P, a 4 year old, came to me to open her water bottle. It's usually a little tight for her to open by herself, so she asks for help. Yesterday, Ak, another 4 year old, helped her voluntarily. He considers himself strong and he was excited to help the moment he saw her struggling. 

Today when the same scenario happened, S got to P first. Ak also ran to her, causing a tiff. Now S and Ak were at it, wanting to open the bottle. Eventually S opened it and Ak was visibly upset. I called him to ask what had happened,

F (Facilitator): What happened?
Ak, with teary eyes: S opened the bottle. But ma'am, yesterday S opened Ad's bottle also. 
F: Okay, but yesterday you also opened P's bottle all by yourself too. 
Ak: But ma'am, he opened so many bottles. 
F:How do you feel when you saw him opening bottles?
Ak: Sad. 
F: Why? 
Ak: Because he opened Ad's bottle and so many bottles. 

I figured he was upset because he considers himself quite strong but he was failing to see that his strength could be used anywhere he wanted to and not just opening the bottle. After acknowledging what he felt was okay to be felt when he did not get a turn, we continued our conversation.

F: Hmm, Ak, you know you are super strong right?
Ak: Yes. 
F: And that helps you open bottles for others. Right? 
Ak: Yes ma'am. (Slightly smiling)
F: Are bottles the only things that you can do with your strength?
Ak seems to be thinking. 
F: What else can you do with your super strength?
Ak: Climb ladder, draw...

His options went on and on, and so did his mind. The more options he came up with, the more calm and content he seemed. 

F: Ah, see you can do so many things with your hands and strength. So next time you get upset about not being to open somebody's bottle, what can you do? 
Ak: Find something else. 
F: Awesome!

We finished out conversation with a hi five and off he went to sip water. 

When children feel stuck one way, building the skill of creative decision making could help them shift their emotional states into productive states that can help them bring in the flexibility to handle situations differently, just like how Ak started seeing how he could use his strength in multiple other areas too himself, and not just use it in opening bottles. Flexibility is a muscle that can be built overtime which can enable decision making in creative ways, also helping one to see multiple pathways when one feels stuck. 

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

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#problemsolving

​At Sparkling Mindz Global, it's not just the children who have fun learning and creating, but the facilitators too; making mistakes, learning through them, co-creating a safe, happy and creative environment for each other and growing  together as a community!

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#learningneverstops

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

Let me start with that question: What does the word 'hope' mean to you? Let's take a few seconds and ponder on it. 
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We, the SM facilitators, were asked to collect as many loose parts materials as we could possibly find at home and to create something that symbolizes 'hope' for us in our morning Inspiration Stand Up (INSPU). This week's theme for our INSPU is anything Reggio - inspired hence, the selection of loose parts play. Why 'hope'? 

Perhaps it could be because it is so easy to get carried away in our lives and forget to stop and smell the roses...or that we are in the middle of this pandemic, some of us stuck at home and missing our community...or that life could get rough here and there...so what can we hold on to, if not hope? 

We then started on our journeys in the morning, amidst our online team meeting, through play with the loose parts we had collected from our homes, reflecting, creating, recreating, adding more materials...it was a sweet and inspiring morning to remind ourselves of the hope we carried within. Sharing what we each came up with, 

​

​What would you create to what 'hope' meant to you?

P.S. We incorporated Reggio - inspired themes this week as we are working towards making this new academic year a fruitful one for the children, no matter the pandemic, and no matter whether it's online or not. One can only go as deep as one has explored, in the sense that when we play around with materials first, we get to see various dimensions to materials we see laying around that we otherwise might not see. It's a learning journey for both us and the children alike!


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


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#everychildcan
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Before the pandemic and online classes became the new normal, children at Sparkling Mindz had been discussing the 'power within me' in their House Circle. This was a culmination of the theme for the previous year and the various inspiring ways in which the children had engaged with it. 
With the online mode of operation becoming a reality, we decided to bring together their inspiration in the form of a newsletter. Now, if this newsletter had to take forward their House Circle Time, it had to be essentially 'for the students, of the students, by the students'. 
We are glad to say that it is - from compiling their individual inspirations, to documenting their journeys of finding the 'power within me' in the form of a cover story, adding other external elements like crosswords and quotes, requesting a facilitator to write a column, self-learning the aspects of layout on an online platform to the final writing, designing and reviewing - it is an example authentic student-work. It is not perfect, but glorious. It is not a 'product' but an output of genuine student-led learning. It is the start of a new learning curve. It is the first of the many SM Times' to come in the future. 

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.

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.

We were preparing for the upcoming event in our school,  the Poetic Soiree.   In order to help the 2 - 4 year olds understand and connect to poems,  I had a discussion about nursery rhymes.  The children got excited and started reciting the rhymes that they knew.  And then we discussed about how " Twinkle Twinkle little star" was about curiosity and how " Johnny Johnny, 'yes papa!'" was a funny poem/rhyme.  

We also discussed about how every poem had a title followed by the poet's name. Then I asked children if they would like to come up with their own poems. Rishi got excited about the idea of signing his own name as the poet and  said he wanted to attempt one.  And he rattled off so spontaneously that I had to rush for a pen to jot down his ideas. He chose to make a poem about his favourite colour,  blue.  His poem went like this:

"Blue,  blue,
How you got into the sky?"

He paused and when I asked if he wanted to add few more lines, he said,

"You are so beautiful, 
You are so cute."

And then  he came up with a title, "Blue ". After jotting down his poem on the board,  I asked him,  what would be the poet's name and he said with an air of pride, "Rishi Mukherjee!" 

The 3 to 4 year olds at SM were having their Movement Song today and they were running, walking, jumping, clapping, singing...and just pretending to be different animals. Post this, the facilitator thought it would be a good idea to sing '5 little monkeys' to get the whole class together when they started to run all over the place. As soon as they started the rhyme, the facilitator was in for a surprise! The rhyme took a whole new turn itself! They wanted to be dragons instead. So we sang...as follows:

5 little dragons flying in the sky,
One fell off and bumped his head.
Mamma called the doctor and the doctor said,
No more dragons...

S: Ma'am, dragons don't get hurt. They get up say arrrrrrrrr and fly away. 
F: Okay. 
5 little dragons flying in the sky,
One fell off and bumped his head.
Then he got up and..?
 
At this point they are all making dragon sounds. 
S: Then he got up and started flying because he's so strong. He doesn't get hurt. 

F: okay so how about,
5 little dragons flying in the sky,
One fell off and bumped his head.
He got up and said "Arrrrrrrrr"

They all were strong dragons at this point, enacting the whole thing out, screaming "arrrrrr"... 

F: And then? 
Collectively: He flew to the sky. 
F: Awesome! 

'Opened his wings and flew back to the sky!'
F: Does that sound okay?

S: YES!!!
F: Let's do it then!

The new song is as follows:

5 little dragons flying in the sky,
One fell off and bumped his head.
He got up and said "Arrrrrrrrr"
Opened his wings and flew back to the sky!

4 little dragons flying in the sky,
One fell off and bumped his head.
He got up and said "Arrrrrrrrr"
Opened his wings and flew back to the sky!

3 little dragons flying in the sky,
One fell off and bumped his head.
He got up and said "Arrrrrrrrr"
Opened his wings and flew back to the sky!

2 little dragons flying in the sky,
One fell off and bumped his head.
He got up and said "Arrrrrrrrr"
Opened his wings and flew back to the sky!

1 little dragon flying in the sky,
One fell off and bumped his head.
He got up and said "Arrrrrrrrr"
Opened his wings and flew back to the sky!

They loved this new rhyme that they co-created and have been pretending to be dragons ever since. They had to be brought back to reality by calling their names to shake the dragons off and come back to class again as themselves. 

Magic arrives and manifests when children are left to be themselves in the class. They truly become co-creators of their own learning, and enjoy the whole show. There was no facilitator in the class at that point, just a bunch of curious individuals who love to learn together!

Today's interesting challenge for the 3 and 4 year olds at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool was to make anything they want BUT with only two white coloured pipe cleaners!

They took on the challenge with so much enthusiasm and out came a river overflowing with different kinds of play.  They all started the play by sitting on mats on floor, 
S: Ma'am look I have horns!

​And they all pretended to be animals and roared around a little.

When the facilitator saw that they all got up and started running around , pretending the pipe cleaners to be guns and shooting fire, it was clear that they didn't know the pipe cleaners could bend too! 
F: Did you know I could make anything I want to with these by bending it too? 
This caught most of their attention and they each started bending it, trying out different things. 
At: Fire!
K: Look, I made a 'M' (he used both the pipe cleaners and joined them)
An: I made a knot. I curled it. 
And she unknotted it and looked proud of her discovery. 

Suddenly Aa comes and says," I want to connect it", touching the tips of both the pipe cleaners. When asked how could he do that, he walked away as if in deep thought. 
While this happened, Av came around playfully and poked it on the facilitator's face and walked away to join the others who continued to run around pretending to be animals with horns.

Suddenly T screamed at her friends," I don't like this game!" and made a sad face. 
Nobody seemed to have noticed it. She screamed again. No response from the others. 
Finally the facilitator asked her why she seemed angry. 
"They are all screaming. My ears hurt!" replied T. At this point S was watching T and he visibly used soft voice. The amount of consideration, understanding  and compassion he showed towards T was immense for a 3 year old. T was very touched by this and suddenly calmed down and went ahead to play with the others. 

After a few minutes, H was done with her play with the pipe cleaners ,"I don't need it. It's ok", and went and neatly kept it in the cupboard where it belongs. And one by one they all went and kept their pipe cleaners and were done with their play for the day. 

There was a lot of imagination, pretend play, problem solving and movement that were involved here where they were playing with just two pipe cleaners. It's amazing where things can take them when they are not restricted. Each child has a story to tell with everything they do. Once we observe and get to know their world, it will not only create sparks in our imagination but also is another chance for us to embrace play in our lives as us adults forget to play too. 


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

​#sparklingmindzglobalschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#youngachieversacademy
#everychildcancreate

Our cubs (4 year olds) were sitting on the mats near the doll house and were enjoying looking at other classes practice for Sports Day. The practice was paused for a bit to ensure a water spill was cleaned up. As I looked at the cubs from a distance, I saw them all watching keenly at the cleaning in complete silence. It looked as though something was running in their minds, and I was curious to know more; hence I took a place next to them on the mat.
 
Driti broke the silence looked at me and said, “It looks like we are sitting in an island, full of water”
Saanvi with a sad face said, “Yes we are stuck here forever”
I asked “What can we do now, how can we escape?”
“We can swim and escape”, said Driti casually.
Saanvi exclaimed, “I don’t know how to swim!”
Aliyah who was listening for a while agreed to Saanvi saying, “Me neither. Maybe we can build a
Ship and escape”
Saanvi agreed, “Oh ya! We can build one”
 
Just then Aliyah who was thirsty went to get water for herself from her bag.
Looking at Aliyah going Saanvi cried out, “Oh a big fish has eaten up Aliyah!”
To which I immediately asked to further tickle their imagination, “Should we help her? ”
Driti caught question and carried on, “But she knows how to escape, she can swim and come out of the fish easily, because the fish is big and Aliyah is small inside the fish!”
After a few seconds Aliyah returns not knowing what had happened.
 
Driti then said, “There! Aliyah has escaped”
She then held my hand and continued,  “I know to swim, so you can all hold me and keep swinging your hands pretending to swim, I will swim and take you out of the water”
All of them held hands and pretended to swim, Roshni, Zohar and Sara who were enjoying listening to the story joined us, all sitting in one row held each other’s hands and started swaying.
 
Just then Driti looked at me and said, “Ma’am swing the other hand too”
After a while of pretending, “Ah! Now we are out!” rejoiced Driti.
Everyone sighed with a relief of being escaped from the island.

It is such moments that show us children's vivid imagination, their inner voices in the face of challenges and how they motivate themselves to come out of even the most difficult of situations. The stories are not merely stories, they are maps for how they can swim through the ocean of this uncertain world and maps can be updated, refreshed and new ones can be drawn up. It's upto us to ensure they stay flexible that way.

Every moment of creative imagination is a chance to build a confident, inspired learner. Have you captured one with your child yet?

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#inspiringconfidentlearners
#youngachieversacademy
​#everychildcanbecreative
​
Contributed by Grace Veronica, Facilitator, Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool