Learning Forward Saturday

To discuss teaching strategies and classroom management techniques for early childhood education.

Key Takeaways

  - Drawing is a valuable learning activity for children, not just art

  - Fine motor skills development is crucial and can be encouraged through various activities

  - Creating a print-rich environment enhances learning and engagement

  - Innovative attendance methods can make routine tasks more engaging for students

Topics:

Drawing as a Learning Tool

  - Teachers initially thought that children who draw aren't learning, but this view was challenged

  - Detailed drawings by children often include various elements (e.g., dog, house, family members)

  - Drawing activities can be used to teach complex concepts (e.g., human anatomy)

Fine Motor Skills Development

  - Importance of proper pencil grip discussed

  - Cylinder shape of baby bottles designed for easy gripping

  - Activities suggested:

      - Using clay or playdough to improve grip strength

      - Employing tweezers for picking up small objects

      - Creating a chart with 100 pockets for number placement exercises

Print-Rich Environment

  - Emphasised creating visually stimulating classroom spaces

  - Ideas shared:

      - Large alphabet charts with associated images

      - Weekly rotation of featured letters (A-E, then F-J, etc.)

      - Punctuation and capitalisation rules displayed on walls

Innovative Attendance Methods

  - Goal: Make attendance-taking more engaging and educational

  - Suggestions included:

      - Using plant or nature themes

      - Incorporating math concepts

      - Integrating language learning (e.g., food names, ABC's)

Addressing Distracted Students

  - Discussed strategies to keep students focused during lessons

  - Emphasised calling students by name to maintain attention

  - Suggested using interactive elements to keep students engaged

Next Steps

  - Teachers to implement 2-3 new strategies in their classrooms over the next week

  - Create better learning environments based on the discussed ideas

  - Minakshi to focus on improving students' writing skills, including the correct use of capital/lowercase letters and phonetics

  - Plan to order or create a counting game for use across different age groups

  - Develop charts for English grammar rules to be displayed in classrooms

Host: Neelashi Mangal, supported by Minakshi Prasad
Learning Forward Sessions are curated with a focus on helping teachers focus on ECCE.

A School Called Home: Masterclass Saturday 18th January 2025

Chapter 11: A School Called Home: Shomie Das The Man Who Saw Tomorrow by Naga Tummala 

Q1. The mother in the chapter plays a vital role in shaping the child's learning experience by reading stories and ensuring a nurturing environment. How can schools engage parents more actively in their child’s learning journey? How can teachers collaborate with families to extend learning beyond the classroom?

Q2. Like the one in the chapter, a child learns to read, write, and do arithmetic in a home-based setting for a few hours daily. The routine includes storytelling, exploration, and breaks for creativity. There is a strong emphasis on balancing academics with free play. As a teacher, what strategies (e.g., differentiated learning, project-based learning) can you adopt in your classroom to replicate the flexibility and individual focus of a homeschooling environment?

Q3. Drawing from the idea of a "home-like" atmosphere, what elements (e.g., comfort, emotional security, a sense of belonging) can you bring into your teaching space to support your students' growth and well-being?

Q4. What are the key advantages and challenges of homeschooling compared to traditional schooling, especially regarding academic growth, social skills, and emotional well-being? How can traditional schools incorporate elements of homeschooling to address these areas?"

Gurdeep Kaur
The Teacher's Academy
GK@LearningForward.org.in

Young Rembrandts Drawing Program

Young Rembrandts Drawing Program has been running successfully in the USA & Canada for 31+ years. The question to consider while considering us for your schools is, how many people do we know who can draw? Or are they comfortable expressing themselves visually? Drawing is one of the most important elements under the art umbrella, and with the unique Young Rembrandts technique, EVERYONE CAN DRAW. The students can put whatever they see or imagine on paper without any measuring instruments. 

We teach students in the age group 4-15yrs. You can consider us an in-school/after school programme. We can work hand in hand with your curriculum to simply support it. Various kinds of collaborations are possible with us.

In addition, we also undertake after-school enrichment activities, holiday / term-break workshops/camps, teacher-bonding sessions, etc. 

Program Content & Curriculum Overview: Our aim is to enable the expression of imagination through drawing. The key concepts we look to enable our perspective, proportion, balance and placement. This is achieved through a wide variety of kid-friendly topics covering Portraits, still life, Landscapes, Realism, abstract, cartooning, art history, Graphic Design, to name a few.

We welcome you to witness any of our current classes over zoom. This will give you a glimpse into our delivery. We can also conduct a demo class for a small group of 6-8 students if required.

Young Rembrandts are offering you weekly drawing classes from the comfort of your own home! Socialize with friends in a Virtual Classroom or Register for On-Demand Lessons.

Young Rembrandts India
Ph: +91 9810307907 / +91 9833532131 

National Drawing Day - Kusum Sharma

National Drawing Day is celebrated on May 16 of every year. Drawing is a form of visual art in which the individual uses several drawing instruments to mark the paper or another two-dimensional medium. Tools like graphite pencils, pen, ink, inked brushes, wax colour pencils, charcoal, pastel, chalk and other kinds of erasers, markers, styluses and much more will be used. National Drawing Day tells you that everything inside you is valuable and deserving to be shared with the world. The day is also there to bring much-needed appreciation and awareness to artists and illustrators.

Drawing is one of the important forms of expression within the visual arts. It is concerned with marking lines and areas of tone onto any material where the accurate representation of the visual world is expressed upon a plane surface. Traditional drawings were monochrome, while modern coloured-pencil drawings may cross a boundary between drawing and painting.

Celebrating the day is quite easy and very simple to remember. The annual event will be conducted every year, and it will encourage the people to try drawing and sketching in the inspiring and beautiful environment of the country. You can invite families, children and friends to come and help to create a large-scale drawing. Or simply draw a picture that you loved most and then show them to friends and family members.

 

Courtesy- https://happydays365.org/drawing-day/national-drawing-day-may-16/

Kusum Sharma

ksa@fabindiaschools.in

The Fabindia School