SAIIER 2014:Aikiyam School

SAIIER Transport Service		Arulvazhi Education Centre
Aikiyam School

Highlights from the year

Reports from the different classes at Entity::Aikiyam School:

Kindergarten: We taught the children shapes, colours, the alphabet, vowels, numbers, family members, the names of fruits, flowers, vegetables, animals, birds, and transport. The children enjoyed hearing stories read by Simone. Also this year the children had integral art class with Tia. For field trips we visited an Auroville beach, the Fish Aquarium, Certitude, the Botanical Garden, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, some temples and a boat house. We went on a one-day trip to Vandaloor to see animals. Weekly the children have ATB classes. The children enjoy free play every Wednesday. They have activities to choose from such as balls, bubbles, drawing, painting, memory games and puzzles, blocks, book reading. With this free play the children developed the ability to draw a clear picture, to play memory games and construct puzzles.

Standard 1: We taught the NCERT syllabus in English, Maths, Science and Social Science. Tamil language was taught by Jothi, who taught many Tamil songs to the children. This is a great way for them to learn their native language. Through many volunteers throughout the school year our children learned many new songs and dances, experienced new activities and drama, heard stories and improved their speaking skills, were introduced to basic English grammar. In art class, Ramalingam and Tia helped with imaginative and creative work. Through this, they are able to identify different colours and shapes. It also helps them to develop visual skills. The children have Free Play once a week. In clay class they receive good exercise for their hands. Their class project this year was 'My Village'. They had lots of fun while doing this project work: colouring, reading, writing, singing, dancing and had a chance to learn about the olden days of their village.

Standard 2: We tried to strengthen their basic skills, especially in reading and writing. After we read stories, the children were given work to train their understanding. Working with our volunteers with reading, stories, and drama, the children focused on speaking and writing in English. They learned some grammar. with the occasional help of books from our library. In Tamil we were able to cover all the lessons according to the term plan and they were assessed through worksheets, oral tests, drawing, writing, reading, etc. Compared to the beginning of the year, their level of reading and writing has improved quite a lot. One of the things we did in Maths this year was to focus on the connection of English with Math through the use of word problems. In Science and Social Science the subject was the human body with connected topics such as hygiene, healthy food and safety. A lot of playful activities were included: drawing, making posters, games, etc.

Standard 3: This year, we tried to focus on the childrens' academics. In English we focused on their reading, writing and speaking skills. We encouraged them to share their experiences, so they had a chance to develop their communication skills. During this year, we would say that some students who had difficulty earlier had improved a lot. Though Tamil is their mother tongue, we faced a lot of difficulties in Tamil writing, reading and speaking. Using more teaching ideas and techniques we were able to solve those problems. They were given assessment to improve their vocabularies and home work exercises to develop their writing and reading skills. In math, we focused on improving their addition, subtraction and multiplication. We created word problems from their daily lives to support their learning. In Social Science, they learned about family, festivals, national leaders and symbols; in Science, they learned about food, water, air, birds, animals, etc. Additional activities included swimming, clay, games and drawing.

Standard 4: The fourth grade did a project called 'Food and the Digestive System' in which they made models of the stomach and teeth. They learned about other organs in the body. There were six groups, and each group learned about a different organ and shared it among the entire class. They also learned about eating a healthy diet. The Supportive Learning students did drawings of the small and large intestine, heart, lungs, etc. with the help of Tia. These children enjoyed doing carpentry, clay , drawing and painting. For the first two terms we had a buddy system for reading English story books in Fourth and Fifth Standard which helped the children develop their reading skills. In the first term we took the children to Sadhana Forest to plant trees and make compost where they learned about bunding and using water sustainability principles.

Standard 5: This year the students did a project on the Wonders of the World with the Sixth Graders, making a presentation to family and other students in March. They performed songs and dances, gave a speech, gave a puppet show and a drama. They did a small project on animals in their English class. This year Fifth Graders visited Sadhana Forest on December 5th, where they played games, watered the plants and had their faces painted. Along with the Sixth and Seventh Graders, the students visited four temples in Trichy. There the school principal explained the history of the temples and the students listened with great interest, enjoying the day.

Standards 6, 7 and 8: From the beginning of this academic year the teacher arranged the students into different groups. Before starting a topic, they were given general information about the concepts. The students were lead in various activities whenever necessary. For the formative assessment, our students did various scholastic and co-scholastic activities such as: making working models, posters, taking seminars and quiz programs. A volunteer taught the Seventh and Eighth Grade students about compassion for animals. At the end of the class we went on a field trip to the Dayakara Community to visit the Animal Rescue Centre. On 26 January, Republic Day, we had an exhibition in the school. Our students showed their work – different types of cells, models of human anatomy and working models such as a working JCB and hydraulic lift, multiple power generators, etc. Our students also participated in the Science Fair Exhibition; they demonstrated reproduction in plants to Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Grade students. The Eighth Grade students did a project with Wendy, on leaders and pioneers of the world. The children learned about Abraham Lincoln, Elizabeth Blackwell and Sir C. V. Raman.

Supportive Learning

This year we had 12 children in our Supportive Learning class ranging from Kindergarten to Third Standard. We added new activities this year and included play therapy methods to help the children explore further by themselves and to improve their skills by learning through play, with the help of several volunteers. The teacher was shown how to use play therapy with the children on a one to one basis. A different and interesting way of assessing the child was introduced and explored. A volunteer helped in the classroom with proper English sentences and new materials like sentence puzzles and maths puzzles. Another volunteer, a professional therapist, worked with the teacher in assessing the child through their drawings.

The Aikiyam School Library

This academic year, we created a readers club. Four students from Fourth to Eighth Grade per term were members for that term. All together, 60 students improved their reading and understanding, and then shared their progress in their assembly. In order to have continuous reading at home, children's magazines like “Chiruvar Malar” and “Bala Vihar” were given. We provided needed printed resources to class teachers who did projects in their classrooms, for example this year's projects were on “Air”, “Great personalities” and “Our village”. Once a week during the lunch break students were invited to an optional class. Students from Fourth to Eighth Grade attend either the library or play educational games.

Developmental Art Therapy

In the Developmental Art Therapy classes, Tia uses the knowledge of a child’s developmental stages to plan and implement art experiences.

Aikiyam’s Preschool and Kindergarten children combined art with literature to expand on a story. They exercised some beginning math skills by identifying shapes and counting. They also began their understanding of social studies and geography by exploring art forms and connecting them with pictures of people from around the globe.

The children worked on their visual sensitivity, body awareness, and spatial perception by doing collages. Very importantly, in the relationships between these young students during class, we strove to encourage personal self-expression through communication, developing a sense of self as a unique individual, confidence, and self-esteem. By working with their hands with paste, scissors or pencils, each child exercised fine and gross motor coordination and also developed eye to hand coordination. The children also did activities that explored personal boundaries; they worked on cooperation, collaboration and sharing, creative thinking and problem solving, decision making and personal responsibility, as well as care for the environment, materials, and the classroom, inside and outside.

• 
• 
• 
• 
•