Fawn A

Unit of inquiry

Students explored different objects made from paper, for example chart paper, crepe paper, handmade paper, books, cardboard, kite paper, tissue paper, golden sheets etc. 

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The absorbent property of tissue paper was also demonstrated with a simple experiment.

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Students participated in basic paper folding activity where they learned about the four quadrants designed by the folded creases of the paper. This helped to understand the foldable property of the material and also initiated the preparation for geometry.

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Students classified different materials through a sorting activity where they sorted objects from the mixed pool (plastic/wooden toys, blocks, books, tissue paper, handkerchief, towel, spoon, plates, bottles etc.) under the respective classification of material.

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Summative assessment was undertaken to assess their understanding of the unit. Students identified the object in the given picture, associated the material with it and pasted the material on each picture (e.g. a piece of fabric on t- shirt, wooden shavings on the chair, foil on cutlery etc.). 

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Circle Time

As a part of the early years’ skill-building programme, students began 

• to explore different fabrics using their tactile sense for this helped to identify different types of fabrics by feeling texture, recognising pattern, design, colour etc.
• using slates to draw different types of lines and strokes to enhance their prewriting skills.
• screwing and unscrewing of nuts and bolts for this helped to enhance fine motor skills, and strengthen wrist control and pincer grip.

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Social and Emotional Learning 

The topic of self-discipline was introduced with a ‘Cookie Jar’ activity where students were asked questions like ‘What will happen if we eat a jar full of cookies all alone? Why should we eat only 2-3 cookies at a time?’

They  brainstormed and gave answers. e.g.  ‘We would get a stomach-ache if we ate it all together at once, we should share it with our friends’.

They were also given practical scenarios to think and reflect.

If they wanted to play with a puzzle their friend was playing, should they snatch it and fight or ask politely? 

If they wanted to rest in the reflection corner because they were tired, should they push the others away or ask politely or inform their teacher?

Through these activities, students learned that self-discipline is the ability to make yourself aware and do what is right and what needs to be done as a mark of self management. 

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Language

Reinforcement of sound ‘e’ was undertaken through picture cards and objects from the class environment. Students painted the letter ‘e’ with blue colour and pasted pictures of objects beginning with it like egg, eggplant, elephant, elf, eskimo etc. within its outline.

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Introduction to sequencing of a story was undertaken through a pretend play ‘The Three Little Pigs’ using stick puppets. Students enacted the story in small groups and identified the sequence (beginning, middle and end) of the story. This helped to develop communication and thinking skills.

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Students enriched their vocabulary by learning new words like fabric, absorbent, foldable, fibre, cotton, silk, wool, jute, velvet, satin, soft,colourful,crepe paper etc.

Reinforcement of the sounds was undertaken with the help of audio-visuals and phonic song.

Math 

Number 9 was introduced with flash cards and quantity was associated with the written number using manipulatives. 

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Timeline of a day (morning, afternoon, evening, night) was reinforced using flash cards, discussion and audio-visuals.

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As a prelude to writing, students created various geometric shapes using drawing insets.

Art

Art was also integrated with language where students painted a picture of an elephant as a reinforcement of the sound ‘e’.

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Art was integrated with a unit of inquiry where students  displayed their understanding that wool is made by shearing the sheep’s wool fleece.They pasted cotton wool on a picture of a sheep .

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Students learned the significance of Holi  by creating a colourful craft using the balloon dabbing technique.

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Students experienced creating art around the shape by choosing different objects (recycled crayon and paint boxes, cello tape’s round base, etc) and traced them to draw an outline. They were also encouraged to interpret their artwork.

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Physical Education

Students were introduced to ‘Forward rolls’ where they learned basic tumbling skills. This helped to develop body awareness and control that aided to enhance mind and body coordination.

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Music

Students were involved in a listening game wherein they listened to the instructions given in a song ‘Play on your instruments’ and played the instrument -shaker. They had to stop playing it upon the stop command in the song. 

They also sang action songs ‘Shake your sillies out’, ‘Seven continents’,  ’Fire truck’ and ‘Ten Little Indian Boys and Girls’ in groups.

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Dance

Students explored different props used while dancing and were encouraged to brainstorm about materials that are used to create the props. They were also encouraged to dance and perform in groups.

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Library

Students were encouraged to browse picture books and were also engaged in various games and activities such as alphabet jigsaw, solving path, shapes building blocks, colouring and craft work etc. These activities stimulated their curiosity and helped in developing their social and creative thinking  skills while also giving language development a boost.

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Free play

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Unit of inquiry

Students were given opportunities to explore different objects made of fabric like soft toys, hand puppets, cloth bags, uniform- jacket, shirt, handkerchief, hand towel, blankets etc.

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Students were also introduced to different types of fabrics such as jute, cotton, silk, velvet and wool that they touched to get a feel of its texture. They were shown pictures and audio visuals of cotton plants, shearing of wool from sheep and process of making silk from silkworms.

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Different uses and properties of fabric (soft, absorbent, foldable, keeps warm) were also discussed.

Students investigated about different properties of fabrics with a simple experiment where the students poured few drops of coloured water on various materials like piece of tissue paper, mop cloth, plastic, foil and a wooden block. As a conclusion, students identified the absorbent property of fabric.

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Students went for a nature walk within the school campus and observed objects made of glass, wood, metal, plastic and fabric.

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Circle Time

As a part of the early years’ skill-building programme, students were engaged in a wide range of activities such as beading, pegging, threading, transferring with tongs, plastic button sorting and various puzzle making activities, for this helped to enhance their motor skills specifically the pincer grip, wrist control and eye hand coordination.

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As an integration to the unit of inquiry, students were introduced to basic layout of a table and napkin folding. They sorted different utensils and cutlery and placed them in their correct positions for this helped to enhance their self-management and sorting skills.

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Napkin folding helps in the development of muscular control of the fingers, imparts training  in exactness and initiates preparation for geometry by subconscious absorption of the fold lines.

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Social and Emotional Learning

To reinforce a cohesive learning environment, students watched the story of ‘Hands Are for Helping’, again.

Through the story, self-management skills were taught to the students where they learnt to manage their anger and other strong feelings. They understood that hands are capable of positive and loving actions like playing, making music, saying hello,eating, drinking, painting, drawing, counting, taking care of ourselves etc.

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Language

Students developed effective communication and listening skills while presenting ‘Take and talk’.

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Reinforcement of the sounds was undertaken with the help of audio-visuals, phonic songs and puzzle cards.

As a part of media literacy and integration with unit of inquiry, students viewed the following audio-visual presentations-

Picture reading in early years aims to ignite the child’s creativity, imagination and communication skills, for it builds vocabulary and gives voice to their thoughts.English was integrated with the unit of inquiry where students were involved in picture reading of the story ‘Three little pigs’.They also narrated the story in a sequence using picture cards.

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Math

Students revisited ‘Timeline of a day’ by recalling all the activities undertaken by them from morning to night and arranging picture cards in correct sequence.

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Reinforcement of the concept of full/half/empty was done through a pouring activity where students poured water into 3 different containers to denote quantity.

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Art

Art was integrated with unit of inquiry where students pasted different materials (straw, ice cream sticks and red rectangular paper cut-outs representing bricks on paper houses of the characters from the story .

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Students explored recycled objects, identified their shape and created different shapes on paper.

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Physical Education

Students learned different types of exercises that use rotational and stretching postures. They also learned difference between frog jump and starfish jump.

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Music

Students were involved in a listening game wherein they listened to the instructions given in a song ‘Play on your instruments’ and played the instrument -shaker. They had to stop playing it upon the stop command in the song.

They also sang action songs ‘Shake your sillies out’, ‘Seven continents’ and ‘Fire truck’ in groups.

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Dance

Students stressed on basic dance routine based on levels. They developed a better understanding of body posture through a game on dancing statues.

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Library

Students celebrated the birthday of a very well-known children’s books author ‘Dr Seuss’. He was referred to as not merely an author but a cartoonist and an animator too. He wrote 44 children’s books that reflected the perfect essence of rhyming words.

Students were read one of his titles ‘The Eye Book’, a simple story about a boy and a rabbit who appreciated things they saw around them. Students were encouraged to use their imagination and illustrate things they saw for this helped to develop creative and communication skills.

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Unit of inquiry

Going further, students investigated what makes a material  waterproof. A simple experiment   was conducted where they dipped soft toys wrapped in different packing materials like foil, paper, plastic, fabric etc. in water. Students observed and found out that plastic and foil was  waterproof . They displayed their understanding through illustrations.

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Students conducted a sink and float experiment with objects made of metal, wood, plastic and glass. They explored how and why some objects float while others sink in water. They observed and concluded that wooden objects float on water.

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Circle Time

As a part of the early years’ skill-building programme, students were engaged in a wide range of activities like beading, pegging, threading and transferring with tongs or tweezers for this aimed to refine their motor skills.

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As an integration to the unit of inquiry, sorting of different plastic buttons was undertaken for this helped to enhance their eye hand coordination and visual discrimination.

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SEL (Social Emotional Learning)

To create a cohesive learning environment, students viewed a story ‘Hands Are for Helping’

Through the story, they understood the importance of hands that help to do amazing things like saying hello, eating and drinking, painting, drawing, taking care of ourselves etc.

Through the story, they understood the importance of hands that help to do amazing things like extending for greeting, eating and drinking, painting, drawing, taking care of ourselves etc.

The simple but important message helped students understand  they have the power to choose not to hurt and offers an alternative to hitting and other forms of hurtful behaviour. Students were guided towards a more peaceful and positive outcome in their dealings with other children.

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Language

Sound ‘d’ was introduced through various picture cards and objects from the immediate environment. Students associated the sound with various picture cards and learned new vocabulary words like doll, duck, dinosaur, doctor, dog, drums, dustbin, doughnut, donkey etc.  

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Reinforcement of the sounds ‘t’, ‘r’ and ‘p’ was undertaken using audio-visuals, phonics songs and puzzle cards.

As part of media literacy and integration with the unit, students watched the following audio-visuals-

Math

Tracing and colouring shapes using Montessori metal insets to develop eye-hand coordination and pincer grip was undertaken.

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Pre-number concepts (near/far, over/under/beside/, in/out) were reinforced through a listening activity. Students had to run with a teddy bear and place it as directed. They listened to the instructions and waited for their turn for this helped to develop effective social and communication skills.

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Strengthening left and right direction sense was also undertaken through a rhyme ‘Hokey Pokey.’

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Reinforcement of names of numerals 1- 10 was undertaken with the rhyme ‘This Old Man’

Art

Art was integrated with Math where students revisited the number ‘8’ by creating an 8-legged octopus. They associated the number of tentacles to the quantity by pasting colourful sequence on the tentacles.

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As an integration with language, reinforcement of the sound ‘d’ was undertaken where students created a dinosaur with the cut- out of the letter ‘d’.

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As an integration with the unit of inquiry, they painted a picture of an alligator with plastic bubble wrap.

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Students experienced observational drawing where they observed an image drawn on the whiteboard and tried to illustrate it.

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Physical Education

Students worked on daily motor component exercises.

Balance training at an early age initiates coordination and concentration. Aiming on these lines, students were introduced to basic gymnastics skill called beam walk, which is the key to all functional movement. This helps to build postural equilibrium, muscular balance and stability.

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Music

Students learned and sang a new action song called ‘Shake your sillies out’. They also sang ‘Seven Continents’, ‘Fruit Salad’, ‘Hello how are you’ and ‘Fire Truck’ with actions.

Students were grouped  house wise and they practiced singing on the microphone.

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Dance

The concepts of posture and dancing statue was introduced to develop a better understanding of posture. Students were involved in basic dance routines as per their skill set.

Regular dance routine on ‘Chicken Dance’ and ‘Gummy Bear’ were also practiced.

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Library

Students revisited a picture book ‘Peck peck peck’ by author Lucy Cousins. The story revolved around an enthusiastic woodpecker who had just learned to peck.

Students were drawn to the bird’s exuberance for learning a new skill through an activity wherein they used a bird prop and pecked different articles like shoes, socks, jacket, scarf, magazines, book, cushion, teddy, fruits and vegetables in the same way as the woodpecker did in the story.

They also made connections and realized that when they learned a new skill like hopping, jumping, they like to try it repeatedly. They also realized just as the woodpecker could not peck at everything, they also had to practice their newly acquired skills taking precautionary measures.

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Free play

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Unit of inquiry

Moving further with the unit of inquiry, students explored different objects made of plastic.A discussion about different properties of plastic (hard, colourful, waterproof) followed next.

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 Students conducted a simple experiment where torch light was made to pass through different materials like wood, glass, metal etc. for this helped them to identify objects that allow light to pass through them.

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Circle Time

As a part of the early years’ skill-building programme, students were engaged in a wide range of activities like beading, pegging, threading and transferring with tongs or tweezers for this aimed to refine their motor skills.

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As an integration to the unit, transferring glass marbles with a spoon was also undertaken for this helped to enhance  wrist control and pincer grip.

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SEL (Social Emotional Learning)

The topic of impulse control was revisited through a game called‘Traffic Lights’ where students listened to carefuly  follow the directions. E.g. run when you hear‘Green Light’, jump in one place on the call ‘Yellow Light’ and stop when you hear ‘Red Light’. Students who were unable to follow directions exited the game.

This activity encouraged them to listen and respond with careful concentration and controlled movements. The students deduced that to stay steady on their feet and to listen attentively helps  to win the game.

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Language

Sand tracing of letters was undertaken for memory mapping and as a prelude to letter writing.

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Students enriched their vocabulary by learning new unit related words like sink, float, transparent, fragile, delicate, breakable, hard, half, empty, full etc.

As a part of media literacy and integration with unit of inquiry, students viewed the following audio-visual presentations-

‘Kaach Ki Kahani’   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syIf4RojS8k

‘Kaach Ka Ped ’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFWLN3r0j9o

(Stories were retold in English)

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Math

• Recapitulation of numbers from 0 to 7 was undertaken through sand paper cards.
• Number 8 was introduced with flash cards and quantity was associated with the written number.
• The concept of full/half/empty was reinforced. Students coloured the cut-outs of glasses labelled as full/half/empty and pasted the blue paper cut outs on them to denote capacity.

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Art

Art was also integrated with language where students pasted bits of paper in different colours of the rainbow as a reinforcement of the sound ‘r’.

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As an integration with the current unit, technique of glass marble printing was also introduced.

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Students experienced printing with waste material to create texture. They worked with tiles, empty paint bottles, glue sticks and paint.

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Physical education

Students worked on their eye hand coordination and gross motor skills by playing simple target games.

They also practiced pin jump on trampoline for this aimed to enhance their balance, posture, spatial awareness and coordination abilities.

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Music

Students sang “Hello How Are You”, “If You’re Happy and You Know It” and “Seven Continents” songs in groups with actions.

Students also applied various dynamics (loud, soft, fast and slow) to their singing.

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Dance

Dance lessons focused on development of postures using a hula hoop.

Regular dance routine on ‘Chicken Dance’ and ‘Gummy Bear’ were practiced.

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Library

Students were read a picture book ‘Peck peck peck’ by author Lucy Cousins. The story revolved around an enthusiastic woodpecker who had just learned to peck. He was having so much fun in his first joyous adventure that he pecked right through a door, sneaked inside and pecked everything from the hat to the mat, the racket to the jacket, the teddy bear to a book.

Students were drawn to the bird’s exuberance for learning a new skill and the pecked holes in the book were a source of delight.

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Free play

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Unit of inquiry

Moving further with the unit of inquiry, properties of glass (fragile, transparent, delicate etc.)  were introduced through display of different glass objects. A class discussion followed later.

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Students went on a nature walk within the school campus and observed objects made of glass, wood, metal and plastic. 

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They further inquired into different properties of wood, metal and glass by conducting simple experiments.

• Students also understood that glass is transparent, and they could see through it by seeing each other from glass doors and windows etc.
• Students understood that wood is opaque, and they cannot see through it by hiding behind wooden door, cupboard etc.
• Students witnessed the breaking of a glass bulb wrapped in cloth and concluded that glass is very fragile and delicate.
• A wooden spatula and a steel spoon were dipped in warm water and students observed that the metal spoon was warm and wooden spoon did not change its tactile temperature impression, thus concluding that metal conducts heat.

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Circle Time

New students were introduced during circle time to help them settle into the  environment and develop their social skills.

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 As a part of the early years’ skill-building programme, Montessori Number Rods were reinforced for this helped students to visualize and connect mathematical concepts like seriation and quantification.

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Students made a connection with the current unit and identified that the number rods were made of wood and pointed out that they were opaque and strong.

SEL (Social and Emotional Learning)

Students revisited the topic of impulse control through the game ‘Simon Says’, where they had to follow directions only when a sentence began with words ‘Simon says….’.

With the help of this game, students enhanced their ability to stop and think before acting and learned to listen attentively.

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Language

Sound ‘r’ was introduced through various picture cards and objects from the immediate environment. Students associated the sound with various picture cards and learned new vocabulary words like rat, rabbit, rose, rocket, ring, rice, robot, rainbow, red, rock, rain etc. They also pasted pictures related to the sounds on the cut-out of letter ‘r’

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English was integrated with unit of inquiry, a discussion on the material ‘glass’ was undertaken to enhance their communication and thinking skills.

Various questions  asked were:

1. What will happen if a glass jar falls from table?

2. What will happen if someone throws a big stone towards the window?

3. Can you see me if I hide behind this glass window?

4. What will happen if we have metal or wooden windows instead of glass?

Math

Introduction of number 7 was undertaken through Montessori Continent Tray and ‘Seven Continents’ Rhyme. Students associated quantity with the number 7.

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Integrating the unit to Math, students were given metal coins of different denominations in a mixed pool. Using their thinking skills, they sorted them into different groups (Re. 1, Rs.2, Rs.5, Rs.10) according to the numbers written on them.

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Students also counted different wooden objects like chairs, tables, doors and cupboards inside their classroom. Later, they created a ‘Pictograph’ by pasting pictures to represent different objects and were encouraged to analyse data from the graph.

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Art

Art was integrated with Math where students coloured the 7 continents in their art journals. They associated the number of continents to the quantity and coloured each continent in a different colour.

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Art was integrated with language where students painted the letter ‘r’ with thick paintbrushes for this helped to enhance their pincer grip.

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Students observed the technique of colouring with pencil colours. They coloured a pre-drawn picture of flowers using pencil colours.

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Physical education

Students learned basic stretching and balancing exercises in yoga to improve their mind and body coordination.

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Music

The students sang ‘Baby Shark’, ‘Seven Continents’, ‘I Love You’, ‘If You’re Happy and You Know It’ and ‘Fruit Salad’ with actions. They also explored various instruments in the music room.

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Dance

Dance lessons focused on revision of songs, wherein students practiced repetitive movements to music.

The concept of giving feedback was introduced.

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Library

Students reflected on the last week’s story ‘Hamilton’s Hats’ authored by Martine Oborne.

They recalled Hamilton’s fondness for hats. They also explored different hats and tipped, cocked, straightened, raised and balanced just like  Hamilton had done in the story every time he wore his hats.

As an integration with the current unit, students were encouraged to create soft, furry, feathery hats with different materials.

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Global Play Day Celebrations

 “Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.” says Kay Redfield Jamison. Global School Play Day is celebrated across the globe where over where over 5,35,000 students from 72 countries participated in unstructured play.The early years at DPS International too celebrated the Global School Play Day on February 5th, 2020 that saw them dabble in using play-doh, swirl the brush on paper, dance to beats, bicycle down their chosen pathways and engage in imaginary play. Fun, frolic, laughter were the highlights of the day.

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Free play

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Unit of inquiry

Taking the unit further, students were given opportunities to explore objects made from different materials.

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They also inquired into different properties of metal (hard, shiny, opaque etc.) and wood (hard, floats, opaque etc.) by conducting simple experiments.

• Students investigated how and why different objects get attracted to a magnet.

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• Students also understood that wood and metal are opaque, and they cannot see through it

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Circle Time

As a part of the early years’ skill-building programme, students were engaged in a wide range of activities such as beading, pegging, threading, transferring with tongs and various puzzles for this helped to enhance their motor skills specifically develop pincer grip, wrist control and eye hand coordination.

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Social and Emotional Learning

Students were introduced to the basic principles of mindfulness, self-awareness and balance through a beautiful story ‘My Magic Breath’ by Nick Ortner. They understood how to discover calm and regulated emotions through the magic of mindful breathing.

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Language

Sound ‘t’ was introduced with various picture cards and objects from the class environment. Students associated the sound with various picture cards and learned new vocabulary words like tiger, train, table, truck, taxi, tyre, tutu, tent, tree, tap, track. They also pasted pictures related to the sounds on the cut-out of letter ‘t’.

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English was integrated with unit of inquiry, where in discussion on the material ‘wood’ was undertaken to enhance their communication and thinking skills.

Various questions were asked like:

1. Where do we find wood?

2. Can you find something in the classroom that is made of wood?

3. Why do builders use wood to build houses and furniture?

4. Why do builders use wood to build boats?

5. How can we make sure that we will always have wood?

6. How can we use wood as a fuel?

Vocabulary developed –

Natural material — a useful item that can be found in the world around us

Float — stays on the surface of water.

Sink — drops below the surface

Magnet — attracts metal

To enhance their communication skills, a ‘take and talk’ was conducted where students spoke about the winter season.

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Math

Students were introduced to Montessori spindle box material wherein they associated corresponding quantities with the numerals printed on each segment of the box. This helped to strengthen their counting abilities and experience tactile learning.

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They were also introduced to ‘zero’ through the Montessori Spindle box material.

Prewriting skills were strengthened with the use of Montessori metal insets in various geometric shapes.

Students made a connection with the current unit and identified that the insets were made of metal and pointed out that it was opaque and strong.

Art

Students created lion’s mane using fork printing technique. They dabbed the metal fork into orange colour and pressed it on paper to create a mask.

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Art was integrated with the unit of inquiry and English wherein students tore bits of foil and pasted them on the picture of a tap, sprinkled sawdust on the outline of a table and pasted tissue paper. They made connection and identified foil as metal, sawdust as wood and tissue paper as paper and associated it with the sound ‘t’.

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To hone their communication and creative thinking skills, students were engaged in an interactive puppet skit.

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Physical Education

Students played the spin the wheel game for this aimed to enhance their thinking skill and response time.

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Music

Students learned how to sing the ‘Seven Continents’ and ‘Fire Engine’ songs. They also sang the ‘Fruit Salad’ song, ‘Baby Shark’ and ‘I Love You’ with actions.

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Dance

Lessons were focused on the understanding of musicality. Students practiced large isolated hand and leg movements on different patterns of counts for this helped to develop somatic memory and rhythm sense.

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Library

Students were read an amusing story ‘Hamilton’s Hats’ authored by Martine Oborne that imparted a warm message about sharing and perseverance.

The story focussed around Hamilton, a pig who was so fond of hats that he had them for every occasion and in every size. But he faced some problems as different animals in the jungle liked his hats. 

As the story unfolded, Hamilton learned about perseverance, courage, patience and caring through various encounters with different animals. Further, students were encouraged to assign learner profile attribute like caring, principled, courageous etc. to Hamilton and reflect if they displayed the same learner profile attributes too

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Free play

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We extend a warm welcome to all  students post the winter break. The cold winter seems to have made way for warmth with students spreading joy and cheer upon their return.

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Unit of Inquiry

The unit under thetransdisciplinary theme ‘How the world works’was initiated

Central Idea –         We use different materials in our lives

Lines of Inquiry –    Properties of different materials

                                Uses of materials

                                Using materials responsibly

As a provocation, a stockpile containing various types of materials (plastic toys, glass bottles, wooden blocks, paper bags, books, fabrics etc.) from the surrounding environment was kept for exploration on a table. Students got the opportunity to play with the material, while exploring the texture, shape and trying to predict what each material was made of.

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Facilitator introduced ‘wood’  as one type of material by showing different objects (like- chair, chowki, wooden tray and toys) made out of wood and asking probing questions. E.g.

1. Where do we get wood from?
2. How do you feel when you touch it?
3. What are the things made from wood?

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Different properties of wood were introduced through various activities:

• Students conducted a sink and float experiment wherein they explored

how and why some objects float while others sink when placed in water. They observed and concluded that wooden object float on water.

• Students also understood that wood is opaque and they cannot see through it by hiding behind wooden door, cupboard etc.

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Circle Time

As a part of the early years’ skill-building programme, students were engaged in a wide range of activities in the class such as beading, pegging, threading, transferring with tongs and various puzzles that helped to enhance their motor skills.

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Reinforcement of the Pink tower, the Brown stairs and the Long rods were also undertaken to hone their dimensional awareness and strengthen the concepts of broad to narrow, short to long, heavy and light.

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SEL (Social Emotional Learning)

The students were introduced to the topic of impulse control through the game ‘Simon Says’, where they had to follow directions only when a sentence began with ‘Simon says….’. With the help of this game, students enhanced their ability to stop and think before acting and  learned to listen attentively.

 Examples where  they snatched a toy or jumped ahead in  the line etc. were also cited and students were asked to reflect and think how they could try and control their impulsive actions.

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Language

Reinforcement of sound ‘p’ was undertaken through various picture cards and objects from the class environment. Students painted the letter ‘p’ with pink on paper and associated objects like police, pig, peacock, panda, pumpkin, pillow, etc. with it by pasting them within the outline.

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Reinforcement of the phonic sounds ‘a’, ‘o’, ‘l’ and ‘m’ was undertaken with a mixed pool game wherein students identified the pictures and associated them with sounds.

Unit related vocabulary (names of all the different materials like wood, plastic, metal, cloth, paper and properties of wood like it’s hard, opaque and wooden colour) were reiterated with the help of objects inside the classroom.

As a part of media literacy and integration with unit of inquiry, students viewed the following audio-visual presentations-

• ‘The axe and the woodcutter’  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05roxFPTjAc
• ‘Three little pigs’- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ_7M2rWWcI
• Material song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK6C-XjD_dQ

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Math

Prewriting skills were strengthened with the use of Montessori metal insets.

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Reinforcement of different types of lines-straight, zig-zag and curved was undertaken with a craft activity wherein students pasted colourful paper punched flowers , maple leaves,crabs and stars on different lines.

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Number-quantity association was reinforced through a car parking activity wherein they recognised the number written on the car and associated it with the number on the garage.

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Position words like left and right were reinforced with action rhymes and through ‘smelly hand activity’ wherein baby lotion was applied on a hand and the child had to smell and identify whether it was the left or the right hand.

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Art

Art was integrated with unit of inquiry wherein students practiced the technique of wooden block printing. Use of saffron and green paint assisted them in making connection with the Indian national flag and the importance of Republic Day.

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Students explored the technique of leaf printing by printing leaves collected during  nature walk.

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Physical education

Students practised motor component building exercises. The essential agreements of physical education class were also reinforced during lessons.

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Music

Students sang action songs ‘Hello! How are you?’, ‘Baby Shark’ and ‘If You’re Happy and You Know It’ in small groups.

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Dance

Dance lessons focused on revision of songs, wherein students practiced repetitive movements to music.

Basic routines of warm up and cooling down were also recapitulated.

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Library

As an integration with the unit of inquiry on ‘Materials’, students were involved in an interactive session wherein they explored the  ‘touch and feel’ of books to gain sensorial experience. They were also acquainted with related vocabulary words like soft, light, hard for this helped to  enhance their vocabulary while they associated the word to a tactile impression.

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Free play

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Unit of inquiry

People play different roles in communities to which they belong’, saw students being introduced to the policemen this week as persons who help us. They were familiarized with their uniform and objects associated with them e.g. pistol, handcuffs etc. with picture cards and an audio visual https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DukOyLyH78

Young Fawns were also informed that in case of emergency they must recall number 100 to call the police.

Students were familiarised with the housekeeping staff at school, who help and support them in their daily lives.

Students were sensitized to be responsible and thankful to all the community helpers. Relating to it, they expressed their gratitude by creating ‘Thank you’ cards for them.

To further deepen their understanding about how  firefighters help us, students were taken for a field trip to a nearby fire station.Before the trip, a split-screen activity was undertaken, where  students were asked few questions related to firefighters. e.g. what will you find at the fire station, which community helper would you find there etc. As an extension to the activity, each student reflected and shared their understanding and experience after the field trip.

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Circle time

As a part of the early year’s skill-building programme, students were introduced to napkin folding and cleaning activity (with napkins, brush and a dustpan) for this aimed to enhance their self-management skills, eye hand co-ordination and fine motor skills.

Ringing in the spirit of the festival, students assembled and embellished a Christmas trees made out of  manipulative material.

SEL (Social and Emotional Learning)

Students connected their learning to mythology, when they listened to a  story from the Ramayana. They identified the actions of Lord Rama, where he was shown to be kind and compassionate towards a squirrel who helped him in constructing the Ram setu. Students also discussed the resilience of the hardworking squirrel, who never gave up and continued to work harder even though others made fun of its contribution.

With reference to the chain of kindness that was done in the previous week,  kindness king and queen crowns were created by students in recognition and as motivation for their acts of kindness.

Language

Sound ‘p’ was introduced with various picture cards and objects from the class environment. Students associated the sound with various picture cards and learned new vocabulary words like police, police station, pig, paint, peacock, pet, pen, pine tree, packet, panda, pumpkin, pillow, pink, pounding etc.

Reinforcement of the phonic sounds ‘c’, ‘i’, ‘g’ and ‘f’ was undertaken with a mixed pool game of picture cards. Students identified the pictures and associated them with sounds.

Unit related vocabulary (names of all community helpers like doctor, policeman, fire fighter, gardener, chef, housekeeping, carpenter, sweeper etc.) were reiterated with the help of pictures and story narration from books. 

Students developed effective communication and listening skills while presenting ‘Take and talk’ too.

Language was integrated with the unit of inquiry, when they were read a story ‘Dan the fireman’ authored by ‘Gill Guile’

As part of media literacy, students watched the following audio-visuals-

Students enjoyed audio visual presentations on Christmas and have begun to sing Christmas carols.

Math

Numbers 1 – 6 were reiterated with quantity association game, wherein the students were assigned a random number (between 1-6), they first identified the number and picked up the embellishments (like miniature bells, stars, drums, candy canes etc.) while counting the number assigned to it.

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Prewriting skills were strengthened with the use of Montessori metal insets in various geometric shapes.

Math was integrated with the unit of inquiry with students creating a pictograph by pasting their own picture on a community helper they wished to become as adults in the future.

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Sequence of events in a day (morning, afternoon, evening and night) was recapitulated using flash cards.

Art

Art was integrated with English with a craft activity where paper cut out of leaves and google eyes was stuck on a panda outline to help reinforce sound ‘p’.

To acquaint students with spirit of Christmas, they were involved in various fun activities.

Students were involved in a collaborative exercise, wherein they painted abstract shapes on canvas with watercolours. A beautiful Christmas tree was created by cutting these paintings. Later, students decorated the tree by reusing the shapes that they coloured with oil pastels.

Students reused poinsettia flowers painted by them and created a Christmas card. They also painted a pre drawn picture of Santa using a paintbrush and red acrylic paint.

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Physical education

Students practised various types of jumps to strengthen the lower body. They also participated in various activities like rolling the ball and zigzag movements, for this aimed to enhance their gross motor skills, spatial awareness and coordination.

Music

Students loved singing Christmas carols on the microphone. They also took turns to sing the rhyme ‘Hurry, hurry, drive the fire truck’ individually on the microphone. 

Dance
Dance lessons focused on revision of songs, where  students practiced repetitive movements to music. The concept of jazz and blade hands were also reinforced.

Library

Students were encouraged to browse the class library and read picture books, for this helped in inculcating a desire to read and thereby assist in language learning.

With the onset of Christmas, students were read a  story about ‘Panda’s Christmas gifts’ authored by Tara Jaye Morrow. The story revolved around a panda who was excited to receive Christmas presents. He reminded his mom of all the things he would like to get as presents: a basketball, a tricycle, a baseball glove and board games. But he got the gift that he least expected – a wooden sailboat that his father carved just for him. This taught Panda the true spirit of Christmas and he created a thank you card for his parents with a message that his family was the best Christmas gift of all.

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Unit of inquiry

As an extension to the understanding of community helpers, students were introduced to firefighters as people who help us. Audio-visual cues and nomenclature flash cards were used to familiarize them with the uniform and tools (hose, axe, fire extinguisher and the ladder) used by firefighters during a fire outbreak.

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Students went for a walk around the school premises to spot all the fire safety equipment. They were also shown the fire evacuation plan for their floor and fire alarm bell installed in the school lobby.

Keeping in mind the precautionary measures to be taken in the event of fire, students learned the ‘stop, drop and roll’ drill.

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They also fixed jigsaw puzzles related to various community helpers and  tools associated with them.

Circle time

As a part of the early year’s skill-building programme, students were introduced to wet and dry pouring activities, that aided to  enhance their self-management skills, eye hand co-ordination and fine motor skills.

• Transferring of solids from one container to another.
• Transferring water from one container to another container using a funnel.
• Transferring water from a jug into 3 different graded containers.

Ringing in the spirit of the festival, students assembled and embellished Christmas trees using manipulative material.

SEL (Social and Emotional Learning)

Students were shown an audio-visual presentation that highlighted  kindness of Lord Rama towards the squirrel from the Ramayan:

Students identified the deed of kindness and understood that no task or service, however small, is unimportant. They brainstormed and shared their thoughts on little acts of help or kindness shown by their classmates, housekeeping staff, guards, chefs, teachers, drivers, parents etc.  and learnt to appreciate and be thankful to one another. Encouraging children to be grateful and thankful for little acts of kindness regularly, help them to grow into mindful and compassionate individuals. An interconnected paper kindness chain was made and displayed in class.

Language

Reinforcement of the phonic sounds of previously learned letters was undertaken with a mixed pool game using picture cards. Students identified the pictures and associated them with sounds.

Unit related vocabulary (names of all community helpers like doctor, policeman, fire fighter, gardener, chef, housekeeping, carpenter, sweeper etc.) were reiterated with the help of pictures, story books and rhymes like ‘Hurry-hurry!! drive the fire truck’, ‘Miss Molly had a dolly’, ‘Found a peanut’ etc.

Students enjoyed audio visual presentations on Christmas and have begun to  sing Christmas carols.

Math

Sequence of events in a day (morning, afternoon, evening and night) was introduced using flash cards.

Numbers 1 – 6 were reiterated  with quantity association with a bottle spraying activity- the students were assigned a random number (between 1-6), they first identified the number printed on the laminated paper flame and sprayed water while counting the number assigned on it.

As a prelude to writing, students created various shapes using drawing insets.

The concept of shapes was reinforced, where in students outlined different shapes using colourful pebbles.

Art

Art was integrated with Math and the current unit, where students created a fire truck by assembling various shapes (rectangle, square, and circle) and flames created with their handprints. This also helped in reinforcing sound ‘f’.

Connecting to the current unit, students listened to a story ‘Danny goes to the Dentist’ and observed its images. By relating to it, students coloured a pre drawn picture of a Doctor.

Physical education

Students were engaged in fun races, for this helped them to learn different terminology and the basic skill of running on the track. It also drove their individual participation spirit.

Music

Students sang ‘Jingle Bells’ in English and in Hindi. They also learned how to sing ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ and sang it with actions.

Dance

Dance lessons focused on development of postures, where in students practiced repetitive movements to music. The concept of meditation and cooling down were also reinforced.

Library

Students were read a story about animal manners authored by Sam Lloyd. ‘Yucky mucky manners’, a book with simple but coloured and eye-catching pictures caught their interest. Through the story, they walked through a jungle wherein animals like the gorilla poked his finger up his nose, a zebra chewed for hours at an end, a parrot simply squawked and never let others talk, a flamingo sneezed but never covered her mouth, hippos pushed and shoved, a warthog never cleaned himself and an elephant trumped, jumped and pumped . Recognition of various animal behaviour enabled the fawn students to understand types of behaviours that were inconsiderate and disrespectful to others. The lesson for them … we should always be mindful and considerate and facilitate a positive  environment.

Free play

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Unit of inquiry

Moving further with the central idea, ‘People play different roles in communities to which they belong’, a chef/baker was introduced as a community helper. Students were shown various tools and utensils used by the chef for cooking or baking of products. Later, students were introduced to new vocabulary words like spatula, rolling pin, dough, mixing bowl, chopping board, small bowls to keep chopped vegetables, knife, peeler, pizza slicer, and grater.

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The students also observed  fenugreek seeds that they had sowed a few days ago and were thrilled to see sprouting saplings. They expressed their desire to sow more seeds and brainstormed about various tools used by other community helpers.

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Students were shown a video on how chefs work in the kitchen at a big hotel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4BBdzmQnFg.

They donned a chef’s hat  for a non-flame cooking activity and decorated savoury and sweet cookies with their choice of toppings, for this helped in enhancing their creative and fine motor skills. They used a spoon to spread chocolate syrup and sprinkled colorful M&M’s, or placed a cheese slice over the cookies.

Circle Time

As a part of the early years’ skill-building programme, the current unit focussed on the use of tools handled by the chef in a kitchen.

• Eye hand co-ordination was enhanced by using a rolling pin to roll dough
• Sorting skills were intensified by sorting cutlery
• Gross motor skills were enhanced by using a whisker to mix ingredients and using a pasta machine to roll out fettuccine.

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They assembled and embellished a Christmas tree using manipulative materials while showcasing the symbolic colours of the festival

SEL (Social and Emotional Learning)

Students were shown an audio-visual presentation of the kindness boomerang again.

Students identified the deeds of kindness and tried to follow them. They could relate visually to acts of kindness being displayed like letting someone precede them by joining  a line, thanking someone who helped them, complimenting someone, helping mom at home by keeping back their toys, giving food to a street dog etc. Students also began to make a kindness paper chain in class. They were encouraged to inculcate these practices regularly to grow into mindful and compassionate individuals.

Language

Sound ‘f’ was introduced with various picture cards and objects from the class environment. They associated the sound with various picture cards and learned new vocabulary words like fan, fire, football, fish, fox, fire truck, fireman, frog, fruits etc. Further, they pasted pictures related to the sound on a paper cut-out of letter ‘f’. Reinforcement of the sounds ‘a’, ‘o’, ‘m’, ‘l’, ‘i’, ‘s’ ‘b’ ,‘h’, ‘g’ and ‘c’ were done using an audio-visual presentation and phonic songs.  

Further, students reinforced the vocabulary words by associating learned words with the carpenter, gardener and doctor.

As a part of media literacy, students were shown the following audio visuals to further their understanding about community helpers

• Peppa pig gardening

• Calliou the Chef

• Calliou makes meal

Math

Recapitulation of measurement concepts was undertaken by exploring the concept of volume, size and capacity. They were provided with different measuring cups and same sized bowls. They poured rice into the bowls with the help of measuring cups and observed the similarity between containers and the difference in the level of rice in each bowl. Subsequently, they observed and compared results.

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Numbers 1 – 6 were reiterated along with quantity association, wherein students counted the number of tools carried by the gardener and various classroom material.

Light table was used for reinforcing the concept of shapes, where students placed colourful pebbles on the outline of different shapes.

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Recapitulation of different types of lines – straight line, curved line, zigzag line and swirl was undertaken with a racing activity. Students took turns to race with toy cars on the tracks made of shiny tape.

Art

Art was integrated with Math, where students coloured within the outline of number 6 and its quantity association.

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Art was integrated with English, where students painted flowers and pasted them as a craft activity, for this helped in reinforcing sound ‘f’.

By relating to a gardener, students coloured a pre drawn watering can and pasted crushed paper on it.

Physical education

Students were engaged in different types of obstacle races to strengthen their lower body, for this helped them to learn the basic skills of walking and running.

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Music

Students sang ‘Jingle Bells’ with actions in English and Hindi in groups. They also sang ‘I Love You’, ‘Choti-Choti Jeevan Gaadi’ and ‘Hello How are You’.

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Dance

Dance lessons focused on development of postures, where students practiced repetitive movements to music. The concept of meditation and cooling down were also reinforced.

Library

Visualizing extraordinary in the ordinary is what the children learned and felt during this week. A story narration of ‘Do You Believe in Unicorns?’ written by ‘Bethanie Deeney Murguia’ was undertaken. The story about the mystery of a red hat on the horse’s head encouraged students to imagine and find reasons to why the horse had a red hat on its head. The book included fabulous illustrations where the horse was shown disguised, with wet hair etc. A horse who wanted to be away from the Sun, who forgot to brush his hair made for a good laugh among the little ones. Finally, at the end when the hat came off, students wondered what creature could navigate hornlike grass, slender towers and sharp mountain peaks. Throughout the narration, learner profile of being a thinker was emphasized.

Free play