A mega Children’s Day event and 10th anniversary of Building Blocks Schools was celebrated on Nov 15th with about 400 children and a total of 600 people attending this event. This was a huge success with brilliant performances from students which completely mesmerized the audience asking for more!  Guests danced till their feet ached, clapped until their hands turned sore and sang with the children.  This lifted the spirit of the kids and left them performing at their best.  This yearly event drew a big crowd along with the newspaper media wanting to publish an article for Children’s Day!

Attendance and Nutrition

No. of students enrolled: 91

Total number of meals served this month: 2,790

No. of school days: 19

No. of Students Enrolled (Day): 84

Average attendance: 74

Attendance in %: 88

No. of Students Enrolled (ASP): 7

Total breakfasts served: 1,464
Total lunches served: 1,326

Total meals served at ASP

(After School Program): NIL

Total number meals served since opening at Freesia: 63,150

Total ABC-BB School partnership meals since opening: 183,625

Curriculum

K4 Math – Focus of the month was in teaching Shapes, Fractions and Subtraction and Addition of numbers.

Shapes:  Activities included for reinforcing shapes were – paper chains, egg rolling, building a triangle and hopscotch.  Keywords used were – Circle, Oval, Triangle, Square, Round, Side and Corner.

Review of numbers: Addition, Subtraction of Numbers, Adding on, Plus, Zero, Minus, and Measurement.  Activities used for measurement were – classroom measurements, toe to heel measurement, paper clip measurement and measuring “How Many Blocks’.  Keywords used for measurement were – Decimal, Heavy, Light, Meter, Pound, Small, Centimeter, Foot, Inch, Short, Tall, Heavy and Light.

Fractions: fractions were introduced in circle time activity.  Activities used for fractions were – fractional snacks, lines of symmetry, “Can Everything be Shared?”, Part to Whole and Name the Part.  Keywords used were – Divide, Share, Half Part, Equal, Whole, Third, Fourth, Numerator and Denominator.

K5 Math – K5 curriculum progressed into advanced topics.  Children practiced writing from 1-100; writing even and odd numbers and reviewed fractions.

Measurement and time were new topics discussed in the classroom.  Activity included taking classroom measurements.  Children used their foot to measure how many foot spans in their classroom. Another activity was to record the height of each child in terms of how many blocks tall they are. Activity for heaviest to lightest and estimating water levels in cans was also conducted to assist them in the understanding of measurements.  Children were engaged in various activities to recognize time by reading hands of the clock.

K4 English – Blending sounds for the alphabet letters taught were – “ue, ar, er”.  This was achieved through story and action.  Formation words taught were – fuel, clue, value, car, arm, jar, card, sister, waiter and singer.  Reviewed 42 letter sounds and gave writing practice of the letters A-Z using both upper case and lower case.

K5 English – Tricky words learned were – what, when, why, where, who, which, any, and many. Children learned the blending words from the word bank (1st group and 2nd word groups).  In language, they learned recognizing and writing the end letter sound.

Pupil book 3 was completed through filling in the gaps, dictation, blending practice, review of tricky words and using right vowels in the sentences.

K4 Social Science – This month they learned about plants through a story which emphasized on plants have parts, plants have seeds, different types of plants and how we use plants. Through centre activity they learned different parts of a plant, names of the plant parts, how plants survive and that plants have seeds. Children drew the plants and its parts and colored them on a chart paper.

“Maggie’s Trip to the Ocean” was achieved through centre activity – sorting seashells, outdoor activity- follow the sea creature, math and language“ A School of Fish” and story comprehension. Did Maggie see it?

K5 Social Science – Children learned about neighboring countries and oceans.  Children also learned the four Metro cities of India, the number of states in India, the Capital of India and neighboring countries of India.  For the state “Karnataka” (relevant to where they live), they learned the Capital of Karnataka, important places in Karnataka and drew a map of Karnataka on the chart paper.  In our city “Bangalore” they were shown important places in the city through a video.

K4/K5 Reading time – Children of K4 and K5 were read “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?” story book.  This book with colored animals and a gentle rhyming story introduced the children to different colors and repetitive text that is easy to join in saying “Brown Bear, brown bear, what do you see? I see a red bird looking at me.  Red bird, red bird what do you see?  I see a yellow duck looking at me…” This book was great for reinforcing colors, easy sentences to read and for language development.

K4 Native Language Kannada – Gave writing practice from 0-10.  We also started Kannada language consonants from “Ka – Ga”.

K5 Native Language Kannada – Taught letter “Ka” through writing the letter, formation of the letter and by giving writing practice for the letter.  We also started Kannada language consonants from “Ka – Ga”.

K4 Value Education – They learned about self control.  Children learned that when they go out with their mother, they should not beg for things they want, they should ask once, and accept mother’s answer. When they beg after they have been told “no”, they are being selfish and disobedient.  If mother says “yes” they should say “Thank you.”

K5 Value Education – Moral stories “The Donkey and the Dog”, “Our Big Home INDIA”, “Hurting You and Hurting Me” were read and the moral of the stories was explained to them.

K4/K5 Genki English – How old are you, What’s your favorite color?, Fruit market, Numbers 1 to 12, Under the Sea, Eat! Drink! Dance!  All of this was achieved through words, mini lessons, songs, games and karaoke

Nutrition

Well balanced nutritious meals were prepared and served every day.  There have been many special occasions and children have feasted on delicious food this month.

Visitors

Wizz Kids, Amsterdam and Rotary Club of Amsterdam visited Freesia and appreciated the significant growth of the children and the programs in the last few years.  They enjoyed spending a couple of hours at the school and visited a neighborhood school where Building Blocks children study beyond K5. 

Special Celebration

Children’s Day is celebrated all over the world on the 20th of November.  In India, the basis of Children’s Day is the 1st Prime Minister, Pundit (Pt.) Jawaharlal Nehru’s Birthday, which is celebrated on the14th of November. Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru was always very concerned for children, loved them a lot and contributed immensely towards their development. The occasion of Children’s Day is not only an opportunity to celebrate and enjoy, but it reminds us of the mission and message of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru. He always wanted children all over the world to grow, get education and prosper in life.

This year ABC-BB schools celebrated Children’s Day on November 15th.  Through ABC-BB partnership, we realize that if the less privileged children are provided with proper educational foundations and development opportunities, they can break out of poverty and contribute to the society that they live in.  On the other hand, failure to feed and educate the children. prepares to ruin all the expectations of humanity.

A local newspaper published the Children’s Day and the 10th anniversary event.  This is a special moment to share with all the ABC donors and members.  Thanks to ABC members for the continued support.  With your kind gesture the ABC-BB partnership has gone a long way in helping the less privileged children in Bangalore city.

Special Thanks to the staff that supports Freesia at our Implementation Partner, Building Blocks, and also to all Infrastructure Funding Partners, AlphaBet Club donors and volunteers, Rotary Club Amsterdam International and Wilde Ganzen.