NEWSLETTER - December 2022

Our PYP students participated wholeheartedly in all the events of ‘Overbooked 2022’, an Inter-school Literary Fest organized by Jayshree Periwal International School, Jaipur. It was a PAN India event that witnessed the participation of more than 15 schools. It’s a proud moment to announce that Bodhi students outshone every school and won 7 out of 10 events with three 1st positions, three 2nd positions and one 3rd position.

Have you given a thought about how boring school life will turn if there will be no fun? If school will be a place where students just have to study and there will be no co-curricular activities or sports in their schedule. To break this monotonous timetable, an annual day is important in schools. The month of December is a well-known time to execute “The Annual Day”. It’s a once-a-year event that brings students, school management, teachers and parents on the same platform.

Annual Day is a celebration to glorify the learning achievements of the school. The chief guest of the show was Cabinet minister Shri Gajender Singh Shekhawat and the Guest of honour was Dr. MM Singhi , a senior legal consultant and philanthropist. The Principal presented the Annual school report and the award ceremony of the meritorious and exemplary students was adorned by the guests and the management.

The hard work and dedication of teachers was visible as the students performed impeccably and made the show a huge success.

Learning from nature - "Children need nature for the healthy development of their senses, and thus for learning and creativity," says Richard Louv.

With this in mind, Seedlings students learned the vocabulary through nature. They went for a nature walk and collected different leaves to make crafts with the phoneme /l/. They have also explored that there are different leaves on different plants and trees. They've also expanded their vocabulary with words like twigs and grass.

Annual Concert - An annual function is one that occurs once a year in the school. It is a school-sponsored event that allows students to showcase their talents, overcome stage fear, gain confidence, and learn to collaborate.

The chief guest of the event was honorable Mr. Gajendra singh shekhawat ( Union Cabinet Minister in ministry of jal shakti )

Parent Involvement- Under the Transdisciplinary theme, How we Express Ourselves, our parents volunteered to take Storytelling sessions for our young learners. It is amazing to see how our parents come prepared with sessions full of engagements, that include the elements of game, music, dance, art. It's quite visible that gradually parents are also understanding the new language of teaching and learning.

Winter craft- Among the various benefits of art and craft activities, it also gives learners a sense of achievement and allows them to take pride in their work which builds confidence. As the Christmas time was around, the students engaged in a craft where they used paints, brushes, different shapes and made their Snowman. As every child is different, the same uniqueness was visible in the Snowman that they have created.

Action- ‘Today's ignorance will bring a dark tomorrow’.

Keeping this thought in mind, students of grade 1 took action to conserve energy.Under the transdisciplinary theme ‘How the World Works’ students learned how electricity is being generated from different sources and the importance of it. They have made small changes in their daily routine to be responsible and make others also motivated to conserve energy like unplugging the electrical devices when not in use, keeping the lights on only when needed, using natural light when possible etc.

Origin and the process of the product- Keeping in mind the central idea of our current unit How We Organize Ourselves i.e Many products go through a process of change before they are used or consumed, learners observe and learn the process of different products for example lemonade, sandwich, pasta etc.

Through these learning engagements learners had a clear understanding of the process of how these products are made and discovered the origin of the products as well.

Playing Dumb charades- 'People can also communicate through signs and symbols'.

Looking at this central idea, we tuned in to our new transdisciplinary theme- How We Express Ourselves through a learning engagement, ‘Dumb Charades on sentences’. The students were divided into groups, they picked up a chit and then they had to act out the sentence written on the chit to their team members. Through this, students learned that non-verbal is also a part of communication and their prior knowledge was assessed. This activity was integrated with English as they were learning about sentences too.

Sentence building challenge- ‘Good writing begins with good sentences.’ Students of grade 2 were divided in groups of two by giving them the choice to choose their partner. Several jumbled words were displayed on the projector, students chose words and tried to create some meaningful sentences in the time given. This activity provoked them to use their creative thinking skills in making some good sentences.

Summative assessment-

‘The teacher’s task is to initiate the learning process and then get out of the way’- John Warren

Assessment is the ongoing process of gathering ,analysing and reflecting on evidence to make informed and consistent judgement to improve learning.

Grade 3 students were assessed based on the unit ‘Who we are’ through several hands-on performance ,to foster student’s agency they were given zig-saw puzzle to play tic-tac-toe with peers and choose their own summative assessment.They presented their actions in form of different tasks like-Roleplay on Body systems,Doctor for a day activity,Fact ‘O’ Finder activity,making survey-sheets,Quiz-time,Poem writing as well as Poster making activity on Healthy lifestyle choices.

Christmas celebration & Joy of giving-

‘Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love’. – Lao Tzu

Grade 3 students put together a fabulous Christmas celebration. All the students had a jolly good time singing Christmas carol ,dancing and celebrating the spirit of Christmas by making Santa’s stockings in their craft time.This Christmas added joy in the lives of underprivileged too and gave a whole new meaning to our celebration,children contributed lots of goodies ,groceries,clothes and stationery as well.

Story telling session- “Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world” . To build stronger connections between ideas and emotions a storytelling session was conducted in class to restore order of imagination and instill thinking power.

Action -Students of Grade 4 decided to combine their action with “Joy of giving”. Students collected unused clothes, groceries and stationery to distribute to the needy in order to reuse.

JOY OF GIVING -

“I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.”

• Maya Angelou

Learners Grade 5 collected groceries, stationery and clothes in order to distribute them to the indigent. The feeling of contentment was evident on their sweet little faces.

CHRISTMAS-

There are 4 stages in our lives -

You believe in Santa Claus.

You don’t believe in Santa Claus.

You are Santa Claus.

You look like Santa Claus.

Learners of grade 5 indulged in craft making where they recycled resources used before to craft out a Santa. The peak of their creativity surfaced when each of them prepared a different type of snowflake. The girls showcased their brilliance by turning snowflakes into tiaras.

HOW WE EXPRESS OURSELVES -

The Transdisciplinary theme that clouded most of December was “How We Express Ourselves.” Students learned that different art forms help one to discover their nature, ideas and feelings. They researched deeply about the most famous painters of all time. Van Gogh, Da Vinci, Picasso, and Monet were the most discussed painters. Upon researching the Indian Painters, learners started to appreciate the work of Satish Gujral and Tyeb Mehta. Learners also penned down their thoughts on what life would be without art.

The highlight of the unit was when learners started to view art as a reflection of societal values and issues. Few out of the many issues discussed were Capitalism, Industrialisation, Terrorism and Pollution. As they engrossed themselves in the group discussion of these crises, they also performed the thought-provoking task of self assessment and peer assessment.