Where do u find stories? Are they only in the books or in the magazines? They are everywhere. There is a story behind everything for e.g. story of toothbrush i.e. where has it come from? How it took the shape etc. all such questions have a story behind them.

 Stories are always close to children as well as to the adults, Isn’t it?  To make them more interesting and meaningful to children, we, the mentors of IWS Indore attended a workshop at IWS Indore Chhawani. This was conducted by Mrs. Seema Wahi Mukhrjee. This workshop was a great learning experience as it threw light to various dimensions which a story can have. The various elements of story were also discussed. The sessions kept us engaged i.e. we kept moving for doing some or the other activities. Few ice- breakers were done which actually charged up all of us like, hands up, hands down, each cell in my body is happy etc. The task given to mentors was very exciting i.e. we all got picture cards and using them we had to perform a story. Within a time limit of 25 minutes all of us put in our 100% to prepare for the presentation, in spite of the fact that our day was very long. Anyways now was the time to perform.  Yipee!!!!!!! All the performances were really hilarious.

Dreams

Dreams are like a shadow,

that follow you everywhere.

make you do what's impossible,

and everything that's rare.

Dreams are a ticket to hollywood,

a journey to success.

They are a maze of the wildest thoughts,

which make you into the best.

A dream is a beautiful song,

a pretty piece of art.

Composed by wonderful thoughts,

that come right out of the heart.

So hold on to these dreams,

you never know when one will come true.

After all your struggles you'll strive to achieve,

a dream will take you through.

By

- Hargun Kaur Toor ,Maitreyee Gehlot

Class VII

Bus time,’ Story time’

While commuting in the bus me and Ishani a dear little friend of mine from PP II, both of us together use to spend lot of time playing some little- little self created games. She use to make me a very small and weak animal and she use to become a strong animal like an elephant or a tiger, the later being her favourite and she always pretended being the strong one. She gave all the reasons to dominate me the weaker one, but I always use to give her some challenges by proving that even the weaker can be stronger if they use their brain. This use to trouble her little, as it was difficult for her to accept that, being physically weak how can one dominate the physically strong one. This went on for quite some time and gradually the form of this game changed.

Ishani insisted that we should play story-story so I started composing some small on spot stories for her. To make it more interesting for her I included her family members as characters in the story along with a list of her favourite animals. What I loved the most while doing so was her exciting facial expressions and specially the glitter in her eyes.

After some time I made it a two way task that, one story I’ll tell and one story she will tell so it became a fifty-fifty deal between the two of us. She started giving me the choice of the characters like  this story should have my mummy and my brother and giraffe, elephant, tiger and so on……….. so the story use to be of her choice of characters. 

Gradually I also started giving her characters of my choice and she was to build the plot of the story around those characters. Initially she found it difficult but kept attempting the same. During this duration I could see her developing the art of story-telling she use to get fully engrossed and lost in her own story world.

One day it so happened that I was telling a self composed story of A Hungry Caterpillar to Ishani. The other two three children of the bus, Nikhil Prakhar and Dhruv of grade three also joined in the story session in the bus.And that day something very interesting happened, to get the actual feel of the incidence I think one must  know the story also in brief so here is the story-

The title of the story was ,’The Giant Caterpillar’

One day Ishani was peeling green peas with her mother and she saw a small caterpillar in the pea pod, Ishani asked the caterpillar what are you doing inside the pea pod than the caterpillar said I’m very hungry and so eating the sweet peas Ishani said will you be my friend I’ll give you lot of eatables and I’ll give you a name too. Ishani called her Greeny as she was fond of eating green green food.

She gave her lots of fresh, green and crunchy leaves so the whole day the caterpillar kept eating and eating and eating and she grew big in size. Greeny’s hunger kept growing and growing when Ishani could not feed her so much so she took her to the garden near her house and Greeny kept eating and eating and  the leaves from the garden also finished then she grew bigger and bigger in size. Ishani thought now she cannot stay in the city so she took her to the Jungle there also she kept eating and eating and eating and she grew Giant in size now when no leaves were left in the jungle too she started eating the animals when I reached this stage of story Prkhar jumped in and said, ”Can I add something interesting from my side and then he said, “let him eat as much as he want and suddenly his stomach will blast and all the animals and plants will be saved”, I said that’s a good idea then I continued the story saying he kept eating and eating  and eating and suddenly his stomach was about to blast and Dhruv interrupted saying in Hindi,” Par maa’m Greeny  beech mein  fresh hone bhi to ja sakta tha phir kum se kum uska stomach burst hone so to bach jaata, and I had no words I could just smile because only these innocent kids can think of such ideas which we as adults can never imagine. This is how I feel we can help nurture their thought process this even strengthens my belief in freedom of speech and expression which we give to our children rather than to ask them keeping quiet most of the time.

I also feel very good when I see Ishani  also developing as a young story teller who completely gets engrossed in to story while narrating them and her voice modulation is worth seeing.

So this write up of mine is a salute to these young and innovative minds which, makes us dive deep to know the beauty secrets of childhood.

Indus Math Challenge at IWS Indore

Indus World School organized its second Math Challenge on 18^th of March 2012 at its Chhawani  Campus. The purpose of organizing Math Challenge is to make children test their concepts of Math. The challenge was organized for the students of classes III to IX. All the participants were granted the certificate of participation. There were three winners from each class.

Along with the Math Challenge a seminar was also organized for the parents. The topic of the seminar was “How to make Math your Child’s Best Friend”. Speaker for the seminar was Mr. R. Shiva Kumar who is one of the founder members of IWS. In his seminar Mr. R. Shiva Kumar gave tips on making math interesting. He said that Math should be taken up through different games and should be connected to child’s real life. He said that children are not afraid of math they are afraid of x and y’s which are there. Why can’t we connect these unknown variables of Maths to the known objects of child’s life to make Math more comprehensible and interesting?

Kumar also said that it is not necessary for children to study 5-6 hrs. they should also be given ample time to play. He also told several sites through which children can learn Math in a while enjoying it.

Many children participated in the Indus Math Challenge. Overall the Math challenge was fruitful for  both, children and their parents.

Partner School in Agra

Indus World School proudly announces the extension of its family. IWS has signed a partner School in Agra.

IWS Partner Mr. Sanjay Kalra is an aspiring edupreneur, an MA (Eco) from Agra University and is also speaks french fluently. He is a reputed businessman dealing in manufacture and export of Hand made Carpets in Agra and also runs the family owned business of Showroom of Carpets and Handicrafts in Agra.

IWS introduces 'Robotics' as subject-Aurangabad

With a view to keeping children abreast, with the latest technology, Indus World School has decided to introduce a subject on 'Robotics'in its primary section from its next academic year. It may be noted that Indus World School, at its 25 centers has already included the subject in the syllabus implemented in association with IIT's Mumbai Strategic Business Think Labs. A seminar was organised at IWS Aurangabad to apprise student and their parents of its plan to introduce the subject. 

SBTL manager Mr. Vinay Sharma gave a demonstration on  'Roboics' and presented video films highlighting the importance of  the subject. Children accompanied by their parents attended the seminar in large numbers. They also enthusiastically participated in the discussion which followed the seminar.