The GGIS ‘Sciencescope 2013’ empowers all!

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning.”                                                                                    ― Albert Einstein

                                

Like Chief Guest, Dr Vijay Bhatkar, Einstein would’ve been proud of the students of G G International School, Pimpri, Pune after witnessing and interacting with almost every child at length on the day of their Annual Science Day!

 “An excellent programme! A lot of hard work has been put in by the entire team. What I liked is the conviction with which students were explaining their content and also the fact that the topics were of level higher than the age of the children,” exclaimed Mr Amit Goel, Managing Director of the Goel Ganga Group who was visibly impressed with the minute detailing and the way the day was planned for parents and visitors.

Every child participated from Std I – XII with a variety of working models and dances based on scientific processes and cycles. The visiting parents and principals of other schools were thrilled with what the students spoke and more so with how they spoke! Confidence and the readiness to be grilled with questions pertaining to the projects displayed were the highlights of the student performance.

Mrs Sonu A Gupta, Director of GGIS expressed her elation at the roaring success of yet another typically well-planned and executed annual day. “The manner in which the staff and students worked towards the preparation and success of this annual day makes me proud beyond expression. The entire Admin and teaching staff, headed by the Principal, Vice Principal and HoD of Science has been a treat to experience! I am proud of the GGIS family!”

“The programme was of truly international standards and it was like being in Oxford or Cambridge. I have visited several science days but this concept of the journey of man and the execution was excellent. My sincere appreciation for all the GGIS staff and students!” – the words of an enthralled supergod of the supercomputer, Dr Bhatkar during his interview with the science enthusiasts of GGIS. The idea of science being a boon available across the counter and being driven by imagination was emphasised by the Principal, Mr Murad Sarfraz and his thoughts were echoed when the chief guest encouraged every student to imagine because it is imagination that makes us humans to do wonderful things through science.

The Annual Day marked its actual beginning on 17^th December with the Inter-School GGIS Mega Quiz Contest in which the neighbouring CBSE schools participated. The concluding session of the challenging and creative Quiz was held on the 24^th and the privileged winners were felicitated at the hands of Dr Bhatkar. Needless to say, every participant was in awe of the modest giant of the fields of IT, Education, Science and Spirituality.

The excitement in the eyes of the Science Department members was visible from the time Dr Bhatkar magic-spray-painted the welcome banner to the culmination with a student press conference. The theme of the ‘importance of science in the life of man from the caves to the moon’ was done full justice with students explaining the Big Bang Theory, the stages of evolution and so on right up to nano-technology and gene-silencing. The students paid rich tribute to Dr Dabholkar who lost his life in the pursuit of fighting superstitions by performing tricks of ‘babas’ and showing the visitors that it is truly pure science and nothing else that they use to make a buck and create a super-aura about themselves.

The day was a grand success simply because the event lived up to the motto of GGIS, ‘Empowering Knowledge’ where every child learnt a great deal and put in his best to make the day worth engraving in the best of our memories!

STUDY SKILLS WORKSHOP

It is well known that any transition or change, entails a certain amount of stress.  Today familiar student issues pertain primarily to Study Skills. Particular stress points occur at the beginning and end of the academic year. With a view to augment the study skills  ,focus and absorption capacity of the Students , a Workshop on Study Skills was conducted on 6^th Dec 13 for the Students of standard  6^th and 7^th.  The Resource Person was  Ms. Fehmida from the NIE Group. She emphasized and enriched the Students about the three Rs. Read, Review and Recall.  She explicitly explained a number of ways to boost up the memory of the students and the power to recall. 

She suggested using Mnemonics(Memory aids) as often as possible. She told the Students that  If one needs to learn a list of items, one should use the first letter of each item and string the letters together.  Remembering the string of letters may help one recall the actual items when taking the test.  Use of  highlighters was another pointer for the Students  while going through their notes.  If they are colour coded, underlined or highlighted it may help the Student  to memorize based on visual stimulation. The Students were advised to read their  notes aloud or record the reading.  The variety of ways one hears  the  notes may help the individual  to remember the material. Use  of word association, imaging or drawing ideas to help  remember the concepts was another sure shot method of retention.   Breaking up the material into small portions and use of  note cards  could be implemented by the Student for effective absorption capacity.

Ms. Fehmida  concluded her workshop  by thrusting on a proper health regime. She said that studying the night before a test certainly doesn’t guarantee that the student will hold on to the information and remember it during the test. The most important aspect she brought into the limelight was proper meals , daily exercise, athletics  and most importantly 6 to 8hrs sleep .

It was a very constructive workshop for the Students, they were furnished with valuable information and learnt the  appropriate techniques of studying .

Warli Painting Workshop in G G International School

“A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people”      

                                                                                         

As aptly quoted by Mahatma Gandhi  India is a rich institution of  folk arts the custodians of which are the many tribes that live in the interiors of various states. Warli is a beautiful folk art of Maharashtra ,traditionally created by tribals . With a view to enrich the children and provide them with an opportunity to experience different Art forms ,a Warli Art workshop was conducted by Ms. Neha . She introduced the Students to the vivid styles of the Art which  is executed on the walls of the houses of these Tribals. The most important aspect of the painting is that it depicts social life. Pictures of human beings and animals, along with scenes from daily life are created in a loose rhythmic pattern. Warli paintings are painted white on mud walls. These extremely rudimentary wall paintings use a very basic graphic vocabulary a circle, a triangle and a square. Ms. Neha guided the  children how to illustrate the figures  on brown paper and used the white board for visual depiction of Warli figures engaged in activities like hunting, dancing, sowing, and harvesting even trees, birds. Students ardently sketched these pictures. Warli painting is uncomplicated for the small children and easy to portray. Students were very glad to learn the unique art form and  got engaged in the Activity blissfully. The students were asked to execute those techniques and explore their own ideas and give wings to their imagination. The workshop was a distinctive experience.

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION IN GG INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

HO...HO...HO!! SANTA CLAUS IS HERE! IT’S CHRISTMAS!!

RED AND WHITE ……….EVERYTHING SO BRIGHT!

CHRISTMAS TREE AND JINGLING BELLS

CHRISTMAS IS HERE, EVERYONE WILL TELL!

Children love to celebrate Christmas. For the little ones, it is the time to get loads of gifts, shake hands with Santa Claus and receive the gifts from him! The sight of a decorated Christmas tree, gifts, the lights and decorations, just delights the children!

G G International School, welcomed the festive season of Christmas, with a lovely Christmas tree, music, dance and Santa Claus of course! A Winter Carnival was organized in the school for the students of the pre-primary on 20^th December 2013.

Teachers had organized various games like Car Racing, Fish Pond & Feeding the Joker. A Lucky Dip and Tattoo Painting counter was also organized. All the children had lots of fun playing the games. The entry of Santa Claus with his helper was just the most wonderful moment!

All the children squealed with excitement. He was welcomed with the ‘Jingle Bells’ song and everyone was eager to shake hands and dance with Santa. It was PARTY TIME!! Dance, Christmas songs and loads of fun! And Santa of course enjoyed himself with the little ones and made sure that every child got a gift ….. A Santa cap!

After all the fun, there was a scrumptious special Christmas brunch served .It was indeed a very exciting and fun-filled day for all the children and we ensured that every child  went home with a goodie and a hand shake with SANTA!

A WORKSHOP BY WATER AID ORGANISATION

GG INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL CONDUCTS A WORKSHOP BY WATER AID ORGANISATION

DATE: 03/12/13

Education is a means to alleviate poverty and engineer social change. GG International School understands it very well. Various workshops are organised by the school to sensitize students so that they become sensitive citizens of tomorrow.

                               

Water Aid Organisation conducted one such workshop on 3^rd of December 2013. Water Aid is an international non-governmental organisation focused exclusively on improving poor people’s access to safe water, improved hygiene and sanitation. They believe in the saying “Service to humanity is service to God.” Students from std. IV to VIII participated in the workshop.

Spokesperson Ms. Anagha Tone introduced the session by asking question related to uses of water. Mr. Sagar discussed about the amount of water we use every day in cities and in villages. Students were surprised to learn that they use approximately 275 Litres of water per person in cities whereas in villages people don`t even get 20 Litres of safe water to drink.  

Ms. Varsha another spokesperson from Africa explained various ways to store rainwater in a very low cost. She even explained the ways in which we can reuse the water after filtration for various other purposes.

                                             

Students learnt how to conserve water from this interactive session and promised that they will not waste water. They even vowed to spread the importance of proper sanitation and hygiene.

Caption for Photos: “Workshop by Water Aid Organisation”

Photos attached:    Students interacting at Workshop by WaterAid Organisation 1

                               Students interacting at Workshop by WaterAid Organisation 2

 

  

REPORT ON INTERACTIVE WORKSHOP WITH MR. BHATTACHARYA

G G International School believes in equipping its student and mentoring fraternity with the latest tools to strengthen the teaching learning process. With this motive in view the students attended a workshop on 25^th November for the students of class IX to XII by Mr. Bhattacharya, Principal of Sanskriti College Eta, UP.

The objective of the workshop was to help students to handle emotional stress and also how to motivate themselves towards better academics and career.

The workshop was very interactive having simple question and answer session rather than just a long speech. Students enthusiastically took part and he really made them thing very basic things which we normally take very casually without understanding the purpose such as: Why do we study? What is the harm of technological dependence? Why animals do not need any training and how do they differ from human being.

He taught them how to tackle with the everyday problem. He made the students to promise that they would always keep three basic things such as-Target to score above 90 %, to do a physical exercise at least one hour everyday and not to use internet for more than an hour a day.

It was indeed a highly motivational exercise which would definitely help children to learn and change the perspective towards studies, career, and life.

                                                                              

                                     

           

A motivational speech was gives by Mr. Bhattacharya, Principal of Sanskrit School. It all started with a simple question, "Who would like to have a chip for various subjects inserted in the brains rather than studying books?" And a majority, obviously, raised their hands. But he said that by doing so, there will be no understanding of the topic.

   

                                

He also explained the difference between Information and Knowledge. Information keeps changing and is not of much importance in peoples' lives like knowing the President of Yugoslavia. But, on the other hand, Knowledge never changes and is normally based on facts like the earth is round.

He further questioned who all wanted a 90% in their studies and again a majority raised their hands to which he explained that this can be achieved if there is 100% confidence and determination in the heart. This goal can be achieved by giving at least 2 hours for studies and 1 hour for physical activities as it improves blood circulation.

                                   

A very interesting story about an Eel was told to the students. Eels are mostly concentrated in Europe and America. But when it is their breeding time, they all meet in the Bermuda triangle. Here, they lay eggs and die. After maturing these young eels trace back the path from where their parents had come. This is an inborn capacity of eels. I would like to conclude by saying that each organism has been given sufficient knowledge for its survival. And no extra information about anything is required. One just needs to believe in oneself and achieve the goals.

Students shared a few inspirational moments with him and learned a lot.  They thank Principal Sir and the school management for exposing them to such a personality whose words of inspiration would enhance their personality.

FIELD TRIP TO LOKMAT PRESS

Field trips are an integral part of the curriculum. These trips not only give opportunities for the students

to learn beyond the classroom periphery, but also are more effective teaching aids.

At GGIS, we truly believe in ‘Learning by Seeing!’ Hence, a field trip was organized for the students of

classes Five and Six, on 26 Nov, 2013, to the ‘Lokmat Printing Press’ in Pune. Since the students

have studied about the invention of printing, they were eager and curious to see the process. Students

were taken in three batches to visit the premises. Mr.Rajesh Pudtkwal from the Lokmat Press guided

the young learners through the visit.

The students were taken to the Production Department, where they were shown the CTP(Computer to

plate), the machine that transfers all the news and pictures (in digital format) to be printed, on a metal

printing plate. He also explained how this is then printed on rolls of paper, which are uniformly cut to

the standard size and counted. This is done with the ‘Striker’ machine. Thereafter, the bundling is

done with the ‘Strapper’ machine .

                                  

The students found it fascinating to see the entire process on the sophisticated machinery; and realised

the amount of time and effort that goes into printing a single edition. They learnt that, though the

printing is done at night, the newspaper publication of one day, is a complete 24 hour process, right

from Editorial, News collecting, collating into a pdf format on the computers to the printing and

distribution.

Our students were brimming with questions about the ‘Lokmat’ newspaper and about the output

of the machines. They were informed that the output of each machine is 45,000 copies per hour

and 4 Lakh copies are printed daily. They were also eager to know about the process of colour

coding done during the printing of the newspaper .

It was a great learning experience for everyone. It indeed is an appreciable endeavour on the part

of the school management, to have planned such an educative outing.

INTER-HOUSE MASK MAKING COMPETITION

An Inter-House Mask Making Competition was organized on 20^th November 2013 at GG International School. Mask making is one of the most enjoyable crafts that children can be engaged in. This activity was organized to explore and encourage creativity in children and offer them a platform to show their skill in mask making. It inspired children to think and work creatively and promoted artistic excellence.

Children participated earnestly in the competition. It was a difficult task thereafter for the house teachers to short list one student from each section of each class. Children came up with amazing artwork in mask making. A variety of paper and plastic plate masks, head bands, eye masks etc. were made by the children and appreciated by one and all.

                                        

The final judgment was made by the parent-judges Mrs.Laxmi Salgia and Mrs.Sneha Rashnikar. The criteria for judgment were: creativity, detailing of design and overall impact and originality.

In the Class III category, Aadhya Laad from the Abhimanyu House was adjudged the best and Taral Kambarkar from the Dhruv House secured the second position.

Category Class IV saw Nandini Ladkhani from the Abhimanyu House securing the first position, whereas the second position was secured by Raunak Agarawala from the Shravan House.

Nibha Gupta from the Shravan House stood first and Kshaunish Borkar from the Abhimanyu House secured the second position in the Class V category.

Each of these masks prepared by the children was a treat to our eyes. This also made the selection process extremely difficult for our judges. This fun filled activity witnessed an enthusiastic participation of all the students.

                                                                                                                        -Namrata Solke

                 

“To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness."                                                                   -Robert Muller

The students of Class III A of GG International School, put up a presentation in the school assembly area for the staff and parents on 16 November 2013.

The presentation commenced with an inspirational video based on the theme of the presentation ;  “Forgiveness”. This was followed by a skit. The students in the skit conveyed the message that by walking the path of forgiveness, we can embrace peace, love, gratitude and joy.

A few of the students recited beautiful poems on forgiveness. The poems  emphasised that if we try to forgive each other there will be abundance of peace, harmony and healthier relationships.

Melodious songs also formed part of the presentation highlighting the theme. Later, with an extensive use of vibrant props, the little messengers of love from Class III A sensitised the audience about the benefits of forgiving and loving each other.

Finally, a dance performance on the song “Together we can!” casted a magical spell on the audience. The movements were graceful and colourful costumes won the hearts of one and all.

Students showed their talent, eloquence and confidence as they performed. The parents were ecstatic to see the apple of their eyes perform on stage. They appreciated the efforts taken by the school to inculcate good values among children.

Mrs Gauri Tripathi, a parent mentioned, “The presentation was beautifully conceptualised portraying real life situations. Good attention was given to minutest of details. Hard work put in by the entire team was evident.”

Another parent Mrs Kardile expressed her joy by saying, “The presentation was really wonderful; liked the way every child got the chance to come forward and be on stage. Great Job!”

The encouraging words by the Principal, Mr Murad Sarfraz brought a befitting end to the presentation.

                              
                                                                          

Shaping the future Newsmakers.....

It was a great opportunity for the students of GGIS to learn valuable points of report writing from the wonderful staff of NIE pune on 28^th November 2013. Medha Srivastava of class 12^th and Tanya Jaiswal of class 11^th attended the workshop organised by The Times Of India – ‘The Times NIE Newsmakers Meet’. It highlighted the art of writing a Report on topics like Crime, Sports, Education etc. Miss Priyanka from the TOI staff started with the introduction of report writing whose main feature and requirement is the 4 ‘W’ and 1 ‘H’. Then a discussion started about the positive features of the NIE newspaper which has most precise and apt information for school students providing them with every possible information about the world. She then described the salient features of the newspaper like 60-40 ratio of news and advertisement in the paper. Students were also introduced to another Edition called ‘Rio + 21’ the theme being conserving water. Then the students were given a sheet to write a report on any unique activity being organised in their respective schools or any achievements made in their schools along with four questions of general knowledge. After an hour of interesting session, Annie Thomas, editor of NIE times taught the students about skill of writing a news report by giving an example of report on German Bakery blast that shocked the peaceful city of pune in February 2010. She made the students write the report disintegrated into 5 main sub headings like what had happened, where the incident took place, when the explosion took place, who was behind the attack and how it took place. After the Report, the Editor explained the students about the inverted pyramid feature of the report writing which describes the pattern of writing a report. The uppermost level of pyramid constitutes the most important information that includes ‘W’s and ‘H’, the second level includes body of the story and the last level is the tail of report or in other words conclusion of the report. At the end of the workshop, the students were given snacks and a small trophy as a token of participation. This seminar definitely helped all the students to improve their report writing skills.

REPORT ON INTER HOUSE WIND CHIME MAKING COMPETITION

Wind chimes allow us to snatch music from the air. They make beautiful sound with breeze , uplifts our spirits, relaxes our minds and adds life to a quite household. They are believed to keep off evil spirits and are also considered a symbol of good fortune and a charm against evil. To encourage art and craft among the students GG International School had organized Wind Chime Making Competition on 20^th November 2013.

All the students of std. VI to VIII participated in the competition. The competition was held in their respective classes. The students put their best foot forward and made innovative and fascinating wind chimes. The wind chimes were made from materials like curtain rods, metallic, plastic and wooden pipes, colourful bangles, beads, bells, spoons, forks, keys, CDs and many other ingenious materials. The students thoroughly enjoyed making the wind chimes.

                             

The parent judges for the competition were Mrs. Sneha D. Rashinkar and Mrs. Laxmi Salgia. Mrs. Sneha D. Rashinkar found the activity good and interesting. Mrs. Laxmi Salgia found the creativity and expression of the kids very innovative. Both the judges enjoyed the activity and thanked the school management for giving them the opportunity to judge the competition. Devansh Sirohi and Tulsi Mittal of Eklavya House were adjudged the winner and the first runners up respectively and Jishnu Chaudhary of Shravan House was declared the second runners up by the parent judges.

REPORT OF FIELD TRIP TO KATRAJ

VISIT TO KATRAJ DAIRY

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character –that is the goal of true education.

                                                                                                                      Martin Luther King Jr

G G International School believes in giving all round development  to its students so that they have real life experience which would help them in the long run. A field trip to Katraj Dairy was organized for the children of class III to IV on 21^st Nov. This was  the 2^nd time the students were taken for a trip in the academic year 2013-14.

                                    

The students started from school at 9:30 am with  lot of enthusiasm and eagerness on what would await them at Katraj Dairy

                                       

The students were very excited  to know about the milk processing. When the students reached the Katraj Dairy they were welcomed by the authorities and  saw the Katraj parlor,with their different products  like milk, ice cream, shrikhand, pedas, khoya and paneer. We were escorted by Mr More  to an audio video room for a documentary on the same that  had all the important information on the processing of milk and its products. After this the students visited  the packaging unit where they could see how the milk is packed in bags and  ice crèam is made. Later they also saw how ghee is made and also came to know the usefulness of the residue. Finally the children boarded the bus and came back to school.
                              


Overall, it was a memorable educational tour for the students who thanked the management for organising a visit which was  highly enriching and an eye opener.

Prepared by Shaila