August 15^th marks as the Independence Day for India and all our ABC schools celebrated 69^th Indian Independence day by hoisting flag, singing national anthem, children dressing up as various historic characters and feasting on a special lunch.  A lot of art activities were arranged to entertain the children.  Parents too joined the children in this celebration.

Attendance and Nutrition

No. of students enrolled: 141

Total number of meals served this month:4,448

No. of school days: 22

No. of Students Enrolled (Day): 104

Average attendance: 94

Attendance in %: 90

No. of Students Enrolled (ASP): 37

Total breakfasts served: 2,064

Total lunches served: 1,802

Total meals served at ASP

(After School Program): 582

Total number meals served since opening at Edelweiss: 147,857

Total ABC-BB School partnership meals since opening: 234,644

Curriculum

Math

I can count!

This month K4 learned, one on one correspondence.  Activities included snow man, pairs, matching game, where is thumbkin, find a friend, copy cat towers, set the table, anything you can do, one brush for every jar.

This month K5 learned even numbers, odd numbers, missing numbers, reviewed counting 1-100, teens family, tens family, hundreds family, before and after number and in between numbers.

English

Letter sound of “O” with Jolly Phonics

With jolly songs, actions and with the help of images, K4 learned sounds of letters c, k, e, r, h, n, m, d, g, o, l ,u, b and f.  They also learned jolly phonic aspects, environmental sounds, instrumental sounds, body percussion, rhythm and rhyme.

K5 reviewed jolly sounds of letters learned from the previous months.  They started on learning – blending, segmenting, reading high frequency words, CVC words and tricky words.  Also they learned how to blend the words by using diagraphs and jolly phonics through aspects like voice sounds, oral blending and clapping sounds.

Local Language Kannada:

This month K4 learned Kannada letters o, oo, ru, ruu, ye, yee by writing them on slate and book.

This month K5 learned Kannada letters ka, kaa, ga, gaa, na, cha, chaa, ja, jaa, naa, ta, taa, da, daa  by writing in their class work note books

Social Science

Educational software making learning fun and easy

K4 students learned about – my body, body parts, I grow and change, my five senses and my neighborhood with story board pieces

K5 students learned about – physical features of desert, plateaus, mountains, number of states in India and national symbols of India.

Value Education

Mithun tells his friends the moral of story he learned today

In value education they learned “Being different with a story of Dog and the Donkey”, “Love nature – The Mango tree and the Fig tree”, “Learning to obey – Story of a Girl who did not obey”, “Caring for yourself – Take care of your food”, and “Being kind with the story of Ant and Dove”.

K3 Program

Learning rhymes during circle time

In circle time, children learned how to greet others and how to reply to others. They learned to identify the colors – red, blue and green and identify shapes – circle, square and triangle.

Children learned to sing rhymes – “Chubby Cheeks, Johnny-Johnny, Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes, Teddy Bear Teddy Bear”.  Again this month, children were introduced to the Classroom rules, School’s name and Teacher’s name.  Being

Courteous was the theme of the month for character development.  Line formations like slanting line, wavy line, standing line and sleeping line were again repeated this month.  Community helpers like the Fire man and Police man was talked about and children were shown charts to relate to the topic.  To improve the fine motor skills following activities were done to strengthen –  rolling play dough, sorting, pouring the rice, threading beads, clipping cloth pegs, pressing the tweezers and lifting objects with tongs.  Stories with moral meanings were read – Hetty and the Lion, I am a little Teapot and Twinkle-Twinkle little star.

Physical Education

Outdoor FUN

Children are encouraged to play in our outdoor- roof top play ground.  Every day, 15 minutes of physical activity is included in the schedule.

Nutrition

I get to eat yummy food too!

Well balanced nutritious meals were prepared and served every day.  Children were fed breakfast and lunch on all working days.  Delicious meals were prepared and served with love every day at our Edelweiss School!

After School Program (ASP)

1st graders of ASP Program

With a total of 37 students of grades 1, 2, 3 and 4 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 18 days with a total attendance of 582 children.  ABC provides evening snacks in the ASP program.

Teacher’s Training

Edelweiss teachers attended a curriculum training session conducted on 24^th August by our volunteer Mrs. Susan Griffith at the Building Blocks Azalea School.  This was open to all the teachers and managers of Building Blocks Schools and they learned about Jolly Phonics aspects.  Thank you Mrs. Griffith for conducting one!

Special Celebrations

Happy Independence day to all of you

I am dressed as the 1st Prime Minister of India, Mr. Nehru

Entertaining the crowd

Parents joined too in the celebration!

Independence Day was celebrated on August 15^th with great pomp and joy.  The entire school was decorated with Indian flags.  Children came dressed in various characters, activities were lined up for them and a very special lunch was also served to them.  All children and their parents gathered in front of the school building and sang the national anthem.  Significance of celebrating the Independence Day was explained to them by their teachers.

Community Meetings

Parents briefed by social workers

Social workers Ms Christina and Ms. Pushpa held community meeting in the Edelweiss school to emphasize the importance of sending children to school regularly without absence.  In lieu of many viral diseases that are currently present in the slum, they spoke about keeping their home surroundings clean, maintaining hygiene at home and in regular intervals washing childrens’ hand was advised.

Special Thanks to the staff that supports Edelweiss at our Implementation Partner, Building Blocks, and also to our Project Funding Partner, Alternatives 4 Children.