Communications Class for 4th graders

Communications Classes have started up for Grade 4 with Future Impact.  The year long classes will help children develop the basics of communication.

The first class had the children warming up to the young and enthusiastic instructor.  She divided the children into groups. Each child had to introduce his/ her teammates and narrate an interesting anecdote about them. Kids discovered facets about their friends they hadn't know before. When it came to speaking, they came up enthusiastically and spoke.

In the second class, chidlren had to choose a favourite sport or hobby and speak about it to the group.  The inventive fellows even decided to demo kho kho, much to the amusement of the instructor.

Visit to Guindy Snake Park

The Elementary children visited the Guindy Snake Park. The trip was organised by Comunitree. After the visit, the Forest Officers from the park kindly visited the school and held an informational session for the children. Here is an account by a child:

First we started to go on a van.  I chatted and sand with my friends all the way.  And when we reached Guindy Park, my partners were Safiyya and Afiya. In Guindy Park, my teacher took me and my partners to the Snake Park. There were many kinds of different snakes over there. Best of all I loved the python and cobra. I saw crocodiles and alligators. I saw a Nile Crocodile. I touched a turtle and an iguana. It was so cute.  I loved it.

The caretakers of the park told me that all the snakes can't hear, but tthey have a sense of vibration. Snakes come in different patterns and different colours. The caretaker told us that all the snakes are harmless and non venomous. Only 4 snakes are venomous. They are the Cobra, Krait, Saw Scaled Viper and Russels' Viper.  All the snakes are harmless only if we harm them, they would harm us back.  If one of the venomous snakes bites you, you may face death. So please don't harm or kill snakes. 

After these lessons, a caretaker taught us a small craft. It was how to make a "Snake Spring" using paper plates. Then we went and played in the park. It was so fun. I loved the giant slide.

By Athiya, Grade 4

Learning about Fossils

The Grade 7 had a short workshop on Fossils as a part of their Ecology class.  The speaker talked about the process of fossilization and excavation. He showed a slideshow with local sites in Tamil Nadu where fossils have been found. The children got to see, hold and touch the different types of fossils. They also had a fun activity where they recreated the fossilization process.  

Here is a write up by the students:

A fossil is any preserved remains, impression, trace of any dead organism buried underground. There are many types of ways in which fossils form:

·        Impression Fossils – Where the organism or its part, trace or trail rots and only its impression remains and gets fossilized.

·         Petrification – o   Animal -  When an animal dies it falls in the water. It settles in the layer of the sediment, then it gets embedded. Then it is covered by sediment. Over the ages, it gets fossilized. It takes at least 10,000 years or more for it to become a fossil.  Water is essential for fossilization.

o   Plant – The plant falls on the sediment layer, then it settles and gets embedded.

·         Compression fossils – fossils which have got compressed like coal

·         Freezing – A fossil preserved in ice

·         Amberization – Amber is a resin which a plant sends out in times when a plant is wounded. If an organism sits on it , it’ll get stuck and the resin will harden capturing the organism in it.

How to excavate a fossil

·         Remove the overburden

·         Take out the fossil with a curved hammer at 45o angle

·         Brush off the dust on it

·         Plastering – cover one side with plaster

·         Jacketing – Plastering from all sides

·         Labeling - Labeling the fossil

-  By Shahana Shameer, Safwan Samsudeen & Abdullah Ibrahim, Grade 7