Monday, 15 August 2016

1st Prize, Quiz & 2nd Prize Eco Chef @ Synergy, APL Global School fest

MashaAllah Al Qamar's team won the 1st Prize at the APL Global School Syergy Fest Quiz.  Congratulations Aameena Akmal & Abdurrahman Jamal of Grade 7.

Congratulations also for Mariam Akber of Grade 4 who won the 2nd Prize in the Eco Chef event.

Friday, 12 August 2016

Tree Walk

Elementary students went on a Tree Walk with Nizhal at the Kotturpuram Tree Park to see and understand indigenous trees. 

Visit to DakshinChitra

Elementary visited Dakshin Chitra as a part of their work on homes around the world.  The students toured the  old style houses to understand peoples' lives of old.  They loved the different architecture and commented how all the houses were naturally cool

Visit to Pallikarnai Garbage Dump

Middle school @ Al Qamar's excursion to the Pallikarnai Marsh/ Dump.
As a part of the Ecology class, the Middle Schoolers went to the Pallikarnai marsh to see the volume of garbage being dumped. And the migratory birds living on the opposite side. As one child said, "On one side was beauty,.on the other, beauty dying." Another said "I hope to work to reduce my waste".
As a follow through, children visited the green home of Mr. Shaju John and were completely blown away. They flipped through a coffee table book written by Mr. John on "The eye of the Marsh.. Pallikarnai, Then and now", saw how Mr. John built his home by recycling waste material - glass, wood. How he uses rainwater harvesting, and has a indoor pond with fish.
Brilliant excursion which juxtaposed garbage, wildlife preservation and practical recycling.
No wonder that Tariq Akbar is now Teacher #1!

Monday, 1 August 2016

Visit to the Madras Crocodile Bank

Fantabulous trip to the Madras Crocodile Bank.
Elementary @Al Qamar had a wonderful, enlightening visit where Anjana and Arul of MCBT gave a wonderful guided tour. The highlight was the Show and Tell where the children saw live animals and learned about their lives, habitats, food etc. They asked sooooo many questions which were patiently answered by Arun. I think even a whole year of textbook learning about reptiles will not match one visit to the Croc Bank.

Au Revoir

  Au Revoir  The crucible moment came for me when, 16 years ago, I pulled my 7 year old son from school. Once again. Thrice in four years. W...