Shikshantar celebrated its 22nd birthday on Saturday, 28th September ‘24.
This year, the birthday experiences were centered around the theme ‘Shabd Manch - A Festival of Letters’. The children experienced words/shabd in different contexts, styles, plays, expressions and in turn acquainted themselves with the transformative power of words.
The children of Sprouting Seeds became aware of how words give expression to their thoughts, imagination and creativity. Through listening to a variety of stories they developed a fondness for the central character in each of them. “मुझे Elmer अच्छा लगता है”. Their oneness for these meant that Maisy, Gajapati, Fishie, turtle got invited to their Shikshantar’s birthday. “Butterfly makeup लगाकर तैयार हो रही है। Nail paint भी लगाया है", “Maisy cab में आ रही है party में ”. Our youngest friends used the medium of puppets to express their innermost thoughts. The puppet that they had made became their dearest friend. “I will not give you my turtle puppet. I will take him home”, “ये Seeta है। ये रावण के साथ park में walk करेगी”.
Integrating language development with exploring their school spaces, children of Nursery groups wrote little letters to the space they liked visiting in Shikshantar while also exploring the vocabulary of letter friend ‘L,l’. “I love you Shikshantar क्योकि आपके पास trees है जो fruits देंगे ”, “I play on you, I run on you, I walk on you”. They played word games like ‘Chain game’, ‘In and out’ to feel the joy when words become friends. This led them to add words to their familiar songs and personalize them. “I see fishes in ponds, and turtles too. ...What a wonderful world”. Making a puppet using recyclable material, imagining its background to create their own story saw their imagination take wings. “ मैं इस plane में बैठकर Bombay जा रहा हूँ ”. When they expressed their birthday wish for the school, it became a ‘wish list’ of things they want their school to have, “Shikshantar में rainbow tree हो”, “Shikshantar में एक mango tree हो और मैं बठै सकूँ”.
Tapping into the readiness of children of Kindergarten to experience complexity in word usage, play of words was introduced to them through the theme ‘Wonder of words’. Riddles, rhyming words, framing dialogues with things around them, story songs, what are questions like, how can I answer a question or find the answer to a riddle, their world of words expanded in so many directions. While they explored framing clues for their familiar spaces of school, they also put thought to making riddles for familiar things around them. “मैं round हूँ। मुझे bat के साथ खेलते हैं ” . They showed readiness to collectively weave a story through the individual characters imagined by them. There was accommodation of diverse ideas and pride in the joint effort. ‘The jungle story’, ‘Shikshantar forest’, ‘Harry travels over the space and jungle’, their ideas were vast and their imaginations stretched to include each one of them.
On the day of the birthday celebration, parents experienced the same word explorations through the corners set up across the campus. Making a variety of puppets themselves, they eagerly explored ‘ कठपुतलियों से कहानियों तक ’ with abundant joy. For the very first time, they listened to a story narrated in the Japanese street art form of ‘Kamishibai’. Shadow puppetry was another form of story narration that saw them empathize with the character of a ladybird in the story ‘The ladybird and the butterfly’.
Words abound all around us. When we sing or just hum along to the beats of a tabla, words are born organically. They may not have the form and sound of linguistic words and yet they convey our feelings of that moment. ‘Found sound’, ‘ गीतों के रंग शब्दों के संग ’, explorations with music, musical instruments, songs in a new language etc allowed expression of these along with kindling an urge to get on the feet and move creatively.
How do words lend themselves to ‘Oorja’? To jog the mind as well as the body, picture cues, riddles, word pictures were used. To bring focus after a bout of physical activity was the challenge of speaking a tongue-twister while walking on a straight line. Phew!
Do I tumble or do words tumble? What if both tumble and make a jumble! Word play can be intelligent, fun, tricky and captivating. And when parents experienced some of it, they went back to their school days of language learning but were refreshed with the fun element that they now experienced.
A few joyful songs, togetherness, the sun setting on our green lawn and hot beverages. All this accompanied a brief sharing by Minoti Didi on the journey of Shikshantar that began 22 years back. A perfect end to an evening that was celebratory and yet simple, invigorating and yet therapeutic, exploratory and yet immersive!
Happy Birthday to you, Shikshantar!
Monsoon: Water and Rains - Pre Primary
The month of July, with its overcast skies, carries the promise of rain. Our young children of Vanar Years eagerly wait for it to rain, especially during school hours. They look up at the sky to spot black clouds, “क्योंकि black clouds बारिश लाते हैं”. When rain-bearing clouds elude them, they participate in ‘Oorja’ exercises or play in Vanar Vatika during ‘Choice time’, despite the sultry weather. “दीदी देखो मेरा पसीना drip drop करके गिर रहा है।”
Across levels of Sprouting Seeds, Nursery, and Kindergarten, rain and water-related experiences are explored by children. Children look forward to jumping and getting their feet wet in the water puddles here and there. Friends of Nursery groups further explored ‘wet on wet painting’ using puddle water and paints. On another day, they relished eating bhutta, the first experience of eating it straight from the Bhuttawala Bhaiya for some of them.
When it does not rain, children also look for ways to experience the coolness of water. “Didi, if we sit in the sandpit we will feel cool”, “If you splish splash water on face, you will feel ठंडा ठंडा, just like it is raining”. Children recall their past experiences of rain and share about the sounds they have heard and creatures they have seen on a rainy day. Their discussions also lead them to valuing every drop of water and exploring ways in which they can save it. “मैंने teeth brush करते समय बहुत थोड़ा सा पानी खोला”, “Rain होगी तो मैं water collect कर लंगी और उसको drink करूंगी”.
But on the day that it does rain, nothing can hold our children back from playing in it. While most get wet with abandon by jumping in the puddles, some bring out their raincoats and umbrellas to take a walk around the campus and soak in the drenched surroundings. Some friends sit at an open door or window singing their rain songs while busy drawing or painting. Every moment spent in the rain is cherished by children and didi/bhaiyas.
Magic with Pen – Class V
During the project 'Magic with pen ' a short story was shared with children which concluded that the life of the pencil may seem ordinary, but it holds valuable lessons about personal growth. ''Embrace your potential, sharpen your skills,embrace imperfections, leave your mark, stay resilient, collaborate, use your time wisely and reinvent yourself. Later, children wrote thoughtful write ups on 'Parable of Pen' to welcome the new member in their lives. A child wrote a beautiful poem which says, ''You will do great things only if you allow yourself to be shared. You will endure pain when your ink is refilled, but you will only become a better pen... Children gave closure by writing a goodbye letter to the pencil for staying with them like a true friend and always giving as a mark of beginning their journey in Class V where they begin to write using Pen.
Class– II Theme : Houses
During the nature walk in Shikshantar, children observed different types of houses that animals live in, such as ant hills, nests and beehive. Their curiosity arose as to know how are houses built and why. Looking around, they observed various buildings made up of different materials in different shapes and sizes. Children also interacted with their grandparents enquiring about the kind of houses they used to live in. They excitedly shared their observations and research with each other during the Circle Time. Out of school visit to the National Crafts Museum enriched children’s understanding about different types of houses and gave them a glimpse of how construction of houses depend upon weather and regional conditions and the landform/water bodies around them. Children came back with minute observations and logically reasoned the purpose of salient features of the houses such as slanting roof and stilts. Children;s senses came alive when they saw, touched and felt the coolness of the mud houses with folk arts depicted on the walls. Children’s imagination and curiosity took wings in the form of a creative write-up ‘मेरे सपनों का घर’ as all their dreams came true on paper. Finally, the children worked together and exchanged their innovative ideas to create 3D models of different types of Kuccha and Pucca houses. The aesthetic display of the houses near the fish pond area lent it a scenic charm. The theme culminated with an interactive quiz on the same with the children.
Coming together for each other Class-I
The theme ‘Coming together with family’ recently explored by Class I children created an opportunity to understand the different family structures around them. Children drew their family portraits which included their parents, grandparents, pets, didis and bhaiyas. Through guided visualization, children reminisced about the meaningful time spent with their family that filled their heart with joy. It was a delight to see the children relive their precious moments in the form of an art expression. Children’s close observation of their family members was also replicated in the ‘घर-घर’ role-play, where they enthusiastically enacted as a family.
The togetherness of family further merged with the festival of Diwali. Through guided meditation, children reflected on the ‘inner light’ that guides them in different situations. They further pondered on the different qualities, aspects and places which they would like to illuminate, such as “I have placed my diya on my tongue so that I can say good words to my friends and family”. Carrying the light within them, children joyfully participated in the preparation of the festival of lights. They thoroughly enjoyed creating Diwali decorations ‘Toran’, painting diya, cleaning their space and celebrating the essence of Diwali by spending time together with their loved ones.
The three goals of education in Shikshantar are:
1. development of the inner and interpersonal self
2. scholarly development, and
3. creative expressions
To help each child achieve these goals, the curriculum at Shikshantar follows the principles of integrated education.
Integrated education is a method of teaching and a culture. It enables the development of the physical self with the development of the mind, the emotional, social and inner self.
Integrated education makes overt connections between the questions of the mind and learning experiences such that knowledge is approached as a whole rather than as compartmentalised subjects.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE INNER AND INTERPERSONAL SELF
The goal of balanced development is best achieved when a child lives free of judgement and conformity. This also requires nurturing individual talents and strengths.
Development of the inner self best occurs by recognising one’s own nature and that of others. An awareness of the self is necessary for engagement with society and the world of knowledge.
SCHOLARLY DEVELOPMENT
Every child has a curious mind. The purpose of education is to nurture that curiosity and to establish linkages with the development of knowledge.
Generation of new knowledge can only emerge with courage, sharing and endless enquiry.
• Why do some birds fly the way they do?
• Can scientific thinking help us understand historical and social phenomena?
• Why do we learn to build robots from scratch and not modular kits?
Scholarly development is about making overt linkages with received knowledge and the processes of constructing new knowledge.
Students are regularly encouraged to conduct research at elementary and complex levels. The school infrastructure and curriculum enables the active use of school laboratories, the library and activity rooms, and allows adequate time for students and teachers to read, collect data, construct, discuss, analyse and present their findings to each other on a regular basis.
Scholarly development in Shikshantar is about the development of knowledge, the ability to question, sensory experiences and integration of creative expressions.
CREATIVE EXPRESSION
Aesthetics establish connections between the self, society, the spiritual and nature. In Shikshantar, the aesthetic sense is evoked in every physical and interpersonal space.
It begins with a connect with Nature, the origin and reservoir of all that is aesthetic.
Aesthetics in the curriculum is enabled through art, music, drama, physical fitness, creative writing, circle time and in asking simple questions about why we do what we do and how it helps us connect with our inner nature and that of all living beings around us.
Students of all classes weave in and out of academic classes and non-academic classes that include the performing arts, the visual arts, the fine arts and sports.
The outcome is the nurturing of the “whole person” the development of the individual child who is in tune with her own thinking and creative self as she is with the people and world around her.