Choir Practice

Choir Practice

I am a part of the Primary School Western singing choir. I have had a great experience singing each time we practice. It has shown that I have a good voice and I can sing well. I have had loads of fun and love going for practice. We have been learning Christmas Carols to sing on Grandparents’ Day. I have now learnt many more Christmas Carols and love singing those. Christmas Choir has given me a new experience by singing very different songs from those we used to sing during our music class in the school. Those songs were much easier to sing than the ones we now sing as a part of the choir.

I have learnt about three tonal groups that choir singers are made into. Alto, the base tune of the song.Tenor, the middle tone and Soprano, the high tone; make up the choir. All three groups have to match their voices and sing in a synchronized manner. This is how the choir sounds really beautiful and melodious. I have been very happy to have been chosen for being in the choir and have also gained a lot from it.

Shreya Mozumdar

Who We Are

 Who We Are

We have been inquiring into the second line of inquiry of the Unit ‘Rediscovering Myself’ under the Transdisciplinary Theme ‘ Who We  Are’ .We are inquiring into how we change as we grow from children into adults. This is known as puberty. The unit is very interesting and prepares us for forthcoming changes, as says our central idea, ‘ Preparing for inevitable growth and change contributes to our well being.’ I think that this is a very true central idea, as it helps us to learn about our bodies and prepare for the inevitable growth and change that happens to us, so that when it happens, we don’t have to panic.

This unit has helped me a lot till now. I have learnt a lot about how I am going to change as I grow. I will prepare for the changes and I will understand easily when they happen.

Shreya Mozumdar

Rediscovering Myself

Rediscovering Myself

Hello! Today, I am going to tell you about the Unit of Inquiry. Our new unit that we are doing is ‘Rediscovering myself’. Right now we are on the 2^nd line of inquiry how we change as we grow.

We have done the different body systems. There are a lot of different body systems but the ones that we worked on are:

Ë       Circulatory system

Ë       Digestive system

Ë       Nervous system

Ë       Respiratory system.

We had to research about the function of the system, the organs and the function, our responsibility towards the system and the systems’ connection with the other systems. Our presentations were very informative.

Now we are on the 2^nd line of inquiry- How we change as we grow. We have learnt a lot of interesting facts about ourselves. We have learnt about endocrine and exocrine. Endocrine means a gland that secretes directly into the blood or lymph. Basically you can’t see an endocrine gland but you can see an exocrine gland. Exocrine means like all the sweat, tears and a lot more.

We have also learnt about the male and the female reproductive parts. We wondered if you’re a girl why do you have to know about the male’s reproductive part and if you’re a boy why do you have to know about the females reproductive parts. Well we have to learn about them because we have to be sensitive towards what the male or female is going through. We should not make fun of them and above all- this is an inevitable change! It happens to everybody and you can’t stop it .You can only prepare yourself for it.

In the reproductive parts, we learnt that when the male’s sperm comes to the female and fuses with the egg, its then that’s the beginning of the formation of a baby. The main difference between the male and female growth is that females get curvier and the hips get more weight and for the males they gain weight and they grow hair on their face. The two genders are different while growing because female becomes pregnant but male does not become pregnant.

We understood the importance of learning this unit because it helps us prepare for the forthcoming changes.

 Koel Rai

     

Bubbling Questions

Bubbling Questions

Our new unit is Re-discovering Myself. The transdiciplinary theme is Who We Are. It explains us about the people, how we are and how we should be. The central idea is: “Preparing for inevitable growth and change contributes to our well-being.” What we know about the unit is that we will learn about growth and change. Some changes will be inevitable and others will be man-made. We will learn about preparing for the forthcoming changes in ourselves too. Some questions that come to our mind are:

·        If there was no growth or change, how would life be?

·        How will our body systems change and function as we grow?

·        How/ why is the growth inevitable?

These are questions about the unit. We hope that the unit will be informative enough to answer these questions and many more .

Shweta

Experiments

Experiments

Today is the third day of our unit. Our unit is all about our body systems and how they change. We started our new unit on Tuesday 20^th November, 2012 .We began our unit with the introduction of the TD theme, Central Idea, lines of inquiry (LOI), Key Concepts.

On Wednesday we were given scenarios: a lion cub grows into a lion, a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, ice melts into water etc. we found a common concept in all of them was “Change”.

Today it was really interesting we conducted few experiments and found about physical and chemical changes, Changes which are reversible or irreversible.

Eesha Mathur

Halloween

Halloween- Origin and celebration at school

Origin

Halloween, also known in Europe as All Hallows Eve, was celebrated by the Celts to celebrate the end of summer and the coming of a new year. It was celebrated on 31^st October. In recent years, we wear scary costumes according to a Celtic belief. The Celts believed that on this day, evil spirits came to take them over. They lit bonfires and wore costumes resembling the spirits. The tradition of ‘trick or treat’ began in Christian churches. It was then called going ‘a-souling’. Poor people begged at houses for ‘soul cakes’ to remember their ancestors. Soul cakes were bread with currants inside.

How we celebrated Halloween at Pathways

At school, on Friday, 2^nd November 2012, we had a Halloween parade. Every child had dressed up as a scary or fantasy character. One by one, each class paraded around the amphitheatre stage, and showed off the lovely costumes they were wearing. It was a really memorable experience and we shall never forget it.

Shreya Mozumdar

World Citizens

World citizens

We are currently doing a unit on World Citizens. It is under the TD theme Where We Are in Place and Time. We have learnt about the culture of our home and host countries and how it influences us. It is important to learn all this because it teaches us how to be world citizens. A world citizen is someone who knows his culture and his host country’s culture. He is sensitive towards other cultures and mingles with them. Till now, I have learnt a lot and had a lot of fun. I have learnt how rich and diverse Indian culture is. This has been an important bit of knowledge for me!!

I think…

Culture, culture

The way we think, feel and do,

Why every person says to his country,

WOO-HOO!

(This really is true.)

Shreya Mozumdar

International Peace Day

‘Peace is something you cannot wish for. It is something you make’. On 21 of September  the world celebrated ‘Peace day’. On that occasion we saw a video on how did the Peace Day start and who initiated it. We also wrote peace messages , thoughts and slogans to give it to the United Nations (UN) peace makers who will be coming to our school next week. We will be celebrating the ‘ Joy of giving week’ where we will  give gifts to the students of the village schools. 

Spread peace , love each other and be happy.

By- Dhruv Narula

Dhruv Narula

Literacy Week

Literacy week has been a week of expressing ourselves in different ways. There were various fun activities planned throughout the week.

Through the week we explored facts about North Africa, Korea, Japan, India and read folk tales from around the world. We also made a collage, book jackets and dressed up as characters from different stories. We also celebrated Hindi week and had some interesting special assemblies with various Hindi performances.  I think that the best part was when an illustrator came in to show his drawings and sketches in a comic book. Next time, as a part of the literacy week, I would also like to go on a treasure hunt around the school.

I am quite sad that it only lasted a week and not forever. We had a very exciting week with lots of fun and activities and I would love to do it again. 

Celebrating Roald Dahl's birthday during the Literacy Week

Roald Dahl was born on 13^th September, 1916. I like Roald Dahl’s books because they are funny and sweet. The characters are whacky, disgusting, or funny. On his birthday, I remember him and read some parts of his books that I own. Today I finished one of his books called ‘The Twits’. When I got to know that it was Roald Dahl’s birthday I thought it was the perfect day to read The Twits. I was really happy to know that I finished a Roald Dahl book on Roald Dahl’s very own birthday! Some books of his are: Charlie and the Chocolate factory, James and the Giant peach, Matilda, The Twits, The witches, The BFG, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Esio Trot.

Shreya Mozumdar

Samosa Activity

Samosa Activity

In class we played a game called ‘Samosa’. The rules of the game are:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·  Choose a multiplication table and whenever a multiple of the number approaches, say ‘samosa’. (e.g.: Table of 2: 1, SAMOSA, since 2 is a multiple of 2)

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·    If you call out the multiple and forget to replace it with ‘samosa’ or take a long time to say samosa or the number, you are out. We use this game to learn our multiples. We can also use it to learn divisibility rules. We can skip count using this too. In my opinion this is a very educative game and it helps us revise multiplication tables in a fun way. This is why I like the Samosa game.

Shreya Mozumdar

Reflecting on the week gone by.....

Student Orientation - Newsflash

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Student Orientation

Students playing Human Knot

Our Student Council Orientations helps us realize that the student council is important because the members are children like us and will need help with certain things. During the Orientation we did different activities that helped us understand the responsibilities of being a student council member. Some of the activities we did were:- two stars and one wish in which  we wrote two good things and one wish about student council. This was meant to tell the members about their good qualities  and give them  ideas for their improvement. 

We also played the game of co-ordination and co-operation where we were blind folded and asked to make a human knot and then untangle it.  This gave us the message that we could get stuck in difficult situations butl always find a way out.

Understanding 'Perspective' through the book 'Zoom'

Student council orientation was fun and educational and I look forward to more student council orientations.

 Mahika Goel

Student  council  orientation  was  held  for training  student council  so that  they  can fulfill    their  responsibilities  and the   students who are not  part   of the student  council   can also learn something  very  important .The things we learnt were:

·       To work as a team.

·       To   co -operate with   each   other.

·       The qualities that a student   council member should have.

We had a lot of fun playing games. We enjoyed and learnt a lot of things.

Srijon Sinha

Student Council Elections

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Student Speak

In Grade 5, we are looking forward to many things. We look forward to the challenges and responsibilities that come our way because it gives us an opportunity to show that we have grown up and we can meet those challenges with confidence. We look forward to the PYP Exhibition where all our learning is showcased.  Student Council is also something we forward to. Even if we aren’t all elected, we are the senior most class and the rest of the students in Primary School look up to us. 

We have many aspirations in Grade 5. The most important one is to be the best that we can be. In Grade 5, we should always try to succeed at our given task. If we don’t succeed, we can always try again but we should never give up on ourselves. The junior classes will look up to us and we should perform our duties responsibly and not be bossy but be humble so that we can we are a good example for the younger ones.  We should not take sides but be fair and make the correct decision.

Alia Mahajan

I want to  learn about GREAT inventions and about space. I am excited about which unit we are going to start with first.

Kinshuk

When I first came from USA to Pathways, it was in Grade 4 and I had lot of excitement about starting my new school and making new friends. It was quite thrilling. This year I look forward to learning new things and present them in unique ways. I am excited about Grade 5 most because of the PYP exhibition so I can research and compile information and put together a presentation for other classes. I am also looking forward to go to field trips, Camps and school presentations and outdoor trips. I also look forward to being a role model for the younger classes in the primary school.

Mahika

I want to make sure that I do very well in school and become a good Earth house Vice-Captain and maybe when I’m in a higher grade I could become the President.

Melissa

We need to face the 5 P’s of life as we enter the senior most class of Primary –Punctuality, Perfection, Patience, Preparedness, Peer Pressure. We have to gear ourselves for the Student Council Elections, PYP Exhibition and the academic challenges.  The students have to confidently display the attributes of the Learner Profile.

Ashlin

Aspiration means ambition or the hope of achieving something. I think these are some of the challenges and aspirations of Grade5.

I have several aspirations such as

·       Making my handwriting neater,

·        Improving my vocabulary,

·       Becoming more independent,

·       Being more confident in my presentations,

·       Improving my understanding of my subjects,

·       Learning new things and using them at the right places,

·       Becoming a better sports person.

The Challenges in 5th Grade would be:

·     Being Council member and at the same time we are the senior most class in Primary school so we have to be responsible and disciplined.

• ·     Learning new things which I think would be tough.
• ·     And last but not the least the PYP Exhibition and especially when you have to do it alone that is the hardest challenge ever.

Koel Rai

In grade 5, I look forward most to the PYP exhibition. The PYP exhibition is a unit which we inquire into ourselves. We decide on a topic and make panels that showcase all our learning in the primary school. We work individually with a mentoring teacher. Since the exhibition is transdisciplinary, we use many mediums such as dance, music, art, and plays.

In the primary school, we have learnt how to learn. We have researched, analyzed information and interpreted data ourselves. Now it’s time showcase all of that, all that WE can do – through the PYP exhibition.

Shreya Mozumdar

Aspirations and Challenges

As the students come to Grade 5, the final year of their journey in the Primary it is a time for mixed emotions. To realize that they are the senior most class which carries an added responsibility of exemplary behavior which can be emulated by the junior students and also showcase their PYP learning through the PYP Exhibition are some of the challenges which the students brace themselves up for. The Student Council Elections which gave the opportunity to a few students to represent the student body of the Primary was a mixed bag of smiles and tears for the ones who made it or missed the bus this time. It has been one of the first brushes with failure for many and as teachers we hope this experience eggs on the students to strive further and not lose hope as each one of them has the potential to be a leader.  In the classrooms as the students face the academic challenges which encourage them to be independent learners who take pride in their learning. The students actively learn to imbibe the qualities of the Learner Profile into their personalities making them well rounded individuals we can be proud of.