Children make connections all the time, that's one of the ways they make sense of the world around them. The more their connections expand the more deeper and wider their thinking become. Here is an instance of how a child made a connection to what he learnt in a different context.

This morning during the book reading session with out 3- 4 YO we read a book called The Way I Feel by Janan Cain. Children began by revisiting the emotions they were already familiar with through a song and picked 2 new vocabulary "Silly" and "Scared" from the book to go deeper. Children explored silly by showing different funny expressions and scared by drawing instances where they felt scared.

Later that day during the Sports hour, children were learning to kick the ball in the playground. 4 YO K with all his strength kicked a ball and his shoes went flying in the air. He picks his shoes and comes running towards the facilitator for help and says "Silly!"

Connection making is a crucial skill that helps in the cognitive development of children, the skill involves recalling information from our memory, compare and contrast and chunking and sorting. Eg. K made a connection between the shoe flying and how that made him feel and used the new word he learnt to describe it.

​Imagine walking into a class filled with the sounds of a variety of experimental musical instruments. The class was high on children's excitement of the presenting the musical instrument that they had created. 

As each of them presented, they also named their instrument, explained what and how the sound was being produced and made nuanced observations of how various factors could affect the quality of sound that we hear - for instance, the thickness of the rubberbands, the material used, the size of a container, the size of contents within the container and so on. Towards the end of the class, we had them all play their instruments collectively. 

#sparklingmindzglobalschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#gamebasedlearning
#experientiallearning
#makingmusicalinstruments

​Imagine running a shop by yourself. What could happen if you ask a group of 5 year olds to run a shop ?

3 toys shops called the Kids toy shop, Galacting Things for boys and girls and Toy shop operated for about 15 min and sold a total of 66 toys and made Rs. 450. Student D kept increasing his prices. Stuent V stared into his bill book entering the details and issuing bills. These mock toy shops meant the world to the dolphins of Sparkling Mindz.

They decided prices, added costs, collected money, gave change and counted items using addition, multiplication and subtraction. They worked on these skills in levels before getting to this mock market and also identified skills they need to learn to be able to go and comfortably operate in an actual farmers market.

Post the mock market student A said she could see the customers were coming too fast and she would like to learn how to add and multiply fast. Student C asked if we can learn about weights. Student D mentioned how we need to know prices before we go to the market otherwise we might be fooled by any cost a shopkeeper might sell at.

This group of students will soon be visiting a real farmers market to purchase, enquire prices and speak to farmers. They know the skills they need, they've decided the amount of work they would like to put in and they’re creating purpose as they go along.

​#sparklingmindzglobalschool
#mathwithmarkets
#funwithmath
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#reggioinspiredlearning
​

'Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la la la!

No no, not Christmas but jolly because our preschoolers are in school!

With wonder in their eyes,

They have embarked,

On a magical exploration train,

Soaking in all the sights and colours,

Experiencing play through all their senses,

Making new friends and playing together,

Challenging themselves every step of the journey!

#sparklingmindzglobalpreschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#reggioemiliainspired
#21stcenturylearning
#socialemotionallearning
​

An environment is a living, changing system. More than the physical space, it includes the way time is strucutured and the roles we are expected to play. It conditions how we feel, think, and behave; and it dramatically affects the quality of our lives. The environment either works for us or against us as we conduct our lives.
- Jim Greenman 

Space is an indispensable component in the Reggio Emilia approach towards education. The space or the environment is considered to be the third teacher after parents and facilitators according to the philosophy. Being a Reggio inspired school, space set up is an integral part of our curriculum planning and every element of space is thought through and placed with an intention to enable communication between children, with adults in the system and with the space itself. 

This year as we plan to embarked on another exciting academic journey, we decided to redesign our space by bringing our unique Sparkling Mindz characters to invite children to be part of their inspiring stories of exploration and wonder. We used the glass sliding doors in each classroom as portals to the world of interaction, exploration, imagination and movement. 

Each door holds a scene from the stories of Cloudsy, Braiynee Bee, Flexi Daisy, Treeous, Q.marq, Randall and Animo's adventurous lives painted carefully with an objective to spark thinking and discussions as we eagerly await children to return to school post their summer vacations.

#sparklingmindzglobalpreschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#reggioemiliainspired
#designthinkingprocess
​#spacedesign
#21stcenturylearning

"Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who implement them are priceless." 

This old adage by Mary Kay Ash is timeless - and rings true especially today when the notions 'Entrepreneurship' and 'Innovation' are receiving wider acceptance and desire. 

At Sparkling Mindz, where children work on Changemaker Missions, we constantly ask ourselves 'what does it take to implement an idea'. 
In one such exploration, we decided to visit @theworkshop_blr , in order to experience first-hand the process of converting ideas into something tangible. 
 
We are all grateful for the wonderful experience that we had to share that space with them, bring out our creative spirits, let go and play with materials, think with our hands and expand our horizons. 

A key part of the experience was understanding the tools and how they are to be leveraged in the creation process, especially with respect to woodworking.

"Which is the right tool to use to remove a nail from the wall? When is the right time to use a circular saw versus a jigsaw saw? When do we use plywood instead of original wood to create something and why? What are a few of the safety mechanisms to be mindful of when using tools?"

Once these questions were explored in detail, we got the opportunity to work in teams, design products and finally - use the tools and materials to really bring these ideas to life! 

Thank you @theworkshop_blr for providing such a space and thank you to the entire team for letting go of inhibitions and 'thinking with your hands'. 
​

Today we started our usual Library Routine with the usual book reading. The Cubs (4 to 5 year olds) started the reading by exploring the book 'The Day The Crayon Quits' cover page,
R: Green color crayon
A: Its Blue color 
N: Pink 
C: Orange 
VR: Red looks like its fighting with someone and angry 
N: Red looks surprised 
VR: Orange is upset 
R: Blue is a holding a board and it's angry 
C: Green is happy 
D: Pink is very upset 
E: pink is holding the board downwards and sad 
 
Their discussion went deeper when they empathized further, 
N: Red fought with its dad so its sad, upset and it was surprised looking at the other color.
VR: Blue is holding a board because it does not like the other crayons so something is written on it.
 
When the reading continued, children were curious on the word ‘quit’, so we explored further.

VR: It means running!

Everybody agreed. So we moved on with the thought of finding it out while we read the book. We then came across the word ‘stack’.
Facilitator (F): What does stack mean?
 
D: It’s stamp 
But Ad clarified with, “Arranging thing on top of others!”, and we continued reading  the book.

The next word that caught the attention ‘letter’ where the crayons had written letters for Duncan, the main character. 

N: It's a cursive letter 
Aa and Aa: It’s alphabet and its vowel 
D added, “Consonants!”
 
It was clear that children understood that word as the English alphabet while also connecting it to, “We write letters.”
 
The next crayon that children explored was the colour ‘red’ where they connected with gas cylinder, tomato, strawberry, dresses, apple, fire engine, heart etc.
 
We went on further discussions on the different letters and colours in book, when they were asked, “How did you all feel when you used different crayons?”
N: I was upset because I would not colour and write with it
D: Because I could not colour it was small – I feel sad
Aa: I cannot write orange crayon is dirty and it was also breaking
Aad: When I took the dirty yellow crayons my paper also become dirty
C: Colour of the crayon are gone and we are not able to use it
R: When I waste the crayon I feel sad, I talk to the crayon and say I will not waste you the next time.
 
Each one of them talked about how they will be more respectful to the crayons. This suddenly probed A to ask, “Why ma’am, you did not give us big and new crayons?” This got everybody else to ask the F why she hadn’t given them new crayons.
 
So the F asked them back, “Why do you think I haven’t given you the big and nice crayons?”
 
Children contemplated for a while and replied,
VR: Because you want us to write and colour with the small one
A: Making use of the small crayon to colour
N: To know how they feel when they break.
 
F: Yes, so that you all can understand how each of the crayons feel.
 
This moved on to empathizing with the crayons and arriving at what they can do to the crayon when they use them-
 
VR: Crayons are angry on us and next time we don't use it properly they will leave us and go
A: I will use all the crayons
D: We should not break it handle with care
Di: I will use it properly
E: I will tell sorry to red crayon because I use it always
Aa: I will not break not take the rapper
S: I will use the colour and be careful, no wasting
Aa: I take care of it and colour it nicely
Ad: No breaking the crayon
 
Stories are powerful mediums to convey messages and learn new things. Any message can be conveyed through a story that can have deeper impacts on the audience, such as this one. Here from reading a book, what could possibly be seen at first look as simply a comical book on anthropomorphised crayons, carried much more than what met the eyes. Children not only explored their feelings when they used multiple crayons but empathized with them too, arriving at ground rules for themselves when using crayons in the future. This story in particular helped them empathize and learn responsibilities. And both are important skills for anybody to develop in their lives.

#sparklingmindzglobalpreschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#everychildcanempathize
#reggioemiliainspiredlearning

Contributed by Sheela Peter, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool. 

Start small, stay steady, collaborate and grow!

Our Climate Change Mission Group met with an expert today - Mrs Madhuri, creator of Indulge (homemade baked granola bars) and gardening enthusiast -  at school who showed them how the smallest of efforts from each one of us could create an impact. 

How? 
They attended a workshop and learnt that while global warming and climate change is a global problem, it is each of ours to acknowledge and solve. 

Sounds way too big to solve, doesn't it? Somestimes seeing  the small steps don't seem to sovle anything. But every step and action from each one of us counts. 

So our 1st to 8th graders took that 1st step and learnt about bio-enzymes, micro-greens, making completely organic and biodegradable floor cleaners!

And we all realized, "Wow! It isn't a hassle at all. All we need is a little know-how, some discipline, and consistent effort that can get us started and help sustain!"

They smelled, touched, felt, and also made these bio enzymes and planted for micro-greens. 

It was an experience for them to see that we can do something to make a difference, no matter how small. 

What next?
We will continue to take this forward in the form of actually making and using them at our school and at our homes too.

Contributed by Sumati Vinay, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global School.

#sparklingmindzglobalschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#missionclimatechange
#everystepcounts