It was a serene evening when the sun was setting and it was time to wind down and leave school for the day. I was intrigued by a couple of kids busy making a cauldron of mud and water mixed together, cheerful as their hands, clothes and feet were covered with mud. 

It took me back to my childhood memory of playing hours in the sun and led me to wonder what they were up to. So I went closer and asked, looking at them busily toiling and moulding the mud, "What are we making here?" 

N looking at me says without a blink, "I'm making chapatis and lollipops!"

Being pulled into his imagination, I continued, "Oh, I wonder how it taste like?"

"It is brown chapatis because it is made of chocolate and it tastes chocolaty", was the response I received without a second further spent in the imagination.

I was struck by the thought of how play goes beyond what it seems like outwardly, to a process that involves imagination, thinking, connections and logic, innovation, reasoning, motor skills and a lot, lot more. 

​Here at SM we believe that play is just not an act but a deep learning process that a child involves in with all their senses and enriches with learning.

Contributed by Grace Veronica, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.
​

While discussing on the take homes (homework) from the weekend, Aaditya, our 5 year old Joey, raises his hand and says in a rush, "Maaammm, we forgot to do welcome song!!", and puts both his palms cupping the both sides of his temples. 

Welcome Song is sung usually in the morning when we all come together where we wish each other good morning, welcome each other, and overall bring the energy of the group up! Today, as we all got into a mood of wanting to share with each other the take homes from the weekend, we got carried away.

"Oh no! What do we do? It's almost time to wind up for us today...How do we sing a welcome song now?", they were asked by their facilitator.

With this question came a bunch of surprised, curious and funny expressions.

Children then started to wonder about how to sing a welcome and wind up song together, which sparked their curiosity and they started to come up with their own various versions of a song we called 'Welcome-Wind Up Song'. As it was time for our wind up for the day, they were left to think more about it as their take home that day. The below video was the result, as they were left to think about it as their take home.

We at Sparkling Mindz handle children's issues in different ways. One way is to model their behavior back to them, asking them to reflect, take perspective and empathize on how/what they are doing or how others feel as a result of their behavior.

Another way is through role plays and this time, the facilitators at preschool decided to role play as children. They chose three scenarios to role play:
a) taking every communication with peers as an attack and being rude in response to attack,
b) self victimizing by saying they have no friends, and
c) wanting to look like the others and not satisfied with how they already look (especially the skin color).

Each scenario explains what the facilitators role played and what children reflected after each of the scenes.

Scenario 1

Friend 1 makes fun of friend 2's drawing that leads friend 2 to be upset and get into a mode of rejecting the other's friendship and her opinion by telling herself things that are not productive.

Reflections
 
An, "The house can be drawn however we want it to be."
Em, "We should not be rude at other's work."
An, "Friend 1 did not care about what the other child said." 
An, "Yes, she cared only about herself."
Sh, "She was hurt!"
Aad "Friend 2 was upset and was telling herself that she wants to be on her own."
Anya " Yes, she kept telling bad things to herself like, I don't like other people and they are rude to me!"

At this point the facilitator asked them, "Did friend 2 telling herself bad things help her?"

All, "Nooo!!!"

Facilitator (F), "What could she tell herself instead?"

Various responses such as, "I like mine, but I don't know why she did not like mine...", "I like mine but maybe she likes the way she draws...", "We should like what others do...", etc., came out.

F, "Are we expecting others to tell good things about us?"
An, without a blink, "Yes!"

F, "Is it ok when somebody doesn't like what we do?"
An, "It's okay I'll like it anyway."
F, "Okay. You can also tell them politely , "I like the way I have painted.""
F2, "So what did we learn from this?"
An, "To be kind to others and ourselves."

And the facilitator added, "Saying good things to ourselves and what we choose to do is not for other people's approval."

Scenario 2

Facilitators role played 2 kids playing and talking about their interests. Another child who wanted to join them did not want to join them as he did not get invited, and how the child 3 feels sad.

​Reflections

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.
​
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#reggioinspiredlearning
#21stcenturylearning
#emergentlearning
#progressiveschool

It's been a very different year for all of us collectively, this year. But that has not stopped us from exploring, especially during this Independence Day!

Explore what? You may ask.

​Well, we explored our culture, identities, and much more. And we would like to share it with all of you through this video.

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#everychildcan
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​#independenceday

The pre-schoolers (3 to 4 year old) showed a lot of curiosity with regards to flying objects during our discussions on what magic is according to them while reading the book 'Witchety Sticks and The Magic Buttons'. This progressed to them seeing a video of things that fly (which emerged from their discussion on what are some of the magical things they see around and why they are magical) and what they came up with post that is nothing short of magical.
When asked about what they think are flying things, a wide variety of answers came in as responses from the children:

Aa: Aeroplane
S: Butterfly
Aa: Jet
Ab: Eagle
K: Those triangle things that guys take and fly. When there is wind they can fly (kite)
An: Dragonfly and bees
S: Helicopter, aeroplane
H: Parrot
Aa: Jet packs can fly when we wear and we press the button
S: Chicken, hen
F: Can they fly?
S: They have wings
F: So does everything with wings fly?
Collectively: Yes.

Post this they moved onto watching the video of birds, balloons, kites, helicopter, aeroplane, etc. flying and we had a discussion on they each flew. They explained about how each of them fly,

K: Ma'am, I can see one bird and one baby bird. Balloons can also fly
F: But balloons don't have wings. So how do they fly?
H: With the air
H: When the wind, when somebody leave hands, they go up.
K: It can be popped like this <claps his hands together> pop!

Then came a kite,

F: How does a kite fly?
H, K: Air , Wind

Then a bird and a helicopter,
K: Eagle! It has wings like this <pretending to fly>
F: Next. What's this?
Collectively: Helicopter!
F: How does this helicopter fly?
K:With its wings
S: Propeller goes tugh tugh tugh
An: Helicopter go like this (up and down motion)
K: I have a drone in my house. Makes sound and hand movements

Out came an…..?K: Aeroplane!!!
F: How does an aeroplane fly?
An: Wings!
K: I know how to make the aeroplane with my hands
S: This aeroplane looks like it has wheels on the wings
F: That's an interesting observation. Why do they have wheels on the wings?
An: To land. When they are going up and come up, they need wheels to come down.
F: What about a helicopter? Does it have wheels?
K: No.
F: Then how does it land?
An: It jumps down
Ab: It'll go down

Sees a spaceshuttle flying

S: Rocket! Only space shuttles can go outerspace. Only spaceshuttle have fire

The conversations went on and on about various things that fly. Since children were fond of singing 'Fly Fly Fly The Butterfly' nursery rhyme, we thought it would be a great idea to get them all together and create extensions to it to sing about some of their favourite things that flew other than the butterflies.

Here is the result:

F: So let's make a song now. What all things fly?
H: Balloon
Aa: Jet pack, rubber band
S: Rocket
K: Space Shuttle
An: Ribbon
L: Bird, aeroplane
S: Helicopter

A level 3 Young Achievers Academy Class. A game is laid out and a discussion ensues just prior to it.

​N is a 12 year old who doesn't like rules.

N: I don't like rules, rules are bad.
F: When you are at a traffic signal do you tell your mom to keep going even if it is red light because rules are bad?
N: No!
F: What about in Nikhalasia (his fantasy land), what will you do there?
N: I'll build a bridge for people to walk above vehicles. So no traffic signals.
F: So then people have to walk above and vehicles have to go below - aren't they rules too?
N: Yes
F: Are they bad?
N: Well, no they keep people safe and moving happily. Not all rules are bad :)

On a bright sunny day, the Falcons (11, 12 and 13 year olds) and 2 facilitators headed out on an explore mission to a science exhibition called Submerge. An explore mission is one where a group of students experience either an activity, experiment or so, and generate unlimited wonder questions. That day’s mission was part of a unique learning game in the learning area called SIE (Scientific Inquiry and Experimentation) and these set of students have been playing the game for about a year now.

Excited and curious, this bunch of children got into their school bus with sheets for them to write their observations and questions on, based on the exhibition. While on the bus, one of our students called the school bus a ‘Guardians of Science mobile!’ Upon hearing this, another immediately added, “We could travel around learning about science and have our own exhibit everywhere we go!” While on their way, they pondered on and discussed questions, such as ‘Where are we going ? What is being showcased ? Who is doing this?’ and many many more.

Upon reaching there, we split ourselves into groups to explore multiple exhibits at once. Once we stepped in, we were all constantly left to wonder. Hanging by a wall were 4 metal plates that seemed to make some kind of sound. The mediator asked us what we thought about what it was, what could be a possible reason for the creator to have made this… At this time, S used his detective observation skills to answer we unlocked more and more of the story of gold mines in Colorado and how a river is polluted by Aluminium, Steel, Copper and Lead. And on one side, M was thoroughly amazed as that was the first time M had seen art, science, storytelling and technology put together to create something so amazing!

Some of the other exhibits that were showcased were- a plant called Argus that can detect lead in the soil, an electrolysis equipment that helped us hear the sound of various lakes in Bangalore and so much more. The guardians of science stopped at nothing! They were on a mission- constantly asking and writing questions that would help them set off on a journey to make connections and learn Chemistry deeper. Our questions spread wider as we saw data systems that measured climate and brine shrimp that lay dormant. Amazed, M commented, “ They put science, so many other areas like art, music, social change, farming and all of them together. Can our experiments be this cool?”. As we covered more of the exhibition, we saw more that showcased the combined ability for engineering and science to create an impact, a water fountain made from puddles and a vertical garden of a certain kind of weed that some villages in Bangalore (Karnataka) cook and eat. 

With eyes wide open and still remembering, wondering and questioning everything that we saw, we finally sat down to eat and reflect. Post our reflection on what we saw and what we learned, we headed back to school. Some of us shared about how there is so much purpose around us and how it is just a grasp away, that we should just go and find it. Facilitator S mentioned how our careers in the future are going to cross functional and that we will most likely be working on creating impact using knowledge and skills from various areas, merging everything, just like how the exhibition merged science, art, storytelling and technology! And finally, through this experience we fuelled our curiosity, collected unlimited wonder questions, connected to the world of science and explored Chemistry. 

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​#sparklingmindzglobalpreschool
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#youngachieversacademy
#everychildcan
#experientiallearning
​#buildingcuriosity

Contributed by Sriram Kakarla, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global School.