Author: Tasneem Marsiawala

Saturday, 30^th November 2019 was a perfect day for celebrations. It was cold enough to enjoy a cup of hot chocolate and peanuts around a bonfire and yet the sun shone merrily enough to take delight in the cool breeze.

Badri High School arranged for the students of Pre-Primary to spend a day with their grandparents. Together, grandparents and grandchildren had to complete 10 activities before they could move towards the Fun Area where a roaring bonfire beckoned them with roasted peanuts and hot chocolate and some bubble-blowing fun as well.

The activities showcased a mixture of Tarbiyat and Taleem as children did salam and massaged their grandparents feet in one area and read a book together in another. The handprints frame was a cherished souvenir while the circle of love and rings game got the old and the young walking, hopping and jumping together. The grandmas enjoyed weaving and grandpas enjoyed building with blocks. The fishing game was fun and they all wished they could take the fishes home. Their milad cards were collected by Taalebaat from Al-Jamea-tus-Saifiyah to be displayed in Masjid. It was endearing to watch the grandparents make sure to get their activity sheets stamped at every area.

Guests from an NGO based school were overwhelmed by the hospitality they received, especially when each grandma and grandchild pair was given their photograph as a souvenir. Janab Amilsaheb and UmmeAiman Bensaheba graciously accepted our invitation and spent time with their grandchildren and did many activities together. Our chairman Janab Naeem Bhaisaheb was missing his granddaughter very much and has promised to come back with her when she comes to Karachi.

Parent-child-school make a triangle but when grandparents enter the equation, it becomes a circle of love.

The new academic year 2019-20 is a year of new beginnings in the Pre-Primary Section. With expansion in the infra-structure, renovation in the interior decor, the introduction of exciting co-curricular activities, a strong team and a new batch of little children as unique and inimitable as they always are, the BHS Pre-Primary is all set on the high road to success.

The New Playgroup: An Enabling Environment

An enabling environment acts as the ‘Third Teacher’ for the child and enables them to create, build develop and reinforce their learning in an environment which is pleasing, invigorating, comforting and safe. It provides children with opportunities to learn individually and socially even when there is no explicit teaching. The Activity room fulfils this need for the students of the Pre-Primary Section. The two and a half years old children of Playgroup want a play experience that would cater to their needs exclusively, and this was achieved by bringing it into the Playgroup classroom. This classroom will incorporate an outdoor area as well where children will be able to experience a wholesome outdoor experience.

A second room for Playgroup B is under construction. We look forward to welcoming a new batch of students as soon as it is complete.

Robotics in Seniors

The Seniors will have a one-hour Robotics session every week in which they will work with Lego WeDo 2.0 to construct and program their minibots. Their first project is construction of a fan and programming it to rotate at different settings. Our little stemmers are excited! And so are we!

The Team Triangle

The orientation on Saturday served as a platform for parents and teachers to get to know each other and share and discuss important aspects of their child’s respective grade in the year that lies ahead. With a strong team triangle of passionate parents, dedicated teachers and the most amazing children, we anticipate great feats from little hands.

The Year Ahead

The first week of school began with brand new belongings and books, some screams and sobs, meeting old friends and getting to know new teachers and peers in a new room. As the first week comes to an end, the rest of the term now begins with well-settled children who are ready to play and learn and laugh and make strong connections of learning in their minds and unbreakable bonds of friendship in their hearts.

It begins with the first scribble that the child identifies as ‘me’. Gradually, as a child’s concepts grow with exposure, his vocabulary expands, and his observation becomes sharper, ‘me’ develops from a scribble to a figure with recognisable features and painstaking detail: ‘me’ might now be wearing a frilly pink frock which ‘papa brought from Dubai’ or have a pair of heart-shaped sunglasses perched on her nose or may be playing cricket with his brothers.

As the child learns to read and begins to write, ‘me’ is represented with ‘I like to wear my pink dress’, or ‘I like to play cricket with my bhai’ using invented spelling.

The more passionate writers also develop the ability to write stories with characters, problems and solutions and create suspense too!

The world of reading and writing beckons them. And it all begins with a scribble that the child identifies as ‘me’.

The Playgroup Little Stars

Mini-Presentation

The stage was set on Friday, 15^th March in the BHS Astroturf ground for the little Playgroup students. The tiny glittering stars on a pitch black backdrop behind the stage looked inviting. Children were going to present a mini stage-show for their parents. They had been preparing for more than a month and they were excited in anticipation of the performance. Their teachers were just as excited as this was the first time the Playgroup students were going to perform on stage in a show which was wholly presented by them.

Two children began with tilawat and then Khadija ben led the gathering to Recite Marsiyah of Imam Hussain A.S.

Playgroup A children then came on stage resplendent in their pink and black dresses with pink star headbands and golden pom-poms. They performed to the action song ‘Wiggle your fingers, blink your eyes……shake your hands, shake, shake, shake”. Very soon they had their parents wiggling, blinking and shaking with them!

Playgroup B came on stage to perform on the all-time favourite song ‘If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands’. They displayed their joy by clapping their hands, stamping their feet, slapping their thighs and finally waving their hands to say goodbye. They were a treat to watch in their bright red and white dresses, happy-face headbands and shiny red and silver pom-poms.

The best was for the last: the immensely popular ‘Baby Shark’! Both classes came up on stage while their parents crowded around them, mobile phones in hand, taking pictures and shooting videos of their little darlings.

It was by no means a small feat to get almost 60 little ones between 2-3 years old on stage performing in front of an audience. In some cases, it took a lot of coaxing and cajoling to get the children to even wear any kind of costume, headgear or pom-poms. Kudos to the Playgroup teachers!

It begins with the realisation that those straight and squiggly lines have some meaning.

The child then begins to decode the meaning of each squiggle. He can now understand that the sounds that he uses while talking correspond to a special symbol.

As he journeys deeper into the wonderland of reading, he learns to string the sounds and squiggles to make words which have meaning.

With stars in his eyes, he discovers that he can read!

He can read words!

He can read a series of words put together!

He can understand what all those wonderful words are trying to tell him!

This journey from squiggle to understanding to creating one’s own story has the potential to become a journey of love and reverence or a tedious task and a burden depending on how the child is exposed to it.

We want to make sure reading and writing become a lifelong passion for our students. For that:

• We’ve introduced DEAR Time for our Juniors and Seniors during Circle time during which students and teachers all sit down with a book to read quietly.

• The students are taking home a book in their library folder every weekend. They look forward to Friday to see which book they will get this time in their library folder. Of course, the child’s preference is also taken into account.

• The Reading Day program with parents is running successfully with parents coming to read for pleasure with their children. We see parents just as enthusiastic about reading as the little ones.

• The Reading Competition in Juniors and Seniors motivated the students to read. It was very difficult for our judges to crown the Reader of the Year. A tie-breaker round decided the winner in Seniors while the Junior winner won by a mere half point!

• The love for reading has now begun to translate into creating picture stories by Juniors while the Seniors have embarked on a simultaneous journey of using words and sentences with invented spelling to write their own stories. Being able to read their story during assembly provides extrinsic motivation to the children to continue writing.

• Story writing has become so popular in the Seniors that now we have to limit them to one turn per week for reading during assembly! Some of the passionate writers have also become proficient in creating a mind map, others can join together two sentences with and and but, and still others can write stories with a beginning, middle and end. The children are already displaying a glimpse of their own unique writing styles.

• We wish the children all the best in their reading and writing. They have their eyes on the stars! For us, they are the stars!

 To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world. – Chinese Proverb

This Saturday saw the conclusion of the English Classes for Mothers which comprised of ten 1 1/2 hour sessions held every Saturday from 9:30-11:00 a.m. By giving the participants opportunities to speak in a variety of situations and in front of an audience, we sought to build their confidence in a language which they’re already quite familiar with.

One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way. – Frank Smith

Participants were also given opportunities to express their thoughts in English through reflections and story writing. They could further improve their language and build their vocabulary by issuing a book from the library every week.

The last class was special as each participant had prepared a two-minute speech which they delivered in front of the class. One participant shared that I had never dreamed that I would one day be standing in front of an audience and delivering a speech in English! Another shared how reading and watching English news channels helped to improve her English. Many others shared how the classes have helped to enhance their language, build their confidence and make friendships along the way.

Participants were then taken on a nostalgic journey back in time from the first class through photographs and video clips. Certificates were handed out and the final session closed with a party especially arranged for the mothers.

Considering the overwhelming response, we will announce registration for the second batch very soon, InshaAllah.

Language is not a genetic gift, it is a social gift. Learning a new language is becoming a member of the club – the community of speakers of that language. ‒Frank Smith

Winter usually passes us by in Karachi with a quick nod. But this year it stopped to say hello and we, at the Badri Montessori, were prepared to welcome it in style!

Playgroup parents were invited with their children for the Winter Fiesta but the actual program was kept a surprise while the teaser videos, sent in the days preceding the event, added to the anticipation.

Friday, 14^th December dawned with a chill in the wind-perfect weather for the winter fiesta! The parents and children arrived-dressed for the occasion in shawls, hoodies and sweaters- bought ‘tickets’ at the ticket booth and embarked on their train journey.

At ‘Hyderabad’, they visited the famous bangle bazaar and sorted bangles in creative designs.

The next stop was Multan where they helped wrap the famous Multani Halwa.

At Faisalabad, they were awed by the clock tower and tried to create a tower with blocks.

Kite-making in Lahore for the Basant season was so much fun!

They visited the Rose and Jasmine garden in Islamabad and made paper flowers.

The rest of the journey was completed by car and parents and children were greeted with a spray of snow as they entered Murree. They were served hot chocolate, peanuts and chocolate-dipped marshmallows, which they enjoyed around a roaring bonfire. Pictures and selfies were clicked with the snowman and the lovely train, while our music teacher added warmth to the chilly air with lovely music.

It was almost nine o’clock on Saturday 10th November 2018. A little three-year old tugged excitedly at her Grandpa’s hand as she led him through the school gates. “This is my school, Dada. And that window over there, that is my class!” She gushed animatedly as she took him towards the ground. Other children and their grandparents started coming and very soon it was time to begin the Grandparents Day program.
After Tilawat-ul-Quran and matam, the children stood up and did salaam to their Grandparents and presented them with a lovely bookmark they had made themselves. The grandparents then made a flower craft from their grandchild’s handprint and then both posed for a photograph.
After that, they all participated in a fun game called ‘Four Corners’. The winners were presented with gifts. A salad buffet was prepared and the grandparents and children enjoyed a bowl of healthy and delicious salad together.
The grandparents left with a smile and lovely memories, hand-in-hand with their grandchildren. A day well-spent, indeed!

Imagine yourself in a strange place, surrounded by strange people who speak a language other than your own.

Does it sound like something out of a story book?

Wrong.

Now add to this the fact that your loved ones take you by the hand and leave you there.

How would you feel?

This is more or less what each of our tiny tots felt on the first day of school. They expressed their fear and frustration of their unknown surroundings the way they knew best: crying.

Our teachers were prepared for all eventualities. They had name badges ready at the gate and as soon as a child came in, they pinned it to his pocket. Most children had to be carried to the class as they struggled to run back to their parents. Other teachers pitched in to help with the struggling tots.

In the classroom, the teachers got down to the task with incredible calm and patience. Their soothing voice and calm demeanor gradually pacified the young ones until most of them were willing to settle down and play with the toys or participate in singing rhymes. Some of them though, kept crying at intervals as the memory of their surroundings resurfaced.

Soon, the hour was up and the teachers went around sorting bags, caps, scarves and water-bottles, checking for labels and helping children wear their backpacks.

They took the children to the gates and as each child spotted his parent(s) his face broke into a smile of recognition and relief as he ran towards outstretched arms.

A week has gone by and the children have now begun to recognize the school environment, the teachers and the other children. This sense of familiarity and routine has gradually increased their level of comfort. Most of them are now coming with a smile and have begun to enjoy time spent in school. Some of them have also started coming by the school van.

But as much as they enjoy school, at the end of the day, the little ones all look forward to going home to be greeted with a smile and a hug by the most beloved people in their lives.

As the sun’s rays danced on all things Karachi, the BHS Montessori children hopped and skipped to school in their lovely party dresses for the end-of-year party in school. Some of them came dressed as super-heroes as that had been the current topic of discussion in class. The influence of T.V. and star power was evident when one 4-year-old insisted he was dressed as ‘Singham’, whistle and all!

It was a fun-filled day with outdoor games like musical chairs, hide & seek, blowing bubbles and indoor games like “pop the balloon” and “name, place, animal, thing”. The day ended with delicious chocolate ice-cream and snacks.

A memorable end to a memorable year!