A TAPESTRY OF FOLKTALES

 

                                                  FOLKTALES

“The folktale is the primer of the picture-language of the soul.”Joseph Campbell

Folktales by their nature celebrate diversity. By experiencing stories from different cultures, children can discover valuable insights about another culture’s values, beliefs, history, practices and customs. When children learn about diverse cultural traditions, they not only broaden their view of the world, they may also develop a greater appreciation of their own family’s heritage.

Folktales can be used in a variety of ways to help children: Develop stronger reading skills, Study other cultures, Model character traits, Appreciate other traditions, Learn about decision making , Explore new ways of seeing the world and Discover a love of stories.

A TAPESTRY OF FOLKTALES

This Activity aimed to make the students appreciate the folktales of Bangladesh and Russia and nurture the experience to further reinforce cultural values and diversity.

Different activities were organized for different classes to add fun and variety of ways of learning. The children of the classes II- VI were shown the chosen folktales of the countries and then engaged in the different activities like identification of the main characters of the play, role play and the making of story boards.

In the end of the activity the children could discover valuable insights about Bangladesh and Russia’s cultural values, beliefs, history, practices and customs and grew up in the terms of knowledge, skills and attitude.

British Council ISA 7: Cricket – One Team One Dream

Through British Council ISA 7: Cricket – One Team One Dream, students actually got an opportunity to study, compare and contrast the history of Cricket and how it is associated with the colonial past. It has always been believed that the game of cricket survived as a children's game for many centuries before it was adapted by adults around the beginning of the 17th century.

The students underwent an all-encompassing learning experience as they had to research, collate, arrange, classify, perform and paste the facts & pictures in the various activities like Collage and PowerPoint Presentation.

Students of Classes VII – VIII prepared PPT to elucidate the rules, regulations and history of cricket and shared the same with the students of Class V – VI. Further, Class V & VI students prepared a beautiful collage on the legends of Cricket from India and England.

A cricket match was conducted on 20th May’17 in the premises of the school in which there were two teams India and England and the students showed up with great team spirit.

A Cricket Quiz was also conducted which was on the basis of the evolution of Cricket, in which two teams comprising students of V to VIII took part. Even the audience felt involved in the activity as they were passed the unanswered questions of each team. All students, as well as the teachers, enjoyed this activity very much. Also, a feedback was taken from the chief guest, parents and students.

Through this, the students opened up their horizons of knowledge about the game. For e.g., first ever international cricket game was between the USA and Canada in 1844. The match was played at the grounds of the St George's Cricket Club in New York. The activity also paved a way to the students to attain knowledge about the Cricket’s origin in India and develop a deeper understanding of it and its international standards.

It was an actual hands-on experience on a school pitch, which enhanced the passion for cricket among students and along with that, gave them a better understanding of the game. Teamwork building, co-operation, collaboration and critical evaluation of the situation, strategic planning, concentration and presence of mind, sportsmanship, leadership qualities and discipline are a part of the game and these skills were learned through the activity.

British Council ISA 6: Kaleidoscope of festivals

Festivals have a religious origin and entwine cultural and religious significance in traditional activities. They serve to fulfil specific communal purposes, especially with regard to commemoration or thanksgiving. ‘Kaleidoscope of festivals’ – a collaborative activity of ISA with China included the festivals of India and China, seasonal festivals, regional festivals depicting the oneness and brotherhood in the kingdom of India.  The activity paved a way to the students by bringing them face to face with the highest expression of the human spirit by imparting the knowledge and relevance of different festivals celebrated in the partnered countries.

 Through this activity, awareness was created among the students about the different festivals of the other countries and the reason for their celebration. Also, it provided them with a platform for developing critical thinking, teamwork spirit and enhancing creativity.

The students of Grade VII to VIII were shown a documentary on various festivals of their native country as well as the partnered country i.e. China. Students of Class VII prepared PPT on the festivals of India like Holi, Diwali, Gurupurab and Onam; and Class VIII students were made to prepare PPT on the festivals of China such as Ching Ming, Lantern Festival, Dragon Boat Race, Qing Ming and Chinese New Year. Further, the presentations were exchanged with the different schools through wiki spaces.

The students prepared display boards that adorned the school corridor. The students of Class V prepared bulletin boards on festivals of India and students of Class VI prepared bulletin boards on festivals of China and all the evidences were exchanged with the partnered schools through e-mails.

In conclusion, a feedback was taken from the parents, teachers and students.  

The learning outcome of the activity was that the students developed sensitivity towards different cultures and their important festivals.

British Council ISA 5:  Kingdom  of  Dolls

In today’s technological age, when we talk of the world being a “Global Village”, dolls from all over the world – Ethnic Dolls along with the flag of the country were brought under one roof. Kingdom of Dolls Project encompasses an array of activities, which were conducted for pre-primary. and Grade 1 children to acquaint them with the culture and tradition of various countries around the world.

Under this title, a variety of activities were organized like Doll making activity, an excursion to the Doll's Museum, enactment of International Dolls, Power Point Presentations and Quiz. The activity was conducted with the aim of providing a learning environment that respects diversity. Also, it was conducted for the students to enable them to have a better understanding about the basic concept of dolls.  The pre-schoolers embraced this opportunity and whole-heartedly took part in the activity.

A doll is a model of human being often used as a toy for children. This ISA Activity helped in developing social, emotional, motor and cognitive skills of a child, which will further help him in his personality development and understanding skills.

The teachers collected the information of dolls from different kingdom through internet, newspapers and magazines and shared it with the pre-primary students up to Grade 1. Students of Class Nursery to II visited the Doll Museum as dolls are known in all cultures and are one of the oldest and widespread forms of toys, “Bib and Tucker” activity was held in the premises of the school in which the students adorned the attires of various countries depicting the culture and tradition of countries across the globe. Not only this, the students of Grade K.G, I and II made the beautiful attires of dolls and also coloured the dolls in the worksheets provided to them.

The project concluded with the exhibition which was organized by the school for parents in order to make them aware about the learning activities of the children at school. Also, a feedback was taken from the parents, teachers and students.

British Council ISA 4: Endangered  Species  - Shoot with Camera…Not Gun

There was this old, vile man with a beard
Who the African elephants feared,
“Bang, bang!” went his shotgun
For him it was such fun
The African Elephants disappear!

Animals are one of the most beautiful creatures existing on the planet but the irresponsible behavior of the human beings is troubling the existence of animals. Habitat loss, hunting and poaching are some of the major threats to the life of these creatures. It is the need of the hour to conserve these endangered species that are under the threat of extinction, for a balanced growth on the planet.

Endangered species can be stated to an animal if they are either disappearing fast from the face of the planet or are very sparsely populated, which is not good enough for survival of the animal community in the long run.

In order to make students aware about the importance of saving these beautiful creatures on earth and to help them understand and gain perspective on human issues that are continuing to endanger animals and threatening our global environment, the Prayaagians were made to develop an attitude of conserving endangered animals and their protection measures around the world by following activities.

SAVING ENDANGERED SPECIES: There was a collaborative activity which was conducted with the objective of making our children explore and gather information about different endangered species of the world and various reasons for their getting endangered. Students of Class III, IV and V did a plethora of activities in order to fulfill the objective, wherein Class V students collected data regarding the endangered species and their protection measures from magazines and internet and shared the same through video with Class III and IV students.

POSTER MAKING & QUIZ: Then, there was a very informative and creative activity wherein the students of Class IV came up with beautiful and expressive posters of various endangered animals. The Quiz Show enabled the students to undergo a brainstorming session, which helped them to widen their horizons about the significance of habitat on earth.

SHOW AND TELL: In this activity the students of Class III were prepared to participate in the activity in which students spoke about various endangered species depicting information of the same, whose evidences were displayed and uploaded on different online portals in order to spread awareness among people all around the world.

CIRCULARS AND FEEDBACK: Not only this, even the parents and guardians of the students were made aware about the importance of saving and conserving the endangered species for a balanced growth on earth through various circulars. Also, a feedback was taken from students, teachers and parents.   

 British Council ISA 2: MUSIC - An Expression of the Soul

The greatest creation of man, music touches the soul and helps man to sympathetically manifest unspoken desire and humanity in humans. School possessing the circular activity of music, which is even increasingly being accepted and exchanged with the countries having different cultures, paving a way to develop associations between the two nations by welcoming foreign students and teachers nowadays.

The project provided a platform to the students of Class VII to interact with students and teachers of Bangladesh and enhance knowledge about the music and culture of the countries with which the collaborations with the mentioned country.

Through this activity, the students have actually been made aware of the different musical forms and to internalise the fact that music is the expression of the internal soul.

IDENTIFICATION AND COMPARISON: The activities conducted for this project included identification and comparison of the music and it's for and the evidence was collected for the same. Furthermore, Quiz Activity was also conducted for imparting better understanding among the students.

EXCHANGE PROGRAM: Through this, the students learnt about various forms of music of the partnered country, Bangladesh and exchanged the audio music recordings along with e-mails and also shared it with the above-mentioned country through videos. Moreover, Class VI students were made to learn of the partnered country and present it in the assembly; and the evidence was shared and exchanged through e-mail. This activity actually paved students a very good platform for interchanging the knowledge of music.

FEEDBACK: Not only this, even the parents, teachers and students were made aware of the importance of music and its forms used in Bangladesh. Also, a feedback was taken from the same.

HOW TO MOTIVATE STUDENTS TO WORK HARD

• Take genuine interest in your students 

 Learn their interest, hopes and dreams. Ask them about what is going on in their lives. Listen to them and share your stories with them so that they feel comfortable and safe.

And once they start trusting you they will start following what you ask them to do.

• Act friendly in other ways

A smile can really make you day and i have experienced myself if you smile at someone it motivates him to be a better person, joke sometimes. A supportive touch on a student's shoulder can really create a difference in a students attitude.

• Be flexible and keep your eye on the learning goal prize

Do not be rigid with students. they are the growing buds which needs to be nurtured with love and care. Sometimes instead of making them do what we want them to do, do what they want to do and you would be surprised to see what beautiful things these students come up with.

• Reward every small achievement 

Most educator believes that all students should learn as much as their ability and effort will permit. Still almost all schools and parents reward only the high achievements alone on the basis that high grades will inspire all children. However, the students who work hard but get less grades are not acknowledged. And if we start rewarding even the smallest hard work done by the students it would motivate the children to work more harder and will being satisfaction and build confidence in them.

• Never give up on your students

Be positive and encourage them to grow, because once you give up on your students there can be no growth at all. You are the wings for these little birds, they will fall sometimes but if you stop teaching them they will never learn to fly...