Camp Kanechi -Grade X
The Grade X students went on an OLE trip to a Camp located in the scenic Village Kanechi in District Chail at an altitude of about 5100 ft. perched on a ridge. They reached Kanechi via an overnight bus journey starting on the last working day of the school before the summer vacations.
The first day began with a trek to the Government Senior Secondary School in the village. It was almost an hour-long trek that helped the students understand the daily struggle of the village students to reach their school. They repaired and painted the school walls. The students had collected and carried 250 books to be donated to the local school in the village. The students sorted and prepared a list of all the books and handed it over to the Principal for the library of the school.
The students took up the task of cleaning the hills. They collected garbage like plastic bottles and wrappers that are choking the hills while on an early morning trek. To cool down after the trek, they took a dip in the waterfall in the midst of the wilderness. After reaching back at the camp, they prepared a simple meal from scratch for the students of the village school who had been invited for lunch. The students learned how to build a chulha (stone stove) with stones and collected wood for the fuel. They were taught how to light the fire and keep it going. The students fetched water from the spring to wash the vegetables which they chopped themselves. They prepared a meal of noodles, fried rice, sweet and sour veggies, salad and lemonade. The students played host to the village school children and engaged them in interactive games like Antakshri and two truths & a lie. The guest students relished and enjoyed the lovely meal prepared and served by the children which was followed by ice cream.
The evening saw the children enjoying zip lining, crossing the Burma Bridge, etc. At night, the students went for a night trek to observe the night sky and enjoy the stillness and nocturnal sounds of the mountain. The next day the students participated in the local school assembly. They performed a Nukkad Natak on gender discrimination to sensitize the local students on the importance of gender equality in all spheres of life whether it was education, employment, etc.
After a sumptuous lunch, the students headed back home on the long bus journey. It was an enriching and memorable experience for the students.
Foundation Program for IB Diploma Program Batch of 2021: May 3-24, 2019
After being authorized to offer the IB Diploma Program in February this year, the classes are scheduled to begin in July 2019. The students who have joined the Diploma Program were engaged in the Foundation Program from May 3 to May 24, 2019.
The Foundation Program was designed with the objective of encouraging informed decision making by students after learning about the scope and nature of subjects that are offered at the school. This was accomplished through hands on activities, discussions and field trips related to all the six subject groups.
Students reflected on the process and the learning continuously and hence helped create a compilation of the event report that was a true expression of how effectively the program objectives were met.
The comprehensive report can be found at below mentioned link.
Source: http://fliphtml5.com/zwjqk/upgt
Newsletter Vol 4- From The Principal's Desk
Here is the Newsletter for April-May 2019.
Beat The Heat - Nursery & Kindergarten
Beat the Heat day was a day of fun and frolic for pre-primary students. Children had a bundle of activities to beat the scorching heat. For making this day memorable, parents had volunteered to
organize and conduct games and activities for children They kick-started the day by with a craft activity, in which the children decorated a popsicle stick. They went on to capture their fun day by
taking a picture at the photo booth followed by two amazing games that were set up at a double height area. Last but not least, the children moved towards the football ground to have a gala time to
splish-splash some water in the water games. The event wouldn’t be complete with the cool ice-creams which were served in their respective classrooms before they bid adieu to make more memories
during their summer holidays.
Beat the Heat day turned out to be a memorable day. Children were all smiles and set for their holidays.
Summer Bonanza: Fun under the Sun
What better way to enjoy the last day of school and welcome the Summer break other than having some fun under the sun!! The students of pre-primary had an exciting day participating in the event Summer Bonanza. The highlight of the event was the children in their swimwear, running to wet themselves and play with water, flowing out from the water sprinklers in the middle field.
A day filled with treats started at Breakfast where the children were served sandwiches and macaroni. After they which they all took turns and participated in the different activities that were planned. These included music and dancing, creating a craft, playing with water from the sprinklers, eating ice cream whilst sitting under umbrellas in the summer sun, getting colourful tattoos painted on their hands and finally a movie with pop-corn and lemonade.
Loving hugs, bye byes and off they went home. Not before saying, “I will miss you ma’am. Happy holidays”.
Chaos versus Peace - Workshop by Ms Radhika Singh
The "chaos versus peace" workshop.
It's all about finding the tranquillity in the chaos.
A student's life is full of chaos, transforming this chaos into peace was the crux of the session held by Ms. Radhika Singh for the students of Gr. 9 and 11 of Shiv Nadar School Gurugram.
Ms. Singh is an author and one of the premier mind coaches of India. A lady who wears many hats, that of a coach, Hypnotist, therapist, teacher, with a body of work spanning over 2 decades. She conducted a series of entertaining and exciting activities with student participation. These activities were aimed at improving the students’ concentration, patience and bringing forth inner peace. Ms. Singh taught the children a technique to relax and channelize their energies into positive directions.
Poetry Slam
After month-long preparations and immersion into the realm of poetry, the school buzzed with excitement as it welcomed 10 schools from across Delhi-NCR, for its annual celebration of the art called poetry- Poetry Slam@Shiv Nadar School, Gurugram. The Wild Cats Hall and the Senior Library witnessed pure poetic expression as young adults from grades 9-12 participated in the 3 events: 'Slamming Solo', 'Slamming Duet' and 'Pour It on Paper'.
An event extraordinaire, it was adjudged by pertinent slam poets in the poetry circle in Delhi-NCR, while the Chief Guest was noted slam poet, Ms. Harnidh Kaur. The day culminated with 22 scintillating performances and 66 pieces of beautifully woven poetry. Khushi Soni, of Shiv Nadar School, Gurugram, was declared the winner of the 'Slamming Solo', Aaruni and Dhriti, from Scottish High School, were declared the winners of the 'Slamming Duet', and Ashutosh, from Scottish High School, was declared the winner for 'Pour It on Paper'. The rolling trophy was handed over to Scottish High School, as they were adjudged the Overall Winner of Poetry Slam, 2019.
The Literula Week
Imagination, Creativity, Vocabulary, Action, and Thrill.
Stories and books and the love for them is as old the invention of language and that’s why Shiv Nadar School Gurugram celebrated an entire week, "The Literula Week".
Storytelling is a universal and traditional and much-loved art form that features strongly in the Indian culture as an effective and efficient communication tool.
The first day of Literula Week started with eager anticipation in the Nursery corridors. The day was special as parents had been invited to start this very engaging week. The children, as expected, were very excited to see mothers as visitors in their class. The books read out were ‘Brown bear, brown bear’ by Bill Martin Jr or ‘Head to Toe’ by Eric Carle. The mothers did an astounding job by engaging and grasping each child’s attention with voice modulation, props, and puppets. A well-planned craft was accomplished by every child.
On the second day of the Literula week, children went to the Junior and Senior school library, a wonderful way to get acquainted with the books and to inculcate reading habits. Children were thrilled to see books all around. They were also, familiarized with the rules to be followed in the library.
On the third day of the Literula Week, children re-read the initial story, using puppets and props. After listening to it students expressed their creative side by freehand illustrations, which later got compiled into a class book
On the fourth day, senior members, including the Principal and Primary Head, from the Shiv Nadar team visited each class for a storytelling session.
After a week-long celebration, the culmination was full of fun & enthusiasm as children came dressed in their favourite story character for Show and Tell. The corridor was bubbling with laughter and joy throughout the day as each book character come alive through them. To spread the happiness Nursery children went on a character parade crossing through the KG corridor, where KG children cheered them up with claps. Thus ended the very first Literula week for our little ones.
The Kindergarten chose to celebrate author Julia Donaldson’s books, like – A squash and a squeeze, Room on the Broom, Tiddler, The Gruffalo’s child and The Smartest Giant in town. Each class picked one of her books and centred their activities around it. To get the week rolling, Parents and Grandparents were invited for storytelling sessions, followed by craft activities based on the stories. The students were visited by the ‘Book Fairy’, who introduced the children to various parts of a book and taught them how to handle books. Their excitement was doubled when they received bookmarks from her.
The teachers retold the stories, introducing new words, which helped enhance their vocabulary. The enactment by the teachers of the new words learned got the children very excited. The students were later engaged in sequencing the story, this was to develop their aural and recall skills. The students later had the opportunity to listen to other stories written by Julia Donaldson. A reading corner was set up in the foyer. Based, on the story, thought-provoking questions were asked to understand their comprehending skills.
A short visit to the School Junior library was also on the agenda. Here the students were explained the purpose, rules, and regulations of the library by the Librarian. “DEAR”, drop everything and read time was introduced, wherein the students were asked to pick up a book from the class library and read.
The week’s hustle and bustle came to end with a splendid take-away in the form of illustrations by the tiny tots of their favourite word from the ‘word-wall’.
The Primary Section students were not to be out-done by their juniors, they were engaged in diverse literary activities. In order, to motivate the students to read and appreciate the same, each Primary section grade picked on an author, Gr. 2 chose Panchatantra, Gr.3 chose Ruskin Bond, Gr.4 chose Roald Dahl and Gr. 5 chose R.K. Narayan.
Grade 1. A book fairy visited the ‘Books on the roll’. Students loved to learn about the Author David Melling and the main character Hugless Dougless. ‘नन्ही उंगलियाँ ‘brought a lot of warmth & curiosity to discover the book world to our junior brigade. Taking running records of student’s oral reading and asking them comprehension questions via Book drive was a fantastic way to learn about students decoding abilities, fluency, comprehension, and even vocabulary knowledge.
Our students completely relished the story session with the grandparents. They put a great show while sharing their favourite book.
Children explored the elements of the story, understanding the main character of the story. It was inspiring to see the little brains at work analyzing their favorite stories. They used the best of their imagination and creativity to illustrate the cover page of their own story with an interesting title.
Mr. Bear's bookmark "Books on a roll" installation to stories, illustration, finger impressions, and discussion sessions truly help each one us turn into engaged readers.
Grade. 2 storytelling sessions by Parents and Grandparents were much enjoyed. They discussed the morals as well as values of the story, like the “The Elephants and the Hares”. They learned that we must look for solutions and live together peacefully. To boost the creativity and imagination the children prepared a cover page for the story and wrote about their favorite character.
Grade. 3 learned about the Ruskin Bond’s life, interests, style of writing, stories, characters, etc., from their peers, the 4th graders, who dressed up like the celebrated author and visited all the sections. Guessing the books from their covers, a summary of a few of Bond’s short stories had the children hooked. They tried their hand at story writing from a story map, creating their own stories based on Ruskin Bond story titles. Writing their own little novels with illustrations, designing the cover page, was indeed a novel experience.
The 4th Graders dressed up as Roald Dahl, visited their peers, talking and asking questions about his life and work. This led to various activities revolving around Roald Dahl’s books in the form of making a timeline of his life and works. Each section created book covers of the books they choose from Roald Dahl’s repertoire. They kept in mind all the details, the title, author’s name, illustrations, theme, funny blurbs and even the price of the books.
Gr. 5, followed suit when one of them dressed up as R.K. Narayan and spoke about his life journey and body of work, following it up with a power point presentation. Students jotted notes to create a timeline of the celebrated author. A chapter reading from ‘The Malgudi School days’ led to a story discussion and filling up the chapter review sheets. They created beautiful booklet covers keeping in mind the essentials of the story.
Grandparents of Grade II -V came prepared with scripts, props, and after-story activities for the children, for the storytelling event. A warm and engaging experience reinforced the impact of learning via storytelling. The children expressed their gratitude with ‘Thank You” notes to the Grandparents. The culmination was the ‘Gallery Walk’, where the students walked around, observed and read the cover pages, novels, and booklets prepared by other grades students.
Storytelling, enactments, and interactions, putting pen/pencil/crayons to paper to create their own stories with pictures in the form of books. Each activity was curated age appropriately and were all integrated to maximize the fun and learnings. The ‘Literula Week’ definitely rekindled the love for reading, writing and creating books. The classrooms and corridors bear testimonials of the fun our children had through the week.
Parent's Collective Visit To KNMA
Our endeavour is to connect with parents through various engagements and build a strong ethos vis-à-vis art and culture. Towards this end, the Parent Art Collective of the Shiv Nadar School visited the KNMA – Kiran Nadar Museum Of Art.
Parents and children did a walkthrough of an exhibition by a septuagenarian artist Arpita Singh. This exhibition gave us an extraordinary opportunity to view the six decades of her art practice and is the first retrospective organized by the KNMA. Her art speaks about the strife of women and society at large. Each of her work is as intimate as a diary-entry, documenting the everyday trepidation that surrounds her: thoughts, voices, events, news, and evokes different locales. One sees the psychological and political merging in her paintings. The use of flowers, text, guns and airplanes underlines her depiction of violent histories, mourning, or maybe negotiations with trauma.
A few of the canvases that fascinated the adults and children alike was a scene with lotuses (upon closer look – tanks), the map of Delhi and the depiction of the ‘golden deer’ from the Ramayan.
Post the curated walk the parents and children were treated to a ‘Coffee Workshop’ where a KNMA artist walked us through the activity.
Education for Life
Education for life (EFL) is one of its kind initiate designed and curated by our CEO Col. Gopalkarunakaran for Grade 9 students which aims at providing exposure and engagement to navigate and succeed in life beyond school.
It is a student centred holistic life skills development program designed for imparting critical life lessons to equip students of grade 9 to be better prepared to enter their adulthood.
Mark Twain once said,” Don’t let schooling interfere with your education”. It is imperative to expand our traditional field of study which may be insufficient for understanding the challenges of working in the real world.
We at Shiv Nadar School believe that apart from the academic excellence our children need knowledge, skill and attitude to face a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) world.
Program Outline:
The Education for Life program will offer topics/themes to students from grades 9 & 11 which are relevant to the present times and are beyond the scope of the curriculum addressed in schools. Themes chosen for this program are scaffold to activate the collective intellectual abilities of the students and will target different skills which will support the dynamic development curve that is seen in students entering adolescence. Below is the list of suggestive topics/themes:
- Post-Independence History of India
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Topic: Post Independence History
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- Effective and Dynamic Communication
- Health and Nutrition, Know your body
- Non-Googleable Questions
Highlights:
- Each theme is broken down to modules, delivered by subject/domain experts and industry veterans
- Program facilitators from Media, Corporates, Professional Development terrain to bridge the divide between school and outside world
- Curriculum curated after thorough analysis of current scenario and needs of the future
- 18 hours of deep engagement per child, spread across 8 months
