SAIIER 2013:Aikiyam School
 SAIIER Transport Service |
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 Arulvazhi Education Centre |
| Aikiyam School | ||
Highlights of each class
Crèche
At Entity::Aikiyam School this year the crèche children learned about colours, flowers, vegetables, the family, parts of the body, vehicles, birds, animals, numbers and shapes. The children were involved in activities such as clay work and swimming. The children were taught a variety of songs in Tamil as well as in English. Through story-telling the children were encouraged to practice and develop their skills in writing and drawing. The children regularly enjoyed puzzles and games, and used models to develop their fine and gross-motor skills. During a field trip to the train, the children learned public social skills. One classroom project focused on fruit. The children were taken to a fruit shop to see all different kinds of fruits. They made fruit salad, and experienced new flavours. They learned about fruit also through various activities like plays, songs, dance, and games. During “Free Play” the children learned how to behave well, how to share and care for others, while they developed fine and gross-motor skills. Working with volunteers the children did a paper-mache art project, learned songs in English and were read to. One volunteer shared many good ideas for activities and provided new classroom materials to help the childrens' learning. The children played and explored in the playground every day for half an hour. The good things they learn in play have a positive impact in the classroom.
Lower Kindergarten
There were 21 children in the lower kindergarten (LKG). They learned the alphabet, phonics, vowel sounds, how to write their name and to write in cursive handwriting. They practised reading and writing capital letters, and small letters; they learned to read them too. They read and learned 50 sight words through flash cards; and to read 20 three-letter words. The children learned over 50 songs in English and Tamil. They drew pictures of flowers, shapes, vegetables and fruits and they colored them. In numbers the children were taught to identify the context of ‘more and less', 'big and small', 'tall and short’ with objects. The children learned shapes: circle, square, rectangle and triangle with wooden blocks. The children enjoyed their weekly Free Play time, choosing the activity of their interest. For hand practice they made a book picture with dots. The children followed the dots and completed the pictures and colored them. Other learning activities: children were taught with actual vegetables, fruits and flowers and they learned the words. Reading flash cards, drawing and coloring on their own. Songs on vegetables were sung by them. They learned parts of the body, and about wild and domestic animals. Once a week, the children went to do clay work. The children made clay toys which were related to their regular studies. Twice a week children went to the playground where they played swinging, balancing, climbing, sand play, swimming etc. They played hide and seek. The children enjoyed some field trips with the children of upper kindergarten and also visited the Sri Murugan temple in Mailam, Ousteri Lake, Kaluveli Tank, and went on a Villapuram train trip.
Upper Kindergarten
In upper kindergarten (UKG) there were 25 children and the year started with an introduction to vowels, shapes, colours, parts of the body, alphabets, numbers, number names, family, fruits, vegetables, flowers, animals, birds, trees and plants, and transport. Lessons began by teaching the children songs and with a short walk around the school. Afterwards the children made collages and did drawing, colouring and painting using straw and cotton, and hand prints, thumb prints and footprints. They did paper-folding, cutting, pasting and stitching related to the class topic. In clay they made shapes, vegetables, flowers, fruits, vehicles, etc. The children learned alphabets, vowels, the numbers and number names from 1 to 100, simple addition and subtraction, the names and colours of fruits, vegetables, animals and birds. The children learned about these things by playing games too. An Aurovilian visited weekly and read to the children, while using action to enhance the childrens' learning. As a learning tool, she wrote and taught them a short play. Weekly the children attended Awareness Through the Body (ATB) class for 45 minutes. ATB classes helped to develop the child’s concentration, body movements, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and memory through different activities. The children enjoyed free play weekly for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Each child could choose from activities like balls, bubbles, drawing, painting, memory and puzzles, blocks, book reading and also dance. The children experienced and learned new things during field trips to: an Auroville beach; the Fish Aquarium; Auroville's Certitude sports ground; a beach; the Pondicherry botanical garden and park; the Sri Aurobindo Ashram; some temples; and a boat house. They enjoyed a one day trip to Vandaloor to see animals.
1st Standard
At Entity::Aikiyam School this year there were 16 boys and 9 girls in the first grade. The subjects taught were English, Tamil, Maths, Science, and Social Science. The children enjoyed ‘Free Play’ once a week with the crèche children. During this time generally the children are free to choose any one of the games like the sand pit, ball group, bubbles, puzzles, drawing and colouring, cutting and pasting, blocks, book reading, seeds arranging, building with legos, and dance. They had silent reading, and story-telling time with a regular volunteer. Through plays written by an Aurovilian volunteer, especially for the purpose, the children learned simple sentences and conversation-based speaking. There was “Are you a Kangaroo?”, and “The Adventure”, “Elephant has the Hiccups!” and also, “The ugly Frog and the Princess”.
The children learned to make sentences and improved a lot their spoken English. Another volunteer taught hygienic habits through songs, used finger puppet role-playing, and had the children cut and paste pictures to make wall posters. A volunteer who returns annually to Aikiyam focused on helping the children with English grammar this year. Through art their imaginations and creative skills are encouraged and supported. They learned to identify different colours and shapes. This learning helps them with their visual skills development. In clay they get good exercise for their hands. This exercise helps them in their other classroom lessons, and class project. The children are excited to go swimming and behave in a relaxed way afterward.
2nd Standard
The children were taught English, Tamil, Science, Mathematics, and Social Science. Some of the subjects were taught in small groups which made it easier to explain everything. The children had Art classes weekly and did a project on peace and human unity: they made flags and drawings of hands joined together. A volunteer who joins us every year helped the children with their English and with the class project (with 3rd Standard) 'Polar Regions' when the learned about polar animals, geography, living conditions as well as global warming. Once a week the children went to swimming, and clay class.
During the first term the Tamil lessons had the children doing revision work on the Tamil alphabet; simple words and pictures together were used to help them learn the words. In the second and third term they learned to write sentences. 'Buddy reading' helped the slow learners to improve. In the third term some of the children involved in supportive learning caught up and were able to read and write using small words. Library books and magazines were used to practice reading.
The children went on two field trips. One was to Tiruvannamalai to see the big Siva temple and the Sri Ramana Ashram, and other to Vedoor Dam to see the dam and the irrigation system. The children also enjoyed a visit to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, and to the beach and park there.
3rd Standard
This year the focus was on English, especially the childrens' English speaking skills. One primary aim was to strengthen their vocabulary and their capacity to communicate verbally well. The students were requested to speak in English as much as possible, in their regular classroom, as well as in others. Emphasis was also put on English grammar. To improve their reading and writing skill they were encouraged to read library books aloud, and do creative writing tasks. Various activities and teaching materials were used to support their learning. The children showed a lot of interest in the English language and were very curious to learn new things.
Another important subject this year was Science. They learned about people, the environment, the earth, the solar system, and plants and animals. The classroom project this year was done with the second standard children: together they worked on the topic of ‘Polar Regions’. Through scientific experiments and observation, the children learned the influence and importance of Science in everyday life. The students were very much interested in the practical learning and provided input to the lessons.
Social Science was also taught this year. The children obtained a deeper insight in things they knew already from their everyday lives such as various festivals and functions, family, neighbors, and travel. The children shared many things during these lessons.
4th Standard
This year was special for the 4th standard children; there were several 'firsts': they had a volunteer to work with them for the entire year; they visited ‘Children's Land’ in Sadhana Forest weekly; and instead of a class project, they developed part of the school's garden.
The school garden idea arose from the childrens' experiences in ‘Children's Land’. The Aikiyam school garden was a very small copy of it. They named it ‘Green Land’ because they wanted it to become a green place on the campus. They planted several vegetables and other plants. A volunteer explained how a charcoal stove works, how charcoal can improve the soil's fertility, and how each Indian person could produce charcoal while cooking. The children and ammas were very interested in this way of improving so many things in an easy way. The experiences of ‘Children's Land’ and ‘Green Land’ led to preparing worksheets linked to the students' interests. In mathematics they were asked to figure out how tall the ‘fastest growing plant in the world’ would grow in one month.
In English the lessons focused on basic grammar skills. The children also wrote their own stories which improved their creative writing skills. Every morning was 15 minutes ‘silent reading time’ from a book of their choice. Weekly two students read aloud in front of the class. In mathematics one activity introduced the children to ‘measurement’; in a treasure hunt the students calculated the distances between locations, and changed centimeters into meters and kilometers. During science class the children learned about waste, nature, how to care for animals, the solar system and so on. One class focused on plastic, presented by a visiting teacher. Everyone was shocked how much plastic is wasted annually and how many years a plastic bottle lies on the ground before rotting.
In a class on 'nutrition' the children created charts explaining the importance of water, vitamins, etc; and the students made salads: one was of vegetables, the other fruit. In social science the children learned more about their own country: the name and geographical positions of their neighbouring countries, the names of Indian states, what kinds of crops are planted where in India, and in which soil they grow.
At the end of the year the children learned about the government and elections. To make this lesson more interesting a president and secretary election was organized. Three boys and three girls gave a speech; after this every child went to a corner behind a ‘wall’ to vote. The voted president and secretary were really serious in their new position, but the class did not always listen to them.
5th Standard
This year the children did a project on the ‘Wonders of the World’. They did it with the 6th graders and made 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 5th graders went to Sadhana Forest on 5th December. There they played some games, poured water on the plants and had their faces painted. Along with the 6th and 7th graders, the students saw four temples in Trichy: Vinayagar temple, Ranganathar temple, Thiruvanaikaval and Samayapuram. There the school principal explained the history of the temples and the students listened with great interest. They had a very enjoyable day.
6th Standard
The 5th and 6th graders did a project together: ‘Wonders of the World’. They worked on this project during their English and Tamil classes. The presentation was bilingual. The main aim of choosing ‘Wonders of the World’ was to give them an awareness of the different countries where the wonder is located, and introduce them to the language of that country. Project activities included: an individual book in which they drew and wrote information of each wonder; they wrote songs; they did clay and carpentry making some models of the places, which included an exhibition, and a presentation. Through this project they got to know the history of each wonder.
7th Standard
This year there were 20 students: 11 boys and 9 girls. They did a project on poetry-writing in English. They also did a soil and wind project during their Science studies. They participated in the Science exhibition that was held in the month of January. The students went on an educational trip to Trichy where they visited four historical temples and learned a lot during their visits. The students also went to Auroville's Sadhana Forest during the month of December 2012 as a part of their afforestation programme. Most of the children will attend the National Integration camp in Nainital, India in May, and will visit historical sites in both Delhi and Agra while in the North.
8th Standard
During the first term the students went to Kamaraj Agriculture Research Centre to learn about crop production and management. They learnt how to use organic fertilisers and bio-fertilisers. The lecturer explained the importance of medicinal plants. The students purchased some medicinal plants which were planted in the school garden.
In December the students went to Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve to see the wildlife conservation programme, then to see terrace farming in Ooty, and also visited a Tea Museum where they saw the process of tea-making. There was also a trip to Mudumalai Wildlife Centre Sanctuary where the students observed the flora and fauna, and the preserved specimen of a panther and hyena.
In January 2013 the students organized an exhibition in the Science lab. Parents, students, and friends were all invited to see the students' displays, and learn about their academic work. The students also participated in the Inter-School Science Exhibition conducted by ASSET Centre, Auroville and hosted by NESS. A volunteer from the United States conducted a programme on health and hygiene, and taught the students about microbes. The students then did a presentation about microbes.
Supportive Learning
This year there were 19 children in the supportive learning class ranging from Lower Kindergarten to 3rd Standard. More new academic activities were introduced to help the children improve their reading skills, with the help of volunteers. One new method was a tool to assess the children psychologically and the volunteer also used new methods to develop their motor and academic skills. Another volunteer supported the teacher by introducing easier ways to teach English, and she worked very hard with the children to help develop their English reading skills. Phonic sounds and special sounds were used which helped the children read the words or sentences easily. An Aurovilian who used to work with the children introduced new exercises, which were applied, to help the children to improve their physical and brain development. The children were lead through Awareness Through the Body (ATB) exercises on a weekly basis.
Aikiyam School Library
This academic year the Librarian and co-ordinator focused on classifying the books by colour, code numbers, and letters. A few hundred books were discarded because they were old or badly damaged. A new section of poetry and rhymes was created which the teachers needed. During the lunch break students from the 4th through 8th grade were invited to play educational games, or they could read in silence. All the library books (approximately 13,685) are now registered in a database. The library software used in the Auroville Library will be installed over the summer. The library received a generous donation from The American Singapore School providing the students and teachers 322 plus books. Many volunteers helped in day to day work such as covering books with plastic, as well as by reading with the children, and working with the students during the lunch break visits.
Art Therapy
In Art Therapy the school year began with an 'Exploration of Color'. This was implemented through drawing, painting, tearing, cutting, sorting and gluing the colors of the rainbow. Through the use of a large assortment of crayons, and paint, the children experienced the diversity and range of colors, and within a specific color, for instance, red, the children were able to separate the reds into a spectrum ranging from red-orange to red-violet. They explored each color of the rainbow and expanded each color… blue became not just blue, but light blue, medium blue, dark blue, blue-green, indigo, blue-violet. Individually each child drew, the youngest children tore paper and the Lower Kindergarten and Upper Kindergarten used scissors. After the drawing and tearing/cutting, piles of colored paper were sorted and then glued collectively to form giant rainbows which adorned the entrance to the Kindergarten. The theme of color exploration was then incorporated into the annual project presentation ―The Wonderful World of Fruits.
The world of fruits literally became a living rainbow. To move away from one dimensional art such as drawing and painting, and in order to provide the students with a multi-sensory, three-dimensional art experience where they could bring the fruits to life, continuing to explore color, but also shape and size and acquire new skills and experience a new, fun and exciting process they were introduced to papier maché. This was a project both individual and collective in nature. Everyone was needed to make and mix the papier maché, blow up balloons, tear piles and piles of newspaper and above all actually papier maché the balloons into fruit and fruit bowls. They learned the technique beautifully and became more and more independent as the sessions progressed. They helped their friends and their teachers and played an important, active role in the creation of the fruit, from start to finish. After all the papier maché work was complete, and before the painting began, the children had a wonderful visual lesson on size: from biggest to smallest and smallest to biggest the children were physically able to experience a gradation in size of the fruit they had created.
