In May, children at SM had created the first edition of SM Times, our student-led newsletter. The process of creating these newsletters was challenging and fun - just the way any true learning process is. And it left all of us with a feeling of growth and inspiration. The second edition of the newsletter is about just that. About how the children have continued  to grow and stay inspired despite the lockdown. 
At the start of the lockdown, Sreeja ma'am had asked the children "No virus can stop us, can it?" They answered with a wide-eyed, open-hearted 'Yes!" The newsletters below are a compilation of some parts of their journey of learning, growth and inspiration... 

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Contributed by Poorva Agarwal, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global School.


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#sparklingmindzglobalpreschool
#youngachieversacademy
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#everychildcan
#21stcenturylearning
#buildingownershipinchildren
​#gamebasedlearning

The 4 to 5 year olds pretend played being doctor and nurse.

It was G and P's turn to be the doctor and nurse. P goes and sits on the doctor's seat, G wants to be the doctor too. 

F (Looking at P): Do you want to be the nurse?
P: No I want to be the doctor

Both G and P sitting quietly waiting for the other to let go.

F waited for a while and respectfully tried giving them a suggestion after seeking their permission saying, "Since you get to attend 2 patients do you mind taking turns being the doctor for each of them?"

G immediately says, "Ok then I'll be the nurse"
And they took turns happily.

When shown fair chance children immediately expand their horizons and can see possibility of a different kind of interaction. One that involves being caring and empathetic towards each other and not just grabbing opportunities for self. 

We believe children are respectful individuals who deserve to be respected the way adults do and by modeling respectful behavior they pick up cues to respect each other.

Contributed by Grace Veronica, Facilitator, Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool

It's the month of August, the month that's special for every Indian. It was the month in which India achieved Independence from the British rule 73 years ago. As the rest of India celebrates this month by reminiscing the sacrifice of the various people who contributed to the Indian freedom movement, our pre-schoolers (5-6 year olds) at Sparkling Mindz began their discussion with a prompt "What do they love about India?" and the following were their responses along with how the discussion moved forward.

*Sh: I love that India is a big country and I love the national anthem.
Sh: Why do we sing the national anthem?
Ash: We sing national anthem to wish India*

This opened up an opportunity to discuss about the geography of India. The States, union territories and their capitals. How big India was before Independence and how big is it now and a little about the national anthem.
*Ana: I love that freedom fighters fought for our country*

This led us to discuss about who did the freedom fighters fight against and why? Why did the British East India company come to India? Who were the freedom fighters and how did they fight (Violence and Non violence)?

*Em: everywhere I travel in India, I love the buildings*
This led us to discuss about the famous monuments or heritage towns in India.

*Aad: I love India because it's colorful*
This opened up an opportunity to talk about the diversity in language, food, clothing, culture etc. And how inspite of our difference we love each other.
*Tan: I love India because it's beautiful*
*Abh: But, there are also people who litter in India*
This statement ignited a spark in the class and everybody seemed upset and concerned.
Facilitator: Why do you think people litter in India.
Abh: Because they are bad people.
Facilitator: It is? Sometimes in class we forget to follow ground rules, does that make us bad people?
Class: No, they just don't know the ground rules.
Facilitator: what do you think we should all do about this?
Tan: When somebody litters we can take it and throw in the dustbin.
Facilitator: Do you think they will learn if we pick up all the garbage for them? Is it possible for us to pick up all the garbage in India?
Ved: We need to clean our roads.
Abhi: We need to have more bins on the pathways.
Avy: We need to have poop bins for the dogs on the streets.
Adi: If you don't find garbage bin, keep it in a bag and throw it when you see a dust bin.
Post this discussion, children began reporting about littering incidents they come across on a daily basis while traveling from school to home and other places.
Noticing the concern and the spark in children to make a change, the facilitator gave them a choice to come up with ways to educate people on keeping India clean.
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Few suggestions they came up with were-
1. Role play
2. Making placards
3. Making videos
4. Writing letters

Considering all their suggestion the facilitator helped them thread through a mime which they performed to educate their parents on Independence day. They also went about and wrote letters to people they see littering the streets. 

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

The 4 year olds were making a circle with all of the colourful chairs around them for their usual Monday circle time. They had just gotten back from a 3 days long holiday and had lots to share! The circle was almost complete when Paridhi was just standing in the middle of the almost circle with an upset face, refusing to talk to anybody. 

"What happened Pari?", asked the facilitator (F).
Paridhi, with more tears," I want Elsa's chair!"

At this point, as the F seemed confused, children explained that the blue chair is Elsa's chair and the others are Aana's chairs. At this time there were no more blue chairs as children had all already occupied all of the rest, except for a green chair.

F continued," Why don't you take another chair and sit? Because there's no more blue chair."

Pari,"But that's Aana's chairs. I want to be Elsa!" and continues being upset. 

F noticed Tanmayi was sitting on a yellow chair and pointed at Tanmayi ,"See Tanmayi is sitting on a yellow one!", To which Tanmayi replied," I am sitting on yellow one because it is a bright colour chair. It is sun fairies,moon fairies, anything you want to be!"

F,"Oh wow! Did you hear that Pari? You can be aaaaaanything you want to be! What would you like to be other than Elsa?"

She thought for a few seconds and shouted with excitement," Butterfly!"

F,"Awesome! And which chair would you like to sit on?"

She pointed at the only available green chair and happily sat on it, and the problem was resolved.

With the right prompts, children can figure out solutions for themselves. It's important to understand the care-abouts of children in every situation as it helps to resolve issues at a deeper level, leaving everybody calmer and happier. 


Contributed by Sruthy Krishna, Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.

As part of their Independence day visit,  our pre-schoolers expressed interest in knowing more about the freedom fighters. Considering their curiosity, they were taken to Freedom park, a place that served as a prison during Indian freedom movement which is now converted into a park. 

As children arrived at Freedom Park, A noticed grass growing on the gaps between the tiles on the pavement and screamed.

A: Stop everyone! Do not step on the grass! 
He succeeded in getting everybody's attention and they walked carefully making sure to not step on the grass. 

Post this incident of A displaying kindness and care and encouraging others to do the same, they walked ahead exploring the different areas of the park, the prisons, the execution place etc. As they walked, they came across a little insect strolling on the grass. Av, picked up a small twig and killed the insect. 
Rest of the group screamed: Ma'am Av killed the insect.
Em (visibly upset): it didn't even do anything to us.

Seeing his friends holding him accountable for his behavior, Av feels bad and tries to defend himself by speaking gibberish. 
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A while later, children exploring the park found a fallen branch. They picked it up and started playing tug-of-war (it's been their favorite game ever since it was introduced to them a year ago). Just then, M saw it and ran to her friends. 
M: Everybody stop! You'll get hurt.

It was take home issue time for Cubs (4 to 5 year olds) today, just before they went home for the weekend. Children were all busy packing their take home files into their bags when Tanmayi was visibly upset. With teary eyes she said, "Nobody is being my friend." And started crying slightly. 

"Who do you mean by everybody?"

Tanmayi, pointing at Ashley, continues to tear up. 

"I am sure you can solve this. Why don't you go talk to her and ask her- Ashley, are you not my friend?"
She was prompted here as she was not in an emotional space to come up with questions. She seemed really upset. Usually she takes care of such situations herself. 

Tanmayi walked over to Ashley and asked gently, "Ashley, are you my friend or not?", hoping for a yes. 
When Tanmayi got no response from Ashley's side, she looked even more helpless, without realizing that Ashley might not have heard her voice as she was speaking very softly. Tanmayi kept standing next to Ashley, looking at me as if asking for help. 

"Ashley, I think Tanmayi is trying to communicate something with you."

Upon hearing this, Ashley suddenly noticed Tanmayi standing in front of her, "Oh!"

"Ashley, are you my friend or not?", repeated Tanmayi with a calmer demeanor. 
"Yes I am! But why did you twist my hand?", asked Ashley. 

​Contributed by Sruthy Krishna, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.

It's Poetic Soiree time of the year again and the preschoolers are busy practising their poems. The two 4 year olds in Cubs class at SM Preschool were reciting their poem called Invention by Shel Silverstein, which goes like,

I've done it, I've done it!
Guess what I've done!
Invented a light that plugs into the sun.
The sun is bright enough,
The bulb is strong enough
But, oh, there's only one thing wrong...
The cord ain't long enough.

Post this recital, the Cubs weren't happy with leaving the ending in a way where the invention seemed useless. So together they solved the problem, and came up with an extension to the poem with the help of the facilitator,

' So I take six ladders,
Put them together as one.
Then I take a few cords,
Attach them together
And plug it into the sun!'

Children used empathy as a tool here to come up with solutions. They stepped into the shoes of the poet, became the poem and realized that they could help figure out what the poet can do to make the invention work! At first they were unhappy with the original ending, as they found it ending with a problem and not a solution. And almost immediately, with no intervention required, they started exploring various solutions for the same. They moved around the class, pretending the sun to be at a high place, having a short cord, asking each other what they can do. And in a matter of less than 5 minutes, they solved it together as a group! 

When children are invited to wonder, the world of curiosities open up. They step into that world and emerge out victorious with questions, solutions, answers...Perhaps that's all we need as children and adults, a safe space to wonder, be curious, ask questions and figure things out. 


Contributed by Sruthy Krishna, Learning Facilitator, Sparkling Mindz Global.

Another typical day for the 3 and 4 year olds at Sparkling Mindz where they were all seated at their usual yellow rectangular table. They were all given worksheets to do where they had to stick thermocol balls on the sheets given. They are usually given choices on how they would like to do the worksheets and what they would like to stick. As we were focusing on fine motor development, on this particular day, they were given thermocol balls to stick. They were each given a glue stick to use for themselves to stick. 
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The glue sticks were of three colours: black, blue, and blue and yellow. An and H both wanted blue. By the time the glue sticks got to them, it was between blue, and blue and yellow. An and H start arguing on who gets to use the blue one. Both the glue sticks were handed over to both of them. At this point they both stared at me hoping I would take a call and hand over the blue to one of them to which I responded, "Okay. Please solve this problem you guys", and I moved onto the others observing how they were going to resolve this. 
Few seconds later they came up with a solution all by themselves!
An said," After we finish this one line, you give me the blue and I'll give you this. Let's exchange", to which H happily agreed, called me and told me how they had revolved their fight. 

It was such a beautiful sight to see them resolving their problems by themselves. If I had stepped in, I would have stolen that lesson, that they learned about solving problems by themselves and sharing, by giving them the solutions. By trusting their capabilities in solving their problems, I was able to strengthen my belief about children that even at such a young age, they are absolutely capable of anything that they put their minds to, which is a learning not just for them but also for me. As adults, we often step in to figure things out for the children without letting them figure it out for themselves. We often tend to forget that they are capable individuals with brilliant minds that can function independently without us having to interfere a lot of the times. Taking a step back a lot of the times will give them chances to step up for themselves and also enable them to believe that we trust them to solve their issues by themselves. And this, is beautiful.


Contributed by Sruthy Krishna, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool. 

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#everychildcansolveproblems

​It was around 10:20am and our 4-5 year olds were setting their class up for snacks. Just then, the facilitator spotted Ad and Sh fighting for the red chair. The class had just one red chair and this was not the first time children were fighting over it. The facilitator intervenes and takes away the red chair from both of them.
 
F: Okay! Looks like we have a very serious problem.
Ab: Because of all of us!
F: What do we now? There is just one red chair and so many of us want to sit on that one chair.
Ash: I’m sitting on a yellow chair, Everyday I’m sitting on different, different chair.
F: People sitting on different chairs everyday, that’s great! Now, how can we solve this red chair problem?
Ab: No red chair (He meant, taking away the red chair)
(Ad, visibly very upset, takes a chair and sits away from the circle, making angry gestures.)
F: (To the class) Ad will calm down and tell us how he wants to solve this problem.
 
F (now addressing the whole class): Do you all have any suggestion for Ad?
Sh: I have! Maybe he can say sorry to the red chair and not fight with the red chair.
F: Was he fighting with the red chair or was he fighting for the red chair?
Ab: He was fighting for the red chair.
Ar (Raises his hand): Take away the red chair!
An: He can take the chair some of the days, he cannot take the chair tomorrow.
F: So you are saying, Ad can take the chair on some days and some days he can give it to others?
Ab: I have a solution, we can paint the red chair in different colors.
Ash (Interrupts): If we paint the red chair, all the paints will be over.
Ab: We can stick paper on the red chair and paint the paper.
F: Hmmm… Ad loves the red chair, if we change it to another color, would that solve the problem?
M: We all love the red chair. All of us love all the chairs.
F (To Av): Do you have a solution?
Av: The solution is when Ad is going to take the red chair, somebody else should take the red chair.
F: Do you think Ad will like it?
Av: If Ad wants red chair, we can just cover it with white.
F: How will that solve the problem? He still loves the red chair isn’t it?
Ab: Maybe we can get more red chairs.
Ta: Ma’am, I’ll give my red chair to Ad and take a different one.
F: You could do that, but Ad likes only that Red chair (The bright one).
Sh: Ma’am, all the other chairs are saying we love Ad.
Ad (still angry): (makes roaring noise)
T: Maybe I’ll tell everyone that Ad wants the red chair and please can you let him take the red chair?
F: Do you think it’s fair to let Ad take the Red chair everyday? Sh also likes the Red chair and she also wants to sit on it sometime.
T: Maybe, you can let him take the Red chair today.
F: OK, how about we agree on An’s idea? She said Ad can take it some days and give it to others on some days, Would that work with you Ad?
Ad: Today I’ll take it, tomorrow I’ll give it.
T: Maybe Sh and Ad can keep on exchanging.
An (Raising her hand): I should also get it.
 
Everybody else in class also started raising their hands one by one saying “I also want the Red chair”, and we decided to make a timetable and put it up in class so that everybody gets to sit on the red chair. Ever since then, there has not been a conflict regarding the Red chair.
 
Taking away the red chair would have easily solved the problem but that would have been momentary and would have robed the opportunity form children to discuss and arrive at a solution. Here, they not only displayed their reasoning and problem solving capabilities but also, in the process felt that their voices mattered. Encouraging or involving children in decision making and problem solving will help them build trust in themselves as well as creates a sense of ownership as the child feels understood and listened to. 

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

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#youngachieversacademy
#everychildcan

The facilitator at SM preschool noticed that the class of 12 four to five year olds were establishing comfort zones and forming smaller groups within the class. They played with the same group of children and struggled with making new friends. To address this issue, on one of the morning hours, the facilitator set up an invitation to play with lego blocks and animal toys.
 
Children were given the choice to create something together as one team and were given 15 minutes. Even though children began to create something together, towards the end of 15 minutes there were two smaller groups and few children playing individually on their own.
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At the end of 15 minutes, children were asked to stop, leave whatever they were doing as it is and move to the side. Each of them were asked what their team was doing but they could only recollect and say what they were doing individually.

The facilitator reminded them of the initial goal of the activity and posed a question at the children, "What do you all think we can do now?"
"Maybe we can join everything together", T suggested and everybody agreed.

The children were given another 15 minutes to complete their task. At the end of that 15 minutes and a lot of mini conflicts, they had together built a gigantic animal carrier.

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When asked what they liked and disliked about working together as a team, the few things that emerged were:

Sh: We made so many different things and we attached it, I didn’t like it when J destroyed it.
T: I learn’t to do a big building with so many blocks with the team, I didn’t like when Ar destroyed what I made.
Ad: I liked to put the animals together with the team, I didn’t like J destroying it.
Ar: My team helped me make the big building, I didn’t like that there are a lot of items that are not used. I felt very bad when my team was not listening, only V was listening.
An: I learn’t how to build animal home with the team. I didn’t like everybody screaming and I was not able to hear others. Everyone was very loud screaming “I want to put it”.
Av: I liked building the animal carrier truck. I didn’t like that everyone was shouting.
Ad: I like about my team when they were doing a great building work.

So it is with anytime children work together, there is bound to be conflict, lack of feeling listened to, screaming and a lot of me-me-me. Even if at the end of it what they produce looks amazing the feeling of how the experience was stays with them and they continue to avoid collaboration.

As children listened to how they all felt at the end of the activity it started to create bridges between one heart to another and slowly mend fences from one child to another. At the heart of good team work and collaboration lies trust and at the heart of that lies empathy and listening with an open, non-judgmental mind is a good start!

Collaboration and team work are two of the most essential life skills. By learning to make new friends and collaborating with them at an early age, children become more tolerant and appreciative of others' ideas and develop a sense of social adeptness which they are going to carry with them through adulthood.

#sparklingmindzglobalschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#youngachieversacademy
#everychildcan

​Contributed by Yashika CG, Asst. Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz.