Halloween Celebration!

Halloween @ Sancta Maria was Spook-tacular! We celebrated it on 29^th of October .The excitement began a couple of days before the actual celebration. The children made masks with witch caps and we decorated our pre-primary room with bats, spiders, owls and ghosts, not to forget the black chart papers on the windows for the spooky darkness. On 29^th of October, we had the costume party with children dressed up as pirates, fairies, spiderman, batman, monsters and what not! They went around playing ‘Trick or Treat’ with their teachers. This was followed by listening to Halloween stories told by Ms. Ruchi Arora and Ms. Meena Sharma. The light from ‘Jack-O-Lanterns’ in the dark room gave a perfect setting for the story telling session. Finally, the children decorated their sandwiches with monster faces and relished them. The excitement continued the whole day among studies too!

Come as you aren’t!

Trick or Treat! Give me something to eat.

Give me candy,

Give me cake,

Give me something sweet to take.

Hanging around with friends – having a gh’oul time!

Trick or treat! Smell my feet. Give me something good to eat!

Pirates have a cutting edge!!

Eat, drink and be scary!

I’m too cute to scare!!

It’s Hallo – scream!

Carve out some good times!

Happy Hauntings!

Posted by Shailja and Suzan

Diwali is one of the most important and colourful festivals in India. It is known as the 'festival of lights'. People express their happiness by lighting earthen lamps, 'diyas', decorating the houses, bursting fire crackers and by inviting near and dear ones to their house for a sumptuous feast. The lighting of lamps is a way of paying obeisance to God for attainment of health, wealth ,fame , knowlegde and prosperity.

I was really touched when my Russian colleague, Ms Olga Suri, gifted handmade diyas to all the Sancta Marians.It took her one month to make these diyas. They were beautifully decorated; using glitters ,sequence ,glass, kundans etc. I was curious to know what led her to think about decorating Diyas herself and gifting one to each of us. She said that she wanted to be a part of our happiness in celebrating this beautiful festival of lights.

It was humbling to see a foreigner immerse herself in our culture to such an extent! We too need to think out of the box and create pleasant memories for eachother in giving and in recieveing!!

Good Morning Sir!!!

Good Morning Sir!!!.A thin but piercing voice made me turn around. I looked at the poverty clad face of a little girl-probably a seven year old child. She wore an old, torn but clean uniform. I did not make her anticipating sparkling eyes wait long. With a heartfelt smile I wished her 'Good Morning'. She continued her walk with a big smile which I'll never forget.

This wonderful incident happened when I was waiting to cross the busy road to go to my new school, Sancta Maria International School.

The formal greetings, which I personally feel is a must for character building have become a rare phenomenon (nostalgic) in todays 'hi-tech' schooling. The dignity of 'teachers' in these schools have dipped to the level of just caretaker due to the enormous pressure of the newly 'created' educational culture. In this scenario the children fail miserably to make a distinction between teachers and servants (most of the high class children do have personal 'servants'). Hence they prefer the language of ignorance to formal greetings.

While crossing the road I realized - this stranger, government- school child has grilled my professional ego. If this innocent soul can do that to me, as an educator I must be able to do that. ( It is not going to be an easy task. Here is a character building anecdote - When my senior colleague, in one of my previous schools, “arrested” and wished a 9 grade boy 'good morning', the boy with a disturbing grin wished her back and continued the process by adding 'good morning wall', 'good morning door', 'good morning steps', and went on. One can well imagine the plight of my colleague.)

If we educators understand and realize that a sound character is above any scientific knowledge then there is no room for any more 'nostalgic' past.

Let us educators wake up….let us inculcate… let us initiate… This was the thought came to mind when I got off the bus. While approaching my school gate I saw a school boy waiting for his transport. I wished him 'Good Morning'. He frowned at me and cast his eyes again at the distant horizon for his vehicle. But I was determined. And I am…

India's Pride

We want to take this opportunity to congratulate Ashwini Ponnappa (Student of 3A, at St. Mary's College, Yousufguda, Hyderabad - A part of the same family of Institutions as the Sancta Maria International School) doubles gold winner at the Delhi Commonwealth Games.

I remember...........

I remember, when I was kid in Russia, my mother used to caution and restrict me, before visiting somebody’s house, get together or any public place, not to speak to anyone until she allows, not to argue and not to question her or any adult. And if I don’t behave according to her command, I am going to be punished.

I always sat in a corner and was scared how to manage if someone speaks to me, it made me to stay as an invisible person in the crowd. However, many times people noticed me and spoke to me. My face used to become red with anxiety and I felt uncomfortable to converse and wanted to run away from there. It took long time and many years to overcome those fears.

I still observe this attitude of “am right you are wrong because am big and you are small” in many parents while trying to control their children and their behavior. Yes, it is necessary to keep a tab on your kids, but you should know to what extent. Parents should not restrict their children in such a way that it affects their psychological development. It is very common attitude in parents and elders that regimenting a child will make them learn good manners and make him better person in the society. It actually is a counterproductive, either they will become dumb or they rebel and reject everything you taught them for so long.

We should respect the child as an individual and help him to grow as an able individual. Don’t be lazy to talk to your child, explain and argue with him. You may think that your child is too young and not wise to understand the subject, and therefore it is not necessary for you to talk or explain. But how can your little one learn to understand, if you do not want to teach. There are certain subjects, which parents think is not advisable or parents themselves feel shy to talk to kids, or you may think it is not appropriate time for them to know. You should know how to postpone it for the time being. But please reschedule it and don’t avoid. May be it will take some time for him to understand, but you need to have patience to explain them twice or thrice to make them understand. After the child understands the logic and meaning it will be much easy for you to communicate with him.

Try not to put pressure on the child, and listen to his opinion, talk and negotiate with him. Teach him to think, make decisions, and defend his opinions. Let him make his own choice and it will help him to keep his self-confidence.

Just apply a bit of diplomacy, logic, wisdom and the parental love.

Ms. Olga

Show and Tell – A Time Tested Acivity to Enhance Spoken Skills and Confidence

When Sancta Maria started Show and Tell in all the grades, even the teachers could not have predicted the euphoria it would create among the kids. Ethan of Grade 3 gave an amazingly wonderful head start to the entire programme with his demonstration of electricity conducting lime batteries! As the days followed each child started looking forward to his/her Show and Tell days. Red racing cars, books, craft, pebbles and rocks, excavators, baby dolls in the cradle, childhood memoirs, a fallen tooth, apples, magic ribbons and what not! The excitement continues…………….

This is my excavator. Dig it, dig................ dig it!
Look at the shine on this tiny rock!
Cut it lilke this...... and out comes the flower!

I am going to make a caterpillaar!

Mrs. Shetty and Ruchi

Adora Svitak: What adults can learn from kids