Educating tomorrow’s stars_3

You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them. - Desmond Tutu

Family is a very important part of our lives. It’s like the backbone. They support us all the time and their love for us is beyond infinity. We at times don’t try and understand what they mean and why do they do some things which we don’t like. We should always try and understand them and their thoughts. Because of not understanding many children leave their parents and go away. Parents and children, both should realize that they have a responsibility towards each other which is equal.

Before the children came, I, my classmates and our supervisor Shaila ma’am planned about today’s session. We decided that we would teach the children about family and how family is important. We planned that we would make them do something fun and creative. We had decided that we would make them do palm painting and tell them to draw their family members on the fingers. I and my classmates worked collaboratively and collected the materials for this activity. As the children arrived, we made them sit in a circle and distributed the colorful sheets. After that we also distributes the plates which contained paint. I made my student to dip her hand in the paint and imprint it on the paper. It was great to see the happiness in her eyes while imprinting her hand. I could see that how fun it was for her to do this. As her hands dried, I made her understand that each finger represents your family member and you are supposed to draw your family members.

 As she was small and couldn’t understand the meaning of members, I had to ask her one by one that does she have a brother or a sister. As she told me I told her to draw them on the paper. As this was done, I tried to make her understand how important family is by giving an example of her body parts. That is how she would be incomplete if she didn’t have ears or tongue or nose or some other body part. I was happy that she understood a little about it. I realized that how important it is to have a family. There are many children in the world who have lost their family. Being a teacher to these children, I felt connected to them. I felt as if they were my children only and I am teaching them. The relationship of a teacher and a student is very important. And I felt that I did maintain this relationship with these children when I came to know that they do remember me and somewhere like me as a teacher. There was never a thought of them being poor, I felt that they were lucky as they did get a change to get educated through us. 

After the painting was done all of worked collaboratively and collected the papers and the art materials and kept it back in the class. We showed them a small video on the theme of family. As we told them that we are going to show them cartoon, they hopped here and there in excitement. I had to distract them by saying that if they sit quietly and watch the cartoon, we would give chocolates to them. Finally they calmed down, sat and watched the video. I’m not sure even if they understood it or know. But one thing I know is that they were really enjoying it.  It was a great challenge for me to handle the excitement of these children. I learned that how important is being a parent and how we should understand them. I also understood why parenting is so much important for our lives. Let’s hope I get to do something enjoyable in the next class.

Till then stay happy! 

Hindi Diwas

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language that goes to his heart.”  -- Nelson Mandela

India is famous for its culture which includes dance, music, religion and language. India speaks many languages and few of them are unknown to us, as we are not aware about them. According to a research out of 100% most of the Indians speak from the family of Indo-Aryan language.  According to People’s Linguistic Survey of India, 220 Indian languages have disappeared in the past 50 years and more could disappear in the coming time. Now only 780 languages are spoken in India. The most spoken language in India is Hindi. Hindi is ranked on 4^th position for most widely spoken languages around the world.

 

Hindi was officially adopted as the official language of India on 14 September, 1949. Our Hindi teacher Ms. Vijayalaxmi decided that all Hindi students in our class would conduct a program and that we could tell everyone the importance of this day and the language also. All of us worked together to plan all the activities and events and distribute them equally between us. I along with my friend shafqat were chosen to host the program. Being a Hindi student I didn’t have command on my Hindi language. This activity was a new challenge for me. I had never hosted a program in Hindi therefore I took up this challenge. I took up this responsibility and I hope not to do any mistakes.

Me and my friend Shafqat planned what all to say and made a file of it so that we stay organized and if there are any changes we would not get confused.  All of us planned that before the program starts, we would ask our respected director sir to do the puja of goddess Saraswati. In India Maa Saraswasti is the goddess of knowledge, music, arts, wisdom and learning.

During the show I felt that I was contributing to a very good event by letting people know the importance of the language Hindi. In the first few minutes I was nervous but as soon as the show started I shooed my nervousness and started off the program. The program usually started off with the prayer but this this it was a Hindi prayer.

After this we had the thoughts and news in hindi. To make the assembly fun we had small quiz between the two houses ruby and sapphire.  It was so great to see the juniors take part in the program and to see their interest in participation and contributing for the program. During the program when I was hosting I felt confident and gained a bit of command on my language, this was the area where I gained knowledge about this skill and I hope to make it strong till next time. After the show our Hindi teacher appreciated that we did a good job.  It was really fun to do this activity when u know yourself and improve. I felt really happy when our Hindi teacher appreciated and said we put up a good program.  Till then enjoy!

Swimming

"The water is your friend.  You don't have to fight with water, just share the same spirit as the water, and it will help you move.” -- Aleksandra Popov

Swimming is that one sport which everyone loves then let the person be a kid or a grown up adult. Being a child earlier, everyone has the desire to learn swimming or just simply go into the water without any fear. We were going for the activity in the hotel Sun n Sand. It was my first day today and I felt great to see the pool after a long time. This activity comes under Action and is a long term activity so it shall hold 8 hours. 

Adjusting my cap

All of us suddenly gained the energy by just seeing the pool and    were ready to jump in and swim. As soon as we all were in the costume, I decided that I and my friend along would jump in the pool so that we could keep it as a good memory with us. As soon I felt the surface of the water, it felt as if the water is calling me and has captured my foot and pulled me down. The water or say the pool had a warm mesmeric charm. It felt as if I was bounded by a spell. And as soon as the buoyant force reacted I suddenly came out of the water. It’s actually great to feel the force and experience it. I am looking forward for more and I hope to learn some new skills and techniques. Till then enjoy ! 

Candle Making Activity

Today was yet another day but a little different, because I did my first CAS activity which was candle making. This comes under creativity and service.

“An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail” - Edwin land

I am so akin to creativity, that i feels it’s a part of me. I was excited because firstly it involved creativity and secondly i would learn many new things and skills.

Before the activity, I developed a fear that this activity might be difficult and I will not be able to do it. But slowly as I got familiar with the techniques and procedure, I felt that this activity is simple, easy and fun. Things which we needed for the activity were easily available, so we didn't have to worry about the   materials used.

First we'll see what all we need to make a candle:

THINGS NEEDED:

• Wax or wax granules

•Wax colours or wax crayons

• Utensils

• Moulds

• Wick or thread

• Oil

• Dough

When everybody was ready with the materials, Deepshri ma'am, our activity supervisor, instructed us how to do it and what all precautions we should take.

Now let's see the procedure. It is not difficult, but we have to be careful as we are dealing with fire and molten wax.

PROCEDURE:

• First we take one large bowl and one small.

• We fill at least 1 inch water in the bigger bowl.

• After we have filled the bigger bowl with water, place the small bowl in it.

• We keep both the bowls on the Bunsen burner or on the gas. As we did this activity in our chemistry lab, we placed it on the burner.

• This setup is known as double boiler.

• After the water is heated. Put the amount of wax needed to fill the mould.

• Keep stirring the wax, so that it will melt soon.

•      

Supervisor Mrs Deepshri guiding us.

   On the other hand, apply some oil inside the mould. Once you have applied oil, you can add glitter powder for decoration.

   Now put a wick through the mould. If you don’t have a wick, you can make one buy putting a piece of thread in the melted wax. When it’s cooled, use it as your wick.

• After this, apply some dough beneath the mould as it will stop the wax to come out. 

• When the wax is fully melted inside the bowl, add some wax color. If you don’t have wax color, you can put wax crayons to give it some color.

•  When the color is mixed properly, pour the wax into the mould. Be carefully while pouring.

•  Now you can keep the candle for cooling. 

    Your candle is ready!

Me (right) and my friend Shradha (left) melting wax.

It was a great experience for me. I had a great time making candles with my classmates and myself. All of us were given a target of making 100 candles in total. Knowing we had to complete the target, we always made a small target for each period of time, while we were doing the activity and we strictly followed the target. This activity is a time consuming one. I learned to be more open with my classmates and my teachers. I gained confidence and learned to be more patient. I also learned to share my ideas, being responsible and how to accept new atmosphere and how to adapt to new techniques. At the end, I was happy with the work I did. We had to sell the candles, for raising funds, for the underprivileged children. Let’s hope it’ll happen soon. Till then enjoy!