Fawn A

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Unit of inquiry

Moving ahead with the central idea, ‘People play different roles in communities to which they belong’,the gardener was introduced as a community helper.

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To enhance thinking, prediction, and observation skills, students were asked to observe the flowerpots and plants in and around  school. They inquired about questions like, ‘How do plants grow?’, ‘What do plants need to grow?’, ‘Who takes care of  plants?’ and ‘What are the tools required to trim the grass, shrubs?’

While on a walk to the school garden, students observed the gardener using a trowel to put soil into planters. Students were excited to see the raking of leaves, trimming of plants etc., which further allowed them to observe his tools. The gardener also displayed his tools and answered their queries.

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Going further, an activity of sowing fenugreek seeds in pots was undertaken. They expressed their desire to sow more seeds and brainstormed about various tools used by other community helpers. Students also distinguished between tools made of metal, wood, plastic, while extending their understanding about tools/equipment.

Circle Time

As a part of the early years’ skill-building programme, the current unit focussed on the use toy shovel/spade to fill up  paper cups with mud, plant seeds and watering activity.

Fine motor skills were strengthened with the use of Montessori metal insets, as a prelude to writing.

They also worked with various Montessori material like the Knobbed and Knobless cylinders, Pink towers, picture puzzles etc. to refine their motor skills

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SEL (Social and Emotional Learning)

Students were shown a video of the kindness boomerang.

Further, students identified the deeds of kindness and tried to follow them. They  related visually to acts of kindness being displayed like, when they let someone go before them in a line, when they thanked someone who helped them, complimented someone, helped mom at home by keeping back their toys, gave food to a street dog, etc. They were encouraged to inculcate these practices regularly to grow into mindful and compassionate individuals.

Language

The sound ‘c’ was introduced using various picture cards and objects from the class environment. They associated the sound with various picture cards and learned new vocabulary words like caterpillar, carpenter, cubby hole, cupboard, etc. Further, they pasted pictures related to the sound on a paper cut-out of letter ‘c’.

Reinforcement of the sounds ‘a’, ‘o’, ‘m’, ‘l’, ‘i’, ‘s’, ‘h’, ‘b’, and ‘g’ were done using audio-visual presentations and phonics songs.  They also traced over the sand paper letters and sand for formation and directionality.

Further, students revised the vocabulary learned by associating words with carpenter, gardener and doctor and performed a sorting activity for the same.

As a part of media literacy, students were shown an audio visual presentation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-4J_0vpszM

Math

Numbers 1 – 5 were reiterated along with quantity association. Students were also introduced to number 6. They practiced the formation of the number and their quantification.

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Reinforcement of the concept of tall and short was undertaken, where student height was measured using a non-standard tool (example – a ribbon). Students created a chart to compare their respective heights.

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To reinforce the concept of shapes, students were engaged in a hands-on activity using a toy car. They enthusiastically illustrated toy cars on tracks made of different shapes (circle, rectangle, square and triangle).

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Art

Art was integrated with English, where students painted pictures of a carpenter and cubby holes as a craft activity, for this helped in reinforcing the sound ‘c’.

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Art was integrated with unit of inquiry, where the students enjoyed creating a carpenter’s tool belt by using their skills of tearing and pasting.

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Students also observed images from a storybook and connected to the role of a gardener. Later, they coloured a pre-drawn picture of flowers in a pot.

Physical education

Students learned different ways to keep themselves fit in any confined place or surroundings. The importance on sitting exercises, whilst on the floor or a chair were explained to them. They also learned about the correct body postures.

Music

Students sang songs like ‘Baby shark’ and ‘I love the pit-pit-patter of the raindrops’ . They also learned to sing ‘Jingle bells’ in English and in Hindi.

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Dance

Dance lessons focused on development of postures, where students practiced repetitive movements on the music. The concept of positions and spots were revisited using hoopla hoops.

Library

‘Polar Bear, Polar Bear, what do you hear?’ –  A children’s picture book written by ‘Bill Martin Jr.’, was narrated to Fawns. The book was all about  identification of zoo animals and their sounds. The animals featured in it were hippopotamus, zebra, flamingo, lion, boa constrictor, elephant, leopard, peacock, walrus and there was a zookeeper too. Every animal identified the sound they heard when asked by the other animals. Students were encouraged to imitate the sounds like – snort, bray, hiss, trumpet, snarl, bellow etc. which they enjoyed thoroughly.

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Unit of inquiry

Diving deeper into their understanding of the central idea, ‘People play different roles in communities to which they belong’, the carpenter was introduced as community helpers.

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To enhance thinking, prediction and observation skills, students were asked to observe the furniture inside their classroom (cubbies, cupboard, chairs, tables, chowkis). They inquired about questions like  ‘Who makes furniture?’ and ‘What are the tools required to make furniture?’

The school carpenter was invited as a guest speaker for students to observe his field of expertise. Some of the questions raised during class discussion were explored through this session. Students were also introduced to new vocabulary words like screwdriver, chisel, hand saw, hammer, measuring tape, spanner, nail, nuts and bolts etc. which were used by the carpenter as he demonstrated and created a sand tray with his tools for them.

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The students created a visual aid (graphic organizer) on doctors by pasting picture cut outs of the stethoscope, doctor’s coat, ambulance and doctor’s kit.

SEL (Social and Emotional Learning)

A feelings book created with pictures portraying various expressions like sad, happy, angry, worried and hungry etc. was shown to students. Students  were given an opportunity to talk about their feelings with the aim to develop their communication skills.

Circle time

As a part of the early years’ skill-building programme, quantification of numbers using Montessori Number rods was reinforced by placing a number next to each rod. Students also worked with the Montessori brown stairs and the pink tower material. They were introduced to screwing and unscrewing of nuts and bolts, for this activity helped them to develop their bilateral hand coordination. Later, students sorted and paired the nuts and bolts by their colour, shape, and size which further enhanced their matching and fine motor skills.

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Language

The sound ‘g’ 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 glass, gate, glue, gorilla, green, grapes, gold, grandma/grandpa etc. Further, they pasted pictures related to the sound on a paper cut-out of letter ‘g’ after they painted them in green. Reinforcement of the sounds ‘a’, ‘o’, ‘m’, ‘l’, ‘i’, ‘s’ ‘b’ and ‘h’ were done using an audio-visual presentation and phonic songs.  

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Language was integrated with unit of inquiry wherein students were shown stories and rhymes showcasing community helpers. They were read books like ‘Dan the fireman’, ‘Our Helpers’, ‘Let’s pretend builders tool kit’, for this helped in strengthening their listening skills. Students were introduced to naming words for various tools used by the carpenter like rake, trowel, shovel, screwdriver, hammer, chisel, saw, wrench, measuring tape etc. to enrich their vocabulary.

Math

Numbers 1 – 5 were reiterated along with quantity association, wherein students counted the number of tools carried by the carpenter and various classroom material.

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

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Students were introduced to different types of lines – straight/curved/zigzag/swirl. As reinforcement, they were given slates to draw these lines with a chalk. They also traced numbers using the light table with colourful stones/marbles and identified 1 as a straight standing line, 2 is made of curved line, slanting line and a sleeping line etc.

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Art

Reinforcement of sound ‘g’ allowed integration of art where students pasted circles as grapes for a cut-paste craft activity.

 They made a horse with brown paint and paper cut outs to reinforce the recognition of the letter ‘h’.

They created an ambulance using various shapes like a rectangle, square, cross and circles using paper to showcase math integration into the unit of inquiry.

By exploring art through hand tracing, students completed colouring the template of a fish using oil pastels.

Physical education

Students practised motor component building exercises and recognized different shapes to have a better understanding of different line formations and the discipline of physical education class.

Music

Students learned to sing ‘Jingle Bells’ in English and in Hindi. They also took turns to sing the song individually on the microphone. 

Dance

Dance lessons focused on development of postures, where students practiced repetitive movements to music. The concept of positions and spots were also introduced.

Library

Students listened to the classical tale ‘The ant and the grasshopper’ written by Amy Lowry.

As in the classic fable, the grasshopper played his fiddle and lived for the moment, while the industrious ants squirrelled away massive amounts of food in preparation  for  winter. With his song, the grasshopper convinced one small ant until the queen arrived and scared him back to work. The queen warned the grasshopper of the trouble he would be in, come winter. Winter came, and the grasshopper, near starvation, stumbled across the ants, who had a full-on feast in their snug little tree. They took him in and warmed him up. The queen told him that only those who worked all summer could eat, so as a payback he sang a song for them.

Children’s Day Celebration

Students loved an act performed by their teachers. They also enjoyed dancing along with their teachers. Edible chocolate tattoos were painted on their hands, which they enjoyed profusely….. an ode to childhood.

Free play

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Unit of inquiry

The   school doctor was invited as a guest speaker to sensitize  young Fawns about health & hygiene and the importance of honing the 5 senses.

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Students revisited the entire unit using unit related material displayed in the classroom. The concepts and various activities covered during the unit was visible on the inquiry board.

Fawns commenced their second unit under the Transdisciplinary Theme – How we organize ourselves.

Central Idea: People play different roles in communities to which they belong.

Lines of Inquiry:

• People play different roles in their community
• Every job use specific tools
• Our responsibility towards the community

Students were read various stories about community helpers at different intervals during the day. A class discussion was undertaken and a mind map was created using all the characters of the story. Students observed various workers in their surroundings and the different occupations they engage in while helping us in numerous ways.

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Students visited the school infirmary to meet the in-house doctor and nurse. They were shown various tools used by them like stethoscope, thermometer, oxygen cylinder,wheelchair, etc.

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A presentation allowed students to make connections with real-life situations and enhanced their scientific thinking, sense of prediction and power of observation. A situation like, a child riding a bicycle fell down propelled an inquiry to seek answers to questions like ‘who came to help the injured boy? ‘Where was he taken and which vehicle was used to transport him?’, ‘Who gave him medicines and applied bandage?’, ‘Which tools were used?’ Post inquiry, students created a visual aid (graphic organizer) on doctors by pasting picture cut outs of the stethoscope, doctor’s coat, ambulance and doctor’s kit.

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They also created a doctor’s toolkit for themselves by pasting various cut outs of the tools like stethoscope, thermometer, blood pressure gauge etc. on a paper toolkit.

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During free play time, a role play between a doctor and a patient was conducted by students who used their toy kits.

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SEL (Social and Emotional Learning)

The feelings book  created with  pictures portraying various expressions like sad, happy, angry, worries and hungry etc. was shown to students. Later, they were given an opportunity to talk about their feelings with the aim to  develop their communication skills. Students got an opportunity to try and hone their emotional intelligence and manage emotions by viewing an audio visual presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJAEkDXtyQQ

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Circle time

As a part of the early years’ skill-building programme, students were introduced to quantification of numbers using number rods.

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Students engaged in a wide range of activities such as building blocks, puzzles, sorting,beading, for this helped to enhance their gross and fine motor skills and aided sensory development.

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Language

Students were introduced to the sound ‘h’ using various picture cards and objects from the class environment. They associated the sound with various picture cards and learned new vocabulary words like horse, hat, house, helicopter, hen, hands and hammer. Further, they pasted pictures related to the sound on a paper cut-out of letter ‘h’. Reinforcement of the sounds ‘a’, ‘o’, ‘m’, ‘l’, ‘i’, ‘b’ and ‘s’ was done using audio-visuals and phonic songs.

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Language was integrated with unit of inquiry with stories and rhymes showcasing community helpers.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAbMi7DY1eo
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6Oxqyd5qUw

Students were introduced to naming words of various tools & transport used by community helpers with picture cards of a stethoscope, white coat, tool box with plus sign, thermometer, blood pressure monitor, antiseptic lotion, Band-Aid, medicines, injection/syringe, ambulance, for this helped in enriching the vocabulary.

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Students were also enlightened about the importance of community helpers with stories telling of ‘Danny goes to the dentist’ and ‘Tom the firefighter’.

Math

• Reinforcement of numbers 1 to 5 was addressed in class.
• An assessment of quantity association was carried out with various class materials, thereby strengthening the concept of number quantity association.

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Art

Students made connections with the festival of Diwali and tried creating a diya using ceramic clay. They also decorated a diya picture with colourful sequins on paper.

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They identified their body parts and traced their palm with assistance using a sketch pen. Later, they used the shape to create a fish.

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Students coloured and created a pattern using various cut out of shapes to embellish the fish.

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Students were shown an audio-visual presentation related to Halloween and explained the reasons for its celebration. As a follow-up activity, they made a monster spider headgear with eight legs, four eyes  as a Halloween craft. Students loved reciting a Halloween song ‘Go away scary witch, go away’.

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Physical education

Post Diwali celebrations, students worked on their motor components and fitness. They learned the stance and conditioning exercises to improve their body and hand swing for mini tennis.

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Music

Students explored percussion instruments and played a steady beat on the shakers. They also sang their favourite rhymes on the microphone.

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Dance

Students stressed  basic dance routines based on levels and development of postures, and practiced repetitive movements to music. The concept of meditation and cooling down were also reinforced.

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Library

Fawn students were read the big book ‘Where is my Teddy’ written by  author ‘Jez Alborough’. The story focussed on a young boy Eddy, who lost his small stuffed teddy bear in the woods. While searching, he found a teddy bear, although identical in appearance to his own, but was of the wrong size. This led to a hilarious encounter between the boy and a real bear. It was an entertaining and delightful rhyming tale which made good listening for children.

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Free play

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Unit of inquiry

To enhance learning on their current unit of inquiry, a  fresh coconut was used to explore the five senses of  touch, smell, taste, hearing and sight. Students took turns to touch and feel the coconut and received a tactile experience of the round, hard and rough surface. They also noticed the water inside and the sound it made, when it was cracked open. Later, students tasted the coconut water, the pulp and were asked to smell the fresh coconut.

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Students revisited their understanding of the unit by using the unit related material displayed in the classroom.

Summative assessment was also undertaken with the help of the following activities:

• Based on the coconut experiment, students were asked a few questions related to all the 5 senses. Their individual reflections/anecdotes were further recorded.
• Students were given pictures associated with five senses in a mixed pool and were asked to sort and paste them under each category of the sense organs.

Tuning into the 3rd line of inquiry ‘our feelings’, the idea of emotions and feelings were explained to the students. They were given picture cards of few faces with different expressions like happy, sad, crying and laughing and were later asked to imitate these emotions. Further, students created a feelings book wherein they illustrated faces displaying emotions like, happy, sad, angry, crying, tired and scared faces.

Circle Time

As a part of the early years’ skill-building programme, a wide range of activities were revisited in the week. As an integration with the current unit, students were engaged in activities like using the touch boards and pairing of the smell jars, sound boxes, sensory balloons, for this helped to refine  their senses.

Unit of inquiry was further integrated during circle time by engaging in a pegging activity, wherein the students were given puzzle cards to match with the correct sense organ.

SEL (Social Emotional Learning)

Social and emotional learning was integrated with the unit of inquiry where students played a game ‘mirror, mirror, what do I see?’ Later, they made a face depicting an emotion while seeing their own reflection in the mirror. Students took turns to make different faces and answered with a rhyme ‘I see angry/happy/tired/sad/hungry (Name of the child) looking at me’, for this helped them to understand and label their emotions.

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Students also got an opportunity to explore their emotional intelligence by watching an audio-visual presentation:

Language

Students were introduced to the phonic sound ‘b’. They associated the sound with various picture cards and learned new vocabulary like bat, ball, butterfly, balloons, bus, bottle, bag, bear, bamboo, bricks, birds, bowling etc. Further, they pasted pictures related to the sound on the cut-out of letter ‘b’.

They also traced sounds ‘a’, ‘o’, ‘m’, ‘l’, ‘i’, ‘s’ and ‘b’ using sandpaper cards and sand trays, for this aided to understand the correct formation and directionality of letters.

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Language was integrated with the unit of inquiry; they were shown a story on the audio-visual board, ‘Laura and Lincon learn about the five senses’.

Math

Students were introduced to numerals 4 and 5. They practiced the formation of the numbers and their quantification using picture cards and classroom materials. Numbers from 1-4 were reinforced through a group activity wherein they pasted apple cut outs besides each number, thereby associating quantity.

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Math was integrated with the unit of inquiry, wherein students coloured within the outline of number 5 and associated quantity by pasting cut outs of the five senses.

Art

Art was integrated with Math wherein they crafted a tree using steel wool (a common household material) and green paint to create the crown of an apple tree.

Art was also integrated with language when they crafted a butterfly, for this helped to reinforce the sound ‘b’.

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Students were acquainted with the Hindu festival of lights – Diwali,  with the narration of the story of victory of good over evil. The festival commemorates the return of lord Rama to his kingdom  of Ayodhya, at the end of his 14 year exile. Students depicted colourful fireworks using different colour paints and glitters in their art journals.

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Physical education

Students practiced various types of jumps using one/both legs. They were introduced to an obstacle course and some hoop coordination exercises, for they aimed to work on the ability to stay upright and in control whilst in motion. 

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Music

Students were given an opportunity to sing songs like ‘Old Mac Donald’, ‘I love you’ and ‘Insy-Winsy Spider’ individually on the microphone. They also played the shakers while singing.

Dance

Students stressed on basic dance routines. They danced to the beats of the ‘Chicken Dance’, ‘Crazy Frog’ and ‘Gummy Bear’.

Library

Fawns were read Hindi Diwali stories from the book, ‘Amma Kahe Kahani – Diwali’.

It was a delightful and an informative book that introduced Diwali ‘the festival of lights’ to students.

The book illustrates the story of a prince being exiled from his kingdom to the forest, his victory over the evil king Ravana and the celebration of his homecoming. The story of Goddess Lakshmi who rewarded her true devotees with good fortune and health on Diwali was narrated too.

Written in a rhyme with vivid and captivating illustrations, the book brought Hindu  celebration stories to students in a fun way.

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Free play

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Unit of inquiry

Moving ahead with the current unit, students  engaged in various practical activities that helped them to probe deeper with their tactile and gustatory senses.

Using their tactile sense students created sensory balloons by filling distinct textured things like kidney beans, rice, flour, sand, water, sponge and marbles into them. Subsequently, they practiced sorting and pairing balloons using their sense of touch.

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Using different trays and bowls filled with hot/cold/tepid water, they touched and differentiated between  temperatures.

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An assessment was taken on the sense of taste with an activity. Each student was given a pinch of salt and castor sugar to taste and later were asked to differentiate between the two (since the visuals are same for both) by smelling, seeing and touching. Students made predictions before tasting and could differentiate between salt and sugar, for this displayed the importance of the gustatory sense.

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Five senses were reinforced through an activity wherein they observed the process of making popcorn, smelling the butter, hearing the sputter of corn and later enjoyed eating them. Students described the popped corn by correlating to the five senses (salty/crunchy/buttery/yellow/white/bumpy). Their ideas and expressions were also noted on a recording list.

Circle Time

As a part of the early year’s skill-building programme, students were encouraged to explore play-doh while squishing, squashing, rolling and flattening, for this aided in developing their fine motor skills.  

Students enhanced their tactile sense by working on the ‘touch boards’ where they experienced the grades of textures from rough to smooth (smooth to smoothest/rough to roughest).

SEL (Social Emotional Learning)

Students observed different emotions demonstrated by the facilitators like ‘having an argument over a toy’, ‘criticizing someone else’s work’, ‘pushing and biting each other’ etc.

Students observed the different monster faces stuck on ice-cream sticks and painted different monster faces. They identified the emotions and tried to relate their actual feelings with the emoticons, thus helping themselves to regulate their own reactions and outbursts.

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Language

The sounds ‘i’ and ‘s’ were introduced using picture cards and objects from the class environment. They learned new vocabulary and identified the pictures beginning with ‘i’ and ‘s’ sound. Further, they pasted pictures related to the sounds on the cut-out of letter ‘i’ and ‘s’ respectively. Vocabulary learned:

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‘i’ sound – igloo, insect, indigo colour and iguana

‘s’ sound – strawberry, scorpion, stones, Santa Claus, square, sun, star, sky, soap, sugar, spider and seven

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Language was integrated with the unit of inquiry, where all the 5 senses were reinforced with an audio-visual of a song, story and rhyme.

Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx-2oEvZ5dg

Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Rf0f2-6c4I

Rhyme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXXiyIGqliE

Reinforcement of the sounds ‘a’, ‘o’, ‘m’, ‘l’, ‘i’ and ‘s’ was done through audio-visuals and phonics songs.

Math

Students were introduced to number 3 . They practiced the formation of the numbers and their quantification.

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As part of numeracy skills, the concept of more/less was introduced with an interesting activity. Students were given different materials like rice grains, beans and pulses  which they used to fill two containers while representing the more/less quantities.

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To enhance their thinking skills, ‘Venn diagram’ was used as a tool for organizing/sorting things under the two categories – ‘olfactory sense and gustatory sense’.

Mathematics was integrated with language wherein they used paints and sponge shaped triangle, circle and square to form an iguana, for they aimed at reinforcing the sound ‘i’.

Numerals 1, 2, 3 and 4 were reinforced using number rhymes and flashcards.

Art

Students enhanced their fine motor skills by crafting Raavana with 10 heads for Dussehra. The importance of Dussehra celebrations was explained to the students using an audio-visual presentation.

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Art was integrated with languagewherein they made a snake using paint and magic wax crayons, for this helped in reinforcing the sound ‘s’. They also explored finger printing technique with white paint to create dandelions.

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Students freely expressed themselves  using a colour of their choice whilst paying attention to the strumming of the guitar. They drew while the guitar was played and they paused when the strumming stopped.

Physical education

Students learned manipulative exercises with hoops and pom-poms, for this aimed to hone a variety of fundamental movements.

Music

Students were acquainted with the names of a few percussion instruments and played a steady beat on the congos. They also sang their favourite songs like ‘I love you’, ‘Hello, How are you’, ‘Old Mac Donald’ and ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’.

Dance

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

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Library

Students were read a book titled ‘The Giraffe who was scared of heights’ written by the author ‘Glenn Johnston’. The story revolved around the main character  of  a baby giraffe who  feared heights. A fantastic illustration on how the other  main characters; parrot and zebra secretly helped the baby giraffe to overcome  fear of heights made interesting reading. It was a perfect story that depicted the essence of caring between friends.

Freeplay

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Unit of inquiry

Students continued to enjoy their nature walks at school where they experienced various textures available in the garden. They collected objects like soft green leaves, rough dry leaves, coarse stones, jagged twigs, moist flowers, small grainy stones using their tactile senses.

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To reinforce tactile sense, an activity called ‘Feely hands’ was undertaken. Students were given small pieces of materials with different textures like sandpaper, satin ribbon, kidney beans, wool, and scrubbing pad. Post the activity, a formative assessment was taken where they had to paste 5 different textures on the fingertips of the paper cut-outs of hand.

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Further, their tactile senses were strengthened through an interesting learning engagement, wherein they had to walk bare feet on the ‘touchy feet tray’.They touched and identified random textures namely – hard/smooth marbles, smooth/soft ribbon, soft leaves, pricky twigs, bumpy bubble wraps, soft/squishy sponge, rough scotch brite/sandpaper etc.

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Circle time

To refine their motor skills, students were involved in a wide range of activities such as pegging, transferring with tongs, stacking of blocks, spooning of marbles, and working with Montessori Pink cubes and Brown stairs.

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Students were also introduced to Touch boards to experience different textured surfaces. They learned new words like rough and smooth, for this helped in enriching their vocabulary.

As a part of Early years skill-building programme, the facilitators enacteda role play on‘greetings of the day’ to facilitate a cohesive and responsive learning environment.

SEL (Social Emotional Learning)

Students observed the different monster faces stuck on ice-cream sticks and imitated them. The concept of relating thoughts with behaviour was reinforced with a role-play demonstrated by the facilitators on emoticons like sad, happy, angry and hungry. Further, students identified the emotions and tried to relate their actual feelings with the emoticons, thus helping themselves to regulate their own reactions and outbursts.

Language

The sound ‘l’ was introduced using picture cards and objects from the class environment.

Language was integrated with Art, wherein students pasted pictures associated with the sound ‘l’ – lamp, lion, ladybug, lamb and a leaf on a cut-out of letter ‘l’, which helped in recapitulating the sound.

Language was also integrated with unit of inquiry, where students loved singing songs related to the five senses.

They sang a popular rhyme ‘Mary had a little lamb’ which aided in recapitulating the sound ‘l’.

Reinforcement of the sounds ‘a’, ‘o’, ‘l’ and ‘m’ were done using audio-visual presentations and phonics songs. They also traced the letters using sand, for this helped in learning the formation of the letters as a prelude to writing.

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Math

Students were introduced to the pattern (ab-ab) which helped them in predicting the next element, based on their observations. Comprehending patterns helped in preparing students for  reasoning  skills to number concepts.

Students were introduced to a new shape ‘circle’ with a learning engagement where they pasted pictures of circular objects on a round chart paper.

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Math was also integrated with language, wherein students created a ladybug using circular cut-outs of various sizes, for this helped in reinforcing the sound ‘l’ and the shape ‘circle’.

Students illustrated 2D shapes like circle, triangle, and square using drawing insets. Later, they practiced drawing lines within the boundary of the shape. This aided in enhancing their eye-hand coordination.

Numerals 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 were reinforced with number rhymes and flashcards.

Art

Students observed the technique of working with ceramic clay and tile pieces. They used their tactile sense to  feel a  shark carved from clay. Later, they placed the bits and pieces of tiles on it and formed the name of their class ‘Fawn A’.

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Physical education

Students participated in various activities to improve their balance and coordination. This also helped them in maintaining controlled positions during both static (still) and dynamic (moving) activities.

Music

The essential agreements made in the music room were reiterated to the students. They enthusiastically sang songs like ‘Insy-Wincy spider’, ‘I love you’ and ‘Hello, how are you’.

They also revised the different voices (singing, shouting, talking and whispering), and the names of the musical instruments.

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Dance

Dance lessons focused on development of postures, where students practiced repetitive movements to music. The concept of meditation and relaxation were introduced.

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Library

Students were read a story ‘Elmer, the Patchwork Elephant’, written by the author ‘David Mckee’. Based on the classic children’s book series by David Mckee, Elmer the Patchwork Elephant is a celebration of individuality and the power of laughter.

The story  about a patchwork Elephant, Elmer and his colourful family of elephants, who were unlike the other elephants made interesting an read.

One day ‘Elmer’ and his black and white-checked cousin, ‘Wilbur’ moved out for a stroll together when they came across a herd of grey elephants. To Wilbur’s mind, they were not unique, although Elmer claimed that they were all unique. Later, ‘Grandpa Eldo’, a golden coloured elephant, introduced them to ‘Rose’, a pink elephant who had wandered away from her herd. Rose and the two cousins played together as they set off in search of Rose’s herd. Further, they encountered a lone grey pachyderm that she found peculiar. When they located her pink herd, the cousins understood Rose’s reaction to the grey elephant. The book successfully conveyed the message that everyone is unique, and that uniqueness makes us all special.

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Freeplay

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Unit of inquiry

Moving further with the unit on senses, the gustatory sense (sense of taste) was explored using various  solutions intended for tasting. Students were given an opportunity to taste four basic flavours: sweet (Roohafza), sour (lemonade), salty (butter milk) and bitter (decaffeinated coffee solution).

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A formative assessment based on olfactory sense was taken with a sorting activity. Students were given cut-outs of pictures in a mixed pool (like a dirty water closet, garbage bin, incense sticks, rose etc.). They used their thinking skills to segregate the pictures and paste them under correct heading.

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Circle Time

An interesting learning engagement was undertaken, wherein they had to pick  a greeting of their choice like, ‘a hi five’, ‘a fist bump’, ‘a hug’, ‘a handshake’, ‘an elbow bump’, ‘thumbs up’, ‘perform a jig’. This cheery morning activity helped in encouraging positive interactions between students to grow into  responsive individuals.

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As a part of Early years skill-building programme, social grace and courtesy lessons were reinforced by the facilitators, for this helped to build social skills and self–esteem amongst students.

As an extension to familiarising them to Montessori Brown stairs and Pink cubes, construction of a wall was introduced to the students by using the  material. Students observed and then made a wall using various combinations, for this helped in enhancing their thinking skills.

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SEL (Social Emotional Learning)

The concept of relating thoughts with behaviour was introduced to the students with the help of a role play which was followed by showing a ‘Story bot’ video. Later, they brainstormed on how can they feel better if they feel sad about something. They tried to make a connection between their actual feelings and how they responded, for this helped them to inculcate a deeper sense of self awareness.

Language

Reinforcement of the sounds ‘a’, ‘o’ and ‘m’ were done using sand tray, audio-visuals and phonic songs.

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Language was integrated with Art, wherein students pasted pictures associated with the sound ‘m’ – monkey, mango, mop, mask, mat, mouse, mushroom, milk and mittens, for recapitulating the sound.

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As a part of vocabulary enhancement, students learned the names of basic tastes like sweet, sour, salty and bitter.

Unit of inquiry was integrated with language, wherein students enjoyed listening to a story about the little koelfinding his song, written by ‘Kunal Kundu’. The story was presented using props and an audio-visual tool. Students learned about the chirping sounds made by different birds.

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Math

The Montessori material ‘Drawing insets’ were introduced to the students to hone directionality while holding the pencil. They practiced tracing 2D shape triangle using the triangle inset. Further, they coloured inside the triangle to hone their pincer grip.

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Students were introduced to the concept of few and many, using various objects from the classroom, which was followed by viewing of a power point presentation. A fun activity was carried out where they had to stick cut-outs of a flower on three different baskets. These baskets with flowers were a pictorial representation of few, many and none; for this helped in understanding quantification.

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Math was integrated with the unit of inquiry, wherein students tasted various drinks like roohafza, lemon water, buttermilk, and decaffeinated coffee solution and identified the taste as sweet, salty, sour or bitter by using their gustatory sense. Later, they created a ‘Pictograph’ by pasting pictures to represent the taste that appealed to them and moved towards analysis of data from the graph.

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Art

As students are in the process of exploring the shape ‘circle’, fingerprinting was done on the shape to  craft a tree.

Physical education

Students learned the handstand. As handstand is technically a weight bearing exercise, it will help them to strengthen their bones, spine, shoulders, arms and wrists and their overall muscle development. They were also involved in different types of rotational and stretching exercises.

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Music                                                                                                

The students sang ‘Insy-Winsy Spider’ in English and Hindi. They also explored various instruments in the music room and learned their names. 

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Dance

Dance lessons focused on development of motor skills where students practiced coordinated jumping on different music. The use of a hoopla hoop while dancing was also introduced to them.

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Library

To mark the birthday of much loved children’s author ‘Julia Donaldson’, students were read one of her popular books titled ‘The Detective Dog’. The story is  a fast-paced celebration of books, reading, libraries and the relationship between a little boy and his rather special dog.

There was once a dog with an amazing sense of smell who was known far and wide as Detective Dog ‘Nell’. He used to live with his master Peter. The dog’s ever-sniffing nose was always hard at work solving mysteries and finding all of Peter’s lost toys. But Nell had other talents too. Nell, the dog used to go to school  every Monday with Peter to especially listen to the stories being read. One day when they arrived at school, they noticed that all the books in the classroom had been stolen. Luckily, Nell, the detective dog got on the job to sniff out the lost books. It used his sniffing powers to find out the culprit who apparently was a book lover too. At the end, the thief was taken to the school library to sit and read numerous books. This suspense-filled drama, written in rhyming sentences, builds on the joy that books  bring. The sudden entry into a library filled with the smell of hundreds of books waiting to be discovered is an apt reminder that public libraries should not become relics of the  days gone by but must be visited for the love of reading.

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Freeplay

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Unit of inquiry

To further reiterate understanding of the olfactory sense, students sniffed to compare pleasant from unpleasant smell with an activity. Students were asked to smell  a lemon leaves, basil leaves, rose petals, baby talc, a tube of winter cream, a bottle of body lotion, an onion, garlic cloves, some stale vegetables, and a banana peel. They were then asked to sort various pictures under the headings ‘pleasant or unpleasant odour’.

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For the refinement of their olfactory sense, students were asked to smell different things contained in jars, for this helped to differentiate between odour and fragrance. They then used their sense of smell to sort and pair pleasant fragrance and unpleasant odours.

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A formative assessment based on visual and auditory senses was taken with a sorting activity. Students were given cut-outs of pictures in a mixed pool (like guitar, bell, rattle, fish, rainbow etc.). They used their thinking skills to segregate the pictures and paste them under correct heading.

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Circle time

As a part of Early years skill-building programme, social grace and courtesy lessons were demonstrated by the facilitators with the help of a role play. The role play depicted different social scenarios which included – saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, greeting politely, using handkerchief while coughing/sneezing and politely interrupting a preoccupied person using ‘excuse me’; for this helped the students to build upon their social skills and self –esteem.

Students were introduced to ‘pegging’ clothes on a wooden stand, for it aimed at enhancing their pincer grip and concentration.

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Language

The sound ‘m’ was introduced using picture cards and objects from the class environment.

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Language was integrated with art with a mouse creation. Students printed within the outline of letter ‘m’ through a sponge dabbing craft, while reinforcing the phonic sound ‘m’.

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Math

The concept of seriation from big to small was reinforced with a sorting activity, wherein students were given various objects which they arranged from big to small.

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Reinforcement of estimation and counting was addressed using the technique of visual subitizing.

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Students were also introduced to the positions ‘up and down’ through an activity wherein they were taken outside and asked to observe objects in the sky and on the ground. They also climbed up and down the staircase, as a fun activity to comprehend the concept better.

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Art

The students explored the printing technique and the colour green. They created dots on a cut out of a circle through finger printing.

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Physical education

Students learned some basic yoga poses and practiced stretching exercises, for they aimed to improve their overall wellbeing. Yoga develops physical flexibility and muscle strength, initiates coordination and concentration.

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Music

Students were given an opportunity to sing individually on the microphone. They sang ‘Old Mc Donald’ and ‘Insy-Winsy Spider’ in English and Hindi. The also played a steady beat using the shakers.

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Dance

Dance lessons focused on development of directions. Students practiced identical movements on both sides using different music beats. The posture of jazz hands was also reinforced.

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Library

Students were read Anupa Lal’s Hindi story, ‘Mere Palang ke neeche’. The story about a young boy who used to wake up at night to drink water made interesting reading. One night, he imagined some strange things lurked under his bed thereby feeling scared. He called his mother as he thought that there was a tiger under his bed. His mother saw and pulled out the tiger, after which they got to know that it was his jacket with tiger stripe print. The story concluded with the boy wearing his jacket while going for a jungle safari. The story taughtstudents to be fearless and courageous.

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Freeplay

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Unit of inquiry

Taking the unit further, students were taken for a nature walk around the school garden to carry out an inquiry into different things they could smell in their surroundings. They used their olfactory sense to smell herbs such as Tulsi leaves, Curry leaves, Hibiscus flower and leaves of the Lemon tree.

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Refinement of senses (auditory) was done using a ‘sound boxes’that made varying decibels of sound for  rice, pulses, stone, cotton, and bits of papers contained in them. Students listened to the different sounds and identified the material from the sound boxes. Later, they were given an opportunity to listen and pair the similar sound boxes, for this aided in refining their auditory skills.

Circle time

As a part of Early Years, skill-building programme, students were introduced to the Montessori Brown stairs, which allowed them to develop visual differentiation between dimensions (thickness). This further enhanced their visual perception, refined their voluntary motor movement and muscle grip.  

Students engaged in a wide range of activities such as building blocks, puzzles, outlining of various shapes with colourful stones, for this helped to enhance their gross and fine motor skills and aided sensory development.

A role play was conducted by the teachers to reiterate magic words to build upon social skills and self-esteem. As a follow up, students were asked a few questions:

• What do you say if somebody gives you something?
• What will you say if you hurt somebody?
• What do you say when you want something?
• What do you say if you need to  interrupt a conversation?

Language

Recap of sounds ‘a’ and ‘o’ was done by tracing the sandpaper letters. This activity helped in learning the formation of the letters as a prelude to writing.

Language was integrated with Art, wherein reinforcement of sound ‘o’ was undertaken with a craft activity

Language was integrated with Unit of Inquiry with a story ‘The 5 senses, sight’ written by the author ‘Maria Ruis’ . The book was illustrated with bold and rich colours, for it aimed to capture the imagination of a child.

Math

Reinforcement of estimation and counting was addressed using the technique of visual subitising.

Students were also introduced to ‘Timeline of a day’ using picture cards arranged in a sequence. They made connection with the activities undertaken by them from morning to night, for this helped in building  their understanding of the concept of time.

The concept of seriation from big to small was reinforced with an art activity integrating it with the theme on ‘sustainability’. The activity included sorting pictures of various sizes of recycled cloth bags and students were encouraged to use such bags.

Students were introduced to a learning tool namely the ‘light table’ which allowed them to enthusiastically place coloured gemstones on the outlines of different shapes seen under the light.

SEL (Social and Emotional Learning)

The six different emotions were reinforced this week namely happy, angry, sad, worried, frightened and surprised with the help of flash cards and songs. A role-play was also conducted to recap the same.Students expressed and discussed their current feeling with their peers.  As an extension to the activity, they identified the emoticons and imitated these emotions using their facial expressions.

Art

Student’s explored printing technique and created colourful dots by  printing with their fingers.

Art was also integrated with language with an  alligator’s picture. Students imprinted green dots using their finger  on the picture, while reinforcing the phonic sound ‘a’.

Physical education

Students were introduced to an obstacle course race. They were involved in different activities like jumping hoops, running in a zig zag motion, and picking up cones. This helped in improving their gross and fine motor skills, balance and manipulative skills.

Music

Students listened to different musical instruments and identified the percussion instruments. Further, they explored various percussion instruments likedamru and drums.

They were given an opportunity to sing ‘I love you, you love me’ in a group.

Dance

Dance lessons focused on development of directions. Students practiced identical movements on both sides using different music. The posture of jazz hands was also introduced to them.

Library

Students were read an award-winning picture book ‘The Gruffalo’ written by the author ‘Julia Donaldson’. The story  about a mouse who walks through the woods  unfolded in two phases where the mouse used clever tricks to evade danger. On his way, the mouse encountered several dangerous animals like a fox, an owl, and a snake. Each of these animals, clearly intended to eat the mouse, invited him back to their home for a meal. The Mouse invented an imaginary monster, a Gruffalo, a fearsome creature with terrible claws,  tusks and  teeth in his  jaws. Description of the fierce Gruffalo  scared the fox, the owl, and the snake away. The story took a turn when the monster of his imagination appeared right before him in the woods and said, “You’ll taste good on a slice of bread!”

In the end, the clever mouse comes up with a strategy to convince the Gruffalo that he was the scariest creature in this deep dark wood. The mouse outsmarting all its predators used his thinking skills to fool the Gruffalo to make a very satisfying story for children.

Unit of Inquiry

To further deepen their understanding of the ongoing unit on senses, students focussed on their sense of hearing. They listened to different musical instruments and learned about the specific sounds they produce. Further, they played the instruments (guitar, triangle bells, cymbal, rattle, mouth organ and xylophone) and compared between the sounds that each instrument made; for this helped them to understand the importance of listening intently.

This learning engagement was further extended with the students taking a ‘sound tour’ around school. They loved answering questions like ‘can you hear the clock, the wind, noise from the adjacent classroom, people breathing or coughing, noisy cars, flying aeroplanes, footsteps, emergency vehicles, any music?’

A blindfold activity also honed their auditory senses. Different sounds were played on the smartboard that emulated the dog bark, a rocket being launched, an aeroplane taking off, a crow crowing etc. and students were  asked to identify these sounds without looking at the smartboard.

Circle Time

The essential agreements were reinforced with respect to pictographic references. These references were of their photographs that depicted these agreements such as walking in a straight line, washing hands before and after meals, keeping personal belongings in cubby holes and stacking the plates after eating.

Use of magic words like thank you, sorry, excuse me etc. was reiterated with the students in order to facilitate a positive learning environment. A discussion on learner profile attributes was undertaken between the students and the facilitator. They were made to understand the importance of being ‘principled’ and ‘caring’.

Language

Students were introduced to the sound ‘o’ through various picture cards, audio visuals and objects from the class environment. They traced sandpaper letter ‘o’ to understand the correct formation and directionality as a prelude to letter writing.

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Language was integrated with Art, wherein reinforcement of sound ‘o’ was undertaken. The students coloured within the outline of the sound ‘o’ and pasted pictures associated with the sound such as orange, octopus etc.

Language was also integrated with unit of inquiry, wherein they sang and enacted a few songs like ‘Head, shoulders, knees and toes’ and the ‘5 senses song’ in order to reinforce body parts. Further, they were made aware of oneself to form a connection with the environment.

Math

Math was integrated with Art, wherein students coloured the outline of numbers 1 and 2 and associated quantity.

As a part of Early Year skill building programme, introduction totheKnobless cylinders  aided in enhancing  fine motor skills, concentration and seriation capabilities.

Motor skills

To enhance their motor skills, students were involved in a wide range of activities such as

• Arranging Knobless cylinders from big to small
• Pouring solids from one container to another through a funnel
• Sorting a mixture of Kidney beans and Garbanzo Beans.

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Later, students were engaged in rolling and unrolling of the mat, for this helped them to develop muscle coordination and concentration.

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Art

Students were involved in a colouring activity wherein they coloured a cut out of a circle in circular strokes and made further connections with shapes. Later, they used the circles to create a bird and pasted different shapes on it.

Physical education

Students learned basic gymnastics skill called beam walk, which is the key to all functional movement. This helped in building their postural equilibrium, muscular balance, and stability. Balance training at an early age initiates coordination and concentration.

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Music

Music was integrated with unit of inquiry wherein they listened to the four different types of sounds (singing, talking, shouting and whispering) and identified the appropriate sound and tone used for singing. They sang ‘I love you, you love me’ and ‘Old Mc Donald’ with actions.

Dance

Dance lessons focused on creating  basic steps where students showcased fine and gross motor skills. Reinforcement of the concept of dancing statue was also done during  classtime.

Library

Students were read a touching tale of a giraffe who wanted nothing more but to dance. The story ‘Giraffe can’t Dance’ was the story of Gerald, the Giraffe, who had crooked knees and thin legs. It was very hard for the giraffe to dance . However, Gerald, the Giraffe was encouraged by an unlikely friend and he finally gained the courage to dance to his own tune.
It was a tale of gentle inspiration for every child with dreams of greatness.