“School’s out, summers in, let the drama stop and the fun begin.”
Delhi Public School R.K.Puram organised a plethora of summer activities for Grades VI- VIII in the month of April and May ‘21 which provided the students with an opportunity to engage well with the subjects of their choice. These activities carried an element of fun and aided a platform for experimentation and creative expression. The aim was to develop creativity, enhance knowledge, facilitate language learning and improve expression besides boosting confidence.
English– A variety of activities based on creative writing such as picture poetry and story writing, fun vocabulary/grammar based quizzes and movie viewing were organised. Grade 6 organised ‘Acrostic poetry -Poetry Writing’, ‘The One-Man Show -Theatre and Speaking Skills’ and ‘End it your way – Creative writing Activity’. Grade 7 conducted ‘Caption-Gram– Creative Caption Writing’, ‘Wizards of Words– Language and Grammar Quiz’ and ‘Listen-O-Hara– Listening Skills Activity’ while Grade 8 came up with ‘Point of View– Visual Cue and Discussion’, ‘The Writer’s Quill– Story Writing’ and ‘Snap Poetry– Picture Based Poetry Writing’.
Math– The activities were designed to encourage students to apply their problem solving techniques to solve real world problems. Some were hands-on activities to enable them to apply their critical thinking skills to generalise mathematical rules and also introduced them to new mathematical concepts. Grade 6 organised ‘TravelSmart’, ‘Finding the rule’ and ‘Knowing Tessellations’. Grade 7 conducted ‘Decimal Mathemagic’ and ‘Fun with Distances’. Grade 8 performed ‘Competency Based Learning’ and ‘Mind Maps’.
Hindi– The activities were created to instill values, promote creativity and language skills. These involved creating out of waste, virtual tour of Sabarmati Ashram, world wide news and discussion on advertisements, dialogue writing, role play and picture story presentation. Grade 6 organised ‘Aon Chalein’, ‘Chhote Parivartan Bada Prabhav’and ‘West Se Best’. Grade 7 conducted ‘Desh Duniya- Samachar Vachan’, ‘Baatcheet’ and ‘Tatkalik Bhashan’. Grade 8 coordinated ‘Sujh Bujh’, ‘Suno Aur Batao’ and ‘Vigyapan Charcha’.
Science– The activities aimed at experiential learning so that students reflect upon various exhibits and scientific concepts and their application in daily life. These activities gave them a platform: to inculcate scientific attitude and values, for instance calculating the temperature of the given quantity of water; to become environment conscious and develop sensitivity towards plants; to encourage ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ of kitchen wastes and do organic farming; to sensitise them towards their health and the need to protect themselves by preparing and eating immunity boosting foods especially during Covid times; to make them understand how building immunity saves us from life threatening diseases. They prepared infographics, posters and mind maps on the impact of climate change on biodiversity. They created slides to show the importance of vaccines. The activities increased climate literacy among young learners and encouraged changes in their attitude and behaviours. Virtual tour of the Nehru Science Centre was an innovative way of showing exhibits to the students. Role play enabled them to identify and take up the role of the chemical substances present in disinfectants used at their homes. Grade 6 organised ‘Role Play- Lockdown your boredom with Science’, ‘Virtual Tour- The Nehru Science Centre’ and ‘3R’s Towards Organic Farming’. Grade 7 conducted ‘Racing The Heat’, ‘Transferring Heat (1)’, ‘Transferring Heat (2)’, ‘Let’s Experiment: Chemical Reactions’, ‘Immunity Boosters’ and ‘Immunity Boosters 2: Master Chef’. Grade 8 coordinated ‘ Chemistry Is Fun’, ‘Chemical Changes’, ‘Colour Changing Chemical Magic’, ‘Impact Of Climate Change On Biodiversity’, ‘The Art Of Fermentation’, ‘Vaccine- The Saviour Of Life’, ‘The Magic Of Liquid Pressure’ and ‘Edging Closer To Pressure And Area’.
Social Science– The activities enabled the students to understand the impact of their actions on the environment. They were familiarized with new words and engaged in experiential learning. They understood the importance of coins, the work of archaeologists, certain historical events such as the Battle of Plassey, the need to provide equal opportunities to women, the framework of the Constitution, the evolution of the Solar System, the issue of ‘Climate Change’, scarcity of water resource and using drip irrigation system for growing herbs and managing waste and recycle plastic bottles to grow herbs. The activities involved JAM sessions, drafting a Preamble, interactions, discussions, videos, virtual tours, presentations, story telling, listening skill and quizzes. Grade 6 conducted ‘Coins Speak’ and ‘Our Unique Earth: Through My Lens’. Grade 7 organised ‘Women Changing the World ( Audio/ Visual and JAM session)’ and ‘Climate Change Is Real!’. Grade 8 coordinated ‘Battle of Plassey- Landmark in Indian History’, ‘Mera Savidhan, Mera Maan (Draft your own Preamble)’ and ‘Green Thumb’. A story telling session was conducted by the distinguished guest Prof. Danish Iqbal, an exponent of Dastangoi, an Urdu story telling art form for Grades 6-8.
French- The objective of the activities was to orient the students towards French language and culture. The activities involved dialogue and descriptive paragraph writing, virtual tour of Paris and writing greetings based on pictures, dictionary words and a few hints. Grade 6 conducted ‘Complete the Dialogue and Greetings’. Grade 7 organised ‘Describe Your Family, Describe Your Living Room’. Grade 8 coordinated ‘Virtual Tour of Paris’.
German– The reading, writing, speaking and listening activities were designed to enhance their understanding of the language. The activities required the students to read a German text, speak about their family members in the language, make hand puppets, listen to a song on the ‘Finger Family’, paragraph writing on how to stay healthy and discussion on a text. Grade 6 conducted ‘Reading Skills’ and ‘Meine Finger Familie’. Grade 7 organised ‘Paragraph Writing’. Grade 8 coordinated ‘Reading Skills’.
Spanish– The activities laid emphasis on orienting them to Spanish language, art and culture. These acquainted the students with life in Madrid, the capital of Spain through a web series. They were introduced to vocabulary and phrases related to ordering food in a restaurant, to taking a taxi, to ask for directions etc. They were made to practise correct pronunciation and vocabulary through tongue twisters. They were encouraged to read story books in Spanish. They were familiarized with Miguel de Cervantes, one of the most famous writers of Spain and his best known novel, Don Quixote de la Mancha. This was done through the medium of a short biographical video, an animated short movie of his novel, followed by a virtual tour of Alcala de Henares, the birthplace of Cervantes. The students also listened to an audio of a story followed by a discussion on new words and phrases, characters, messages that it conveyed etc. Quizzes were also conducted to check their understanding of the language. Grade 6 conducted ‘Mi Vida Loca’, ‘Trabalenguas’ and ‘La Hora del Cuento: La Señora y El Águila’. Grade 7 conducted ‘Historia: El Niño Sin Nombre’ and ‘Miguel de Cervantes y Don Quixote’. Grade 8 coordinated ‘Historia: Los Zombies No Comen Verduras’.
Sanskrit– The reading, writing, speaking and listening activities were designed to enhance their understanding of the language. They were made to listen to short stories and watched movies in Sanskrit followed by a discussion and a Google quiz. The students were asked to make sentences from counting 1 to 4 in all the Lings (लिङ्ग) with a pictorial presentation. Grade 6 conducted अवधानेन शृणुत, पठत संस्कृतम् and लिखत संस्कृतम्. Grade 7 organised अवधानेन शृणुत. Grade 8 coordinated अवधानेन शृणुत.