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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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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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

2. Step In
Step In Routine Involves the following.
I'm the other now (assume that is X). So, I'm X  (I step into the situation as X and answer the following prompts):
I see: 
I feel:
I care about:
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You can ensure you are not projecting at this stage by asking yourself, "Would X say that about themselves?"

3. Step out

​You physically step into a different space and do this part of the routine.

​Knowing what I know because of my Step In what can I do differently?
Was the "I see" objective and wide in perspective? If not, how might we see/show objectivity and a wider perspective?
Was the "I feel" resourceful? If not, how might we bring/show awareness and help shift state to something more resourceful?
Was the "I care about" expressed resourcefully? If not, how might we encourage a more resourceful way to express the care about?

4. Iterate
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​At this stage, you check if the solutions you had found are working or not . If yes, you have just now resolved something with empathy and creativity. Time to celebrate!
If not, you iterate back to the leverages in the "step out" stage and see if you have exhausted all your options. If not, use them. If you have, then you iterate through the "step in" stage. Maybe you missed something there. A different see, feel or care about that given this new information of what didn't work can reveal itself and you find yourself with multiple solutions again to work with.
No two situations, the underlying intentions or the resolutions are the same. The only thing that really works is remaining creative, resourceful and empathetic.

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

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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 :)

Last October, on the 2nd (on the 150th anniversary of Gandhiji's birthday), our children ran a solid 12KM marathon, beating their previous year's record of 6.6KM.

​What's special about this? Well, they wanted to dedicate their run to the physical and mental health of children all over the world as a run, or any sport, is much more than just a physical workout/ a challenge. It is "I can do this!", and "Let's keep going, you can do this!", and a whole lot of "I am not giving up."

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 One of our Falcons shared her experience on the the whole process on where they started with this run and where they reached in that journey, which can be read here. 

A run is never just a run. It's so much more than that; it is physical, mental, emotional...and holistic. At SM, sports is an experience, a celebration, and we are all about pushing limits and growing from our comfort zones, watch ourselves become more resilient, set more goals for ourselves through the trainings and workouts, learn to work in different teams thereby, going beyond our familiar spaces, learning to focus more on the whole experience...And oh, there is more! We build muscles of growth mindset and go beyond our limitations and beliefs we that have set for ourselves too! And yes, this is sports for us, SMzians! Hence, a run is never just a run for us.

How about you, have you ever ran a marathon? What was your experience? Share in the comments below.

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