Mrs Mukta Chatterjee, the Principal of Centre Point School, Nagpur visited our school on 29 March and shared her thoughts with the Headmistress and the Principal.

The Headmistress Mrs C Adilakshmi attended a two day UGC sponsored seminar on "Innovative Practices in Early Childhood Education" on 26 and 27 March and made a presentation on " Inquiry Approach in Teaching during Early Childhood Education".

On 6 February a large group of Oakridgers was taken to Roots School for participating in the exciting MazaMatics quiz (a written quiz of Mathematics). In the Junior Category. Atul V (VI A) got the first place, followed by Shimoni Agarwal (VII A). After a tough round of prelims and tiebreakers, the Junior Quiz team that consisted of Rahul Chak (VII B), Rajesh Tummuru (VII B), Sahitya Kanti (VII B), and Ridhima P (VII B) qualified for the finals and came second.

Ramaiah' Visit To oakridge

On 20 February 2004 Oakridge had a very important guest in school - Mr. C.Ramaiah, Mr.Ramaiah is basically an IIT entrance specialist and is the key player of the famous Ramaiah Institution. Under his excellent guidance, many students have been successful in securing admission to the various IITs.

Mr.Ramaiah gave a fair idea on what the teachers should mainly stress on, and his focus on acquiring knowledge rather than scoring high marks was impressive. He held that the training for a child to join IIT should being from Primary classes itself and not merely at the imtermediate level because clear concepts and understanding as also the ability to solve problems held the key to educational success. He spoke about many interesting incidents to highlight the above. During the Question and Answer session, parents clarified their doubts with Mr.Ramaiah and he came out with the most wounderful answers.

This visit of the marvelous Math Wizard was of great importance to us and all of us benefited from his encouraging speech which made us see a whole new side of Math, and we hope that Mr.Ramaiah would continue visiting Oakridge and motivating young minds to excel in life

Ridhima P. (VIIB)


Heartening Results

The National Science Talent Search Examination for the year 2003-2004 conducted by Unified Council, New Delhi was held on 25 january 2004 at oakridge International School.

Earlier, 29 students from classes IV to IX were short listed on the basis of a screening test conducted by the school.

Nitish Kulkarni of Class IV A was outstanding in his performance. He secured the 195th national rank, the third rank in Hyderabad and the first rank in the school.

Other Class IV participants were Surya Nimmagadda (National Rank 973,) Nikhil Chandra Venkatesh (2259), Navya Bollu (3491), Sai Krishna Chandana (4114).

Sahiti Chedalavada of Class V Secured the 246th National Rank and the first rank in the school. Other national rankers were Rahul Harikrishnan (385), Megha Chiruvella (485), Natin Pai (594), Supriya Chak (2586) and Pooja Aakansha ( 8726).

From Class VI, Atul Vaidyanathan secured the 1052nd national rank and the first rank in the school. Other national rank holders were Pratik Sen (2322), Vidhi Maheswari (4507), P Anusha (4538)..

There were seven rank holders from Class VII with Sahitya Kanti Y securing the 599th national rank and first in school, Rahul Chak (3280), Rajesh Tummuru (3583), P Ridhima (4591), Jyostna (4908), Shilpa Reddy (6086) and Hamzah Syed (7366).

Arjun Natarajan of Class VIII secured the 559th national rank and the first in school. Other rank holders were Akash Nayak (1937), Akhil (3208), Abhishek Agarwal (4671), Md.Omar Majid (7680), AG Goutham (9769).

Satya Chandra was the only participant from Class IX and he secured 1053rd national rank.

Ratna Bhowmick

One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

This was a unit Class III looked forward to, as there was so much we wanted the children to inquire into.

We started with the story "Dolly and Mina" and the poem "Working on Trash", which led the children into an active discussion on the Profile. In no time, we were talking about the 3R's. It was no surprise when the children figured out the title of the unit.

The children then wrote down 'WHAT I KNOW' about the topic on slips of paper, which was pasted on a large chart for all of them to read. Subsequent to this, they wrote down 'WHAT I WANT TO KNOW'. Some had pretty long lists of queries that were very heartening for us, teachers.

In the 'WHAT I LEARN' component, the children had a lot of fun participating in activities that led to several learning outcomes. A huge amount of waste was collected in school. Thye then proceeded to sort out the waste into paper, glass, metals and plastic. Integrating math, the children then prepared bar graphs based on the weight and quantum of waste. The waste they gathered consisted of mainly packaging material of every kind. Based on this finding we decided to find out the ' Most Suitable Packaging'.

At this stage we had a Tuning In session where the children were guided into learning facts of the types of waste, composting and the 3R's. They inquired into the sources of the basic components of waste, degradation, decomposition, disposal methods, alternative methods of disposal and the relationship of waste and nature. It was a natural progression that led up to the need for reducing, reusing and recycling.

Not wanting to miss a coincidental opportunity that arose, we headed out to Shilparamam for a workshop on papiermache. It was an experience we will not forget. Waste paper was shredded and combined with chalk powder and glue to make mouldable mache, which was converted into lovely masks and decorative items.

On their return to school, the children decided to try their hand at papier-mache, but not before they had narrated and reported on their field trip to those who had missed out. It was a chance to integrate language skills, which we did not miss. With the jelp of the art teachers, batches of papier-mache was prepared. Balloons and thermocol milk cups, which the children collected, were utilized to make masks and pencil stands. Stocks of old news papers turned into beautiful folders, paper bags and gift-wrapping paper. They used their It skills to present their learning on the Cycle of Paper/Metal/Glass/Plastic. They prepared a flowchart on Recycling Facts of Waste. This activity formed their formative assessment.

Maintaining the tempo of learning,the children were required to make a useful item out of waste and "present it" to the class. This was also their summative assessment.

It was an amazing experience. Little professionals paraded one after the other, skillfully introducing themselves and talking about their projects, each one more enthusiastic than the other. Thye had all tried to outdo each other in creating useful yet attractive items for display.

The children were reluctant to let go. We spent a couple of days discussing the merits of the unit. Finally, the concept of the Central Idea hit the children. "Our personal choices can change our environment". The dawning of wisdom was a sight to behold. The magnitude of the action of one 9 year old in OIS in Hyderabad could affect the world by his or her coice of waste disposal in larger context had the children making resolutions and making changes in their thinking and action. They have egged us teachers on to bringing our own cups for coffee rather than use a disposal one! Some of them have had compost pits dug up in their homes. Thye want to reduce their consumption of stationery and what they save to be sent to "Aashirwaad", used clothers, books, shoes, etc in good condition, to be collected for donation. They are looking at waste in a different light now - with hawk eyes to its potential for reuse.

Geeta Krishnan, Krishna Sundari,
Shalini Samuel, Abira Mukerjee

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