Ekya School Byrathi was packed with activities teaching important lessons to our students in a fun and casual way. In this blog you can get a gist of the activities at our Byrathi campus.
Robotics Demo Session (Grades 4-8)
Robotics experts Ms. Pooja gave practical and theoretical insights regarding robots and its functioning process to our students as a demo class. Assembling parts, internal wiring, coding, programming, and decoding were briefly addressed to ignite curiosity and interest in students. They got the opportunity to experiment with simple motions of a few robots.
Elementary Kannada Class (Grades 1-3)
Grades 1 to 3 started their first Kannada class apart from their curriculum. These sessions are primarily designed to develop and establish comprehensive learning and understanding of Karnataka state’s official language – Kannada.
The aim is to train our students to handle situations in life. We believe that the key to many problems is not being acquainted with the local language. Since Kannada, one of the classical languages of India is the most widely spoken and official language of the state, our language expert Mr. Kalachary is training the students in a fun and interactive way.
Session details: Oral & Writing Skills.
In this session, the students were introduced to Kannada alphabets (pronouncing and writing) and common, local names of fruits and vegetables used in the Kannada language. The instructor showed a video clipping in which an image and name of the particular vegetable/fruit would appear and pause for 10-15 seconds. 15 seconds would give time for students to listen, see the visual and understand which vegetable has what name. They could associate with the sound of the name of the vegetable/fruit. The activity was repeated several times to help students connect with the new sounds and pronunciation in the new language, especially for the students who communicate in different languages back in their homes.
Shloka/Prayer Recitation (Montessori)
Students of Ekya Early Years participated in reciting shloka/prayers which they are familiar with. Our students recited prayers from the culture they belong to. This event justifies our motto – Together as One (we are glad to have multiple cultures and communities under one roof) through which the students get to explore and interact, understand and respect the culture of their fellow classmates. Three students received badges for participating well in the recitation.
Shloka: Saraswati Namastubhyam Varade Kaama- Roopini. Vidyaarambham Karishyaami Siddhir-Bhavatu Me Sadaa. This prayer is usually practiced in the morning prayers in schools before starting the day.
Meaning: Requesting Goddess of Knowledge -Saraswathi, to bless us with awareness and shower strength upon us so that we achieve the goals set for us in a positive manner. Vidyaarambham Karishyaami Siddhir-Bhavatu Me Sadaa means requesting Goddess to give us the strength to identify the path of success as we learn new things every day.
Gender Sensitisation Session (Grades 1-3 & Montessori)
We, at Ekya, aim at the safety and security of our students which is achieved by constant vigilance of our instructors, proactive staff and support from helpful staff. However, to aid this, we need our children to learn about personal safety. A special session was arranged on 18-07-2019. Ms. Arpita, Ekya School Counselor guided children on gender sensitization. Gender sensitization presides over gender sensitivity, the modification of behavior by raising awareness of gender equality concerns. Gender sensitizing is about changing behavior and instilling empathy into the views that we hold about our own and the other genders.
Ms. Arpita spoke regarding important insights on what is gender sensitization. The students were actively involved and thoroughly understood the measures which must be followed for a safe and healthy living of themselves and everyone. Ms. Arpita spoke in detail regarding things such as personal safety, rules, types of touches, comfort zones, parts of the body along with private parts.
To help the students, considering their age, to understand the sensitive issue and importance of this session, she constantly made connections with familiar things to explain difficult concepts. The following concepts were addressed in the session:
I’m the Boss of My Body.
Ms. Arpita sang The Exercise Song along with the students, to familiarize them with body parts and then explained what are private parts.
Safe Touch and Unsafe Touch.
Types of touches were discussed in which children had to give reasoning to differentiate between comfortable and uncomfortable touches.
Children receiving/giving hugs, handshakes, appreciations from parents, relatives, friends and teachers would be considered as safe touch.
Students were asked to imagine a stranger coming and hugging them randomly. They reacted with an uncomfortable feeling which they categorized as unsafe touch.
3 Rules- Clothing Rule, Touching Rule, Talking Rule.
The expert told students about rules to follow such as clothing rule which means dress-up well and cover all parts of the body and not to show/see any parts especially private parts to/of anyone.
She also addressed important things such as; Let’s not allow anyone to touch us and let’s not touch anyone. Let’s be polite and respectful when we talk. Talking about your/anyone’s body parts is a no-no!
Only discuss with safe adults such as parents, grandparents, siblings, and teachers about any uncomfortable thoughts or incidents that are bothering you.
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