Newsletter Vol : 0904el:
Introduction Welcome to a new session at Fountainhead
display, new books and magazines.
school. While the school is making new strides in its chosen mission of making learning a joyful and meaningful experience to all, this issue brings to you some new activities which we are experimenting with. In addition to this, the issue also attemps to share the
Spider men in the school
way, learning is organised at school, by bring-
Field trip to a pet training institute
ing out the same in the articles written by
Decision making
teachers of different grades. A new place where children are enjoying
We celebrate learning
themselves, is the library. The library has
Read-a-louds, author studies, organising
been rejuvinated with children’s art, new
stories in graphic forms, signing timericks are some of the fun things we do.
Visit to water treatment plant Lemonade day Hole in the wall
Look out for an addition of about 10,000
books more in the coming year !!! Enjoy the PYP workshop at fountainhead school issue and do send in your comments and Night in the morning queries if any. Knowing me, knowing you, knowing all Anuradha No more running away from maths Role play: Resolving conflicts Ecological pond
Spider men in School Rappelling facilitates an attitude of overcom-
descent after a climb. The idea was to slide
scent that is also reasonably quick to set-up.
ing challenges. Rappelling brings a powerful
down a rope with sufficient friction provided
Some such applications can be seen among
sense of accomplishment and is a vital re-
so as to make the speed of descent control-
window-cleaners on high-rise buildings,
source in bringing about the realization that
lable. Rappelling is now a full-fledged skill by
among fire fighters, film stunt-men and even
not every perceived risk is insurmountable.
itself and finds application in various fields example where people work on high vertical faces and need a portable means of de
Rappelling is also known as abseiling and
the armed forces.You are attached to a rope
originated as a means of a quick and safe
via a harness and some hardware like karabi
www.fountainheadschools.org, email - surat@fountainheadschools.org, blog - fountainheadschool.blogspot.com
ner and descender. The rope passes through
tivity. Most frightening for most of them was
follows makes this activity perfect for boost-
a figure 8 descender. Instruction helps par-
the beginning as it seems rather daunting
ing confidence, create risk takers and bring
ticipants learn how to control the friction and
to stand on a school building knowing that
about the realization that not every seem-
slow its movement. Speed of descent can be
we will soon be going down with only a rope
ingly difficult objective is actually so, and
controlled by simply arresting the movement
for safety. The technique easily feels ‘natural’
we may even enjoy it enough to wish for a
of the rope, so that it can’t pass through the
after the first couple of steps and then, the
repeat!
descender as fast. It is very important to
feeling of suspension over the expanse be-
Oomer
wear gloves with a good grip, while rappel-
low is awesome, their fear was gone and they
ling, as tightening grip on a moving rope
started to enjoy the activity. Even the smaller
causes rope burn, particularly if the rope is
children were really excited and encouraged
moving fast through the descender. As a first
their seniors during the activity. I congratu-
time experience most of the children were
late these children on
scared and were unsure if they will be able to
the courage and enthusiasm they have
perform rappelling, the real difficulty only lies
shown and hope they maintain this in their
in convincing our minds. But, all of them took
lives...
the risk and successfully took part in the ac-
The tremendous sense of achievement that
Field trip to a pet training institute to the Field trip Club & Rider’s nnel, Dog Ke , ownship ESSAR T Hazira
make these
understand learning patterns in a new light.
animals
Kavita Verma
understand
Grade 6.
and follow commands. They use a lot of appreciation
Excellence (Grade 6), in their UOI under the
and other
TDT – ‘Who we are’ is currently doing the unit
positive
‘Learning is a fundamental characteristic of
reinforce-
humans that connects them to the world’.
ments to
As a part of the study, they are studying how
train these animals.
animals learn. In order to get a first hands feel of animal learning, we went to the Rider’s
At the Dog Kennel, we saw various breeds of
Club and Dog Kennel in Essar Township,
dogs (German shepherds, bull dogs, golden
Hazira on June 26, 2009.
terriers, pomerian, pug, Doberman). These have been trained and are used to guard the
At the
Essar premises. The dogs have been trained
Rider’s Club,
(conditioned) to follow the commands of
the instru-
their master.
ctor, Mr. Bhom Singh
Students
gave us an
found the
insight into
visit
the training
extremely
modules of
enriching
the camels
and is
and horses.
helping
He explained the methodologies used to
them
Decision Making Grade 5 started the academic year with the UOI-Who we are?-’Decision making’. Though the topic was complex, the reason for taking
tion within the classroom & outside took place and proved to be “breaking the ice” for the new & old students. Students watched movies, “Hum hain raahi pyaar ke” & “Ek ruka hua faisla”, took interviews of school staff, prepared interview reports, debated about this unit was the fact that there was very little
“Black melons” & “Junk food” , learned how to
reading & writing and a lot more speaking
overcome poor decisions & how to handle
& listening. It is important to develop these
peer pressure. It turned out to be truly an
skills first before proceeding to reading &
enriching experience for the students & me.
writing. It also involved group discussions,
Gowri Murali
role plays, debates, etc where a lot of interac
Grade 5 - Synergy
We Celebrate Learning Welcome to the new session 2009-10. Hope
their Kindergarten.
idea says –“People celebrate for different
each one of us had a great time last during
Let’s see what are our young ones have been
reasons in different ways”. We are having nice
the last session.
doing since the session started from 12th
time exploring how, why and when a differ-
Now our little ones are one grade up. Right-
June,2009.
ent festivals in India are celebrated.
now, they are starting with the last year of
We started with the UOI wherein the central
Sr KG. teachers
Here are the glimpses of the happenings in our current UOI -:
Visit to Water Treatment Plants Grade 3 ( Innovate and Inspire) were touring
being manufactured at that time. We all saw
if they had entered a mini city of pipes and
the city to get a better idea about what hap-
how the waste water was treated
were very tired from walking around the
pens to the water after we have used it, for
place but their spirits were still high.
their first unit of inquiry about water and its
At last we got a chance to visit the Rander
importance.
water works to know how the water from
For this we first visited a color manufacturing
the river is treated before it reaches our
unit in Lajjpore, owned by a Fountainhead
homes—Jitendra Patel was our guide for the
parent Vaishal Kapadia. There we saw how
visit. Once again our kids were full of zest to
water is used for making color, drying it and
answer his questions and throw a volley of
by the people working there.
their questions at him. Through various trips in and around the before disposing it off into the river. The kids
city kids could get a better and enduring
impressed Vaishal by answering all the ques-
understanding of the treatment process. We
tions about the treatment process—right
all became inquirers and risk takers (entering
from coagulation to chlorination and in turn
a world of pipes, slippery roads and looking
Vaishal answered all their queries to their
into deep tanks).
heart’s content. Next we went to L&T (Sewage Treatment Plant) Paulomi Majumdar was our guide, grade 3 kids did not fail to impress her also. Despite the terrible stench kids were eager to know all about the sewage treatment and they were really amazed by what they learnt about the reuse of waste water. We then visited a Sewage treatment Plant in Bhesan—Yogesh Tailor gave us a tour around the plant, he helped us to understand how water from various parts of the city
Mariyam Baxamusa.
By the time we were out kids were all shades
was brought there for treatment and then
(Grade 3-Innovate).
of yellow and red –the two colors which were
released into the river Tapi. The kids felt as
Lemonade Day Children are the happiness of everyone’s
one said ‘its yellow in colour’ and someone
life. Specially small ones know how to love
said ‘don’t wonder’ and someone said ‘think’
and how to gain love. From the beginning
and someone else said ‘something to drink’.
of the year( 2009), mother’s pride is seeing
Kids are great inquirers and reflectors and
interest from Fountainhead School ,where
creative too!! Thereafter the teacher had ar-
they have found no binding regulations/rules
range water, sugar, salt etc and they said ,
so all through the day they are just enjoying freedom with learning experiences. Nursery’s 1st UOI is about Senses. So each day they are exploring their senses through
‘Wow! we love to have ‘Nimbu pani’ .
different activities. One of them was ‘Lem-
Then with the help of the teacher(me) they
onade Day’ (as a tasting activity).So first they
mixed sugar and salt in the water and off-
came to know about ‘what is Lemonade’?
course they tried to squeeze the lemon, but
Some of them said ‘its just a lemon’ and some
their tiny hands got tired so I did it, but they
were proud to say that they have made it, as
independent and confident to handle/do any
We all are learners so we have a long path
I was. During class discussion they said ‘when
work in all circumstances.
to achieve and I am always there to help my
I will reach home I will teach mama how to
We believe that exposure adds to the chil-
kids( in any difficult situation)to achieve their
make lemonade.’ I am glad to see such great
dren’s sociability. And Fountainhead gives
aims which is to be confident, independent
confidence from those two and half year old
them variable exposure to overcome all their
as well as be a good learner.
kids. And those little ones have become more
life’s blemishes to achieve their goals of life.
Runa (Nursery)
A unique computer experiment is transform-
in some 300 places in the last ten years. The
physics or biotechnology at university.
ing the lives of underprivileged children. It
kiosks were conceived by Professor Sugata
Mitra realized that a mixture of group discus-
was also the real inspiration for the movie
Mishra. The “Hole in the Wall” kiosks have
sion, leaving the children to learn for them-
“Slumdog Millionaire”
provided thousands of children from impov-
selves and a desire to impress their peers and
From around the village another 20 children
erished backgrounds with access to the PC.
elders was a powerful combination
Hole in the Wall
aged between six to
for getting them to
fourteen, run over
study unaided.
and crowd , keen to
“ Teachers ask me,
see what this
“ Is this real educa
mysterious addition
tion?,” says Mitra. “ But
to their remote
if you are learning,
community can do.
getting answers right
Men came from the
and remembering
city the day before,
them, what else were
built a brick hut in
you going to do in
the middle of the
class.”
village and
The Hole in the Wall
positioned the screen
has won Mitra many
facing out from a
awards, but he has
window. The children were only told that this
They can be found in public locations all over
new machinery was for them to play with.
the country from the Himalayas to Andhra
never made any money from it.
Within hours , a boy and other children are
and Trivandrum, but what’s remarkable
Excerpts from an article in Reader’s Digest
playing games and looking at Walt Disney
about them is that, with no adult input what-
June -2009—A Hole In the Wall.
websites , despite this being the first time
soever, children have used it to learn English,
they have encountered a computer.
maths and in several cases , to escape a fu-
Similar scenes have occurred across India
ture of laboring or farming to study politics,
Contributed by- Mariyam Baxamusa.
PYP Workshop at Fountainhead School “How do we implement what we have read and discuss during our trainings?” “What does ........... mean?” “How do we actually make the PYP happen in our classroom / school?” These were some of the questions teachers at Fountainhead had to answer during, a PYP school workshop organised for all the teachers from 16th – 18th July 2009. The Head of the School as well as The PYP Coordinator also attended the workshop along with us.
Marion Chapman from IB school Singapore
They are teachers with an experience of more
We had two workshop leaders,
and Glenn James from an IB school Thailand.
than 5 years in PYP.
This workshop addressed the needs of the
the effectiveness and coherence of learn-
which were very helpful to all of us. In these
teachers & Coordinators who will be ex-
ing, How to work collaboratively with other
sessions we discussed our planners and the
pected to work with a school’s existing
teachers, Teaching and learning takes place
leader contributed their ideas to make it
when a range and balance of teaching strate-
more happening in the classrooms. The lead-
gies are selected appropriately to meet learn-
ers also shared their experiences working in
ing needs. We also became more familiar
IB schools.
a year with this programme to revisit the
with the Making the PYP happen document
The in school workshop was a great suc-
basic philosophy and programme framework
and the OCC (Online Curriculum Centre).
cess and our understanding of the PYP has
with a view to improve implementation and
Apart from the formal sessions we also had
increased in leaps and bounds.
deconstruct a unit planner, How to collabora-
planned informal sessions with the workshop
By Zahabiyah Shaikhmahmood
tively plan a unit of inquiry which increases
leaders where we exchanged a lot of ideas
Class 1 Teacher.
programme of inquiry and already established units of inquiry. It was also suitable for teachers who have been working since
development of the units in their classrooms. The overall purpose of the workshop was to explore all the aspects of the PYP curriculum through Making the PYP Happen – A curriculum framework for international primary education. The workshop made us all knowledgeable. We learnt how to analyse, refine and evaluate the school’s programme of inquiry, How to
Night in the morning Wednesday was the date for the longest solar
come down at 5:30 AND SEE THIS ECLIPSE.
eclipse, a rare phenomenon and Surat was
But nature had something else in mind, be-
among the few cites which witnessed this
cause of incessant rain on Tuesday and layers
once in a life time view. We at Fountainhead
of clouds in the skies on Wednesday morning it became difficult for gazers to get a view of the total solar eclipse. Students were briefed with the details of the solar eclipse before viewing it by Head Of school. However it did not dampen our spirits, it was a unique experience with morn-
also picked up plastic waste lying on the road
ing turning into night for more than three
which was fun, a sort of an adventure walk
minutes.
and learning experience for them. After a
After the solar eclipse was over students and
walk for an hour they returned back to school
were also all set to view this spectacular
teachers had a good breakfast and went for a
and started with their daily classes.
event. All prior arrangements were made to
morning walk to Kunkni village, in the way to
Overall the solar eclipse was a life time expe-
view this, glasses were gathered from around
the village they saw many creepers like dead
rience for everyone at Fountainhead school.
the city and all students were excited to
snakes, snails, frogs etc and creatures
Sonam & Falguni
Knowing me, knowing you, knowing all I
am
good
at
“We have to respect our elders”, “We
playing ent talents and we may not be good at
a respect God”, that was the prior knowlm edge of grade 1 children at the begin-
the thing which our friend is good at”. We hung the chain up in the room as a
ning of the UOI, “Knowing and respect-
reminder that the students are all good
g ing ourselves helps us develop respect o for others”. To further build up on their o d prior knowledge we made a lesson plan
at something. This was indeed a great activity to start the school year with.
to bolster student self-esteem (respect)
w i t h n u m b e r s
and to build class pride. We began by asking students, “Who has
to create one long class chain. We had
something that they really do well?”
students stand and hold the ever-grow-
After a brief discussion about some of
ing chain as we linked it together, until
those talents, we passed out papers
all were linked. Once the entire chain
and asked the students to write down
was constructed and linked together,
5 things that they do well. The teachers
all students were standing holding their
allowed students to come up and select
portion. We took the inquiry further by
5 different coloured paper strips. Using
asking the class what this chain dem-
markers, we had the students write one
onstrates. (The fact that all the students
talent on each strip of paper. We demon-
have talents.) The students came up with
strated how to create a paper chain with
“We are all similar yet different, and we
their strips; linking their talents together
need to respect others”. “We have differ-
I
can
move
I c a n s i n g w e l l w i t h
Grade 1 teachers.
with
music
No more running away from numbers An inquiry begins by building upon prior
different activities. For this, we used place
Through maths we also introduced differenti-
knowledge and facilitating the students to
value cards, judo cubes as well as Montero
ated learning. We made different stations in
explore more about it. All the students in
cubes.
the class room. One station had judo cubes;
grade 1 knew numbers and number names
The activity in the class with the use of flash
the others had Montero cubes and flash
cards was very interesting for the students.
cards. The students were allowed to move
Two students were asked to hold number
from one station to another. They enjoyed
flash cards and the class was asked to identify
it thoroughly. One of them said “we can un-
the number name, explain the place value
derstand place value with so many different
and the expanded form.
things. This is fun.” The students also made their own Montero cubes on the basis of numbers given to them and explained place value by colouring tens and units. One of the students commented “maths is quite interesting. We get so involved that we don’t understand whether we are studying or playing.”
from 1 to 100. This was their prior knowledge.
The greatest satisfaction for us is that the
Then we built up on this by letting them ex-
students look forward to the maths period in
plore missing numbers from 1 to 100, work-
their class time-table.
ing through the concept of greater than and
Grade 1 teachers
less than numbers and place value through
Role play: Resolving conflicts.
Conflicts are a regular part of daily life for school students. It is difficult for young children to put themselves in someone else’s shoes and understand his or her viewpoint, molehills quickly grow into mountains and simple disagreements turn into real fights. In this unit, the students make decisions to solve conflict situations
a Here is k o lo k ic u q r u o into UOI peacefully by doing a Role Play. Through the role play they come to understand other’s perspectives. They then come up with ideas to resolve these conflicts. Grade 2 Teachers
Young minds at work A fresh academic year has started and the
class along with the consequences in case of
young ones have brought life and colour to
school is already buzzing with the chirping
breaching of the agreements but were also,
all the activities taken up. This is just the start
and chattering of children who right from the
to our pleasant surprise, steering our first
and we together with our children will give it
word go, have engaged themselves in doing
UOI “Family and friends” in the right direction
a fantastic finish.
some meaningful and challenging activities
to the right destination. Squashing all our
JR Kg Teachers
(at their age-level, of course!)
apprehensions,these young ones took the
The children of JKG also did not take much
UOI ahead with their valuable inputs,lovely
time to settle and thereafter got down to
thoughts,presentations, role play, family visits
serious work. Defying their age, these chil-
puppet shows and drawings.
dren were right there at the centre, not only
Lots has been happening in the JKG sec-
framing the “Essential Agreements “ for their
tion, but to sum it all, we would say that our
Professional Development News 1. Juhi Parekh, our drama teacher, conducted
2. Marion Chapman and Glenn James con-
a half day workshop on drama with the pre-
ducted a 3 day workshop on “Making the PYP
primary teachers on 4th July 2009.
Happen” at Fountainhead School from 16-18 July 2009. 3. Janaki Ramani and Kuntala Chanda, our special educators, attended a 5 day workshop on “Learning Disabilities” conducted by Ms. Aparna Kalyanpur of Bangalore. Ankita Edited by Anuradha and Designed by Sakina Sadriwala