Reflections

MIDDLE SCHOOL
Pathways
School,
Gurgaon
Reflections
Volume 2
Issue 24
30-3-2012
We have just reached the Walled City
Heritage Walk—
Red Fort and
Jama Masjid
Inside the Jain temple
Eating Lunch outside the Jain temple
At the entrance to the Fort
Back to the Mughal times
If I start writing about our visit to Red Fort, I’ll write pages, because it was more fun than any earlier school trip. I don’t think I would ever
forget our visit to the city of Shahjhanabad in Old Delhi. First we visited Sheeshganj Gurudwara. It was a new experience for most of us, but
we were more interested in the kara prashad than anything elseJ. Next we visited the Jain temple and I learned about the two divisions of the
Jains from the guide and from my Jain friends.
Now I’ll tell you how I was lost in the parathe wali gali.....
I was walking next to Shaistha ma’am, Romina ma’am, Elena ma’am and Neeraj sir. I wanted to tie my shoelace. I sat down to do so and the
teachers waited for me. The next thing we knew was we couldn’t see anyone from the school around. We were lost!!! Even after the resultant
panic, I still felt like shopping thereJ. We later figured out where the rest were, when Neeraj Sir sorted the whole thing. Hat’s off!!
After we all came back from Jama Masjid, and were waiting for the sound and light show to start, all I was thinking about was that how India
had been rightly called the ‘golden sparrow’.
We had many happy movements, like sitting on the rickshaw, walking through the narrow streets together, etc.
If I was just once given a chance to go back anywhere in the past, I would choose to go to the Mughal Times and actually see a king’s life!!
Suveni Madan—Grade 6
Pictures from the visit
sitting in the rickshaw
In front of the gurudwara
Gol Gappe
amazing architecture ; doors
that have existed for centuries .
Mr. Thirani— Chairman of Campfire
Publications spoke to Middle School Students
“The things I want to know are in
books; my best friend is the man
who'll get me a book I ain't read.”
- Abraham Lincoln
We at Pathways were very fortunate to
have a visit from Mr. Keshav Thirani, chairman of Campfire Publications on Wednessday, March 28. Mr. Thirani is a well
known industrialist at the helm of various
companies such Autometers Alliance Ltd.,
Goldwyn LED Ltd., RMG Autometers Gas
Technologies and Woodward Governor
India Ltd.
On one of his vacations with his grand
children when they could not find books of
their interest, Campfire Graphic Novels
was born. Family managed, Campfire is one
of the very few publishing houses focused
on Graphic Novels which are great fun.
These novels are aimed at inspiring and
educating children by bringing them world
classics such as The Time Machine and Robinson Crusoe as well as books from mythology and biographies.
Punya Jain of Grade 7 welcomed Mr. Thirani to Pathways with a short address and
reminded us all that a beautiful painting of
Hanuman created by an illustrator from
Campfire hangs in our library.
Then Mr. Thirani addressed the students
of Middle School. He spoke eloquently
about his passion for reading and the importance of timeless messages contained in
great books. He showed us several beautiful new titles from Campfire, and I for one
will definitely be putting them on my shopping list!
Our senior librarian, Mrs. Bandana Sen
thanked Mr. Thirani for taking the trouble
to come to our school. Our Managing Director, Mr. Prashant Jain was also present,
along with Mrs. Dimpu Sharma and all Middle School staff.
Comics anyone!!
English
Grade 6
Grade 7
Grade 8
From unit 9, based on the concept of ‘Identity’,
the poem ‘Citizen of the World’ was discussed.
From the Workbook the students practised
affixes, prepositions and phrasal verbs.
The reading of the play ‘Tom Fool’ was completed.
English Folders were brought up to date.
Reading Log: The students submitted the Book
Reports along with the Vocabulary list.
The students watched the film on „Holes‟
over 2 days. The novel was finished in class.
From International Approach Unit 10,
„Secrets of the Sea‟, „The Quest for Moby
Dick‟ was started.
Unit 1, „Friendship‟ from International
Approach, the reading of „Meeting Mr.
Tumnus‟ continued.
The reading of Shakespeare‟s
„Macbeth‟ is in progress.
English Folders were brought up to date.
Reading Log: The students submitted the
Book Reports along with the Vocabulary list.
„The Same Stuff as Stars‟ was read and
questions on the same given out.
English Folders were brought up to
date.
The students submitted the Book
Reports along with the Vocabulary
list.
ESL
Grade 7
Grade 6
The Grade 6 students have started a new
unit “Aztecs”. They have been reading
about the Aztec culture, lifestyle, religion
and history. The information is later to
be sifted and put into Power Point Presentations. A passage “Meeting the Spanish” was given as a home assignment. The
students have been asked to imagine
themselves a part of the Aztec civilization
and write a letter to King Montezuma,
giving a detailed description of their
meeting the Spanish conquistadors.
Grade 8
The Grade 7 students have watched a movie
“Holes” based on the book by Louis Sachar.
While watching, they needed to make notes and
complete two worksheets - a character study
worksheet and a cause/effect worksheet based
on the storyline. Also, the work on writing effective journal entries has begun in class, an
extract of a travel journal has been read out and
analyzed for the use of figurative language. Comprehension check has been performed and the
students got an assignment of re-writing the
events of the story “Secret of the Pyramid” in
journal entries.
This week the grade 8 students‟
focus has been on grammar patterns “have you ever been/done”,
the revision of the Present Perfect Tense and the use of articles
with ge og raph ica l na mes .
“Brighton in the rain” by Jonathan
Dykes has been listened to in
class, and a fill-in-the-blanks activity has taken place. The students
have been asked to compose 10
sentences using a similar pattern.
Science
Grade 6
The sixth graders recapitulated the topic
„Interactions of living things‟ and took the summative assessment. The topic of Nutrients was
introduced using smart board and PowerPoint.
The importance of water was discussed and a
practical application was demonstrated - the
students diluted the toxins accumulated in their
body in the rest of the science lesson by having
drinking water. They learned about the six important nutrients and tried to identify the nutrients in their diet and review if their regular diet
is balanced.
Grade 7
Grade 8
The seventh graders continued with the
„Digestive system‟ after the summative assessment on „Heat transfer‟. They learned
how absorption follows the digestion process and what are the organs involved in it.
They took an online quiz on „Digestive system‟ at www.edmodo.com. The topic culminated with a mind map created by the students to reflect their understanding.
The grade 8 students started with the
topic „Electricity‟ taken up by the senior
school physics teacher, Ms Romy
Gupta. They leaned about electro statics and were demonstrated how an
electroscope works. Worksheets on
the topic were given. Ms Romy Gupta
will be taking the topics „Electricity‟,
„Magnetism‟ and „Light‟ during the
month of April.
Humanities
Grade 6
History - the students have given the Presentations made by them on different Civilizations.
During the process they made notes on a
document which they have to submit and later
be assessed on. They have to upload the detailed descriptions of different civilizations on
edmodo.
Geography - They discussed migration and
reasons for migrating. We also had fun while
determining the difference between immigrants
and emigrants, during which they have introduced their classmates as examples of one or
the other. We discussed the push and pull
factors of migration. They were given a detailed task to conduct a survey with an individual who has migrated and make a report which
will be a part of their summative assessment.
Grade 7
History - As a part of the Unit
„Delhi-Builders and Rulers‟ the
students were given stories on
different places of Delhi and divided into groups. They will be
making presentations about a particular place in Delhi using mode of
their choice to other class members. It is a part of their summative
assessment.
Geography - We started a new
unit on Tourism. The students
brainstormed on the topic and
browsed „Incredible India‟ website.
They read and discussed the advantages which are brought about by
this industry. They were given
questions related to the topic. In
the coming week they will be given
a task to select a place and prepare
a guide sheet. These sheets will be
compiled together in the form of a
tourist guide book.
Grade 6 making presentation in Civilization
Grade 7 working on stories on Delhi
Monuments
Grade 8
History - The Grade 8 students learnt about
the successes and failures of the League of
Nations. They were asked to research on
Spanish Civil War. Last week they were given
source websites to understand the details of
the topic discussed in class.
Geography - They were given a task to create
a report from a newspaper article related to
water conservation. Students presented the
reports. They also read about the threat to
the rivers and did a case study.
Mathematics I
Grade 6
Grade 7
Grade 8
The 6th graders learnt abstractness of Algebra
this week and understood various concepts
like simplification of expressions with brackets and expansion of brackets. The order of
operations was explained to the students, for
which the drill work was done. To keep the
concept of negative numbers alive, the students completed an online test on
www.mytestbook.com. In the coming week,
the students will learn to solve linear equations and the applications of linear equations
in daily lives.
The 7th graders excitedly learnt the GSP
software for plotting graphs of linear equations and used it for their understanding of
straight line graphs. They also learnt about
graphs of quadratic equations and the basic
difference between the graphs of various
equations. In the coming week the students
will take a summative assessment on Algebra
and graphs and will start learning about angles.
The students of grade-8 completed their
summative assessment on the area and
perimeter of 2-dimensional shapes and
extended their understanding of volume of
3-dimensional figures. They learnt about
the volume of various shapes like cuboid,
cube, triangular prism and cylinder. In the
coming week the students will learn about
surface area and will take a summative
assessment on volume and surface area.
Mathematics II
Grade 6
Grade 7
Grade 6 has completed averages with a clear understanding of the mean, the median, the mode and the
range. The completion was marked with a summative
assessment. We have also created our accounts in Khan
Academy to watch various Math videos and do practice
exercises. We also did a practice exercise online using
the URL “http://www.khanacademy.org/exercise/
mean_median_and_mode . All the related resources
and assessments are uploaded on Veracross. We will
start with algebra next week.
This week we revised various topics covered in algebra so far. A review sheet
was given to the students where they practiced all the topics of algebra covered till the present moment. It was a good revision for an upcoming algebra
summative. Students were introduced to the coordinate grid, which is our new
topic. They learnt about axes and the four quadrants. They also learnt to plot
the coordinates. They also watched a video on the same topic using the URL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH3ngkv0ug8 . They also practiced
the same concept online using the link
http://www.khanacademy.org/exercise/graphing_points
Spanish
Grade 6
This week we had a written assessment,
and we started the topic “La comida”.
We are learning the vocabulary related
to food and how to express our likes
and dislikes, and also what time we have
our meals.
Grade 7
The students were busy with their answers for
the IDU Spanish worksheet, most of them have
sent it to me. The IDU worksheet was related
to the topics done in this term. We have also
written a Role play from the text book Listo 2.
Page 7
Hindi
Grade 7
Grade 6
This week grade 6 has researched about
different food and dresses around the
world. They prepared some charts. They
presented two small skits on Gandhiji in
the class. They also enjoyed writing
about their mothers. They will continue
writing Biographies of their mothers
next week. I will introduce a new poem
„Mein Sabse Choti Houn‟ next week and
make them understand the underlying
meaning of the poem.
The students have written the summary
of the poem „Ek Tinka‟. They explored
the ways of writing a poem in the form of
a story. A new lesson ‘Apoorv Anubhav’ has been introduced to them. Next
week they will continue with this lesson
and will do some exercises in their workbook. They will also create their own
questions on the story which they have
pasted in their notebooks. A summative
assessment will be taken on the unitVatsalya (Motherly Love).
Grade 8
The students have worked on their Picture
Books regarding technology used in movies.
They will continue with this in the course of
the next week. They assess themselves for
prefix-suffix. A new poem ‘Yah Sabse
Kathin Samay Nahin’ was introduced to
them. Next week they will write a summary
and some exercises on the same poem.
Grade 6 creating their chart on different types of
food and dresses
A rubric for peer assessment
use by grade 7
Drama
Grade 6
Grade 7
The Grade 6 students continue their exploration of animals,
animal movements and animal stories through the tales of
the Panchatantra. This week they continued their study of
Chhau dance movements and applied these movements to
their improvisations of different stories. Then a we had a
great session in which the class learned how to select a cast
for a play. We listed out the scenes and the main characters in each scene. Then we wrote the name of the person
playing that role next to each character. Then we went
through each scene to find out if there were secondary
characters or crowd required. And of course we then
wrote down names of people who could take up these
roles. The initial cast list for the Panchatantra show is now
posted and we are on our way to a great journey.
The Grade 7 students continue to prove themselves as full of
imagination, ideas and caring for the world around
them. They created some beautiful scenes for the Ganga
Project and got down to the serious business of writing the
first scenes. It was then they discovered that writing the
actual dialogue in a scene and deciding exactly what comes
next can be quite challenging. For now they are working on a
difficult method of improvising a scene, discussing its strong
and weak points and then refining it. Many students also
attempted to read excerpts from a difficult article from THE
NEW YORKER magazine, The Last Drop by Michael Specter. I invite parents to read the article on Veracross. It can
be found under Grade 7 resources. For those of you who are
interested in reading the entire article, here is the link: http://
www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/10/23/061023fa_fact1?
currentPage=all
ICT
Grade 6
Grade 6 learnt about a few new features of Excel like conditional formatting. They watched an AV from the link http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=qBvbayYxDhU .
The class was also divided into four groups as per the IDU task in ICT. They are working to create a game proposal, which will educated the
player about the Indian History spanned from Mughal Era to British Time. To see the progress click https://docs.google.com/document/
d/1MNi7TEPWr9CjUmEGLE8Rlt5kKMKflt6T8f-QqYCzGQg/edit . Grade 6 has created blogs on their last visit to Harappan
Gallery, which was one of the ICT IDU. To see their blogs, please click the following links :
Raghav : http://123harappan.blogspot.in/
Tara : http://taranharappan.blogspot.in/
Prachi : http://indusvalleyprachi.blogspot.com
Armaan: www.pathways-idu.webs.com
Aakankshahttp://aakankshachugh.blogspot.in/
Sameera http://rediscoveringindus.blogspot.in/
Mrinal
http://1234gg.blogspot.in/
Preben :http://prebenharrapacicilisationblog.blogspot.in/
Koma koma621.blogspot.com
Sunaina http://www.triptothemuseum.blogspot.in/
Suveni http://indusvalley6.blogspot.in/2012/02/indus-civilization-indus-valley.html#!http://indusvalley6.blogspot.com/2012/02/indus-civilizationindus-valley.html
Shaimay http://meluha.webs.com/
Bhavika : http://wwwbhavikaindusvalleycivilization.blogspot.in/2012/03/harappa-harappa-is-archaeologicalsite.html
Grade 7
Grade 8
Grade 7 learnt about the system and application software. They quoted various examples of system and
application software. They also downloaded a freeware „Pivot stick figure animator‟, which is an application to create animated stick figures. They have also
uploaded their work on Edmodo. Next week, they
will become members of an online forum for stick
figure animation, where they can view the animation
done by various students across the globe.
Grade 8 Continued to work on more controls in Visual
Basic . They learnt to add more forms to their project.
They also learnt to move from one form to another using
show and hide methods. They were given a week end
assignment, which includes questions based on all the
concepts covered in the class so far. The submission for
the same is on Monday.
Grade 7 was also divided into 4 groups to complete
the Red Fort IDU task. They are very enthusiastic and
came up with exciting ideas for their game proposal.
From Our Clubs...we also offer Chess and
environment Clubs
The Dance Club
The Music Club
The Robotics club
The Public Speaking Club ...an increase in membership from 4 students to 12 !
Music Club
Photography Club
Music Club
Physical Education
Swimming lessons commenced this week with introduction to
safety ,Health and Hygiene rules and information. Their basic levels
were tested in swimming so that the coach can design the future programs. Students attended their regular classes of horse riding, tennis,
football and golf.
Dear Parents
Please share your opinion and suggestions about the week gone by . We really look forward to your feedback .
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sDHQKCUEWAdSz2U84TRL5gvocWRiyqGi3h5EB0RIv1k/edit
We have 4 albums up on our online picture gallery. Do visit the gallery and write your comments .
To see our online Photo Gallery, please click on the following link :
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/105045387757109953480/albums