Inter House Competition, Creative Writing

               My Diwali Celebration                                                                          

This is a small effort of Open Minds to put the seed of sensitivity in the students’ mind towards addressing the environment and the global problems

OPEN MINDS-  A BIRLA SCHOOL
Event	IHC – CREATIVE WRITING
Academic Year	2015-2016
Date	5th  November, 2015
Day	Thursday
Timings	1:50P.M to 2:50 PM
Venue	School Premises ,Hyderabad

This time the school has thought of the topic that would help to address the global problems like pollution and Global warming.The topics were based on the fact to create awareness among children towards Eco-friendly environment, with Diwali celebrations coming up.Open Minds, as part of Inter House Competition, has conducted Creative writing competition for the month of November, to cultivate the competitive spirit and creative skills among the students.

Grades 1 and 2 were given the topic “My Diwali Celebrations”, grades 3 and 4  “Eco Friendly Diwali” based on picture given to them and for grades 5 to 9 the topic was “Global Warming”.

All the students have taken part in the competition with great interest and responsibility towards protecting the environment.

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Precious Parent - Session 3

Thank you parents, for your participation in the previous session!

The session was very informative and very well put in. Thanks for discussing the issues we face - Ms.Sandhya

I can relate myself to many situations that were brought up. I know things I should not do – Mr.Vinod Tadvai

The session is making me think from my child’s point of view and understand him better – Ms.Anuradha

Super. Will try to enhance myself by implementing ‘Out of the Box’ concept  – Mr.Raveender

 It is not about the children, but US!

We now know what and how we are no different than what our parents were…

Will our kids grow up wanting to be like us or would they vow to be definitely different?

How do we make them learn to be themselves?

We were also kids one day. Do our children understand we have been there too?

How to place our trust in them completely and let them bloom into complete individuals?

….. to discover all these and more…. 

Saturday	10am - 12:30pm
7th November 2015	Open Minds, Hyderabad

Kellogg’s Event 2/11/15

Kellogg’s Event 2/11/15

The Kellogg’s Team visited the Open Minds campus today. There were here to promote healthy eating habits amongst children. During the assembly there was a short program from the Kellogg’s Team to encourage children to have compulsory breakfast .They also emphasized the importance of having breakfast and the importance of having healthy food.

The children were filled with excitement as they played few interesting games, got gift hampers and wrist bands from Kellogg’s. This was indeed a pleasurable experience for the children.

MATH-E-MAGIK, 2015-2016

“If people do not believe that Mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is” as said by John Louis Von Neumann

OPEN MINDS-  A BIRLA SCHOOL
Event	MATH-E-MAGIK
Academic Year	2015-2016
Date	30 and 31 October, 2015
Venue	School Premises, Kollur, Hyderabad

Children at Open Minds felt Math as a fun subject, during their tour around the stalls put up by grade 1 to 4. They enjoyed playing the Math games along with their parents. Parents too had gala time going around the stalls and playing the games.

Our Globe Toters visited us and had the feel of the school’s vigor through this Math-e- Magik event.

Grade 1 and 2 stalls had games like Bounce and catch, Maze, Match me, Scrambled eggs, Sand Play to name a few. Grade 2 stalls had dart game, 1 minute game, Bingo, maze and few other games.

Parents had opportunity to play games in all the stalls. The stalls put up by grade 3 and 4 were appropriate to their standards , which even parents enjoyed playing like drawing the polygons using playing cards, pick and tally using vegetables and few other things, Clean the money game was based on grid concept. Monkeying with Multiplication, Triangle Multiplication and School yard Multiplication were games based on simple multiplication. May Flower Ride was the game which even Globe Trotters could play by picking up the toothpicks from different  shapes without moving the other sticks.

Finally the message the parents and students could carry was: “Without Mathematics there is nothing you can do. Everything around you is Mathematics, everything around you is numbers.”

This small effort of Open Minds is a giant leap towards removing the fear of Mathematics and instills the Joy of Mathematics in the minds of the Open Minds and Globe Toter students.

Debate on Migration and Urbaniztion

The students of Grade-6 had a debate on migration and urbanization:
  

In the debate, It was observed that they have come to a wonderful conclusion where in urban areas we can do farming, creating jobs for the ones migrated from rural areas. 

We can own farm lands and the farmers can work in those farms and earn for their livelihood. 

As the land owners are educated they can provide more sophisticated equipment for farming and at the same time a farmer can have a feel of living in urban area with good number of opportunities for their children.

Presenting our teachers series - who's next?

Koushiki Mukherjee <3

Possibly one of our most popular teachers at Open Minds and according to our students she is known to be kind, fabulous and enthusiastic. I will never forget how the achievers cheered when she was selected as their house master. It was definitely the loudest cheer of all! 

She was born in Bokaro Steel City (I admit i had to google it) and contrary to my belief that she spent most of her life in Kolkata, she did not! She lived in Bokaro till her 12th standard then moved to Maharashtra for her higher education and finally moved to Hyderabad only after she got married. She travels to Kolkata as often as possible because her parents are settled there - that's what made me think she lived there most of her life.

She has an adorable son Om that goes to Globe Tot'ers and she is a loving and devoted mother. During the summer break when most of us just want to rest our worn out teachers' souls, Koushiki ma'am rolls up her sleeves and organises summer camps for children of the entire community where she lives. Her enthusiasm and cheerfulness is truly inspiring. It is as clear as the cloudless sky, that Koushiki ma'am loves kids! <3

Om at Globe To'ters presenting Egypt and his proud momma! :)

Koushiki and Om - a glamourous shot ;)

                                 

Summer camp 2015, Koushiki ma'am in action! ;)

In her youth Koushiki travelled all over India as a national level table tennis player representing Maharashtra and Bihar! When asked what is it that she cherishes the most in her life, the answer came like from a cannon - mom and dad! It is not hard to see that they are a very close knit family and it is not surprising at all that her best childhood memories are time spent with her older sister, Somia.  She is counting days as their next reunion will be on 18th of this month. :)

Koushiki ma'am and her sister when they were kids.

Koushiki ma'am with her dad and sister.
It is so clear that he knows daughters are
the most beautiful gift one can ever get.

Happy family is but an earlier heaven... (by George Bernard Shaw)

I always joke that she was blessed with a powerful voice but, hey, it happens to be true! That aside, I have recently asked my students of grade 4 to write about "Favourite learning moments in Theme 2" and the vast majority of students wrote about the EVS activities and projects and their beloved Koushiki ma'am. Kids love her, and so do we. 

Why do we need to sleep?

“Something nameless hums us into sleep,” the poet Mark Strand wrote in his beautiful ode to dreams. 

But what is that nameless something, exactly? By now, scientists know that sleep obeys our complex internal clocks, affects our every waking moment, and even tames our negative emotions. But even as they’re beginning to shed light on what happens while we sleep, they don’t yet know why we evolved to sleep in the first place.

In this fascinating short video, PBS’s Joe Hanson explores the mysteries of sleep, synthesizing science from David Randall’s excellent Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep and other scientific curiosities, from how tiny ocean-dwelling worms explain our brain's response to daylight and darkness to Edison’s power-napping strategy for success.

DREAMS by Mark Strand

Trying to recall the plot

And characters we dreamed,

     What life was like

Before the morning came,

We are seldom satisfied,

     And even then

There is no way of knowing

If what we know is true.

     Something nameless

Hums us into sleep,

Withdraws, and leaves us in

     A place that seems

Always vaguely familiar.

Perhaps it is because

     We take the props

And fixtures of our days

With us into the dark,

     Assuring ourselves

We are still alive. And yet

Nothing here is certain;

     Landscapes merge

With one another, houses

Are never where they should be,

     Doors and windows

Sometimes open out

To other doors and windows,

     Even the person

Who seems most like ourselves

Cannot be counted on,

     For there have been

Too many times when he,

Like everything else, has done

     The unexpected.

And as the night wears on,

The dim allegory of ourselves

     Unfolds, and we

Feel dreamed by someone else,

A sleeping counterpart,

     Who gathers in

The darkness of his person

Shades of the real world.

     Nothing is clear;

We are not ever sure

If the life we live there

     Belongs to us.

Each night it is the same;

Just when we’re on the verge

     Of catching on,

A sense of our remoteness

Closes in, and the world

     So lately seen

Gradually fades from sight.

We wake to find the sleeper

     Is ourselves

And the dreamt-of is someone who did

Something we can’t quite put

     Our finger on,

But which involved a life

We are always, we feel,

     About to discover.