AND School, Bhopal

0755 4223020

About Us Anand Niketan Democratic School (ANDS) is a fresh new experiment in redefining education. It strives to give space to children to learn and grow in an environment of trust, responsibilities
and freedom. Relaxing the subject and grade based divisions, the school works through thematic
rooms with a variety of resources, activities and skilled faculty that can gauge a students interest
and pace and guide them to explore these at their very best.

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Sustaining language and communication activities

Children employ a variety of ways to acquire language
skills. Our job is to provide them an increasingly rich
environment in which they have ample opportunities
for self-expression, both verbal and non-verbal. One
such opportunity, which we have institutionalized at
ANDS, is Podium. There is another that we have
started recently to help children become more comfortable with the written word. These activities are in addition to the classroom activities (such as story telling,
language worksheets and learning to use idioms) that
we perform to help children realize their potential for
self-expression and social interaction .
Assumptions - According to contemporary theories of
language development, children learn language in the
interactive and communicative context, learning language
forms for meaningful moves of communication
(Ref_Wikipedia/Language development). And it is only
through reading that children learn to read, making use
of materials and activities that make sense to them, that
they can relate to what they already know or want to
know. (Reading by Frank Smith; second edition.)

speaker might get from the group helps them to refine

their expression. The platform also allows children to
overcome their inhibitions in being able to express
themselves in a group setting.
Having started out in Hindi, the pupils have been encouraged to also use English words, phrases and sentences.
Now we have one day in a week
when children are encouraged to
speak only in English. That may
gradually become 2 or 3 days as
they gain confidence in using English.. We intend to introduce other
languages in the process as well.
Newspaper: Source of motivation to read and write

On Bihus initiative, we have recently started an activity to encourage pupils to compile their own post-up
newspaper. It has since started publication. The children decided, after a lot of discussions, to call it Ullu
Bullu Bacche. Its a display board bringing together
news, write-ups, pictures, art, etc. filed by our own
reader-reporters. We believe Ullu-bullu Bacche has
Podium: A platform for oral expression
already begun to have a positive effect on childrens
Podium is an hour we have set aside at the beginning
familiarity with the written word.
of the school day for all of us pupils and teachers to
Well select some of the Ullusit together in an informal, reBullu Bacche material to be
laxed setting to reflect and share
published in our newsletter as a
our thoughts on what we did the
separate page..
day before. Each child is encouraged to speak to the group,
some written items and publish
allowing them to make sense of
in the school newsletter as a
their experience of a day spent at
separate page by children.
school and convey that sense to
Pramod
others. Any response that a
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Teachers Diary

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Teachers Diary

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A room for the child scientist

Children are naturally curious and creative. So we
encourage our pupils to explore the nature around
them, to wonder about how things work and to
make things of their own. Our room for the child
scientist (abbreviated CS), equipped as it is with a
lot of material and tools, has seen a steady outpour
ing of creativity in the last 6-8 months. Children
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- love to spend time here to make anything that

catches their fancy with the resources available.

Working toys Here are some of the toys children have

been making on their own after I demonstrated the method.

Drum from jar cap
Loud Lid straw flute
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Balloon bench
Newton boat
Kaleidoscope.
Cream sticks bomb
- paper quilling
Puppeteer's whistle
Paper phataka
Walking cylinder
, , Birds of paradise
Sun face
Paper furniture
Flapping wings
Crazy magnet
Whistle from Coke cap

- Science Experiments & Magic I have shown pupils
the following science experiments as magic of sorts.
Pressure magic!
Coin in a cup

- Looking into microscope
New initiative With the senior group (i.e. 6 + age
group), Pramod has started an enquiry-based explo
ration of the natural phenomena. Children came up
- with interesting questions to explore things further.

Satish

Language for the little ones

Teachers Diary

The youngest of our pupils have been graded into two

groups according to their age and attention span.
The senior of the two groups has the following children, all aged 4-6 years except a few pupils who are in
this group for other reasons: Shatakshi, Ankita,
Samraat, Suhani, Aprameya, Anushka, Jannat,
Shuchita and Ansh. The other group consists of the following children aged 3-4 years: Ananya, Vishal,
Ruchika, Surya, Arnav, Mansi, Sania, Khushi and
Yashaswi .
I have been engaged in a lot of activities with the children belonging to these two groups, such as helping
them to build their vocabulary by understanding new
words and being able to write them Some of those activities are described below.
1. You can write
On the first day, we did a writing exercise with children
being given sheets of paper and asked to write their
names. They didnt know how to write their names, but
some of them could write the first letter of their names.
I told them how to write their names; they were able to
write it 6-7 times and then also learnt to write their parents name.
We did an activity with cards bearing pictures of simple objects or animals that the children can identify.
Each pupil was asked to pick a card with closed eyes
and then draw the picture they found on the card they
picked. They would also write the name of the object
or animal they drew. The children next made their own
Teachers Day greeting cards for their chosen teachers.
Another activity was to tell children to draw a picture
and write its name, based on some words of a story
written on the board.
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Observation: The children were found

to be enthusiastically engaged in performing these
activities and enjoyed the experience.
Some of the pupils wanted to repeat the activities. Shatakshi, Anushka and Ankita are comfortable in writing; Jannat, Samrat, Aprameya and Ansh can write, but not able
to write some words; Suhani is also having a little problem
in writing. Shuchita has started writing.
22. Hidden Items
Children were asked to make a collection of objects
they found around them. We soon had a collection of
things like pencil, eraser, sharpener, sketch pen, bottle
cap, etc. A child was then asked to leave the room
while another was asked to pick and hide an item from
the collection. The child who was asked to leave the

room would be called back to name the missing object.

Children were mostly able to name the missing object.
3. Tell the name
Children were asked to pick a card each from a collection. Each card had a word written on it. I would then
read out one of those words and ask the children to
raise their hands if the word they heard is the same that
their card bears. Observation: Initially, the children
were not able to identify the word they heard on the
card they held. After being told twice or thrice, they

Teachers Diary

started to recognize the words. Next day,

I added new words and some simple sentences. All children enoyed the activity. All of them performed well too,
especially Aprameya, Shatakashi and Shuchita.
4. Story
Story telling sessions engage childrens imagination.
One can get a sense of their engagement by asking a
few questions.
In one such session, I asked the children: who is a
grandmother?
Jo kaam karti hain, replied Anushka.
Talking about diseases I asked the children, How do
we get ill?
Jannat:Jab thandi cheezen khate hai to bimar hote hain
Shuhani: Jab ganda pani peete hain to
Apramaya: Barf khane se
Shuchita: Barish ke paani se aur hare patte khane se
Anushka: - Barf khane se, gandi barf khane se pura
shareer bimar ho jata hai or pet dukhne lagta hai
Shatakshi: Ek din thandi hawa kha li thi maine to
main bimar ho gayi
In one of these sessions, children performed an impromptu play, based on the story, Crow and Old
Women. It was very interesting.
While telling the children a story about a charwaha
(shepherd), I asked them, what does a charwaha
mean? While most of them answered, The one who
digs a hole,Aprameya replied, as he looked at the
pictures, Jo sheeps ko charata hai.
On another occasion, I asked the children about frog and
its colour. Ananya answered, Frog is of green colour.
Asked how do we grow, everyone gave a common

answer, Slowly-slowly we grow.

What should we eat to grow?
Jannat: Dal, roti, rice, fish and milk
Shuchita: Fish nahi khate
Vishal Surya & Ruchika have just joined Our School.
Vishal: Among the several changes I have noticed in
Vishal is his growing interest in the language class.
Earlier he would avoid being in the class; now he
doesnt and loves to listen to stories.
Surya: Surya seems to have some problem in speaking, even though he wants and tries to speak.
Ruchika: She articulates her thoughts very well and
shares a lot many things with others.
Overall, I am clearly able to see great interest on the
part of children in learning language skills.
Nidhi

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Room for Language and Enquiry

Teachers Diary

Where Learning Language is Fun

After a long discussion with all the kids and according
to Bihus suggestion, we have come up with timetable:
story telling on Mondays, Hindi on Tuesdays, English
on Wednesdays, as so on. Here is a taste of what weve
been doing.
Discussions:
Bihu sparks off a discussion on Hindu-Muslim tensions by wondering about a curfew in Indore. As the
children dig deeper, I find myself relating to them the
story of Indias partition and the role Mahatma Gandhi
played in that painful episode. I told them that Britishers used the divide and rule to continue to rule India. Their plans were thwarted by leaders like Bhagat
Singh. We then have a long conversation on Bhagat
Singh. Next, Amber asksme about Rani Lakshmibai.
Was she afraid at the time of her death?
Did her child also die with her?
Why did she kill herself?
The children made drawings
based on their ideas of HinduMuslim relations. Then Bihu told
us a story of Shivaji and that she
had seen fort of Shivaji.
Story telling
This is the activity the children
like the most. They seem to have
special interest in horror stories,
going as far as preparing the right
atmosphere by darkening the
room After the story, they usually
have their own stories to tell.
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Hindi:
Letter writing can be fun and an effective tool in helping children develop their language skills, as I have
discovered. They were asked to write a letter to anyone
they chose in the school. Everyone responded, some
with letters illustrated with drawings. As the postman,
I would deliver the letters to persons addressed and ask
them to write out their replies. Bhumika wrote a nice
letter with some of my help. Bihu, Amber, Prakriti and
Anisa wrote without any help. Parth, Nandan and Diksha later joined the activity.
Reading:
I prepared folded chits bearing the names of characters of
the story Mimi. The children were asked to pick one
chit each. They would play
the role of the character
named on the chit they
picked. Nandan and Prakriti
readfluently. Parth, Anisa and
Bihu read with some help.
Bhumika has started reading
well.
English:
On Wednesdays, weve been

either reading or doing some

Amber wrote Ali or Rami ki
Gend. Bhumika wrote a poem
writing work in English.
named Appukuttam from the
We would sit in a circle and chilbook.
dren read a story one by one; I
Thursday: On Thursdays we
would explain the meaning of
have English day. Children
what is read out
speak in English mostly. We
Chart Making:
On a day we made charts, the children first wrote stories or also do podium in English this day.
poems on their notebooks. They then copied their writings Sharing and writing your view:
I asked the children to pick a person and write their
on charts and illustrated them with drawings.
views about her/him. So they chose to write about Anisa. They wrote about Anisas behavior, nature and her
Educate a child Sponsorships invited
schedule.
In its effort to become an inclusive school,
Nidhi
we have a number of non-fee paying students at ANDS. Moving towards partial sustainability of the school, however, is an issue
that we are constantly battling with. In this
context, we have initiated a sponsorship
scheme whereby YOU can support the education of a non-fee paying child by paying the
full annual fee of INR 25000. YOU can also
choose to support us with partial fees of a
child.
In addition to financial support, YOU can also
partner with us by:

Sharing some skill that you posses with

our students.

Participating with your child in one of our

forth-coming academic and/or parenting
workshops.

Donating a solar-cooker, childrens books,

reference books, stationery items, etc.

Volunteering time for general help with

the school activities.

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