Unit of Inquiry :

Students inquired into factors affecting our health and developed an understanding of consuming a balanced diet for staying healthy.

They were familiarised with terms like ingredients, nutritional value, red and green dots on food packets, manufacturing and expiry date of products with the use of empty wrappers.

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As a part of making real life connections, students were taken on a field trip to a departmental grocery store, where they saw all the food products options available on shelves. They understood the significance of making the right choices, the importance of locally grown food and its health benefits. They also learnt to identify fresh and processed food.

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Math :

Integration to the unit of inquiry was done with the aid of empty food wrappers where students viewed the nutritional content. They noted down the sugar content present in different drinks and recorded the names of drinks which had maximum and least sugar in them.

Students were introduced to the concept of ordinal numbers through a class activity.

English

The form tutor read a poem to the students to hone their listening and visualisation skills. They listened carefully and drew images in their journals. They also extended their vocabulary by learning new words, like smooth and braids.

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Listening skills were further enhanced with the story ‘Peppa Pig-the dentist’. They summarized their understanding by answering simple questions. Students were assessed on their spellings with a spell bee.

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Hindi

To enhance reading and writing skills, students read and wrote three- and four-letter words. They also revised आ ki maatraa by reading small sentences. They saw a video related to good food habits and discussed about it to enhance their viewing and speaking skills.

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Students marked Janamashtami at school by identifying learner profile attributes for Lord Krishna. His caring and balanced approach to life was evident in the heart warming welcome accorded to his childhood friend Sudama. The lifting of Govardhan parvat marked his principled behaviour towards his village folks. Killling of Kaalia nag was an act of courage that sent out a cultural message about the good deeds of the Lord.

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ICT

Students understood the meaning of research and how different search engines work. While searching for images of healthy and unhealthy food using Google Chrome, they practiced effective citing and referencing in their documents which is an essential skill in the digital age. Students discussed the ‘Essential Agreements’ and reviewed what they had drafted during their first ICT class of this session. They made a few changes and agreed to act accordingly.

Art

Students were encouraged to express themselves freely on a topic of their choice using colour pencils. Later they wrote their reflections based on the guiding questions given to them.

Music

The students learned a new song ‘A gift to you’ and they also did some vocal warmup exercises to improve their vocal performance.

Dance

Students clapped and stomped their feet to rhythmic music. This helped them to understand the rhythm better. They worked on body isolations and explored different types of body movements. Releve was introduced in class. It describes the action when a dancer rises up and seemingly is standing on his/her toes.

PE & Skating

Students developed their basic motor skills with the help of different lead-up and recreational games, which included jumping, running and hopping. They practiced walking and balancing on the skates during their skating lessons

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Social Emotional learning (SEL)

This week, students were encouraged to segregate thoughts from feelings with the help of an activity that used an emotion tree that asked students to express and write their own feelings. This activity also helped them to understand how every individual reacts differently in different situations.

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Library

This year Grade 1 summer assignment challenge aimed at developing the students’ analytical and thinking skills. They undertook an extensive and meaningful assignment and presented insightful reflections based on The DE Bono’s hats for the stories they read during their summer break. Winners of the summer challenge celebrated their victory on September 3, 2019 by dressing up as favourite characters from their respective stories and went on a character parade. Students enjoyed their celebratory ice cream and attention. The school takes pride in awarding winners with an interdisciplinary certificate of appreciation that applauds their effort.

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UOI

Continuing with the ongoing unit, students interviewed the facilitators of different grades and identified various healthy and unhealthy practices on a worksheet.

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They further inquired about food as an important contributor to health with a thumbs up-thumbs down activity. Students further illustrated the healthy and unhealthy food items under two categories. They participated in a class discussion on different food groups and followed it up by reading a story about the importance of healthy food. https://www.storyjumper.com/book/index/21234228/Learning-About-Food-Groups#page/4

Students carried out a sorting activity where they segregated different food items on the food pyramid.

Math

Students revisited the concept of place value using an abacus. Taking their learning further, they explored the use of graph paper to represent a set of numbers on it.

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Students were shown an audio visual named ‘Even Steven’ to brush up their concept of even and odd numbers. They attempted a practice worksheet on the same. Students also practiced creating two-digit even and odd numbers using three single-digit numbers. Further, they represented the same, using bars of tens and blocks of ones, with class manipulatives.

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Reading and writing of number names from 1 to 10 was practiced by the students that were shown to them using flash cards.

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English

Students read a poem and engaged in visual imagery. They were assessed on their spellings with a spell bee. They were shown an online story ‘Food Fit’ that talked about the importance of healthy food. The students then reflected on their understanding of the story. A ‘Take and Talk’ activity helped students reinstate the five factors that promote good health. Students revisited the blends ‘sh’ and ‘st’ by writing words in their journals.

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Hindi

To enhance reading and writing skills, students were introduced to ‘आ’ ki maatraa. For practice, they read and wrote two and three letter words. They also saw a story, बढ्ने का रहस्य (badhne ka rahsya) and presented their understanding through visual imagery. To enhance viewing and presenting skills, students learned about good habits through a PPT. They drew images and presented their work in class. They attempted a spellbee to improve their vocabulary.

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ICT

Using MS-Paint, students designed their plate with various types of food that promote healthy food habits. Students searched for images of healthy and unhealthy food using Google Chrome. They learned to copy and paste images from Chrome to MS-Paint. Students were briefed about the importance of academic honesty and giving credit for the copied images. They enhanced their research skills while doing various tasks.

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Dance

Dance Lessons focused on the development of rhythm patterns and flexibility. Movements were created based on simple rhythmic combinations with large isolated steps. Solitary performance was also introduced.

Art

Students learned how to express themselves visually using rulers, keeping the proportions of their artwork in mind. This activity helped them to hone their fine motor and thinking skills.

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Music

Students learned about notes and note values and inquired how they are used in music. They were able to count and play different note values. Students have progressed to playing these notes on the Congo.

Social Emotional learning (SEL)

As a part of their social emotional learning, students gained more knowledge about self – awareness. They were helped to understand the difference between thoughts and feelings through various interactive and self-reflective sessions wherein, they were encouraged to segregate the thought from feeling.

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PE & Skating

Students developed their basic motor skills with the help of different lead-up and recreational games, which included jumping, running and hopping. They practiced walking and balancing on skates during their skating lessons.

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Library

Students listened to the story of ‘The Little Princess’ by Tony Ross, that narrated the tale about a little princess who did not want to go to bed. This story will resonate with every parent and children will love the fact that they are not the only ones who can come up with some clever ways to put off sleep for just “one more minute.”

UOI

The tuning in part of the inquiry cycle was done by discussing the importance of maintaining personal hygiene, keeping surroundings clean, and various ways by which this can be achieved. The activity was followed by a class discussion and later the students illustrated the same in their journals. They reflected on their daily routine and habits and made personal connections by talking about the healthy and unhealthy practices seen during a day. This was represented on a T- chart.

Students were engaged in an interesting classroom activity where they did exercises like knee ups, toe touches, jumping jacks to name a few. They observed how they felt after doing these exercises. They were then asked to note down their thoughts, feelings and understanding about the importance of daily exercise. The same was reiterated to them through a guest speaker session.

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Learnings from this activity were integrated with the inquiry cycle with the help of a discussion on the importance of post-exercise rest. Students were asked to note down their experience using some keywords. Little learners understood why it is important to lead a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

Math

To reiterate the concept of numbers, students began their week with an activity wherein they were paired with a partner . They wrote a number and their partner’s number in the journal to make a 2-digit number from it. 

They attempted another task where they wrote numbers 1-10 and quantified the corresponding hierarchies using blue and green colour. They further marked the number as odd or even.

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English

Students started their week by reiterating CVC words with medial sounds like a, e, i, o, u and wrote them in their journals.

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Learning from the unit was integrated by watching an audio-visual story ‘Goodnight IPAD’ where they discussed the importance of sleeping without the presence of an electronic screen .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ouOwpYQqic

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A reading assessment rubric allowed to understand reading levels among students.A spell bee was attempted while a bingo game on sight words was also played in their journals .

UOI Integration– They watched an online video on healthy/ unhealthy habits and further wrote their understanding in the journals. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMrdXaMfhNI

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During a bus stop activity, students moved to different stations in the class that had blends written on them. They illustrated words beginning with those blends.

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Hindi

Students enthusiastically participated in reciting the poem ‘सभी फलों में सेब है न्यारा’. This was followed by identifying the names of vegetables and fruits, and by writing their initial letters in the journals. To enhance their communication skills, they did ‘show and tell’ activity in which they described their favourite fruits. They learned about alphabets and made two to three letter words using the knowledge acquired. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDEGgbTUupQ

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ICT

Students are further exploring MS-Paint where they are learning how to add shapes, colours and the pencil tool to the work pane. Young learners are still learning to handle the mouse with their tiny hands while coordinating their eyes on the screen simultaneously. Students also gained knowledge on about social media(YouTube, Facebook, Skype etc). They enhanced their fine motor skills by working on an online tool on mouse program, where they gained knowledge on how to click with left and right button, scrolling of the mouse up and down to see the content of the page.

Dance 

Dance lessons focused on the development of posture and flexibility. Solitary performance was also introduced.

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Art

Students learned how to use a ruler to take measurements and draw straight, standing and sleeping lines. Later they created free expressions and gave their reflections.

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Music

The students learned about note values. They also learned how to count and clap these notes.

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Social Emotional Learning

The students gained knowledge about Self – Awareness as a part of their SEL sessions. They were introduced to emotions and feelings through various interactive and self-reflective sessions wherein, they were encouraged to explore their self.

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Physical Education 

Students continued with their unit in athletics where they developed their basic skills with the help of equipment and callisthenic exercises. Skating Students learned balancing on their skates to grow in confidence.

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Library

The birthday of one of the most popular bestselling fiction authors of all times, ‘Enid Blyton’ was celebrated. She as per the UNESCO, is the most translated children’s author in the world having sold more than 600 million copies. The children were given a brief introduction about the author and the popular series written by her namely Noddy , Famous Five, The secret seven, Amelia Jane etc.

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                 UOI

TD theme – Who we are

Central Idea – Leading a balanced lifestyle can help us stay healthy

Key Concept – Form

                         Causation

                         Responsibility

Lines of Inquiry – Ways we take care of ourselves.

                            A balanced lifestyle

                            Our responsibility in taking care of our body.

Students were welcomed into their new grades with an ice breaking activity wherein they were asked to talk to their classmates and find answers to the questions given to them, like who plays football , who wears spectacles etc.

They were engaged in a classroom discussion on 6 TD themes and the learner profiles. This was followed by showing related audio visuals.

Prior knowledge assessment – Students were given pictures that showed the 5 factors of health (rest, recreation, exercise, hygiene, food) which was followed by asking them to sort the pictures according to the groups using their thinking skills.

Provocation – Students were exposed to some hints about their unit of Inquiry  using the guiding question like ‘What do they think the unit will be about?’ etc. which was followed by writing the central idea on the board and displaying the images that pointed to balanced and healthy lifestyle.

Later, they wrote the central idea in their journals and underlined important words.

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Students engaged in an activity where they were shown a few pictures kept inside a mystery bag. One by one they picked up a picture and identified the picture and  it’s use? They came up with varied yet interesting answers.

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A gallery walk was conducted outside the classroom wherein they observed the display boards and discussed the message being put forth through those boards.

Math

Students were welcomed to their class with an ice breaking activity named ‘Fizz buzz’ wherein they stood in a circle and counted numbers from 1 to 50 and at every odd number they said ‘Fizz buzz’ instead of the number.

They also attempted task sheets based on the activity ‘Scavenger Hunt’ and ‘Math about me’.

Students completed a looping back sheet to reiterate the concepts done in their previous grade.

They played a game where they were divided into pairs to compare numbers by rolling a dice and identify who had the bigger number.

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To reinforce the concept of numbers, students played a number Bingo game from 1-20.

They also did an activity where they were given number cards from 1-30 and were asked to arrange them in the correct sequence. Later, they repeated this activity using manipulatives.

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English

Students were welcomed back with quite a few fun activities. They were given sheets where they were asked to draw anything creative which appealed to them. This was followed by an activity where they were given 4-5 colour pencils each with a meaning assigned to each colour. They spoke some facts about the meaning given to each colour.

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A general discussion followed where students spoke about their new classroom and discussed  essential agreements. They also attempted a task sheet about a ‘secret message from their teacher’.

Students did a fish bowl activity where they picked up a chit that had a letter written on it. They read aloud the letter and named a word with it. A few of them tried speaking a sentence using those words too.

They practiced writing upper and lower case letters, while also attempting a work sheet to reiterate the previous concepts.

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Hindi

The students expressed themselves through an activity and also spoke about how they spent their summer vacation. They also practiced Vyanjan and maatraas, through an activity using flash cards. They watched a video on वर्णमाला (varnmaala), identified pictures and wrote two/three letter words. 

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ICT

Students were welcomed into their ICT classes with a warm smile. Students interacted with each other and talked about their summer holidays- vacations, summer activities and, of course, studies. Some of the students happily shared with the class the skills they had developed during the holidays, such as creative writing using computer  and so on.

The week began with a discussion on essential agreements .Each student had a unique perspective of the challenges that they have faced in the past years, and everyone provided possible solutions for them, to improve the classroom environment.

Students were introduced to Microsoft Paint which is a basic computer graphics program found on most personal computers using a Windows operating system. They were shown how to draw basic shapes using pencil feature.

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Dance  

Dance lessons focused on development of rhythm patterns  and body isolations .Students learned basic choreography in jazz style on the song uptown funk.

Art

Students discussed about the importance of using a ruler. They also learnedt how to draw straight lines by taking measurements with a ruler. Later they drew standing lines at a distance of 1 cm each using a ruler.

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Music

Students learned about rhythm and how to clap different patterns over a beat . They also sang their favorite songs.

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PE

Students shared their previous knowledge about motor skills and engaged in general warm up exercises to develop their motor skills.

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Library

First graders  visited the library after the summer vacation with lot of enthusiasm and excitement. The opportunity to choose their books independently beckoned them.  They were given a library tour to make them aware where to find books of their interest. Grade 1 was also read out library Essential Agreements and why these agreements were important to follow. Students chose two books for borrowing and reading at will.

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