Garbage Menace

Introduction:
Managing garbage seems to be a ubiquitous problem. Our ad hoc ways of managing ways and inadequate knowledge of the problems that creep because of this are causing irreparable damage to the environment. As tomorrow’s citizens, children have to be made aware of this huge problem so that they become responsible citizens. This article tells the teacher ways in which she can introduce this problem to her students and get them to think about it.

Objective:
1. Students will know how better to manage the waste they produce.
2. Students will learn to empathize with people who strive to keep our roads and cities clean.
3. Students will be more conscious about littering the environment.
4. Students will learn the dangers of an unhealthy environment.

Activity Steps:
Can your students imagine a situation where the municipal workers have decided to go on an indefinite strike protesting against their working conditions? Create a situation that can help them imagine this. It could be a rainy day. The rains have hit the city badly and sewerage system has collapsed. Dirty water is flowing everywhere – on the roads, in the gutters, into the shops and houses. The waste bins are overflowing, and a bad stench engulfs the atmosphere. To worsen the situation, all the municipal workers have declared an indefinite strike. What would the consequence be on our daily lives? The students could write a report/letter to a newspaper, an essay, or even click a picture depicting the situation.

Through this activity, draw the attention of the students to the fact that most often we limit our concern to keeping our immediate surroundings clean. In the process we unload our garbage either on the streets or waste bins located outside our territories. While some of the garbage may be non bio-degradable, a large part could be used as manure. It is a low-cost process which would reduce both the accumulation of garbage in public bins and the unpleasant burden on the municipal worker. Being a municipal worker is a tough job, which entails sweeping roads, collecting garbage, clearing the gutters, sewers, removing the carcasses of dead animals, to name a few. Some of the most common diseases a sweeper is susceptible to are breathing problems, lung diseases, tuberculosis, scabies, and other skin infections, cuts and scratches, bites from insects and rodents, muscular aches and fungus infections. You could begin the discussion by asking them what they think are the difficulties and dangers of being a garbage collector or road sweeper.

What do they think the remedies are? How can the job be made easier? For instance, the broomsticks are so structured that the sweepers have to work in a bent position for hours together. They are never provided with gloves to protect their hands from rotten garbage or pesticides. Face masks are totally unheard of.

What can we do to reduce the misery of these workers?

Devise sustainable ways of using daily waste, especially that which is bio-degradable. The students could be encouraged to make their own compost heap, keep two separate bins in schools, one saying bio-degradable and the other, non-biodegradable. The bio-degradable bin could include paper, bits of cloth, food stuff, fruits and any other object that can be easily decomposed. Initially, the students would require help to prepare the compost beds.
As an additional task, ask the students to find out how the waste gets decomposed to form a natural fertilizer. Though this entire exercise, the students should realize that composting their own waste at home and at school, however little it may be, would make a world of difference for their immediate environment.

Make your own compost heap

• Take a box measuring 2 X 2 feet, and 4 feet high. Such a box would be easily available in any grocery shop.
• Fill the bed with a few pebbles and sticks. Add a layer of sand on the pebbles.
• Fill in the gathered waste up to nine inches and pour some water into it, sprinkle some powdered lime and add a two inch layer of soil on the waste. Repeat to wet the heap regularly.
• After a period of six months, remove the heap from the box.
• Mix it well and put it into another box of similar proportion.
• Continue to wet it regularly for another two or three months.

Your fertilizer is ready. This natural fertilizer could be used as manure for the school garden and the excess could be marketed commercially. The students could even gift the fertilizer to any small farmer.

Make-believe the Potential of your student

Indian classrooms in general tend to be crowded, if not overcrowded! Many Kindergarten classrooms try to provide a small area devoted for children to play. This play area can be a valuable learning resource for young children. This area can be named "home comer" or "role-play area". If space is an issue, move aside a few desks or the teacher's desk to make room for an hour or two.

Children can use this area to play different roles. A few (as shown in the boxes) situations that could be played include

A. a restaurant
B. a doctor’s clinic
C. a shoe shop

A. A Restaurant


Someone in a hurry who wants something to eat quickly, consults the waiter as to what is available and which food item could be made quickly.
A customer who complains about the food.


B. A Doctor’s Clinic

Ask one child to play a difficult patient who cannot come for an appointment and wishes the receptionist (played by another student) to give her special attention
A worried mother who wants a doctor to visit her ill child.

C. A Shoeshop

A customer who wants special pair of shoes to match a grand dress.
A customer wishing to return a pair of shoes because they don’t fit.

Each of these offers a different set of learning opportunities. The doctor’s clinic would include a reception desk and telephone to encourage discussion, giving clear and simple explanations and providing reasons for actions. Record-keeping and appointment books allow children to practice their writing skills.
Role-play areas do not always have to represent familiar places. Places that take children back in time, such as palaces, give them a sense of the past.

Scenes from fairy tales, folk tales and myths, such as Cinderella’s kitchen or the abode of Shiva and Parvati in the Himalayas or the forest of the Panchatantra tales could extend the children’s speaking and listening skills.

The question of the teacher’s intervention of supervision of the home-corner is tricky. Children tend to be shy and inhibited in the presence of adults. It would be worthwhile to allow them to play on their own for a while. There are times, however, when the teacher can benefit the children’s learning by entering into their imaginary world and joining in their play.

Initially, it may be preferable simply to watch the children playing and to make some comments as you pass by. This will help build up their trust so that they will eventually allow you in their play. When and how to intervene constructively, without the children feeling that you are intruding, takes sensitivity and a watchful eye.

Once you join the children at play and adopt a role within their make-believe world, you can vary opportunities and possible outcomes. Those which arise naturally from the children themselves are particularly effective. Children need to feel some ownership of the story and that their contributions are valued.
Remind the children playing roles to treat themselves with the same respect as in real life situations.

With careful thought, many curriculum areas can be visited as part of the whole project, and the work can lead to much class discussion.

Select a story (popular myths, tales, etc.) and create a role-play area on the theme of the story. Plan the project for over a month. As timetables don’t actually permit these activities, it can be conducted over a period of few weeks. Select one story and fashion the role-play area on its theme.

A demonstration with the following story:
The Wicked King
The Lion eats all other inmates of the forest. The animals want to put a stop to the indiscriminate killing—they offer to take turns sending food/prey to the Lion. The day comes when the Rabbit must supply himself as the Lion’s feed.

The Rabbit hatches a simple but effective plan…

Hopping into the Lion’s den, the Rabbit says that there is another Lion poaching in the forest. The enraged Lion demands to meet the interloper. The Rabbit takes the Lion to a well. Assuming its own reflection to be another predator, the Lion jumps into the well to fight, but drowns.

This fairly popular tale offers a variety of situations for role play and cross-curricular activities. Here are some suggestions for cross-curricular activities linked with creating a role-play area on the theme of Forest Kingdom.
All these exchanges will provide opportunities for:

• Sharing opinions and ideas
• Investigating and reporting events
• Sharing feelings
• Listening to others

Geography
Discuss the physical surroundings: Is there a pond or lake in the forest? Are there human settlements nearby? Discuss the necessity of water for life.
Draw a pictorial map of the forest showing the paths the animals use. Keep it in the Forest-role-play area for consultation.

Art
Paint some portraits of the animals and hang it on the walls.

Also draw trees and hills on charts and hang them on the walls to help create the Forest theme.

Language

Create a copy of a newspaper called The Forest Times. The news items could be topics such as the birth of the baby elephant, weather report, etc.
Suggest some suitable books for the Royal Lion, perhaps reading Gandhi can turn him to the path of Ahimsa? This could lead to a discussion about how well animals can read, i.e., the difference between human beings and animals, etc.
Write a book of forest rhymes.

Maths
Maintain a notebook and measure the growth of the plants, the number of leaves, etc.
A deer family of seven members has sent two young deer as the Lion’s feed, how many remain?

Science
Plant some seeds to grow plants for the role-play area. The children can water them. Use mugs, small pots, etc.
Place some plants on the window sill and some in the shade. Once the children notice the difference in the growth of the plants explain photosynthesis using this.

Drama
Ask children to finalize a list of the animals involved and learn to imitate their calls, movements, postures, etc.

Enact the scene where the Rabbit fools the Lion.

Involve children in roles of different animals making a petition to the arrogant Lion to stop killing them—a passionate argument might develop!
A reporter from The Forest Times investigates the death of the Lion. Stage interviews with the Rabbit and the other animals, requesting their opinion.

HCF with Bottle Caps

Introduction: Teaching aids other than chalk and blackboard attract children and extend their attention span so that they are able to grasp basic concepts, especially in Maths. Waste materials that are easily available are very useful in making ideas clearer to children. They also make learning interesting and joyful. For example, one can use bottle-tops of different colours to introduce the concept of factors and to teach HCF, and even LCM. Let's see how we can do this.

Objective: 

• To help children learn by doing

• To make children appreciate the value of maths

• To build confidence in children that maths can be fun to learn

Activity Steps: 

HCF with bottle tops

Teachers of maths often find it difficult to create an interest in the subject in tender minds. This, however, is vital to teaching and to help children understand mathematical concepts. The activity method is perhaps the most effective. If one starts a lesson with an activity, the students not only enjoy the lesson but also understand the concept better.

Session 1

Step 1: Let’s make rectangles

Give each of the children in your class a specific number of bottle tops.Ask them to arrange them in all possible rectangular arrays.The bottle tops should be arranged in rows. Single straight lines, both horizontal and vertical, are also acceptable.Each time a rectangle is formed, the number of rows is a factor of the given number.When it is not possible to arrange the given bottle tops in a rectangular form, shift bottle tops one by one from the end to form a new row.

For example, to find all possible factors of six we follow the steps below:

                     Fig. 1.a shows six bottle tops in a single row. So 1 is a factor of 6.

 Fig.1b shows two rows with 3 tops in each row. A rectangle is formed, so 2 is a factor of 6. The figure that follows has 3 rows with 2 tops in each row. Since a rectangle is formed with three rows, 3 is a factor of 6.


In Fig. 1.d. a rectangle is not formed, so this should be ignored.Figure, 1.e has two bottle tops in first row and one in each of the remaining rows. No rectangle is formed, so 5 is not a factor of 6. The next possible rectangular arrangement is a vertical line with six rows. So 6 is a factor of 6.

Prime or not?
We can also ask the children to check whether a given number is prime or not using this method. The reason is that no rectangular form other than a single horizontal or vertical line is possible for a prime number.

Step 2: The highest common factor (HCF)
Now let us see how to find the HCF of two given integers.Use two sets of bottle tops, each of a different colour, for the two given numbers.Arrange the two sets of bottle tops on either side of a demarcation line: for convenience, we may take the smaller number of bottle tops on the left and the larger on the right.Arrange the bottle tops on the left in a vertical line.Ask the children to justify this arrangement. The reason, as we know, is that HCF is always lesser than or equal to the greatest factor of the smaller number.Now arrange the ones on the right in as many rows as there are on the left. If you are able to arrange these in a rectangle, then the number of rows in the arrangement is the required HCF.If such an arrangement is not possible, change the arrangement on the left to the next possible rectangular arrangement, and then accordingly change the arrangement on the right as well.When both the sides are in a rectangular arrangement with the same number of rows, the number of rows is the HCF.

For example, let us try to find the HCF of two numbers, 6 and 20.In the first step, we arrange 6 bottle tops in a vertical line to the left of the demarcation line (Line of Control!). We now arrange the 20 other bottle tops on the right. We find that we cannot arrange these in a rectangle (Fig. 2.a).So 6 is not the HCF of 6 and 20.


We now change the arrangement on the left to three rows of two bottle tops each.Then we change the arrangement of the 20 bottle tops.Again we find that these do not form a rectangle (Fig. 2.b).The next step is to change the arrangement on the left yet again into two rows of three bottle tops each.Now we find that we can arrange the 20 bottle tops in two rows.Therefore 2 is the HCF of 6 and 20 (Fig. 2.c).In case of three numbers, we use two demarcation lines and three differently coloured sets of bottle tops.

This idea can be extended to teach LCM too, if we spare a little time to think.

Play with Clay....

Working with clay gives children an opportunity to make contact with the earth. It is something that all children can and must do. Playing with clay is a great stress reliever, affordable, and most importantly, fun.

“Prometheus used earth’s clay to make images, small statues of the gods. They were the first fine art, the first copies of reality made for no reason other than to delight.” And Athena breathed life into them as did Parvathi into the clay Ganesh she sculpted. So the stories go. Clay has about it a primordial quality. It was used in the world’s most ancient civilisations, and is our proof today of their very existence – terracotta, earthenware bricks and pots.

Clay work is what all children can and must do. Clay brings together function and form. The mind and hand are working in unison, freed from the inbuilt standards and facile judgment associated with Art with a capital A which has no part in the school curriculum.
The simplest clay form is the ball of clay rounded in the palm with the fingers wrapped around or rolled between the palms. Almost by instinct the thumb is inserted and moulding begins between thumb and fingers supported by the other hand – a pinch bowl emerges. 

No training is required to introduce a second thumb, placing the bowl on the table ensuring that the walls are even. The bowl becomes wider. Two pinch bowls fused together make an interesting hollow egg-like body that can serve as the head of a monster, bird or beast, with head and legs sculpted, moulded or attached separately.
Care should be taken while attaching two clay bodies together. This includes scoring (cutting lines on both the edges to be joined) the edges to be bound, applying slip (clay mixed with water to a liquid consistency) and finally “fastening” the edges such that the two clay bodies merge together into one.

Coils
Coils are exactly what they claim to be – lumps of clay rolled to the required thickness and length. Coils can be made to intertwine effectively for the contours of a hill; rolled around moulds for bangles and adorned with matchstick holes; wound round and fastened from the inside and the outside and on to a flat base to create yet another kind of bowl. Coils rolled around damp newspaper (which make effective moulds) make pillars for model houses that can later be completed with slabs.

Slab work
Slabs, once again, are what their name suggests – sheets of clay made by flattening overlapping coils with the palm or by rolling the clay between two wooden guides so as to maintain uniform thickness. They are also made by simply cutting well kneaded lumps of clay with a wire-like string. Flattened into a slab and propped on to a newspaper or any other mould roughly circular in shape, slabs can be used to create a variety of masks. Ears, eyes and the nose can be carved out with a bit of iron or hacksaw or fastened on to the moulded slab surface to produce protruding or etched features on the mask. 

Ornamentation is the most exciting; necklaces made of conical balls with hollows and lines made with twigs and matchsticks. The mask becomes a playground for the child’s imagination. A hole in the top centre is useful to hang the baked mask on the wall.
Similar slabs can be used to mould a fish form – gills and all. On the slab carve out the outline. Turn the edges of this flat surfaced fish upwards by pinching the sides. Fill the now fish-shaped bowl with newspaper mould and fasten on it another fish-shaped bowl of similar size. Once this basic hollow fish form is ready, adorn the fish with etched out scales. Creative slab surfaces can be made if the slab is flattened on an unusual surface such as sacks or corrugated paper.

Other interesting objects such as elephants, birds, or piggy banks can also be tried by joining two slabs around a newspaper mould and adding the trunk, snout, beak and legs. A slit on the top, cut when the clay is hard completes the piggy bank.
Any local potter will bake the children’s ware. Building a kiln is a project by itself. But even if these can’t be fired, unfired clay can be used. Clay work when baked is permanent. Give children the opportunity to make this contact with earth with clay work.

Love the Nature

Introduction:
Science is a subject that is characterized by gathering information direct or indirect observation and testing this information by different methods. Since teachers are bound to the syllabus and time frame to complete the same, often they choose instructional style which requires no time for preparation and delivery. Though children acquire ‘knowledge’ they don’t learn the ‘application’. This lesson plan is an attempt to connect the ‘realistic’ experiences into ‘learning’.

Objective:
1. To help children connect with things around their immediate environment
2. To help them observe closely so that it increases their understanding of things
3. Children learn to categorize and classify

Activity Steps:

Nature around us
Ask your students to closely observe their own natural environment. They can find out what kind of trees and plants grow around their own house and in their locality, and why (weather conditions, soil types, etc.). They can consult their family members, neighbours, and friends for detailed information. This way, they will interact better with people around them. They can even look at plants in the school premises. Here, they can consult both teachers and the non-teaching staff.

Plant profiles
Let them conduct research on plants they have easy access to. They can find out the following: the botanical name of the plant, its place of origin, what kind of climate is suitable for its growth, and so on (you could add your own points to this list). Children can look up educational resources in the library, such as books related to botany and encyclopaedia – general, geographical and botanical. Ask them to watch channels like Discovery and National Geographic. These may provide useful information in this regard. They could also browse the Internet for relevant information.

Children can now prepare plant profiles. They can draw the diagram of the plant, label it and write detailed and systematic reports about it. These reports can be discussed thoroughly in class. The profiles can then be put up on the classroom wall.

While labeling plants, get creative and introduce languages spoken in the countries to which the plants originally belong.

Ask students to list down five roles that plants play in our lives. For instance, some provide us with food, some decorate our homes, some provide us with material for our clothing, and so on. Now they can classify trees and plants on such basis— ornamental plants, food plants, etc.

Nations in a garden
Conservation of soil is an important aspect of environmental education. Here is an activity for your students to do the same, simultaneously exercising their skills in a few other subjects. The children will first have to create a garden in the school playground and represent the entire globe in it.

Ask the children to carefully study the world map. Now, on a spacious part of the playground, let them mark off the outline of all continents using a stick, referring to the map. Include the islands, too. Then the outlines of the countries should be drawn. This will be an interesting exercise in geography.

The shapes and sizes of the countries will have to be proportionate. So, ask the children to take measurements on the map and calculate the shapes and sizes of the continents and countries appropriately before drawing them. To do this, the children should use logic and mathematical skills.

Now infuse life into the garden. Get some seeds and sow them along the marked-off ridges and the outline of the world map. Organize the class into groups and ask each group to take care of this garden every week – water it, nurture it with fertilizers. This is an excellent exercise in science.  A part of the Socially Useful Productive Work (SUPW) session, Physical Education (PE) class, or the library period could be devoted to this exercise. Imagine how the children will rejoice when they find life sprouting forth and blossoming in several colours in a few days!

Use this activity to teach them about different countries. Begin by telling them abut the original trees and plants of different countries. Here, is a sample list of some original ornamental and food plants from various countries:

Ornamental plants

China
Buddleia, Mexican Orange Blossom, Jasmine, Chinese Lantern, Ice Plant, Wisteria, Azalea, Rhododendron

Africa
Papyrus, Red Hot Poker, Pelargonium, Freesia, Busy Lizzie, Cape Daisy

North America
Evening Primrose, Godenrod, Poached Egg Plant, Michaelmas Diasy, Sunflower, Virginia Creeper, Black-eyed Susan, False Acacia, Water Fern (Azolla), Common Amaranth, Ornamental Currant

Japan
Japanese Maple, Quince, Bleeding Heart, Tiger Lily, Crab Apple

Food plants
India
Okra (Ladies’ Fingers), Aubergine (Brinjal), Spinach, Cucumber, Peppers

Russia / Poland
Cabbage, Beetroot

The Benelux Countries
Carrots, Parsnips, Swede, Turnip

South America
Potato, Tomato

Norway
Berries, Mushrooms

Ask children questions to find out/answer the following:

• Name some food plants that grow in our country and some that grow in other countries.
• Name some foods that are imported.
• What is the environmental impact of transferring plants from one place to another?Plants such as potato, rice, corn, and grains could form a good basis for examining these and other world food issues. Give children the names of some countries and ask them to find out what plants are associated with the religion and culture of those countries.

Miscellaneous activities
In addition, you could do these following activities to develop children’s love for the environment.
Children can plant trees wherever and whenever they can.

There are several movies about nature and the environment. Some of these could be shown to the children, for example, Girish Karnad’s Cheluvi.

Each child in the class could assume the role of a tree or a plant and talk about itself in a two-minute presentation.

The school can organize vanamahotsav in the first week of July. On that day, children could plant trees in the school premises. If there are already a lot of trees and space is limited, they could take care of the plants for that day instead of the gardener and take an oath to water the plants every day.

Organize debates in class. Give the students a few environment related topics, for instance, ‘Whether tribal people should be displaced from their natural habitat and made to join the mainstream?’, or ‘Should we minimize the use of paper?’ Now divide the class into two groups and one group could argue for while the other against the topic.

Students could find out details about environment-related movements such as the Green Revolution, the Chipko Movement, etc.

With a little effort, the children can create a cute little kitchen garden of their own. Plants like bitter gourd, mustard, brinjal, tomato, lime, chilly, fenugreek, and curry leaves are easy to grow. They can consult the gardener in the school and someone in a nursery in the town for primary information and guidance.At the end of all this, you will find your students sharing an intimate relationship with nature.

Cues from the Elections

News about political events can be used by the teacher to improve students’ communication skills, help them increase their vocabulary and learn new words and expressions. Several activities can be thought out using this as a base.
When the elections are around the corner, one can find that the streets are teeming with vehicles and people are holding banners, shouting slogans and campaigning for their respective parties. The newspapers, the radio and television are full of information, flooding people with all the details. Children in school, particularly in classes above the seventh standard, are quite aware of what is going on around them. Shouldn’t we then see how we could use this absorbing event not only to increase the awareness of our pupils to national events, but also for other purposes such as forming concepts, developing skills and acquiring desirable attitudes.
Communication, which includes reading, talking and writing, is an important skill. This can be developed by asking the class or a part of it, to give an account of the Indian electoral system. This would be a purely factual account which would clarify certain important concepts. For example, the meanings of “constituency”, “party manifesto”, “polling stations”, “ballot papers” and other words need to be discussed. The children could be asked to prepare a glossary of these words with their equivalents in the regional language.
Another exercise in language would be to cut out from newspapers withdifferent political views, accounts of a certain event or profiles of a political figure. Ask the children to compare these accounts and pick out the expressions which help to create a certain impression endorsed by each of the newspapers.
A cartoon can be put up on the class notice board. There can be a general discussion on the critical comment made as well as the way it is made. Children can collect advertisements put out by different political parties and identify the words which are persuasive. They can pick out logical flaws and misrepresentation of facts.
Another interesting activity would be to study words and expressions that have come to the fore during election time and to find out where they originated. For example, the word “countdown” has its origin in space technology. Yet another study could focus on the use of the ‘passive voice’ where the action gains precedence over the doer. This is used often in describing the polling of votes.
Pupils could be asked to collect the symbols of all the national parties. One symbol at a time could be put on the board and the children asked to put down in writing all the ideas that occur to them on seeing the symbol. After doing this with a few symbols, a child could read out what he has written and the rest of the class could be asked to guess the symbol.
This exercise could be followed by a discussion on symbols, their appropriateness to a particular group and their importance in a society where the literacy rate is low. Column graphs and pie charts could be made and displayed using the abundant data put out by the media. For example, the number of constituencies in each state, the proportion of new votes in the present poll, the proportion of women voters in various constituencies can be graphically represented.
All these activities should help to inculcate a healthy respect for law, an awareness of one’s responsibility as a future citizen of a democratic state and the importance of vigilance for the survival of democracy.

Language activities - Skills using Newspaper

This is a series of language activities ranging from comprehension and grammar to vocabulary and précis – skills which can be developed using just the newspaper.

Are you a language teacher? And tired of the unchanging routine of teaching from textbooks? Then consider the newspaper your ally, and make arrangements for it to add sparkle to your classrooms on a regular basis.

This can be achieved at a nominal cost in several ways, two of which are:

(1) Make arrangements with a local paper’s circulation manager or distributor to give you, say, 40 unsold copies of Monday’s paper every Tuesday at a reduced rate;

(2) Ask students to bring the Sunday paper from their homes every Monday morning. Children could work in pairs or groups, but it would be ideal if each one had his/her own copy.

The day of the week needs to be settled in advance so that all students can be expected to come prepared. This gives the teacher enough time for lesson preparation too.

Now what do we do with these papers? How do we use them to extend horizons beyond the blinkered confines of texts and tests?

Here are a few ‘starter ideas’ mostly for English teachers (or vernacular teachers with vernacular newspapers).The rest is up to you, the level of your class, and your local situation.

1. Spelling: A prize to the student who spots the maximum number of printer’s devils. Actually, this is a ‘tricky’ but effective way to get kids to pay attention to spelling.

2. Changing tenses: Ask the class to rewrite a report of an event as if it were happening now.

3. Direct/Indirect Speech: Ask your students to rewrite a report about what happened (for example, to a hostage/a prize-winner/a passenger on a bus etc.)as a dialogue with a reporter.

4. Style of writing: Make them change a news item into a composition/short story.

5. Vocabulary Development: Have them underline 5 words on a certain page or in a particular article. Be sure they comprehend the meanings of these words as they are used in the news item. Then ask them to use the words in sentences of their own.

6. Comprehension/Getting the main idea: First, turn off the ceiling fan! Then have students work in pairs or groups to

(a) cut out a wide variety of articles.

(b)label the back of each one ,with a number or letter of the alphabet(once on the back of the article and then the same on the back of the headline),

(c) cut off the headlines,

(d) mix up the headlines and articles and put them in an old envelope,

(e)exchange envelopes and

(f) race to see who can first make correct pairs of the articles and headlines. With further exchanges, this may be repeated two or three times.

7. Identification of Parts of Speech: Have your students underline all the proper nouns in a particular article. You could repeat this exercise when teaching common nouns, adjectives, verbs etc.

8. Proper Sentence: Go through the classified columns and pick out a few from each category. Ask your students to rewrite the ads in full-sentences.

9. A picture Is worth a thousand words: Cut out a cartoon (you could pick a political one for older students and comics for younger ones). Paste or staple it to a sheet of paper and have the children write in a paragraph or two what the drawing conveys.

10. Precis: Get your students to condense a given article to 1/3 of its length.

11. Outlining skills: Make the students outline the main points of a major news item, like the Prime Minister’s speech, a political report or a lengthy account of the World Cup Football Tournament.

12. Persuasive Writing: Cut out ads for two different brands of the same item (T.V’s/refrigerators/long-term deposit banking schemes, etc.) and attach them to a sheet of paper. Using the points mentioned in the ads, ask students to write a paragraph persuading the reader to choose one rather than the other.

13. Letter Writing: Encourage students to write individual or class letters about current events and items of local interest and send them to the editors. If it is a class letter, it is both courteous and correct to send it through the school principal.

As you can see, with a little creativity newspapers can transform your language classes and make even grammar come alive! The students will enjoy the classes and you will too!

Improvements in writing skills of students in classrooms

Some of the ideas that can be implemented in the classroom to be successful in terms of enriching the quality of your students' compositions and their interest and enthusiasm for writing itself.

You have taught the children composition. You have taught them the ground rules, all about organising ideas, developing a paragraph, working with a given outline and so on. You also find that (despite your efforts) in a class of forty, there are may be only 2 or 3 children who turn in beautiful, well thought out, rich-blooded compositions and you wonder at the other children and even begin to have doubts about your own prowess in the classroom. There is nothing “wrong” or unusual with the situation – the children are quite simply “stuck” for content. For example, you give the topic ‘Our Class Picnic’ and after a few desultory lines on where and when they went, a list of the things they ate, the games they played, they give the composition up (literally and metaphorically). They do not go into details of description which are the life of a piece of writing. The content is poor or lacking.

By ‘content’ I mean the details which explain, prove ,illustrate, expand, elaborate, and enlarge upon ideas, thoughts, opinions and/or facts the children may have on a given topic.

The most readily available sources for content are our senses. If you wake the children up to this fact, you will find a qualitative difference in their compositions and you will no longer hear plaintive cries of “Ma’am please give us another topic”, "Ma’am, composition is so-o-o boring”, or “I hate compositions because I never know what to write”. Make the children conscious of the fact that through the day we are seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and feeling. And through the night too, we feel (the warmth of the blanket, the cool breeze from the window, the hot air the fan circulates on summer nights, the sting of mosquitoes, and so much else.)

Most of us (and the children are no exception) take our sense impressions for granted and, more often than not, to such an extent that we are immune to the sense-details of sights, smells, tastes, sounds, and feelings. Given below are a few ideas /exercises which will help the children develop:

• An increased interest in the world around them
• A keener perception in terms of sense-details
• And increase in their descriptive vocabulary
• A storehouse rich in ideas and details from which to draw, depending upon the topics given.
• A completeness in compositions/creative writing work (in that there is no sketchiness/scantiness)
• A fresh and vigorous writing style
• An ability to put down matter pertinent to the given topic (most children get stuck for content and so tend to “pad” compositions with repetition and/or irrelevant matter)
• Readability in the writing (i.e. the composition becomes reader-oriented rather than “get it over and done with")
• An effectiveness in the writing in terms of the choice of words, 'punch’ and/or getting across thoughts, ideas, personal experiences without frustration.
• A confidence in their own abilities.

The first thing to do is to make collages – either five separate ones (one for each of the senses) or one very large one combining all the senses. Use these collages as a teaching aid to your introduction of these sense-detail exercises. If you don’t have the time to make these, divide your class into five groups and get each group to make one collage. You can, of course, always make your own AND ask these groups of children to make theirs.

Your introduction must give the children a well defined key to our sense organs. Even older children tend to “forget” so you have to “remind” them that:

• the EYES acquaint us with colour, dimension, size, shape/form, motion/movement, state/condition e.g. brightness, dullness, etc.
• the EARS distinguish for us one sound from another. We hear (if we care to listen) differences in volume, pitch, and tonal quality.
• the NOSE detects for us the various smells that are around us – ranging from soft delicate smells to dense, pungent odours; from the pleasant to the very unpleasant or even nauseating ones.
• the TONGUE differentiates for us textures and temperatures and of course, tastes from toothpaste to brackish water, from cough syrups to the wood and paint on the pencils we chew; from food to the plastic wrapper we sometimes tear off with our teeth.
• the SKIN distinguishes and help us identify whatever we can touch and feel. Through our skin we can appreciate and/or respond to temperatures, textures, solidity, and liquidity.

Your collages should have pictures showing the wide range of jobs that our senses do.

Exercise 1

Show the children pictures that have discernible “texture” and atmosphere. Your choice of pictures must be wise in that they should give the children a chance to think about the not so obvious answers. For example, a picture of the sea: color and therefore, sight is the most obvious, but there are the sounds of the sea, the “feels”, the smells and indeed, the taste! Get oral sense detail responses to the first three or four pictures and then get them to record their individual responses in their notebooks. They can read out their answers to each other later. If you like, you can make the children work in groups to begin with and then move on to individual work.

Exercise 2

Show the children three or four pictures of “places”. These pictures should range from the proverbial scenery (of mountains and forests, sunsets and beaches, etc) to pictures of market places, railway stations; from roads to rooms (kitchens, bathroom offices, hospitals, etc). Do give them variety so that they can choose. Do remember that not everyone responds to scenic beauty. Tell the children to jot down fifteen sense impressions (each) that they identify with or relate to the picture of their choice from the ones shown to them. You can mount and put the pictures up if they are large enough to be seen by the last row – otherwise pass the picture around. Do the exercise again and ask them for 20 or 25 words each this time. You know the level of your class, so work accordingly (fifteen is a good number to begin with). Let them read out their answers and take down words/phrases they hadn’t thought of that some other child has. Encourage them to spread the sense impressions among sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. They can make columns under these headings on one page per picture if they find it easier to work this way.

Exercise 3

This can be given as homework or as follow-up in class after the above exercise (It is ideal if you have a double period for creative writing/composition). Ask the children to write a descriptive paragraph about the place they wrote their sense impressions of. Tell them that their personal impressions (and the ones shared with and learnt from the rest) are to be used as detailers for the content. You will find the children working quickly and excitedly since they already "have the answer".

Exercise 4

Tell the children that they are going to play a memory game. You will utter a sentence and they have to listen. They then, have to think of only sounds relating to the situation in your sentence. They will record the sounds in sentences till you say “stop writing please”. Who ever has the most noises is the winner.

Your sentence can be – “It is evening and I am sitting and studying for the test tomorrow."

The sentences they write down, based on the possible sounds can be:

The television is blaring ..

My younger brother is playing with his new toy truck – ‘zhoom’.

Mummy has dropped a spoon in the kitchen.

The newspaper Daddy is reading is rustling.

The phone is ringing.

The fan is whirring.

The answers you get will depend on the reach of their vocabulary.Give them examples as guidelines.

Exercise 5

Play snatches of music for them (no songs please). Ask them to imagine a sense or setting to “go” with the music. Tell them to build a story around the music they hear. If you like, you can play the recording while they write in order to inspire them .

Exercise 6

Ask the children to keep their eyes closed (If you feel they might ‘cheat’ ask them to use their hankies to blindfold each other with). Place an object (just pick up things from your handbag etc.) in front of each child that they have to touch and feel. Give them five minutes to do so.They then have to identify the object and write about what they perceived through touch. For example, “I touched something. It was light and I could hold it with just my thumb and forefinger. It made a soft sound when I dropped it on the desk."

Exercise 7

This is good exercise to give the children after they have awakened their senses a bit. They have to write the following sentences on the top of three pages (one sentence per page) –

“If I couldn’t see, I would miss looking at and seeing...”

“If I couldn’t hear, I would miss listening to and hearing ...”

“If I couldn’t smell, I would miss the smells of ....”

Then they would have to proceed to fill up the rest of the pages with things dear to them personally.

Well, these are just some of the ideas that I can be tried and be successful in terms of enriching the quality of the students' compositions and their interest and enthusiasm for writing itself.

Paper consumption

Introduction:
Paper is a by-product of trees and is a useful element in everyday life. It is used in various ways and can also be recycled. These activities will help children learn about the uses of paper, how they can reduce usage and recycle it, and in the process conserve trees.

Objective:
1. Students understand about paper and its uses
2. Students will be more conscious about how they use paper
3. Students will learn that it is better to use recycled paper

Activity Steps:
Paper consumption per person is often considered a reliable index of the standard of living. The higher the standard of living and the greater the nation wealth, the greater the amount of paper used. But that doesn’t mean we encourage unnecessary use of paper. Therefore, our children have to learn to value paper and use it with utmost care. Here are a few activities that could help.

• The amount of paper that is used and thrown away is enormous. Very little thought is given to reusing it in any way. The class could conduct a survey/study of the paper consumption in your school: How much paper is bought? How much of it is used and in what way? Can consumption be cut down?
• Have a brain-storming session in the classroom. Come up with ideas for decreasing paper wastage, for reusing paper that we usually discard without a second thought. Encourage innovative and ingenious thinking. Ask students to submit sketches or models of their designs. You could have a prize or certificate for the most innovative and practical design.
• Ask your students to find out all they can about recycled paper. How is it made? Are there any nearby plants that recycle paper? What are the things that could be successfully made with such paper? What are brown paper, wrapping paper, and greeting cards made from? Are products made from recycled paper available in the market? If not, why not? Is it due to increased costs, lack of equipment, and the know-how or ignorance that such a thing is possible? Is there anything that we, as students, can do about it?
• Help your students organize a campaign to encourage the recycling of paper. Together you can plan an advertising campaign with advertisements for magazines, newspapers, radio, and television. You could also have posters, brochures, door-to-door campaigning, debates and processions. It may not be possible to actually carry out all the above activities, however, these would still be good exercises in the management of finances, principles of advertising, and media planning.

THINK THAT OVER!

One ton of wood-pulp makes over 3 acres of paper. 180 tons would make 1 sq. mile of paper. So 20 million tons of wood-pulp would cover more than 110,000 sq.miles – enough to make a path more than 4 miles wide right round the Earth.

Dangers of use of Plastic - Reduce, Recycle, Reuse

Introduction:


Managing or reducing use of plastic is a major concern to governments all over the world. Since children are exposed to the use of plastic in everyday life, the teacher can talk about how different nations have tackled this problem, and what each child can do , starting from their own homes.

Objective: 

1. Students will learn about the dangers of using plastic 
2. Students will be more environment- conscious 
3. Students will learn to campaign about reuse and recycle plastic in their neighbourhood. 

Activity Steps: 

Earlier people carried their own bags made of cloth or jute to markets. Today we march back with plastic carry-bags from shops. More plastic = more non-biodegradable material. Even as environmental concerns are being voiced, the awareness of how to curtail the manufacture of plastic and limit its role in everyday life is inadequate. To deal with plastic, the three "R"s to remember are:

• Reduce

• Recycle

• Reuse

Reducing the quantity of plastic in our lives would mean buying products with less or no plastic packing at all. The danger to be aware of is that it is becoming ‘natural’ to buy commodities that are elaborately packed, somehow linking quality with packaging. This fallacy could be combated only through awareness of how eco-unfriendly plastic is.Recycling is about processing waste-material into usable raw material for other purposes. This would involve several chemical treatments and processing in specialized plants set up by garbage recycling institutions and municipal authorities. So, the students could begin to “act” in their own homes by separating organic waste and plastic waste into two garbage cans. This would help the municipal authorities immensely.


Reusing plastic would entail reducing the amount of plastic one uses by using already accumulated plastic to the maximum. Finding new uses for abandoned or now defunct plastic is ‘reuse’. This could involve small-scale need-based processing with very little effort. One instance would be supermarkets advocating the reuse of their durable plastic bags. This means, instead of taking home a bag after every shopping spree, one bag would serve several trips. Other active reuses of plastic would be to convert large plastic cans into a garbage bins, smaller containers into cactus holders, or flour-scoopers, or a dust pan. This could be made in a monthly activity. Groups of students could come up with innovative ideas to convert certain forms of plastic into some other useful items.


Talking about civilizations in the pre-plastic days would be interesting. You could talk about how cooking was done in earthen pots, plantain leaves were used for plates, and how gunny bags and jute bags became shopping bags and bags to store food. This discussion will enable students to realize how indispensable we have allowed plastic to become. Knowledge of pre-plastic material will allow for an exploration of viable, non-plastic alternatives. Examples of nations like Malta where drums of various sizes are used as boundary walls, and Africa where toys are made from used cans and bottles would be of interest to students. In societies where reuse and recycling is an economic necessity, every item is seen to have potential for alternative uses.

To heighten students’ awareness, provoke the detective in the child to follow-up on what happens to the garbage that is collected from our homes. At a local level, rag pickers and civic bodies sort out the rubbish, but at the international level, ship loads of non-biodegradable and radioactive waste is dumped by western countries into developing countries and their oceans. Students could collect relevant newspaper clippings and make a presentation in class.


Why avoid plastic? Some facts

• Most plastics are non-biodegradable. They cannot be broken down into simpler, harmless products by the action of living organisms. 
• Most plastics are derived from oil, which is a non-renewable resource. 
• Many plastics are highly inflammable. Hence caution must be exerted in having plastic drapes or covers in areas prone to fire mishaps (say, the kitchen). 
• Cattle, horses, and goats have been known to die of asphyxiation and blockage of the gastro-intestinal system after the consumption of plastic. This is attributed to the obstructive quality of plastic. 
• The evidence of the impenetrability of plastic is seen through clogged gutters. Blockages in sewage drains occur because of plastic covers or cans, which lead to stagnation. 
• When young children have played with used plastic bags by putting them over their heads, the result has been suffocation. In fact, incorporation of holes into bags most likely to come into the hands of children, have been legislated in several countries 

Once you have introduced the children to these facts, ask them to use the information to design posters and signs that can help create awareness in the school and in their neighbourhood.

Magic with Mental Maths

Duration: 
00 hours 10 mins

          Introduction:

Sessions of 10 minutes each, spread across the term.
The activities discussed in this module can be incorporated as part of the math class through the term and serve as excellent warm ups and fillers. Math activities are not to be seen as an unnecessary drain on teaching time but an excellent supplementary exercise to instill basic mathematical skills. Small incentives and appreciation go a long way in encouraging the children.

Objective: 
1. To make use of ‘mental maths’ to consolidate learning of numbers and the four basic operations.
2. To encourage students to do simple mental computations without the help of paper and pencil.
3. To reinforce mathematical concepts, develop skills and encourage collaboration and problem-solving through play.

Activity Steps: 
Session 1:
Odd and even numbers
Duration of the session: 10 minutes

StepsThat’s Odd!This game gets the children to practice identifying odd and even numbers and work on simple addition as well.Step 1:
1. Divide the class into two groups. Name one group ‘Odd’ and the other ‘Even’.
2. Now let the Odd group pick an ‘odd’ number, say ‘5’. The Even group now has to choose a number, the addition of which would give an ‘even’ answer. So if the Odd group has picked ‘5’, the Even group can say ‘5+1 = 6’ or ‘5+5 = 10’.
3. The Odd group now has to take this ‘even’ answer and add a number to get an ‘odd’ answer. So ‘6+3 = 9’ The Even group now takes ‘9’ and tries to get an ‘even’ answer ‘9+1 = 10’ or ‘9+5 = 14’
4. Continue for 10 rounds each.                                                                                                                                                                       

Session 2:
Mental computations
Duration of the session: 10 minutes

Steps

Headstart

This activity helps drill simple operations and make students confident about basic mental calculations before they progress to more complex computations. 
Step 1:
1. The activity can be done individually or in pairs. Ask the students to have pen and paper ready.
2. Give the students a simple set of computation asking them to do the computation mentally and write only the final answer in their books. E.g. Add 3 + 11, do not write the answer, keep it in mind. Now subtract 5 from it. Students can use their fingers to count.
3. Let the students note the answer in their books. Write the correct answer on the board and ask the students to check if their answer is right.
4. Mental computations at this stage can be practiced for addition, subtraction and multiplication. 

Session 3:
Duration of the session: 10 minutes

Steps

Short listing!
This activity helps not only with numbers but also with use of mathematical language.

Step 1:
1. Ask a student to come up and face the class. Give him/her a number which the other students are not aware of.
2. The class now has to guess the number. They may ask as many questions as they like. E.g. Is it divisible by 2? If it is, the students can deduce that the number is an even number. They can further ask is it greater than 10? The child in front can only answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
3. If a student thinks he/she knows the answer they can make a guess. If the answer is right the child scores a point, if it is wrong he/she cannot ask any more questions for that round. The student who scores the most points gets a star for the activity.  

Session 4:
Duration of the session: 10 minutes

Steps

Step 1: Operations

       This game provides further exercise in using the operations.

1. Put a number; say 25, on the board.
2. Ask the children to think of operations with different numbers that give the answer 25. Award points for
suggestions that use more than two operations.
3. As a variation specify which operations the students are to use. For example, if you say 25 with addition and multiplication, the children would have to come up with answers (or questions) such as 2 x 10 + 5 or 6 x 4 + 1…
4. As the students get more confident, they can choose their own numbers to compute.

Session 5:
Musical Numbers

Duration of the session: 10 minutes

Support Material: Number cards and a music player.

Steps

Step 1:
1. Make enough space for the students to move around in a circle, or if this is not possible the students can stand at their desks.
2. Shuffle the number cards and place them in a box. Ask the students to come up and pick a card at random. Now each student has a number.
3. Play the music and let the students move in a circle or continue to stand at their desks. Stop the music and call out number sets at random, e.g. all even numbers between 10 and 15; numbers divisible by 4, multiples of 3 etc. Students whose numbers fall into these categories move out of the circle or sit down at their places.
4. The game continues till a single student is left, who is the winner.

       

Teacher Reference

A little time for activities in a math class can go a long way in not only explaining the concepts but in making them more real, thereby reinforcing them. Games and activities allow students far more practice in math vocabulary and reasoning than a conventional textbook exercise ever can. This happens because activities ensure a multi-sensory involvement and the children pay more attention on carrying out the activity and not on how much work they have to do. Activities also allow introduction of ideas in a more concrete way.
The justifications and arguments that often go against the use of games and activities in class are:

• Activities and games in the classroom are time consuming in terms of preparation.
• They are a drain on the already limited teaching time.
• They are demanding from an organizational point of view.
• They lead to loss of recordable activity produced from more formal activities.

The importance of making activities and games a regular part of a math class are rarely given weight. Games allow students to work above their normal level, as they do not define the academic limits of the work in any way, and children often devise ways of looking at the work in a manner that leads them ahead of their expected achievements. Activities and games do not make students feel that they are doing something that the teacher ‘wants’ and ‘expects’, but rather something they enjoy themselves. They therefore are enthusiastic and think freely about the situation. Activities allow students to ‘talk’ mathematics. The students are made to think and reason on their own. Activities that involve groups and pairs enhance discussions as the students have to verbalize their ideas and the pairing technique provides a more conducive atmosphere for students to participate as they feel confident that there is help from their partners to make decisions or explain. As a group children are always eager to make suggestions, advice and prompt their peers when they are stuck. As activities and games do not define the way in which a problem is to be solved or worked out, they allow students to participate with skill or perception depending on their competence. Students can stay back until they feel confident and it is seen that children who often play quietly for a while suddenly join in and make suggestions. Children also learn and develop their understanding of concepts by watching and listening to their peers. A game situation gives them the freedom to assess the situation without pressure until they feel they have things sorted out and then contribute in a more positive and confident manner.

Multiplication seems tough? Try this Lattice Method...

Introduction: 

In this article, multiplication is taught using the Lattice method. Lattice multiplication is a simple method of multiplying large numbers using a grid. It is equivalent to regular long multiplication, but breaks the multiplication process into smaller steps. The Lattice method was first introduced in Europe in 1202 by Leonardo Fibonacci in his Liber Abaci.

Objective:

1. To introduce students to an algorithm of multiplication, the Lattice method.
2. To teach the students an easy and workable alternative to long multiplication.
3. To enable students to solve multiplication problems that involve more than a single digit.
4. To help students learn to multiply two or more digit numbers in smaller and simpler steps. The students can perform the three steps of multiplication (to multiply, add and carry) separately, thereby avoiding confusion and errors.

Steps:

Lattice multiplication

Lattice, or sieve, multiplication is algorithmically equivalent to long multiplication. It requires the preparation of a lattice (a grid drawn on paper) which guides the calculation and separates all the multiplications from the additions.

Step 1:
Ask the students how they think multiplication is different from simple addition. (Explain that it is actually adding a number to itself a specified number of times. Encourage them to share examples to get a clear idea of the concept.)
Begin by asking them to multiply single digit numbers. After a brief session move on to multiplication of two-digit numbers. Tell them an easy and interesting way of multiplying bigger numbers is the Lattice multiplication.

Step 2:

Use the blackboard to draw and explain what a lattice is.

Ask the students to choose any two-digit numbers to be multiplied. Let’s say that they want to multiply, say 22, by another two-digit number, say 13. The product of the two is actually 286. Let’s see how this can be obtained by the lattice method.



The lattice is drawn on the basis on the number of digits in each number. The first number gives us the number of columns, while the second gives us the number of rows. Since we have two double-digit numbers, we draw a lattice consisting of two rows and two columns.



Write the digits of the first number individually over individual columns, beginning left to right. Each of the two columns now has ‘2’ written over it. Now write the second number,’13’ to the right of the lattice, going top to bottom. So we have ‘1’ beside the first row and ‘3’ beside the second.

We then draw diagonals in each box, as in the figure:



The partial products of the digits are now found out. The ones are put below the diagonal, while the tens are put above it. If the product is a single digit, we write a zero in the tens place. The partial products in the first row will therefore be 1 x 2, and 1 x 2, while those in the second row will be 3 x 2 and 3 x 2. After filling in the partial products, the lattice will look like this.




Now we add the numbers along each diagonal and write them close to where the diagonal ends, as below. Any carry over from a diagonal is taken to the one above it.

Reading the figures from the top let to bottom right, we get the answer: 286!


Step 3



Let’s now find the product of two three-digit numbers, say, 254 and 193. This gives us the answer: 49022! While adding the numbers along the diagonals, we get carry-over. The illustration show these carry-overs (represented in little boxes) taken from one diagonal to the next.

Try the lattice method for yourself!