1st April, 2014
Water Color painting is a very tricky, beautiful, natural and an unpredicted art form. I first observed water paintings in our school's art room. I found it very pretty and asked our art teacher Deepshri Halve to teach me.
The technique is very simple and easy. No matter what painting you are making you first make the sky using blue color. Water color paintings are always made on hand made paper as the texture is suitable. Hazy strokes are needed to excel this art. I made a scenery. There was a river and around it there were small shrubs as plants. It was challenging at first, but after practice, I finally got a hang of it. I successfully completed one painting. It was a new experience and also I learnt a new skill.
Till next time :)
26 March, 2014
Warli is a tribe living near the Maharashtra and Gujrat border. They have given the world of art a gift, the gift of Warli Art.
This art is traditional and can be traced back to the 2500BC to 3000BC. It is very simple and the main graphic components used in these paintings were circles, squares and triangles. The Warli people saw everyday things and presented it in a very simple way int their paintings. The circles represented the moon and sun and the trees were represented as triangles.
I found this art very beautiful and hence asked my art teacher, Deepshri Ma'am to teach me. She was happy to see me interested in it. She taught me the basic shapes and also taught me to make humans and animals. It is amusing how animals can be made by using just triangles! After finishing learning the basics, I finally decided to make a painting.
I choose the theme 'everyday life'. I drew a tree in between and made people carrying out their everyday business around the tree. There are people deciding to hunt, then there is a mother taking care of her children. One man is playing music and the other people are dancing around him.
It was my first painting and I accept it wasn't that good! But it was a new experience for me and I learnt a new skill. I will make sure that my second painting is better!
Till next time :)
14th February, 2014
We learnt clay modeling today! It was a very messy job but of course it was fun. It was a very new experience for me as I had never done this before.
Me and DP1 girls were involved in the activity. We worked collaboratively in this activity. We were to make a mask using clay. We divided the work between us. Rucha and Bhairavi were moulding the clay and me and Shradha were cutting strips and wetting them to put them on the model.
They clay took a lot of moulding and we had to apply a lot of strips. We took turns and exchanged our roles too. Unfortunately, before the clay could dry I had to leave. But the girls told me that the model was completed successfully.
Till next time :)
23 March, 2014
I had taken a liking in baking from the very beginning. I wanted to share this hobby with my other classmates. So, we planned the activity before hand and decided to meet at my place to conduct the activity. First, we gathered all the ingredients.
1. 50 grams flour
2. 50 grams sugar
3. 50 grams butter
4. baking powder
5. coco powder
6. chocolate syrup
7. 1 egg
8. Add vanilla essence
First, I gave my friends a demo of how it has to be made. First, we sieved the flour, 2 spoon coco powder and half spoon baking powder together. Then, we grinded the sugar. We then beat the egg and then in a container we add egg and butter together. Spoon by spoon we add sugar and mixed it well. We made sure lumps weren't form. After mixing sugar, spoon by spoon flour was added.
This mixture was mixed properly. Chocolate syrup was added as desired. One spoon of vanilla essence was added. The mixture was then baked in a microwave on the power of 450 for 5 minutes. Voila! your cake was ready!
We got in pairs and made the cake. We worked collaboratively in pairs and made 4 cakes in total! And also ate them as soon as they were ready! They were delicious.
Till next time :)
25 March, 2013
It is said some things keep repeating themselves in our lives. For me that would be children and football!
We DP students decided to teach the PYP children football. We had planned the activity before hand. I had taught football before to children so I was confident about what I was going to do.
I took the responsibility of teaching the girls of grade 4 and grade 5.
I organized them and asked them to form a line. Then one by one I asked them to dribble and then kick the ball. After one practice, I concentrated on their performance individually and made sure that they learnt properly. The girls learnt it quickly and did me proud!
Till next time :)
13th March, 2014
Quilling is an art form where strip of paper are folded in a creative way and beautiful designs are made out of it. I saw my art teacher, Deepshri Halve, doing quilling. It looked very interesting to me and hence as a part of my CAS activity, I decided to learn quilling.
You can buy a quilling kit in any stationary store. The kit consists of:
1. Quilling Strips
2. Needle Tool
3. Slotted Tool
4. Glue
First, I had to place the quilling paper in the needle tool. It is a pencil shaped tool which has a gap in its tip where the quilling paper is to be placed. It helps rolling up the strip. After rolling up the strip, the open ended tip is glued. Then, the rolled up strip is pressed differently to give the curled up strip different shapes. I learnt to give the eye shape, heart shape, square shape and the petal shape.
We made various shapes. We then used those shapes to decorate greeting cards. The most challenging part was to decorate the greeting cards because the shapes have to be placed in a proper way to make the greeting cards look alluring. I acquired a new skill that is quilling and I had fun doing it.
Till next time :)
CAS Supervisor: Deepshri Halve
12th February, 2014
We did gardening again today. We have been doing gardening for a quite a while now. And I personally am getting better at it!
Looks like I have achieved a new skill! We got back to the maintenance of the front garden today. I took the responsibility of picking up the dry leaves and the plastic pieces. Turn by turn all the DP students mowed the lawn. I tried again but the mower is to heavy for me to push! I still will try to work with it.
We worked for two hours. By the end we all were drained. But it was all worth it!
Till next time :)
5th February, 2014
This time as our CAS activity we decided to help our PYP teachers and children to organize the 'Talent Hunt Program'. All the DP students sat and divided ourselves into groups and planned what part of the hall which group would decorate. I, Bhairavi and Jaidev (my juniors) took the responsibility of decorating the window side. We used our creativity to decorate the windows. Bhairavi cut cello tape and handed it to me and Jaidev. We stuck the decorative material to the windows and finished our part of the job. We worked together on it and hence our work got over soon. We then helped other groups to finish their job.
We did a pretty good job!
Till next time :)
31st January, 2014
Today as our CAS activity we again got back to gardening. Our aim was to clear a patch of the garden where there was too much growth of leaves.
This time I decided to finally learn how to pull the weed with its root. I, Bhairavi (my junior) and our gardner sat down and I after many tires and tireless practice I accomplished what I wanted to! It took a lot of practice and efforts but I finally did it! I was very happy. Also, in the back garden there is a Aloe Vera planted that I had planted long ago. I had been watering it for very long and now it has fully grown. It feels so good looking something grow under your own love and guidance. Its a satisfying feeling :)
Till next time :)
24 January, 2014
As our CAS activity we are learning gardening. As I have mentioned before, gardening is a new challenge for me. So I am slowly learning the skill that is needed for gardening.
This time we groomed our school's front garden. We removed the weeds from the garden. I still haven't properly learned to pull the weed out from the soil. When I pull, the roots they do not come out which is actually suppose to happen. Our gardner tried to teach me the technique but I still haven't aced it. Hopefully I will learn soon!
We also cleaned the school premises by picking up the plastic pieces and twigs of trees. One new thing we did was mowing the lawn using a lawn mower. The mower was very heavy. That is why I couldn't use it for a long time but I did try!
It was a tiring day! But we enjoyed.
Till next time :)
15th January, 2014
Sports is something that people of all ages enjoy. You can either enjoy by watching them of participating in them. This tine, we enjoyed our schools sports event by helping.
As a part of our CAS activity, we helped the teachers organize the sport events.
It is said "Great acts are made up of small deeds". We contributed our help in little ways to make the sports event a success.
We DP students got the best job we could think of! Yes! we had to help the teachers organize the sports event for the primary children. Oh children! how delightful it is to watch them play! They truly are a bundle of joy! We had to make tracks on the basket ball ground which was pretty hard as the ground was big and one person would start drawing the line from one end and second person from another. So one one end there was me and on the other end was Rucha, my junior. We both worked together and drew the lines on the court. They were not perfectly straight but we did an acceptable job.
After drawing the tracks, our job was to take the participants and make them stand at the start of their respective tracks. The kids did the frog race, running race also skipping race.
Turn by turn we stood at the finish line holding a red ribbon which when crossed first by an participant would be declared as the winner of the race.
We had fun while organizing the event and we also learned a things like working as a team, organizing things and also how to interact better with children. It was fun activity!
Till next time :)
2nd December, 2013
Ho ho ho! Christmas will be here soon and we are super excited! It a time of love, joy and forgiveness. And most importantly it is the time of giving and happiness.
For this christmas we decided to embrace our creative side. So as our CAS activity we decided to raise funds by making and selling greeting cards. All of us DP students were to make 10 cards by ourselves and submit it to our art teacher.
So we all sat down to make the cards. We all planned the activity divided the work amongst us. One group of students cut the chart papers in to perfect rectangles. One group was to decorate the cut up cards. We all worked collaboratively. After we decorated the cards, we sat down to discuss the marketing strategy for the selling of our cards. We ranged the cards from Rs.10 to Rs.50. The decorations took us a lot of time and it really worked up our creative sides. Our teamwork and dedication made it possible for us to complete our targets. Finally, after completing all the cards and after implementing our marketing strategy, we set up all the cards in the Audio Visual room for viewing and pre-booking. Most of our cards we pre-booked by the students and also the teachers. All of us turn by turn by turn sat at the counters and took care of the payments and the booking list. Our activity was a success. During this activity we learned how to work in teams, how to work up marketing strategies and also we brushed up our creative skills. It was a fun activity. We learned a lot and we also were successful in raising funds for the underprivileged children.
Till next time :)
9th November, 2013
Photography is a beautiful art. It is beautiful because it makes it possible to capture life's beautiful moments and also has the capability to take you back in time. Looking back at old photographs is one of my favorite past times. The nostalgia is intense!
Photography is an art which has technical sides too. Skill is needed to capture a perfect picture. Our school invited a trained photographer, Mr. Hemant Dixit, to teach us how we could improve our photography skills. On the first day of our workshop, he showed us some of his photographs and told us how to work with our cameras. He let us wander in our campus and asked us to click 5 photographs.
We took photos of the trees, the sand, the bees everything that would seem appealing to us.
After that we came inside and he viewed our photos and told us how we could improve our pictures. Mostly we goofed up in the contrast and focus. He asked us to click 10 photos as our homework and our first session came to an end.
In the second session, Mr. Dixit made us understand the potential and functions of our cameras. We explored the settings and the modes of our cameras and tried to click photos using those modes.
In the third session we learnt how to take portrait pictures. Mr Dixit told us that it is important for the person whose picture is being taken in an environment in which he/she is comfortable in. Viji Ma'am, our maths teacher, was our model for the photo. We were taught to adjust the camera according to the sunlight. Mr. Dixit in the end gave us some tips to capture perfect photographs. He told us that natural sunlight is an asset and the best photos are captured in the sunlight.
With this session our workshop ended. We learned a lot from this workshop and I hope to improve and develop my skills of photography.
Till next time :)
24 October, 2013
Diwali is widely celebrated in India. It is the festival of lights and also food!
To celebrate the occasion of diwali with our little PYP angels, we decided to teach them to decorate the chariot of light; the diyas.
The children arrived at 11 and we took them to the badminton court and had seated them. We gave every child one diya and and as we had planned, we assigned 1 DP student to a group of three children. As all the groups had been assigned a student, I and one of my junior, Himanshu, were extra, so we went around the groups helping every child we could. We gave them glue and some decorative material and asked the angles to let their creative side wild and free.
They decorated the diya's beautifully. After the activity was finished, we took the children back to the classroom. As their diwali gift, we had made paper lanterns and small paper baskets which contained sweets. They were very happy to see their gifts and they went back home with a wide, brightening smile on their face.
Till the next time :)
6 October, 2013
On the occasion of Diwali, a free medical camp was organized by Nagarjuna Medical Trust.
We DP students offered to volunteered to help the doctors during this camp.
I helped Dr. Sangeeta who is a pediatrician. I and children have a unbreakable bond! I always end up being surrounded by them. It is a boon :)
Many small children came up for the check up. Most of their mothers cribbed how their child was not eating properly. The doctor prescribed some medicines to them and gave them tonic. My work there was to check the height and weight of the patient. Then I took them to the doctor and give them their medicines. Most of the children suffered from iron deficiency and had poor health. Child mortality in India is very high. I feel more camps and more awareness is needed to protect the children. When the parents came for their ward's check up, we told them the proper diet that their child should have and also made them aware about the necessary medications (like polio drops) their child was going to need. It is important to safeguard the future of our country, that is the children of our nation.
Till next time :)
1 October, 2013
Gardening is a hobby for many people. People say that gardening is a source of great delight and happiness. My mother is very fond of gardening. She loves plants and spend her free time taking care and strolling in the garden. I too sometimes like strolling and watering the plants. Its a great work out too. When you are sad or frustrated, gardening is a great way to let it go.
Today in school we did and also learned about gardening. I had never done gardening before. So this was a new challenge for me.The DP students and Vijayalaxmi Ma'am went down to the school garden and removed the weeds. Technique was need to pull out the weeds. We needed to tightly grab the weed from the bottom and pull hard. We almost weeded half of the garden. We worked tirelessly for 2 hours straight. We were tired, sweaty and muddy by the end of the activity. It was a great experience. We got to learn a lot of gardening tips from Ma'am. I hope we get to do it again soon!
Till next time :)
