The latest newsletter from Bangalore

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What a wonderful moment it is each morning to see these lovely children with their happy smiles and  joyful spirits come in to our centres.  Every day is filled with a variety of activities and things to do for the children. Circle time, activity time, study time, play time, meal time.... never a dull moment from the word go. Here are the highlights of the month. Learning - In & Outside The Classroom It is of paramount importance that we make the most of each day of school for the children. We at Building Blocks prioritise proper, thorough and efficient planning of our curriculum and schedules for the month. Our teachers do an outstanding job of this, and we thank them for their commitment. Our curriculum coordinators plan out all the activities that not only keeps the children's attention but also inspire them to learn all that they can. To make things more exciting not only for the children but also for the teachers and the effectiveness of what the teachers are trying to teach - interschool groups were formed for each of the grades K3, K4, K5. The goal of this was for all their counterparts of each grade teachers to share ideas, tips, pictures, videos so all can benefit from each others ideas and activities. The curriculum coordinators also get to see what the teachers are doing  and be able to monitor and suggest any changes. Overview of the curriculum for the month of July 2019               K3(Nursery)    K4(LKG)    K5(UKG) Phase I Phonics: Aspect I:  Environmental Sounds/ English K3--A listening moment. Listening walks. Drum outdoors. Mrs Browning's box.    K4--Capital and small letters Aa to Zz.    K5--Concept of vowels. Maths    K3--Pre Writing Exercises: Scribbling, Standing line, Sleeping line.    K4--Counting from 1 to 10, even and odd  numbers.  K5--Numbers 1 to 100, even and odd and missing numbers. Social Science    K3--Colours &  Shapes    K4--Families are special, my friends, my home, different kinds of houses.    K5--My organization, about Karnataka and it's important places Moral Science    K3--Health and hygiene: Seven Steps of Hand Wash.    K4--Emotional well being-Anger, Social well being- looking after pet animals & Physical well being-food    K5--The lion and the mouse story with moral  Language enrichment cards     K3--Top, Middle & Bottom/ Above & Below / Inside & Outside Fine Motor Skill    K3--Folding the Napkin, Thread and Beads,Tong and Ice Cube, Rolling the Mats, Playing with Play Dough, Handling the Tweezer, Sorting, Pegs & Pounding, Physical education  time/shake up time/yoga time/library time    K3--Foundation of body movement unit.     K4--PE    K5--PE  Rhymes    K3--Wheels on the bus go, Bath song, I am a little teapot    K4--Five little monkeys & Jack and Jill    K5--Little miss muffet & London bridge is falling down Library    K3--Touch and feel books     K4--Board books    K5--Board books Classroom Setup Our Edelweiss center had some changes of the setup and re-organizing of the activity room, library, office and classrooms for smooth operations and making it more convenient for  the children of different grades to have their class time, activity time and their meal time. Also new staff have been appointed. These are the following changes made: Ms. Sheema  Afzal is our new manager for Edelweiss. Two new teachers for K4 and K5 grades Miss Saniya and Miss Afreen have been appointed. Few classrooms have been painted with  display walls. Printed and laminated all Images, visual cards and circle time headings  for all classrooms. Installed new whiteboards in all classrooms. New computer was installed in one of the classrooms. Two new chairs were purchased and the other 4 chairs were repaired. Thorough cleaning of all classrooms and kitchen were done. Purchased  essentials like water jugs, buckets, mugs, water stands, stools, cutlery , vegetable basket, masala  boxes, napkins for children, teacher's and student's stationery boxes etc… New stationery supplies: lamination sheets, folders, staplers, punching machine, scissors, cello tape machine etc…. Library corner was set up and all the old books were removed. K3 class was shifted to a bigger classroom for more legroom for the little ones. Divided children in K4 and K5 and made two classrooms for K4 and K5. Play area is also used for dining area with a granite table along the wall for mealtimes for all K4 and K5 students as moving food from the kitchen to the different classrooms was inconvenient especially in the rainy season. Theme based classroom names have been given to the classrooms. New sign board in the Entrance.

Attendance Awards This month we introduced a new initiative in our Building Blocks schools-presenting Attendance Awards to families of students with 98-100% attendance! We began with Hibiscus, where we were delighted to discover that the daughter of a single mum of 4 children held 100% attendance, in having NOT missed even a single day of school! We created attendance awards to be handed over to her family and displayed a copy of the award on the parent board where monthly attendance percentage is displayed. This idea motivated us to conduct simple attendance award ceremonies in front of each school's parent community for students with best attendance from the last AY 2018-19. We found that this line of action was well-received by parents, who sincerely appreciated getting rewarded for commendable efforts on their end. They were proud to receive a small gift, award and have their child's achievement displayed as a sign of recognition. Right away this encouraged more faithful attendance from other student families - and we are thrilled! Value Education & Music Classes We at Building Blocks are always working towards giving our children the best education possible. To make the learning experience well rounded we have incorporated value education into our curriculum. In line with the social science subject topics different value based topics are addressed  and taught. Thanks to Mr. Joseph who has been conducting these classes. Each topic is taught through stories, drama, puppet shows and music. The children not only are learning a lot but also love these classes and look forward for them. We Also have Mr. Micheal who has been regularly teaching the children music and singing. The children are learning to sing as a team and also individually.  Thank You Thank you everyone!  You made it all possible.  Wishing you all a wonderful month ahead.