In Conversation with Ms. Bulbul Sharma
On 27th October, 2021, an interactive online author's session was organized with Ms. Bulbul Sharma , a versatile author and painter. She has written five collections of short stories, a novel, non-fiction and some of the most-loved books for children, including Tales of Fabled Beasts, Gods and Demon sand The Ramayana.
The students witnessed a narration of short stories from her book, Fantastic Creatures in Indian Mythology and had a wonderful opportunity to interact with her. Discussions about the mythological creatures sparked students' imagination and curiosity. The students also greatly benefitted when the author shared some insights on essential writing techniques which left an impressionable impact on young minds.
Hybrid Learning
The reopening of the school campus has been planned and curated in a deeply considered and measured way. For all grades,we have first begun with the Sports Program. To experience the campus, enjoy the vastness and openness especially when thechildren have been in a 'locked in' mode, has helped them a great deal to reorient, recalibrate, returnto campus, with the new safety protocols in place.
Sharing a glimpse.
FUN’KAAR, 2021
Fun’kaar is a magical word that infuses energy and creativity into our spirits. As Ananda Coomaraswamy says, “An artist is not a special kind of a person; rather each person is a special kind of artist.” Shiv Nadar School Noida yet again celebrated Fun’kaar, that time of the year when the artist in each child lets loose to paint his own canvas of free thinking.
Early Years
This year the theme of Fun’kaar in Nursery was “I Love Animals” where the children delved deeper into the Animal Kingdom with the theme mascots Avi, Scuba Diver Maya, Farmer Friedo and Forest Officer Jaya.
The students of Kindergarten embarked upon their inquisitive journey and explored the theme of “Water” this Fun’kaar. From the story of Drippy, a drop of water, the students journeyed to Palghar to understand the various sources of water to an actual farm tour by a parent to understand various “Underground Sources of Water”, the students had a terrific time with their enquiries on ‘Why water should be saved’ and turned Water Detectives to check those wasting water.
The theme ‘Exploring Landforms and Shelter’ was full of discovery and an opportunity to delve into why “every step matters”, where the students turned naturalists, urban planners and weathermen to discover various landforms, habitats, ecosystem, and weather conditions to understand the need for shelter and how to make it ideal for the environment!
In addition to the above, the students had a great time in school with Musical Sargam Assemblies, Monday Mazedaar sessions, playing traditional games, to watching stories role played by facilitators, art & story sessions, musical presentations, playing shop activity and sessions with the famous ventriloquist Mr. M Santhosh Kumar.
Primary Years
The Primary Years at Shiv Nadar School, Noida has a firm belief in the integration of the 3 Hs - Head, Hand and Heart - in the design of learning.
In the Fun'kaar process at Primary Years, the students were encouraged to incorporate traditional learning with the knowledge and understanding available at present, integrate the learning available in different pockets of academics, and apply the same with an eye to improving lives at a personal, local as well as global level. For instance, as a part of the very first Fun'kaar Week, the Grade 5 students learned about building shelters (Environmental Studies) and measurement (Math) by actually constructing temporary shelters made out of locally available material - bamboo, straw and bricks - for the ground staff. The structures were a source of immense satisfaction for the students, particularly when they saw the ground staff making optimal use of them in the hot Delhi summer!
This academic year, with the changing paradigms in education, the focus of Fun'kaar week were the concepts of 'change and connection'. During this time, the students learnt that exposure to art helps them express, embrace change and stay connected with each other and their learning.
Grade 2 explored how rituals and traditions provide a window to our tradition, Grade 3’s thrust was with Habitats and Adaptation, Grade 4 continued their inquisitive journeys by working towards how Maps and Symbols help us explore the world while Grade 5 worked proactively on Mixing Materials to Create New Products.
In addition to the fun filled classrooms, the students had a number of fun sessions like making Boondi Mithai at home, Kalbeliya Dance Screening, student led workshops, folk stories, designer writing workshops, workshops on animal habitat and adaptation, a virtual tour by the Wyoming State Museum, arts & music fest to name a few.
The learning journey for Primary Years Funkaar is showcased through a website, for each of the Form. It includes the glimpses of all the workshops, student and parent led sessions and other homeroom activities around the celebration.
https://www.sites.google.com/view/funkaar-21-22-shivnadarschool
TOWARDS LIGHT…. JYOTIRGAMAYA, 2021
Jyotirgamaya is the culmination of our Fun’kaar week. The celebration, occurring approximately half-way through the academic year and culminates the project-based learning. The learning design is based on arts-led learning and design thinking principles, helping students to explore a theme by way of surveys, art, research and reflective methods.
This year the school celebrated Jyotirgamaya in school with few students and parents. The event was streamed live for the parent community to be able to enjoy it from their homes. The open auditorium was lit with light and joy where our students gave performances. The school band played and sang songs cheering the gathering. The alumni were invited to share their experience of 10 years, being part of the institution.
A small exhibition was put up by our senior school students. They had created handmade products to raise funds for their project "Prarabdha - A Beginning" a Student-Led Social Impact Initiative. Another interesting project that was put up was under our cross-campus STEAM initiative, Karyous, wherein one of our students has launched an initiative to sell organic products created by women from rural areas.
Recording of the live stream: https://youtu.be/THoOv8ts7T4
Joy of Sharing 2021
The Joy of Sharing week marks the birthday of our founder, Mr Shiv Nadar, and brings alive his vision of sharing joy, compassion and the philanthropic spirit with the community of our school. The essence of ‘Joy of sharing’ was imparted to the children through various activities. The celebrations began with a discussion on the meaning of the word –’Sharing’, understanding “Who is Mr. Shiv Nadar?” and “Why do we celebrate Joy of sharing week at Shiv Nadar School?” Sharing is one of the most important virtues which bring happiness in life.
Grade 1
Students conducted various art and craft activities like spray painting, origami, card –making, pencil pop-ups and drawing. Intriguing science experiments on surface-tension, turning primary colours into secondary colours, pop-rocket were also led by our little learners.
Parents also came forth to celebrate the joy of sharing by conducting various activities like art and craft (book holder from waste material, landscape painting, snake craft, pencil pop-ups), fire-free cooking (club sandwich, Nutella fruit sandwich) and storytelling session (Giraffes can’t dance).
The joy of sharing was continued as teachers engaged learners in interesting activities like elephant mask making linked to the English story ‘Gajjapati – Kullapati’, science experiment (balloon activity), storytelling sessions and other games.
Grade 2
The Joy of sharing week commenced with the narration of an insightful story ‘The Giving Tree’ by the HRT’s during the Circle Time. This was followed by an engaging discussion on the meaning and the reason behind celebrating the Joy of Sharing at Shiv Nadar School.
The children enjoyed various craft activities like raised salt art, origami composition, hand puppets etc. conducted during the week. They were very excited to share their birthday messages for Mr. Nadar on his 76th birthday and made beautiful handmade cards for him.
Celebrating the spirit of sharing, 4 children from each section collaborated with the teacher for a storytelling session for the kindergarten children. The story ‘Nobody Laughs at a lion’ was appreciated and liked by all. On 16 th July the week culminated with a special morning assembly. The highlights of the assembly were a melodious song- Gift to you by Music Teacher Mr. Dennis and a Hindi play - ‘Ekki Dokki’ by the grade 1 teachers which shared the message that the ‘real joy in life is not in what we get but in what we give’.
Grade 3
Grade 3 conducted several activities as part of the Joy of Sharing Week. We discussed the importance of communities, of standing by each other and how we are grateful for connecting virtually despite our distance. The class led several activities – Joy of Eating together, Joy of Making together, Joy of Compliments etc. Students taught each other different recipes, gave each other compliments, made crafts to decorate and celebrate.
Grade 4
Grade 4 celebrated the ‘Joy of sharing’ week with so many different activities. Focusing on inculcating the values of giving, sharing and social responsibility in our children and experiencing the joy in doing that, we had various sessions throughout the week during our circle time like Fire-free cooking sessions and knowledge sharing led by children, creating useful items using materials available at home (craft activities), sharing a compliment, exercises for eyes, making eye soothers etc.
We unfolded the plan for the following day a day prior to keep the excitement going and the children well prepared before the sessions. Our children participated with all their hearts and brought forward certain skills that were hidden from each other.
Grade 5
Grade 5 celebrated 'Joy of Sharing' enthusiastically with a multitude of activities. Students engaged in fire-free cooking exploring delicious delicacies like coconut laddoos, sandwiches, Dora cakes, oreo balls, etc, purely student-led. Their circle time was filled with joy as students discussed their pets and how they care for them. Art and craft activities were also student-led along with some presentations, it was an amalgamation of sharing and exploring.
Middle and Senior School
The week’s line up featured guest speakers from various fields in sessions led by the students, for the students and parents of the grades 6-11.
12 July 2021:
Mr. Shivang Mehta, an internationally acclaimed wildlife photographer and Canon India ambassador joined Aryan Veer Goenka (Habitat Conservationist, Senior school) and Ria Singh (Environment and photography enthusiast, Grade 11) for a conversation on the power of photography and its role in conservation in India.
A former journalist and PR professional and now an author and one of India’s leading wildlife photographers – Mr. Shivang Mehta has worn many professional hats. His love for the forests of Kumaon pushed him to choose Corbett as his main area of work and he left the cozy comforts of corporate offices to work on the field with his organisation Nature Wanderers which he started in 2007.
The conversation candidly covered stories from his adventures and students’ questions around photography as a career, conservation and the need of sensitivity towards the rich wildlife of our country.
13 July 2021:
The senior school counsellor Ms. Manisha Massey facilitated a panel discussion with student panelists Sadhya Gaur (Grade 10), Suhani Sharma (Grade 11) and Madhuanisha Katoch (Grade 11) and child psychology expert Ms. Sarika Kumar, who is also a parent of the school.
The discussion addressed student survey questions raised anonymously on adolescence, keeping a healthy mindset while coping with the pandemic, generation gap and other sensitive student issues.
The panel touched upon perspectives from the experts and how students perceive and work their way through the various challenges that come up in online learning, including homework and assessment anxiety.
14 July 2021:
Disputandum 1.0 , a two-round parliamentary debate was held on the 14th of July., Disputandum was led by the MUN secretary Yagna Gupta (Grade 11) and Mannat Kaur (grade 11).
A neck-to-neck competition was held between participating student teams and eventually the audience voted through mentimeter to pick the team Golden Jackals as the winner of Disputandum 1.0. The parameters of voting included matter, manner and the most creative name.
An expert panel of students Aarav Balyan, Yashvi Midha and Krishiv Khatri, who have been trained under the Behes program, were the jury members who were called upon for a decision when there was a tie between two teams.
15 July 2021:
On Thursday, Cultural secretary (senior) Avni Thapliyal and House Captain (Tiger House) Tia Jain led a conversation with Ms. Dhwani Vij. Dhwani is one of the founding members of theatre group ‘The Third Space Collective’ in Delhi and is an actor, director and educator of Theatre.
The conversation was studded beautifully with excerpts from her previous work, and explored the depths of production, lighting design, casting and community involvement with Theatre along with addressing the student audience’s queries about the field.
16 July 2021:
The culmination of Joy of Sharing week was marked by Siyaahi 2.0, a poetry slam event started in the year 2020, where parents, students and teachers alike, all came together to share their self-composed poetry and recite other beautiful works by famous poets. With a line-up of more than 20 participants, the evening culminated into a beautiful shared space for the love of language and explored themes from comedy, satire to the depth of blues.
We believe that this celebration and its tradition speaks volumes of the culture at SNS, a culture that students, teachers, management and parents build together. We would like to thank our parent community for being equal partners in this journey.
These extraordinary times compel us to think differently and therefore our aspirations for JOS unfolded with a unique flavour and nuance.
School Comes Alive!
Shiv Nadar School Faridabad is surging forward to successfully close Term 1 of this Academic Session. While the Middle school Students have concluded their Feedback Cycle 2 last week and the Senior School started today, I am happy to share with you that we had 96% attendance of students from grades 9 to 11 to write their mid term exams, on campus.
The reopening of the school campus has been planned and curated in a deeply considered and measured way. For all grades, we have first begun with the Sports Program. To experience the campus, enjoy the vastness and openness especially when the children have been in a 'locked in' mode, has helped them a great deal to reorient, recalibrate, return to campus, with the new safety protocols in place.
For the last few weeks, the footfall of grades 4 to 8 on campus for structured games and team sport activities has been a delight to witness. We start with Sports Classes for Grades 1 to 3 as well from today.
Encouraged by the success of our upended safety provisions and teacher turn out ratio on the campus.
We are keen to open in a staggered and balanced way, without haste, keeping safety of all stakeholders in sharp focus.
'Language is to the mind more than light is to the eye.' William Gibson
If one were to ask what is it that unites people of all ages or contexts, the answer would undoubtedly be literature. To develop a sense of appreciation for the literature available in different languages and create some learning experiences centred around stories we celebrated literary week for grades one and two from 15.11.21-18.11.21.
The literary week includes celebration of the literature available in English and Hindi. With the theme of the literary week being fables and folktales around the world we organized various workshops and sessions for the learners to engage with so that they could learn as they experienced the various forms of storytelling.
Events of the Literary Week
Discussions during the Circle Time
Each day of the literary week started with discussions around aspects of literature and storytelling during the Circle Time. The first session on day one of the literary week began with a discussion around the concept of fables, fairy tales and folk tales. The learners were presented with various examples of stories that helped them get familiar with the three genres. In grade two, the learners were introduced to the concept of the ‘theme’ in the stories. The learners were acquainted with the fact that all the stories revolve around some central idea that the author wants to convey. The significance of culture in the folktales was discussed. The learners also understood the importance of masks in storytelling as they engaged in mask making activity during the Circle Time. Through the story ‘The Monkey and the Cap Seller’, a discussion was carried out to help the learners realise the synchrony between the text and illustrations in the stories.
Storytelling sessions
Our Primary educator, Ms. Sananda Nandi conducted storytelling sessions in Hindi for the learners where she used hand - made puppets to narrate the famous stories ‘Budhiya ki roti’ and ‘Rishi Munni aur Chuha’. One could see the learners completely hooked to the storytelling session as they sang, enacted, predicted the story, answered the questions and reflected during the session.
‘The Tail of Kake De Munni’, another storytelling session was conducted by our educators Ms. Neha Gandhi, Ms. Elizabeth, Ms. Priyanka Chhabra. Famous folktale from Punjab was brought to life through the enactment by our educators during the session. The learners not just experienced the story but also answered some of the questions about the characters put forth by the facilitators.
Storyboard- Integrating art with literature
Emphasising the importance of illustrations, story board session was conducted by our arts educator Ms. Maryam Ansari and music educator Ms. Aishwarya Thapliyal. The learners sang the story ‘Paudhe ki Kahani’ with Ms. Aishwarya as they watched the illustrations made by Ms. Maryam. The learners also made their own story boards and showcased them as the story proceeded.
Panch-a-Tantra
This session was an amalgamation of music, theatre and literature where the learners created soundscape for the famous fables. The session was conducted by our theatre facilitator Ms. Himani Pant and music facilitator Mr. Dennis Babu.
Writer’s Workshop
‘Aao Kahani Bunein’ and ‘A Pet and A Superhero’ were the writing sessions conducted in Hindi and English respectively by our primary grades educators. These sessions aimed to give our learners competencies and skills to write their own stories. The session provided the learners with some essential elements of story writing. Using these elements, they tried to create their own story out of the pictures provided to them during the session. A padlet link was shared with the learners for them to share their reflections and stories post the session.
Kissa Goi
Dating back to the era of Munshi Premchand, Kissa Goi is a unique art of storytelling which came alive during the literary week. Our learners from grade five (Vandita Arora, Rishabh Burman, Atharv, Jeenal Tanwar and Risha Mangla) conducted a Kissa Goi session where they narrated a story of Bheeku making it a delightful session for all.
Author’s session
The beautiful week of literature was culminated by an author’s session. Ms. Adithi Rao author of the book ‘Boy, Bear’ led an enriching session for our young learners where they explored the story from various perspectives. The story was read out to the learners by the author herself post which they participated in a discussion.
Educational Boot Camp, 2021
As an annual STEAM engagement, Shiv Nadar School, in association with Indian Youth Nuclear Society (IYNS) is organizingthe flagship ‘Educational Boot Camp 2021 (EBC '21), a month-long, fun-filled scientific awareness interactive session,“Let’s celebrate the Sun”.The idea behind choosingthe theme for this edition of EBC is to explore and unravel the philosophical and scientificaspects ofSun.
The online event was launched on November 15, 2021 and will conclude with three days of interactive sessions and activities scheduled in December.
The program will encompass a good mix of fun and learnings for both students and parents covering a wide diaspora of events including individual competitions,a virtual visit to the world's largest Fusion Reactor of ITER, France and Saint Michel L'observatoire,France, knowledge podcast, demonstration and interactive sessions with globally eminent and renowned scientists and intelligentsia.
KaryoUS website -https://sites.google.com/sns.edu.in/nucle-us/home?authuser=4
IYNS website-http://iyns.in/ebc2021/
Educational Boot Camp Details & Guidelines
Citation Ceremony: Batch of 2021
As we bid adieu to our R.O.A.R-ing Batchof 2021, a farewell and Citation Ceremony was virtually organisedfor our young leaders. Facilitatedby the Heads of Students Council, the ceremonywas an opportunity for our students to walkdown the memory lane and relive the wonderful journey they have had so far as theystep out into the world and spread their wings.
The outgoing batch received inspiring messages from the leadership and engaging performances by their younger peers.
With the belief that all our students will be ethical, respectful, happy and purposeful citizens of society, the Shiv Nadar School family bid them farewell and wished them the best for all that they set out for.
Watch here: Citation Ceremony
Children’s Day Celebrations at Shiv Nadar School Noida
Climb every mountain, Ford every stream Follow every rainbow, till you find your dream
The students of Shiv Nadar School Noida had a great Back to School experience when they came back on campus on 15th November 2021. The teachers and staff members of the school came together to organize a befitting celebration for all students, be it on campus or off campus, right from Early Years to Senior Years.
The Circle of Love reverberated once again with the sounds of the littlest members of the school singing their favourite prayer songs. The Arts Team sewed up special musical presentations for all cohorts of the school which made not only the little children get up and shake a leg or two but also got the teachers and everyone grooving to their tunes. The sports team organized games for all.
The teachers of all cohorts went all the way in making this a special affair for their students. From carefully choosing game stalls to planning activities, everyone came together to put up an elaborate carnival, which had all the essences of a fair - games, fancy dressing, karaoke stalls, tattoo painting, musical presentations and dance jams! A befitting finale to the day was the surprise Flash Mob conducted by the primary teachers for their lovely audiences peering down from the corridors above the Circle of Love.
Watch Here: Children's Day Celebration