What do you need to prepare a dish? Recipe duh, right? That's what our children thought too till they read 'The Art of Cooking'. 

Why is it art? Isn't there a lot of science involved? What makes it an art? Why are these instructions so different from the recipes we are used to seeing? Really - can you really make any kind of broth if you learnt this skill? Wow! 

We wondered, explored, experimented, empathized, created personas and discovered that the problem was to learn the skills in cooking that could lead to unlocking the treasure trove of recipes and the ability to work with a plethora of ingredients. Voila! We had magic in our hands. 

Children spent time interviewing, designing and curating the skills that could help different kinds of people discover their inner cooking persona as well as learn and upskill themselves to become better cooks. 

This year for the Annual Day, our Leopards (4th and 5th graders) explored 'The Art of Indian Cooking' from first principles and designed something that each of us can use and work with. Along they way they had some magical moments of bonding with their families, embracing the inner scientist in them while some of them brought out their inner chefs. And well, what got cooked? Find out for yourself by watching the video!

​But before that, let's let Ms. Poorva Agarwal take us through the cooking of this whole process.

And here, the final product!

Here we have our wonderful parents reflecting along with us, and sharing with us their sides of the story as well. Have a look!
​

Our 5 and 6 year olds have been going on a learning journey with one of the characters of SM, called Treeous, who is a traveling tree who loves adventures. One day, during one of his vacation days, he travels to a forest here in South India and gets lost while awaiting his friend who promised to meet him there. Children, journeying with Treeous in the forest, went through their imagination of the different kinds of forests they were in, and created them at home.

Owning and personalizing learning goes beyond class hours. From the limited number of hours with their school mates and facilitators, children take their interests, curiosities and exploration to their lives around them, making their learning deep, wide and connected. After all, imagination knows no bounds indeed!
 
Contributed by Sruthy Krishna, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.
​
#sparklingmindzglobalpreschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#reggioinspiredlearning
#21stcenturylearning
#emergentlearning
#progressiveschool

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... 

​

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


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

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.

It was 9:05am, which meant, it was time for the preschool children at SM to go into their respective classes to begin their day. As I was calling them all in to the class from the front space of the school, Aarav was looking around the window area , looking out, touching the surface, etc. He seemed to be in deep thoughts. As I called him too to go to his class, he stopped me and asked me, "Ma'am, how do we close the window?" 

Aarav and Aadya stared at this in wonder, trying to have an experience of opening and closing the window. After having figured it out, they happily jumped out and ran to their class with a newer dimension of thinking about how they could close the window. 

This little conversation served as a morning inspiration as it was yet another reminder about how curious children are about every little thing. And their passion to figure things out, and also helping others to figure things out. 


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

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!

During the snacks break 4 to 5yrs old wanted to sit outside and eat. We all went out and sat. 

While doing so a child pointed out the temperature and how she feels,
D: Ma’am it's hot here.
Facilitator (F): Why don’t you go and sit in the shade?
VR responded immediately to D, “I like to sit in the sun. Whoever wants vitamin D can come and sit in the sun!”
Aa replied to VR, clarifying her intentions: I want vitamin D but now I will sit in the shade and eat my snacks and then play in the sun.
VR, not paying heed to what else was going on: Ma’am, why do we get tears in our eyes when we look at the sun? 
F: Good question VR! Why do we get tears while looking at the sun, do you know?
D, overhearing this conversation, contributed : Because sun is hot!
And Dit added, “It gives light.”

A few others told him the same about sun being too hot. Then V agreed, feeling satisfied with the explanations he received from his friends.

He then reasoned out to himself, “Now I know why tears come from our eyes - it's because the sun is bright and very hot that's why... When we look at it water comes from our eyes.!”
​
Most of the children forgot about their food as their curiosity began to rise towards the sun. They all began looking at the sun with wonder, agreeing to what VR said.
Dit suddenly had an interesting thought to share, “After seeing the sun when we close our eyes why is it colorful?”
Aa jumped in with, “Because the sun is colorful that’s why!”.
C, hearing this, recalled the story from the book ‘The Day The Crayons Quit’ that they had read and came to the rescue, “You remember the Duncan crayon story, when orange and yellow were fighting, Duncan said the sun has all the color that’s why!”
 
They wondered about for a few more minutes what they heard, recalling the story, sun bathing, reminiscing over the conversation that just happened. Children, when left to wonder and experiment with their thoughts and words, can explore places that have never been explored before. 

#sparklingmindzglobalschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#youngachieversacademy
#everychildcanwonder

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

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?

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