November has been a great month of celebration!  After Diwali, the 11^th anniversary of Building Blocks was celebrated on Children’s Day on November 14th with a glamorous dance show put on by the kids of Building Blocks school!  Students were excited to perform dances on stage. They danced to the beat of popular Indian Cinema songs in front of a large crowd.  The theme for the Children’s day was Colors of India.  Both K5 and ASP students of Freesia School performed dances from the top billboard songs from this year. As always, Leela Palace Bangalore served 450 delicious meals to all the children, staff and guests for this occasion. 700 blankets were distributed to all the students of Building Blocks as gifts for Children’s Day!

Attendance and Nutrition

No. of students enrolled: 104

Total number of meals served this month: 3,270

No. of school days: 22

No. of Students Enrolled (Day): 89

Average attendance: 80

Attendance in %: 90

No. of Students Enrolled (ASP):  15

Total breakfasts served: 1,755

Total lunches served: 1,515

Total number meals served since opening at Freesia: 94,299

Total ABC-BB School partnership meals since opening: 258,770

Curriculum

Math

K5 children completing their Math Workbook

K5 children learned to write numbers from 1-100, number concepts like – what comes before and after, in between numbers, missing numbers, odd and even numbers.  They learned to write number names of numbers from 1-5.

K4 children learned about Numeration with the help of activities like – Drop a set, Numeral rubbings and Number plate. They also learned counting numbers from 1-20, recognizing and writing even and odd numbers and counting numbers of 2’s family from 2 to 50.

English

One on One timely assessment conducted by the teachers

K5 students learned new sounds of diagraph’s ou and oi, tricky words why and who and also high frequency words had and out.  Also they learned about Jolly Phonics Phase one: Environmental sounds activities like Animal sounds, Matching sounds, Adjust the volume and Grandmother’s foot step,  Body percussion activities like Listen to the music and Roly Poly.

This month K4 students learned to say and write the sounds of z, w, v, y and x.  Children learned to write alphabets from a – z and learned new tricky words like I, he and high frequency words like a, in.  They also learned about jolly phonics phase one: Environmental sounds activities like Animal sounds, Instrumental sounds, Adjust the volume and Grandmother’s foot step,  Body percussion activities like Listen to the music and Roly Poly

Local Language Kannada

This month K5 learned the letters pa, pha, ba, bha, ma.  Both Oral and writing of the letters were practiced in the class.

This month K4 learned the letters ka, kha, ga.  Both Oral and writing of the letters were practiced in the class.

Social Science

Learning about vegetables

This month K5 learned about National symbols of India, Famous places in Karnataka State, Famous personalities of India, Famous monuments and Festivals of India.

This month K4 learned about plants on different parts of the plants and their names and how they look like.  They learned about how seeds travel from one place to another and also about different plants grow in different places.

Value Education

K5 this month learned from stories like: Zac the Rat and Peg the Hen.  Children read the sentences and drew the picture in the notebook of Rat, Jam, Tin, Ants, Hen and Jet

K4 this month learned stories on Thank You from the books: Let us thank Teacher, Let us thank Mom and Let us thank Dad.

K3 Program

In FUN with MATH,K3 learned with activities on: Textured play dough, Water play, Sinkers and floaters, Floaters and droppers, Stickers and non stickers, Rock collection, What happens when, Feely bag frenzy, What fits in..?, Corkers, What do you hear..?They also learned to count numbers from 1-20

In Jolly Phonics they learned new sounds like i, p, n, c and k with story, action and formation and also learned how to blend the words.  Air writing, sand writing, slate board writing and notebook writing were practiced for the above letters.

In Social Science, they learned about Community helpers like Farmer, Mail man etc.

In Health and hygiene they learned to take care of their teeth.

In Value education they learned to be kind with family, friends and others when we meet them. They also learned about being kind from a story Anna goes to the zoo.

Physical Education

Children are encouraged to play in our outdoor playground.  Every day, 15 minutes of physical activity is included in the schedule. This month too, children played outdoors whenever weather permitted.

Nutrition

Midday meal 

Well balanced nutritious meals were prepared and served every day.  Children were served with breakfast and lunch on all working days.  A total of 3,270 meals were served for our children

After School Program (ASP)

With a total of 15 students of grades 1 and 2 the ASP program is going very well.  This program helps the students in the evening with their homework which they bring back from their respective schools.  This program is a supportive program which assists our previous graduates to keep up with their school work.  This month the program ran for –19 days with a total attendance of 245 children.

Special Celebrations

Children’s Day

Children’s day and 11th Anniversary celebration

A total of 250 children took part in Children’s Day celebration in Primus Public School.  Like last year, Colors of India came alive with all the children from 6 schools of Building Blocks participating in dances and entertaining the guests.  Also this year is marked as the 11^th anniversary of Building Blocks organization.  A total of 700 high quality blankets, keeping in mind about the approaching winter were given away as children’s day gift for BB school children.

Diwali festival

Diwali at Freesia school

Festival of lights, the Diwali festival is celebrated by everyone, irrespective of all religions with great joy across entire India.  The schools were given off for two days for this festival and there was a special celebration for the children of Freesia school.   With Diwali décor and with special meals for the kids the festival was celebrated with great joy!

Monthly Birthdays

November month birthday celebrations

Birthdays are special for everyone.  Children express great joy in celebrating their birthday with their friends!  Here are a few pictures from Nakul and Gokul’s birthday celebration.

A special thank you 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.