July 2017 Newsletter
Brand New Science Corner:
Swabodhini now has a brand new science corner with interesting experiments in store for our students. Ms. Krithi Krishna, an 11th grade student form Boston, USA had come to Chennai for her summer vacations. Wanting to spend her holidays productively, she volunteered at Swabodhini for 10 days and spent fruitful time with the primary students interacting with them and explaining science concepts by performing simple experiments
The topics she covered in the experiments include
She made an attractive chart with several pouches that have individual procedures as guidance for teachers, each explained in detail with different experiments per topic at very basic level. Some of these were even performed by her to the students who responded very well. In addition, she has also provided free science kits that can be used for most of the experiments.
Weekend Fun At Swabodhini:
The Saturdays at Swabodhini was full of fun and excitement for our students.
On 8th July, we had organized a Kid’s Carnival. The day started with an amazing and animated storytelling session by Ms. Malavika Harish Lakshman. This was followed by fun and games.
Ms. Vibha and her two lovely girls had made bracelets, key chains and photo frames for all our students and shared their love. They also painted some really cool and colourful figures on the hands of our students.
The day ended with a small gift from our students to their parents-a colouring made by the students for their moms.
On 19th July, loads of love and laughter was shared when 4 kids from the neighbourhood studying at KC High, Kotturpuram, visited Swabodhini along with dance director & founder of Academy of Modern Dance, Ms. Kokila Hariram. All the children enjoyed dancing with each other & also did some gardening together.
Fund Raising For Swabodhini:
On 15th July, The Inner Wheel Club of Madras Central had invited Swabodhini for the installation of their new President and office bearers for the year 2017-18 at the Cosmopolitan Club. The club generously sponsored for a new speech therapy room at Swabodhini on behalf of Mrs. Nallammai. Our Director, Mrs. Anuradha Mahesh collected the cheque on behalf of Swabodhini.
On 28th July, Mr. Sriramanan and Mr. Rajaraman organized a fund raising concert for NGOs in which Swabodhini was also one of the beneficiaries. Conducted at the Egmore Museum Theatre Hall, “Swarag’s Pon Malai Pozhudu” was a lovely musical night where the singers enthralled the audience with lovely Tamil and Hindi film music. We are very thankful for the stupendous efforts put in by the organizers for conducting this concert and helping us raise funds from the ticket proceeds.
Mobile Shop At Swabodhini:
With the Swayam Shop moving out of school premises, we have now decided to conduct a mobile shop at the school premises. With PTA meeting with the respective class teachers scheduled to happen in the last week of every month, it was decided that the mobile shop will be conducted on the same day of PTA.
This first mobile shop at Swabodhini was a roaring success with parents and staffs making the required purchase from the shop. 23 bills were made and the shop was successfully handled by our students under the able guidance of the trainers.
Shining Stars 2017:
Shining stars is a special talent hunt for supported organizations conducted by Congizant Outreach, the corporate social responsibility arm of CTS, led and sustained by the voluntary efforts of their associates. Every year, Swabodhini participates in this fun filled day where students from various special schools from all over Chennai participate in the events organized by the employees.
This year, our students participated in various events like ball gathering, target bowling, drawing / painting, fancy dress & group dance. It was a fun filled memorable day with lots of laughter and cheer.
Kitchen Upgradation:
Culinary skills training is one of the three streams of vocational training at Swabodhini. Thanks to the generous support of Lennox India Pvt Ltd, we now have a brand new mixie, grinder, induction stove and microwave in our kitchen. The students have started learning how to make dosa and idly batter and the same will be up for captive sale at Swabodhini, freshly prepared by our students.
Academic Updates:
In the month of July, primary students learnt what is food, why do we need food, what are the things we eat, do not eat, the foods we drink, identification and sorting of picture cards and sight words related to raw and cooked food, baked and fried food and healthy-unhealthy foods. Students make use of functional words in word building or creating their own sentences based on the picture clues. Simple stories related to food and health and role plays based on the same were made through story boards for better understanding of concepts.
Pre-vocational students are able to understand and form functional sentences out of given words. They are able to type the same words looking at them on Microsoft word. Number identification is done on mobile phones, calculators and computer keyboards. Money transactions of lower denominations of coins are done for smaller transaction practices. Calendar days of the week, months of the year to understand the concept of yesterday, today and tomorrow are introduced based on the month’s event calendar. Telling time is associated with the daily routines of the class schedule. Inventory stock taking of stationery items like crayons, sketch pens and markers are introduced that help in practical verification and to enable counting practice with training in error checking.
Vocational students are involved in Gardening during afternoon sessions after on the job training in Swayam Shoppe. They check daily attendance of younger classes and monitor in their line formation while climbing up the stairs or into their classes. Responsibilities are given to vocational students in major areas of skill development including attending phone calls, sending messages to staff, procuring stationery items from office admin.
Parent Corner:
With a more focused PTA meetings happening at Swabodhini every month, we wanted to share a few heart waring feedback we received from our parents during the PTA.
Primary Students:
Pre-Voc Students:
Vocational Student:
“We are able to see lot of changes in Andrew, thanks to Swabodhini Management and excellent tem of staff. We assure of our full support and will take care of all the home activities which we are supposed to do from our end.” – Andrew’s parents.