I am not joking even one bit when I say that we as Sparkling Mindzians took the very first step to saving the world from becoming a garbage pile and spreading awareness about it! And we didn’t wait for some else to do something about this ongoing issue,  finding solutions. We came up with our own ideas and solutions through our mission T.R.U.I. 

Recently we have been having a lot of discussions about how our world is getting affected, specifically in the context of waste, landfills and how our oceans are getting affected in return. We wanted to do something about this and were given the opportunities by our facilitators. So they helped us create a platform where our ideas can grow, be implemented and learnt from. The created platform is T.R.U.I-Tinker, Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, Up-cycle and Innovate. The plan was to have T.R.U.I shops; shops that have items that have been 'T.R.U.I.- ed' or you could say made out of waste. 

T.R.U.I shops sound fun, right? But if we were going to do something effective and impactful, we needed a plan. So as a class we sat down and thought about what all these materials could be used for. We thought of many things from pencil holders to sound amplifiers, lamp shades to coasters, key chains to racks and so much more. We realised that we not only had to come up with ideas but had to pick the most effective ones and to do this, we had to come up with a set of parameters. So we took our facilitators' help and came up with a set of parameters - Effective, Useful, Abundantly Sourceable, Sturdy and Aesthetically Pleasing. Using these parameters, we picked out three main ideas: coasters, lamp shades and wind chimes. 

Before jumping into making things, we know there was so much more to learn about all of these  and we found connecting what we learnt to T.R.U.I a little hard. Because of this we were not able to push our ideas and shops forward. Observing this, our facilitators understood that T.R.U.I lost its importance and that it became a side project. To turn this around, they gave us MISSION T.R.U.I. Now everything we learnt and did connected to T.R.U.I. and it finally made sense. T.R.U.I became the centre of our learning. We connected so much more than we did before, we learnt so much more than we did before and we started using T.R.U.I as a big part of our learning. Well, now we are learning surface area, displacement, distance, non-chronological reports, documentation and perspectives.

While during one of our discussions in our class, we came to a conclusion that frisbees are the most bought toys. So we all figured, why not make up-cycled frisbees? Now, how will the learning stated above help us? Well, the distance and displacement will help us understand how the frisbee moves thus, helping us make frisbees based on that. We can open the frisbee in a net shape and figure out its surface area to understand how big the frisbee needs to be and most importantly, to help us record and document it. 

And this is my journey so far. 

#gamebasedlearning
#joyouslearning
#sparklingmindzglobalschool
​#inspiringconfidentlearners
#becomingchangemakers
​

The class was in progress,  the Annual Day was just around the corner and our 5- 6 year olds were winding up their discussions on what costume they would like to explore for their dance this year. It was almost snack time when A asked me for the time.

A: Ma'am, how many minutes for snack break?
Me: we have 10 more minutes.
A: (exclaiming) O My God! 600 seconds! 
Me: (almost not noticing the Wow! ) is it?

(I quickly realized there was more to it and made a mental calculation to find out it was right)

Me: Hey, how did you know it was 600 seconds?
A: I had counted the seconds for 5 minutes it was 300 seconds. I doubled it for 10 minutes, which is 600 seconds. 

Children were recently introduced to the concept of clock and in parallel they were also learning basic single digit addition and subtraction. A being able to apply the two concepts together in context show the depth at which he has perceived the  concept. 

When children connect their learning to their day to day life, they begin to find purpose in what they are learning which helps them build interest and when the interest is built, they take joy in going beyond and exploring in depth. We at SM believe in making learning contextual and purposeful making it worthy of every child's time. 

​Contributed by Yashika CG, Learning Facilitator, Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.

#inspiringconfidentlearners
#sparklingmindzglobalpreschool
#wowmoments
#learningconceptsfunway

It was movement workshop at SM and in the class of 3 to 4 year old's, children and facilitators were having a busy conversation on what an obstacle race means and what are some of the obstacles that children face in their lives. 

You may wonder, do 3 to 4 year old's understand what obstacles are? do they face obstacles?

As they explored what an obstacle race is and they knew what they need to do when they encounter and obstacle in the race, when we went ahead to wonder about what obstacles means to them in life, they did not find it complicated, they went,

A -"Ma'am when I'm colouring the pencil lead keeps breaking, that is an obstacle"

R - Who was snacking during the online class said, "I'm eating kadala (Peanuts) now so I cannot speak, it is an obstacle"

R - who reflected post class and shared, "When I'm doing my take home, my Mumma is the only obstacle, she keeps telling me what to do" 

Now that children are exploring the race and learning to overcome obstacles in the race children are in the process of learning to overcome their life's obstacles through growth mindset. 

At SM everything that children learn revolves around purpose and the connection they make towards  their lives, which makes them learners who experience and practice their learning and not mere hoarders of knowledge.

Contributed by Grace Veronica, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.

#sparklingmindzglobalpreschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#21stcenturylearning
#reggioinspiredlearning
#sportsmanship

Don't coach your child to win in the playground at any cost. Life is not a playground and children need to learn that when they strive to win at any cost they actually lose. They lose friendship, they lose respect, they lose trust, they lose joy, they lose the ability to learn from failure, they lose a little bit of themselves in the process of being inhumane with the others. 

Parents need to understand that when your child interacts with the world out there she is going to struggle and feel pain. The pain of broken friendships, broken trusts, broken promises, broken expectations and broken dreams. It is not our battle to fight. It's not our shame or guilt to feel. It's our chance to coach,mentor, be present but let them feel, let them learn and let them decide.

It's our choice to make, to show them that life doesn't resemble a playground. That people who don't have a common goal or purpose in life don't randomly come together every evening to figure things out and hurt each other in the process. It's just a phase of your life and you have a choice to make on whom to play with and whom to trust. At no cost should we teach them to win at all costs, to return an unkind word with another, to return an abuse or hurt with another. We will not be holding up to the promise we made of making this world a slightly better place than when we came in. We will not be doing our bit. 

Then, what do we do? When the child is hurt and sad? Feeling low and out on his own? 

Tell him he is being strong for not having hurt back. Teach him what it means to stand up for himself and show his strength through that. Show him how to use empathy to respond with some care and not take s*** from others ever. 

But, before you do any of this, look at yourself long and hard into  your internal mirror and ask yourself, "If I were in that playground how would I handle the hurt?" If the answer is not what you are teaching the child then learn the kinder, the more empathetic way and THEN practice it together.

Contributed by Sreeja Iyer, CEO & Founder of Sparkling Mindz Global School, Preschool, & Afterschool

#everychildcan
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#sparklingmindzglobal
#21stcenturylearning

As our 5-6 year olds examined the collapsed bee hive and wonder how it would have plummeted, they came up with their hypothesis of different events that could have occurred for the hive to collapse. 

E: The hive got heavier and heavier and heavier and that's why it fell down. 

An: (A wondered after listening to E) When they were still working and the hive falls, the air comes in right? Why did they not get out of the hive? 

E: When the hive was falling down, the bees might have known and some of the bees flew away. 

Av: In case the bees are sleeping, how will they know the hive is falling? 

An: Bees don't sleep, they only work 

Av: They sleep in the night and bats come and break, Bat is a bee eater, you know that? (He continues) I think I know, so, the bees sleep at night and are awake in the morning whereas, Bats sleep in the morning and wake up at night. That's why I think the bat's used their claws and cut the bee hive and no one knew. 

T: (Questioning Av's hypothesis) But, there is a night security at school, why didn't he take care of it? 

Av: But for the Bats, he can't do anything, if he comes near the Bats, they might poke him. Also, he cannot see the Bats because it's too up. 

It was interesting to see how children tried to make logical connections with the knowledge they had. An open discussion like this enable children to bring about their thoughts and ideas and expand their connections helping them develop their thinking muscle 

#reggioemiliainspiredlearning
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#sparklingmindzglobalpreschool
​
Contributed by Yashika CG, Learning Facilitator, Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.

​Our 5-6 year old pre-schoolers were just back from their visit to the Honey Factory and the learnings were fresh in their minds, the classes buzzed with connections to bees and the honey factory in all its glory. Just then, a hive that was housed at our school campus collapse due to its weight.

We made use of this opportunity to let children observe, feel and explore it further. The hive was carefully laid on the ground in their play area. As children arrived, some were excited, some confused, some were shocked and some curious.

E: I can see honey.
Ab: (Shocked) Where are the honey bees? O My God! They killed them. There are thousands of bees which are dead!
Aad: Because they put smoke to them (referring to a honey harvesting technique using smoke that she had heard about)
Sh: I can see the eggs, all the circle ones are eggs.
Ab: (checking if he could touch) Can I touch?
Facilitator: Gently
(Everybody take turns to touch it)
Sh: It's hard, but I can smell some yummy honey.
Aad: It looks like a mountain.
T: It's a rainbow pattern.

Post this, Ab suddenly calls out for everybody.

Ab: Worker bees! Come on, let's go look for nectar!
An: (runs to Ab) I want to be the queen bee Ab, what do I do?
Ab: You go lay eggs up there (pointing toward the area above the doll house)
An followed the instructions, while the others went looking for nectar in the garden. The exploration, in no time had taken a turn into a game of pretend play.

Children called themselves worker bees and fetched nectar from the flowers in the garden area and brought it back to the hive above the doll house, while An, pretended to lay eggs.

Once they were done with pretend play, they got back to their classes and discussed more about the bees as children who had done some research on this topic shared their knowledge with the class.

An: Talked to the class about how the bees are transferred from their natural hives to domesticated boxes.

E: Talked to the class about the process of honey creation by honey bees which she had seen in a video.

The whole class together explored the shape of the the honey comb.

When children are given an environment that kindles their curiosity and allows them to play with it, magic is sure to happen! They take that extra mile to delve deeper and immerse themselves in the learning.  And things learnt through play stays for life.

We at SM constantly strive towards creating a space that helps children explore their interests to the fullest while embedding their curriculum into it. This helps children develop a love not just for learning, but for learning in different ways which we believe is one of the most important skills to possess.

#reggioemiliainspiredlearning
#sparklingmindzglobalpreschool
​#inspiringconfidentlearners

Contributed by Yashika CG, Learning Facilitator, Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.

Seeing the curiosity amongst our 5- 6 year olds were curious about different kinds of insects and were learning the concept of sequencing in depth in their curriculum. We decided to take them on a visit to a local honey factory.

On the day of the visit, the ground rules were arrived at and as always, they decided to learn as much as they can and not as little as they can from the visit.

We arrived at the Factory around 10:00am to find Ms. Smitha the owner and her enthusiastic team ready to take us through the journey of honey from "hives to our homes". On our request, she had also arranged a variety of bees called Apis Mellifera to show our children.
​
The journey began with getting to know our cohabiting friends better. Ms. Smitha had arranged large size portraits of the three variety of bees. Apis Dorsata, Apis Mellifera and Apis Cerana, a hive of Apis Mellifera and also sample of honey made with nectar of different flowers(Coffee, Litchi and multi-flower).

As our children were introduced to the bees, below are some questions they arrived at.
T: Why do honeybees fly?, Why do honey bees need honey?, Why are there different kinds of honey bees? How does honey go to people?
A: Why do they have different names?
E: Do they make different kinds of honey?, Which is the sweetest honey?, How is the queen bee made?
Once their questions were answered, we proceeded with the processing of honey.
We moved to an in house laboratory where they demonstrated how the honey is tested for acid content. The lab also had a large oven to sterilize the instrument where T wanted to know "What is the specific heat required to kill germs?".

Post the lab, we moved on to the processing of honey, pasteurizing, mixing and setting. The settled honey then went through a packaging process. Where children experienced honey going through various process of packaging through a conveyor belt. Post this, children got to take home packed samples of honey.

The next day in class, children reflected on the the trip and recalled the sequence of events that happened at the factory. They got introduced to ordinal and cardinal numbers and went deeper to find different things in their life and around them that happen in sequence.

Since we picked something children were already curious about and incorporated the curriculum in it, children took away a lot more learning than through a class room activity. This is the magic of connected learning. It helps the learner make  deeper and wider connections and the more connections they make the stronger the learning.

The exploration didn't end here, they went into the lives of honey bees in depth, which is documented in the 2nd part of this series.

​#reggioemiliainspiredlearning
#sparklingmindzglobalpreschool
​#inspiringconfidentlearners


Contributed by Yashika CG, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.

Meet Karan Thakkar , CEO and Founder of The Recycling Company - one of our panelists for the discussion on 'Purpose based Career pathways for Young Changemakers', at the Young Changemakers' Summit. 

Our children, as part of Mission TRUI (Climate Change) have been collaborating with Threco and running #e-waste collection drives. In last 2 months, we have collected 165 kgs of e-waste from just our community.

Like he says, it is the biggest challenge and opportunity of our times - we are embracing it. 
​

How many of you believe that peanut butter is a wholesome, nutritious, protein-filled snack? 

Meet Karthik Bhaskara who will disagree and tell you that it depends on many factors. He is the co-founder at Bhoomi Sustainable Foods and Beverages Pvt Ltd, and Zvatra where the peanut butter is all-natural and sustainably manufactured. 

When our children interacted with him recently - they were filled with questions - 

“Why is the peanut butter stone ground? What difference does that make?” 
‘What made you choose what you are doing?
“What is the meaning of Zvatra and why did you choose that as a name?” 
​

Only adventure awaits. 

Curious to know more? Why not register for our upcoming Young Changemakers' Summit and find out for yourself? 

Come and join the movement here.

More details here.

See you there!