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!

You shared and we listened. 


You said you would be missing the summit due to holiday travel or school event outside of Bangalore or a working day on Friday.


So the new dates are -


 7th and 8th of Jan 2023 


Yep! A Sat and Sun.


Not just that. We also have launched a hybrid mode for those outside Bangalore who would like to attend this online . Now you can too! 


So save a spot now. Register here - https://www.sparklingmindz.in/young-changemakers-summit.html


Hurry up! Limited seats only.​


#sparklingmindzglobal
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#purposedriven
#careerguidance
#youngchangemakers

"Ma! I'm going to play," said Pari.

"But you haven't finished your take home yet," said her mom.

"I'll do it after I play," shouted Pari as she breezed out of her front room door.

Her mother could only watch furious, knowing very well that "the doing homework after play part" was never going to happen. She braced herself for another evening of shouting, screaming, blaming and clawing through the dreaded homework finishing chore.

This was their everyday story.  She would go down to play and not come back until late. It turned into extreme rude behaviour towards the mother and when the father tried to step in, the situation turned into a mayhem with a lot more aggression and violence.

The parent decided to take an appointment with me to tell me about the situation at home. Before that happened I decided to have a chat with the child.

Me: I heard about the situation at home, what do you think is happening?
P: I like playing and learning. Just because I go to play doesn't mean I don't like learning.

Me: Okay, so given a choice between learning and playing - what would you choose?
P: Playing
Me: Why?
P: Because it is running, catching and all my favourite games. I really like playing those games which are same as what we play at school too with my friends
Me: Ok and you don't like to learn because it is not as much fun as playing
P: Yes
Me: Have you thought about why?
P: I don't know
Me: Here at school when we make learning fun ,you enjoy right?
P: Yes, I do
Me: So, what is different at home?
P: I might make a mistake when I'm doing something at home
Me: Oh! And…
P: I don't think I can do it well also and sometimes I don't know what to do or how to do it
Me: Ok, I understand. So, you are telling me that you are not good at learning yet and that's why you like to play more than learn
P: Uh…yes
Me: Ok, so do you think you will get good at learning by going off to play constantly?
P: No
Me: So, what do you think you should do? How can you make learning your friend?
P: By sitting next to someone who will not distract me, by listening in class, by asking if I don't understand
Me: What happens if you don't think you make learning your friend?
P: I should tell myself I think I can
Me: But, do you think you can?
P (after a long pause): No. I think I can't. I think others are better than me
Me: Who says so?
P: My lazy brain
Me: What can your smart brain tell it?
P: That you can do it?
Me: Okay, what will make your smart brain believe that you can?
P: I've to show that I can. That I can't go under it, I can't go over it, I can't go around it. I've to go through it! I've to keep going through tough challenges then my smart brain will believe and it can tell lazy brain that, "I can do it". 

A child's confidence in learning can determine how they feel about it and hence, what kind of stories and attitudes they develop which in turn drives their behaviours of running away or towards learning. The way to a child's learning lies in that confidence and each of us plays a key role in building that.

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

#sparklingmindzglobalschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#everychildcan

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
​