Learning about what people do is always fascinating at any age. The Reception children are currently learning about professions and the topic of the week was ‘Artist’.
Being artists for the week was a lot of fun for the children. They worked with different mediums and learned about the tools an artist uses. Finally they displayed their art pieces and invited everyone to view and appreciate their lovely artwork.
Project based learning is currently the talk of the Badri School-town. In a previous post, we talked about the session conducted by our expert PBL team of teachers. Their passion and drive was so infectious that now, we’ve all been bitten by the PBL bug! The Montessori Seniors have especially been very affected.Usually the following symptoms manifest themselves throughout the PBL season:
The driving real-world question for the Montessori Seniors was:
‘How do we design a play area for ourselves which caters to our needs?’
The teachers showed them the outdoor area which they were supposed to design. They brainstormed ideas, looked up sample pictures on the net, debated upon the best options and accordingly kept revising their plan. Finally they drew their individual plans. After that, they again sat together and compiled one outline plan through general consensus. Each class nominated four speakers to present the plan in front of JanabNaeemBhaisaheb.
Janab was very kind and patient enough to hear the complete plans presented by the children. The children are still wondering whether what they’ve planned will actually materialize. InshaAllah, they will see the fruits of their work very soon!
A Session for the Reception and Junior Parents by Janab MullaAbdulqadirbhai
On Friday, 5th January 2018 the Junior and Senior parents were invited to an informative session on how they can help their children in doing hifz. The session was held in the Hifz Room and was conducted by Janab MullaAbdulqadirbhai.
As our children are too young to do hifz by themselves, they need all the help they can, especially from their parents. Therefore, it is imperative that we as parents know what to do and how to do.
Janab MullaAbdulqadirbhaishared important tips along with examples, demonstrations and anectodes which made the session lively and engaging. He also shared an app for hifz-ul-Quran with the parents.
Janab Shk. Hashimbhai closed the session by emphasizing that big dreams require big sacrifices. It is only when we, as parents sacrifice our social lives, social media and television that we will get closer to our dream of making our child a hafiz. InshaAllah.
Parents of the Montessori were happy to receive the progress report of their child today. Each report was enclosed in a beautiful folder which show-cased the child’s individual work. The Milad goodie bag in each folder will be a wonderful surprise for the children when they reach home. We had something for parents too inside the folder. We are sure parents are looking forward to the exciting events for which they received invitations.
We hope to see the Reception and Junior parents at the hifz workshop tomorrow.
An interesting and thought provoking session was conducted by Ms. Farida Sailani and Ms. Munira Aliasghar in the Activity Room on Friday 30/12/17.
They had recently attended a 6 hour long workshop at Aga khan IED on teaching numbers to under-fives. The teachers were eager to share their learning with the rest of the Montessori staff who were responsive and enthusiastic participants.
Free-Play; We’ve all been there; whether playing ghar ghar or majlis majlis or school school, we all have fond memories of those carefree occasions of play when a dupatta became a blanket or suitably arranged pillows became an aeroplane.
But today, when our children propose to do the same, we are quick to provide alternate activities which are structured or ‘educational’.
We as parents and educators must understand that children require a blend of free-play and structured play to build an array of skills which are necessary for their development.
In the BHS Pre-Primary, a separate room has been set up for the children to experience free-play. It is divided into areas which are separate and yet connected. The areas are stocked with open-ended material which lends itself well to the changing demands of the play such as blocks and bottle-caps as well specific -objective material such as puzzles. Important life skills are being learned and applied as children engage in free-play of their choice in the BHS Activity Room.
So the next time your child decides to play ghar ghar with a sibling or by himself, don’t interrupt him. He is learning while he plays.
Winter in Karachi is a unique phenomenon. It comes too late, goes away too soon and therefore is nothing short of a celebration.
The BHS Montessori planned to savor the beauty of winter with all its perks on Friday, December 22, 2017.
Friday dawned doubly blessed as it was the day of Milad-e-Imam-i-zaman S.A. The children came to school in bright and colourful winter clothes. After Dua, Senior B presented a skit in Urdu on winter. Artificial snow spray brought forth shrieks of delight from the young audience.
During circle-time, children discussed all about winter. They rubbed a little baby lotion on their skin for a hands-on experience of skin-care during winter. They made a Milad Mubarak craft card and did a free-hand drawing on ‘winter makes me think of’.
Once the bonfire was ready, children gathered around the bonfire to enjoy peanuts, marshmallows dipped in chocolate sauce and hot cocoa milk. It was fun to ‘blow and watch it snow’ around the snowman. Janab Shk. Hashim cut the milad cake amid loud and enthusiastic cries of Allahu Akbar, Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin Zindabad and Maula, Maula Mufaddal Maula!
Children went home tired but happy.
Excited little children entered the school gates this morning dressed up as bright and colorful fruits and vegetables. They were so thrilled to be dressed up that they could hardly wait to show off during assembly.
What was even more wonderful than the creative costumes was the story of love and care and support that each costume told.
So, thank you parents. You were as always, amazing!
Many parents find it difficult to get their little ones to eat vegetables. Had they come to school today, they would have been pleasantly surprised to see their children asking for second and third helpings of the vegetable soup!
During circle time, the children were shown all the ingredients of the soup and the teacher explained which ingredients will be put in the pot to cook and which will be left aside as garnishing. As the soup was cooking, a delightful smell wafted through the whole school and the children could hardly wait for the soup to be ready.
The Juniors drew and coloured in their soup bowls while the Seniors also had the ingredients listed down in their paper.
It was without any doubt, a most delicious end to the theme of Fruits and Vegetables.
The Montessori Juniors set up a ‘Flower Shop’ today as part of their dramatic play experience.
The flower shop boasted of a vibrant display of flowers neatly organized according to colour with the cash counter at one end and a bouquet service at the other, where you could get your flowers tied with a lovely ribbon or arranged into a flower pot. Special delivery was made on the tricycle to nearby areas like the library and office.
The children used coloured pencils to make out the slips. How important they felt as they chose the correct pencil and wrote down the number of flowers required! The air of excitement, the children’s involvement and their obvious pleasure in the activity was a delight to see.
We thank our valued ‘customers’ (students and teachers) as they all helped to make this activity a success.
We wish a very happy birthday to Ms. Fatema’s mother. We hope she likes the special flower bouquet from the Juniors’ Flower Shop.
Dramatic Play involves acting out real-world situations and taking on the roles of different characters. It is an integral part of the developmental learning process as it gives children an opportunity to apply learned skills and develop new skills in the process.
Dear Readers
We, the Montessori Seniors have worked hard all week and today we decided to give ourselves a treat. We made Yummy Banana Treat in the morning all by ourselves and then put it in the fridge for a cool treat later. We prepared the recipe card to take home because we will make it for our family on Sunday.
Oh, what a yummy treat it was!
Would you like to have it? Just follow our recipe for ‘Yummy Banana Treat’.
With lots of love,
The Montessori Seniors
It was a Fruit Party in Juniors! The Children were excited as they had brought fruits from home. They showed their fruit to the class and talked about it. The teacher then told them the story of “The Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle. After the teacher had cut the fruit, they made individual fruit platters and decorated them as they wished. There were a variety of beautiful caterpillar and butterfly fruit platters to see!
Stories are an important part of the Pre-Primary classroom as children love stories. Stories create magic and a sense of wonder at the world. They become a stepping stone for the children to understand difficult concepts.
The Juniors had done two stories throughout the week:
On Friday, they came dressed in Reds and Blues and a variety of lovely hats. It was a fine day for the two teams ‘Reds’ and ‘Blues’ to play football. Later, in class they talked about their hats. What stories they had to tell!
The Montessori Seniors visited Al-Jamea-tus-Saifiyah on Friday 3/11/17.The trip began with Ziarat of Zarih Mubarak and Qabr Mubarak of Ai Saheba and Shehzadi Saheba. The children maintained aadaab-u-ziarat and humbly placed rose-petals on Qabr Mubarak.
They visited the library where they were awed by the huge collection of books, and in Mahad-u-Zahra they were motivated towards doing hifz and fulfilling Aqa Maula’s dream of a hafiz in every home.
They saw the beautiful flora in the gardens as well as the Quranic garden.
The children were served salawat juice in Mawaid Saifiyah which they thoroughly enjoyed.
It was a wonderful opportunity for these little ones to witness the glory of this renowned institute where, someday, some of them will get the sharaf of studying, and becoming a part of it
Fueled
Fueled
by a million
man-made
wings of fire-
the rocket tore a tunnel
through the sky-
and everybody cheered.
Fueled
only by a thought from God-
the seedling
urged its way
through thicknesses of black-
and as it pierced
the heavy ceiling of the soil-
and lauched itself
up into outer space –
no
one
even
clapped.
–Marcie Hans
But the Montessori children celebrated this miraculous event every step of the way from the tiniest root to the longest shoot. The wonder in their eyes made us all take a step back and delight in the beauty of Allah’s Creation.
It is exciting to see how the small yellow kernels turn into puffy, white and yellow popcorn.
It is so much fun to hear the kernels go pop-pop-pop in the microwave.
It is interesting to feel the difference between the smooth
Badri High School is a Dawoodi Bohra community school which is a manifestation of the vision of the 51st Dai al Mutlaq Syedna Taher Saifuddin. Inaugurated by the 52nd Dai al Mutlaq Syedna Mohammad Burhanuddin in the year 1965 when His Holiness was Mazoon u Dawat
For further information make an appointment to schedule a visit to the school premises.
