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A stroll in the park to connect with trees!

23/9/2015

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We believe that when children connect, learn and grow with the nature around them the experience and the learning outcomes they get are very, very different.  It also stays with them forever. In order to attain this we take children for a lot of visits that help them connect to nature better.

 One such visit was to the park nearby and Anika, Aliyah, Zohar and Het were in one such group that went to explore the park. As we started from our school we came across a tree which had a hole in it. Upon seeing it Zohar said, “Ma’am caterpillar lives in it” and to this Anika added her perspective she said, “I can see many ants in it they have made a big hole and they are living in it”. Aliyah said, “The spiders also make their home like this and they make sure that no one comes in”. (Children are beginning to relate to the need of basic shelter and what purpose it serves in the lives of different living things.)

 Then as we started moving further we saw another tree which was bent and upon seeing that Anika said, “The rain came and splashed a lot of water on the tree that has made the tree to bend”. She also connected the bend with the mountain and said that it also looked like a mountain. (Explaining and understanding causality for natural phenomena is the beginning of scientific inquiry in a child and visualizing and connecting the shape to things not present in the immediate surroundings displays the child’s ability to make creative connections)

 Zohar touched the tree with his little finger and said it is too rough. (Beautifully connecting his learning back in class to the real life and using the right kind of vocabulary to describe it)

 As we moved forward they started to speak about the rain. Hearing the conversation the facilitator asked the children, “Where does the rain come from?” to which Anika said, “It comes from the plants.” The other children were observing the trees around them. Zohar who saw a coconut tree near a house said, “Coconuts”. On hearing this Aliyah connected her previous trip and said “Yes, when I came with Priya Ma’am we saw a coconut which was on the road it had an oval hole in it.” (It is amazing what children remember and take away in trips and the amount of detail they tend to process when they are totally involved in a learning journey.)

 We continued to walk and as the children walked they made sure they did not stamp on the leaves when asked why they were walking carefully, Aliyah said “They will get hurt if we stamp them”.

 As we continued our journey we saw a tree which was cut down and the leaves had turned brown, seeing that a conversation erupted between three of them.

Anika: Someone has cut it down
Aliyah: Yes, Anika that is why the leaves have turned brown and they are sad
Het: “No, no they are crying”.

 Connecting to and learning through nature helps children to look at learning in different and more meaningful ways. It also enables them to apply their learning practically and develop deeper empathy for their surroundings.

 Finally, as we reached the park. Anika saw big stones which looked like pumpkin on the ground and said, “I can see pumpkins on the ground.”  Then we came across a big white tree Zohar said, “Ma’am the branches are also white in colour” the children were asked why this tree alone looks white and Anika responded saying, “Someone took a big scissor and they have cut the brown part away”. While returning to our school Zohar saw a lot of leaves which were fallen down and said, “Oh, no Ma’am look there someone shook the tree and all the flowers have fallen down”. It was a sad moment for all of them when they realized that loss and change are such an integral part of Mother Nature.

 Children tend to look at the nature around them and extend metaphors from their lives and how they feel onto nature. Every trip we make is an experience for us and children to look at the world with a new pair of eyes and see what others might have missed and to feel what only we can feel for who we are!


Contributed by Sujitha M, Learning & Innovation Engineer at Sparkling Mindz
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How many houses can you make?

21/9/2015

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If you have ever wondered how many kinds of houses one can really make with those building blocks it’s time you see our 2 year olds in action.

We presented children with blocks during ship time and they immediately started making houses. One of the 2 year olds who loves blocks during ship time and is an expert in making different patterns with blocks, joined all the blocks one by one and named it “houshie”.

When challenged to try a different pattern she quickly removed all the blocks from the house she had made before and put some other colored blocks and pointed to her now improvised house and said, “Madam, houssshheee, big housshhee” and gave an adorable smile.

 Seeing her making a house with different patterns, Vihaan M who was continuously watching her pattern tried making a different pattern of house too and said, “Madam see, even I made a big house.” The house looked completely different from Sudiksha’s.

I wonder what they are visualisisng when they are making their houses? Do they really connect with the kind of houses they see around them or the ones they dream of - bigger, brighter and with all the amenities they want? Or is the whole activity about how big a house one can make?

What makes children create such a variety of patterns in their houses? How differently do they see the world around them that makes them represent it such varied and different ways?

Given a set of blocks, how would you make a house? How many different kinds of houses do you think you would be able to make? Something with a tall tower, or a flat large top or, something that looks like a house from another planet? What would your “houshees” look like if you built it differently?


Contributed by Neha Nag Choudhary, Learning & Innovation Engineer at Sparkling Mindz
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In and out of shapes!

18/9/2015

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As part of our neighbourhood connect walks our 1.5-3 year olds went outdoors to a local park. At the park 20 months old Vivaan who had just started to talk in words noticed a ‘circle’ shaped hole on the floor. It was such a tiny hole with a yellow colour leaf lying next to it. 


One can’t fathom the deep and connected ways in which children learn and the different perspectives with which they see the world around them.

While going through the nature walk pictures with the children back at school Facilitator picked up a circular shaped block and showed it to the children for them to connect to what Vivaan had seen in the park, earlier during the day.

 To everyone’s surprise, 2.5 years old Daniel picked up another block and tried to connect it to the ‘rectangle shape’ in the picture. Can you spot the same?

 The other children didn’t see it as they were focused on Vivaan and his circle. Daniel could zoom out and see the space around Vivaan as well as where he was standing to see the stand alone tile to spot the rectangular shape.

 It was a connection the child had made which showed the capability of the child to zoom out of the current frame of reference and see something bigger and different. How many of us do this on a day to day basis in our lives?
 
Contributed by Maria Sanjana, Learning Facilitator @ Sparkling Mindz

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The way the shadows move

6/9/2015

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As part of our imagination hour we had set up shadow play space and materials for our 3-4 year olds. Children were excited to work with shadows! Many of them were looking at the shadows and making pictures with them. One of the 3 year olds in the class, Pari, found something interesting. She kept looking at the shadow for a long time and kept moving her star shape up and down. Suddenly with great excitement she shouted saying “Ma’am the star and the sun shadow becomes big as it is moved!”

It was in her play with light and shadows she had discovered a basic principle of shadows that it changes shape as it is moved closer and away from its light source. Pari in her playful observation discovered how nature presents opportunities to play even in the simplest of elements around.

Discovering shadows and playing with them gives children one more of the languages of the universe to connect with and understand in their lives. The discoveries we make by ourselves stays with us forever and it kindles the curiosity in us in ways that mugging up numbers and facts doesn’t. What have you discovered today?


Contributed by: Sujitha M, Learning & Innovation Engineer at Sparkling Mindz


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What does your imagination look like?

2/9/2015

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Can you imagine a child in kindergarten as an author of a story? Our children had been experimenting with visuals, words and sentences for a while now to express their ideas. We thought it would be a wonderful thought to ask them about stories. We saw excitement in their eyes when the concept was introduced to them. They had been hearing stories since they were babies and now was their chance to make one of their own!

 We explored the book, “The little Cloud” and we wondered aloud whether we could see more shapes in clouds. All the children volunteered to lie down and watch shapes in the clouds on our open terrace garden. Lying on the cool green patch, experiencing the light wind and the harsh sun they squinted their eyes to make out the clouds and the shapes within them. Finally something had caught each one of their eyes.

They stepped back and designed their own clouds on different colour papers of their own choice and traced shapes on it from their imagination. Then began the journey of their own little cloud which had a family and would listen to its parents and so on. In children’s eyes everything around us is alive and learning merges with imagination to breathe life into the stories they create. 


Their journey as authors was just beginning. Once they were done the facilitator asked them whether they would like to create stories with characters different from the cloud?

That’s how this little wonder came alive!

 “The octopus and the sword fish” is the story by a 5.8 year old in the class. In the story a little octopus gets its tentacles stuck in the sea weed and is rescued by a sword fish. 

Taking inspiration from the sea visuals painted on the wall in their class, Aaryav used his vivid imagination to craft a story filled with interesting characters, friendship, helplessness and brave choices. His choice of the octopus to get stuck and the sword fish to rescue show the synthesis of information and facts and beautiful connections in the imaginary world to craft stories that look and feel real!

 He wanted to illustrate his story and added darker and lighter shades of blue in his drawing to show the depth of the ocean. (The above master piece was drawn by him to represent his visuals of the story) It made me wonder about the depth of the perception of a child of the world around them and the courage to represent it from their own perspective. In spite of knowing the reasons and several facts about oceans we may not have the perception or the courage to show the different nuances represented by the child in his picture. 

Looking back at the creation I could see how the values, emotions, knowledge and creativity came together in his work. If you expressed your imagination in pictures or words, what would your imagination look like?


Contributed by: Kishore S,  Learning & Innovation Engineer at Sparkling Mindz.
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