly was heaven.

We said bye to the dough,

And the tour guide led him away,

We learnt so much that day,

I will never again look at bread the same way.

- Aditi Sutar, Grade VII

(Inspired by Field Trip to Modern Bread Industries)

Grade VII visit to Chennai Port

We went on a field trip to the Chennai Port. We learnt about the making and maintenance of different

ships and their uses. This field trip gave us an insight into how much work goes into the import and

export of items, something that we took for granted all along.

- Pranav and Tejas, Grade VII

Primary Special Assemblies

Storytelling by facilitators from

Crea Shakthi

To celebrate the month of Margazhi,

the students enacted a play on Andal

and sang songs from the

Thiruppavai

Grade III visits Dakshinachitra

A day well spent with the artisans knowing about the heritage, culture and architecture of South India

Empowering the Educator

The Teacher Foundation Workshop by

Ms. Rekha on Dimensions of Learning

Ms. Nitya Ramaswamy, the School

Mentor conducted workshops for the

teachers on Open Mindset

Workshop for Junior School parents

by Ms. Pankhuri Agarwal, lifestyle

therapist, on Self Esteem and Health

Management for Self and Children

Ms. Manoshakthi of the History

department attended an ISC workshop

conducted by the Council in Kolkata.

Fury

Once in a land, far, far, away..

There were no big cities, no creatures were slain.

But in this world we live in, everything has changed,

Most would say it looked like a childs game,

Except it was different, consequences were real.

No more crashing of cars and bouncing of wheels,

For in this world, nature is pained.

Its trying its best but will it prevail?

Now it has taken a different path,

Destroying everything created by man.

It began with earthquakes, tsunamis and floods,

And dont forget the most recent one

The fearless winds, pushing through all,

Crushing buildings, both short and tall.

We can definitely fix it, if we work together,

We could make the world greener and a little better

- Mahendra Kurup, Grade VII

Yet Another Milestone

Chettinad Hari Shree Vidyalayam has been

ranked as the Top ICSE school in the city

by 'Digital Learning' - Asia's Premier

Magazine on ICT in Education.

Students Corner

My environment

My environment is filled with trees,

Also insects like beetles and bees.

In many houses there are gardens,

To take care of it there are wardens.

The leaves of trees are very green,

Waiting for fruits and being keen.

Day after day our environment is being damaged,

It is like being caged.

The enemy of our future is none other than pollution,

Ruling the earth in an ungainly fashion

It is us humans, who are hypnotised,

Letting our environment be sacrificed.

As we keep our environment dirty and filthy,

In future it will make us guilty.

As we sow one seed,

The enemy is our greed..

Let us humans always be true

To nurturing our nature

And saving our FUTURE!!

- Abhinav S, Grade VI

Teachers Corner () - 2015

.. ... ...

....... ........

.... ..

....... .

? ? ?

! ! ! ! ? ! ! .

.

! ! ! .!!!

- ,

In February

February 4 Sports Carnival PP1 to Grade I

February 10 Field trip for Grade II

February 10 15 Grade VIII outbound trip to Kotagiri

February 13-15 Grade VII outbound trip to Yelagiri

February 18 Grade VI outbound trip to Pondicherry

CA/SA Please refer to our website for dates of examinations

Teacher Editors

Dr. Sarayu Ganesan

Ms. Hemamalini Sivakumar

Ms. Yoshida Menon

Student Editors

Ms. Samyuktha Sreekanth

Ms. Krithy Kumar

Design and Technical Support

Ms. Priya T

Photography

Mr. Ganesan and Mr. Sugumar

Look forward to

Tiruvannamalai to New York!