Freedom, what does it mean?

Freedom is very important to us. Luxury, affluence, ‘picture perfect life’, served to us without freedom is meaningless.

Let me share a short story which talks about the importance of freedom – Once there lived a beautiful princess. She was very fond of birds, every morning a little bird used to come to her palace and sing for her. The princess was very happy to see the lovely bird and listen to its music. The bird visited the palace daily and the princess waited eagerly for its visit every day. She was almost in love with the bird. She wished that the bird should keep company with her all the day.
One day the princess put the bird in a golden cage and served it the best type of food. But the bird felt sad. It did not sing and eat anything. In spite of the best food the bird began to grow weak day by day. It did not sing as before. One day the princess asked the bird the reason for all this. The bird said, “I want to be set free.”

The kind princess set the bird free.

The bird flew happily to its freedom. The next morning the bird was back again with its usual song. The story tells us that even the birds do not want to live in captivity, however well they are fed. This shows us the importance of freedom.

But freedom is not absolute. There are certain limitations to it. We can enjoy our freedom only if it does not infringe upon the rights and freedom of others. For example, freedom to live and settle anywhere in India does not allow us to build our houses on roads.Freedom allows us to develop, grow, and improve to the fullest extent. The limitations are a necessary safeguard for us to enjoy freedom and allow others to enjoy as well. Unlimited freedom is dangerous. It will bring confusion and ruin our freedom.Freedom is the most valuable gift. Without it whatever we do has no meaning. Let us enjoy our freedom.

- A message from Ms. Mahua, Teacher of one of the Best Schools in Bangalore : Ekya School

Ekya Early Years campus @ Kanakapura Road

The Ekya Early Years campus caters to both the Montessori and Kindergarten methods of teaching and learning.

Montessori method of teaching: The teacher acts as a facilitator in the classroom, assists and role models to the children the techniques and skills that are required to work with the Montessori materials.  Their role is to stimulate the child’s learning while allowing the child to explore each level at his/her own pace, thus encouraging individuality and independence in the children.

Kindergarten method of teaching: The role of a kindergarten teacher is to impart learning through instruction time, collaborative learning and the use of worksheets that facilitate significant concepts to the children. Children learn in larger groups and emphasis is laid on formal math, general science and language skills at this age level. Teachers monitor students’ learning with constant facilitation and feedback during the learning process.

At Ekya, the educational experience is focused towards developing a sense of curiosity and inquisitiveness in a child.

Typical day in Kinder

The kinder classroom typically consists of 30 students. The day begins with a morning meeting of greetings, rhymes, calendar activities, sight word revision and prayer time.

In a given week, the children are engaged in different activities both inside and outside the classroom that include gardening, rhymes, stories, art and craft activities, outdoor play and physical development time.

The essential curriculum focuses on language arts, mathematics, science and social studies concepts. Each of these core essentials are covered in all areas of the children’s daily learning.

Importance is given to the arts, both creative and visual for the young children to explore their creative and imaginative minds. A convenient space that is designed as an atelier is an area for children to experiment and create with the various materials made available to them.

Typical day in Montessori

Wishing the teacher and settling into the morning circle time with their peers is the start of the day for the Montessori children. The Montessori classes have an equation of 30:2 typically, the teachers take on different roles during the day and work with groups of children to carry forward the different aspects of the curriculum.

Rhymes, action songs and the morning routine that comprises of calendar activities,sight word revision and weather for the day are covered with the teachers facilitation. After the whole group discussion, the children move onto individual tasks to work with the Montessori materials. The classroom setup is strategically laid out for children to access materials with ease. Depending on the age of the child and the level of challenge that he/she has accomplished, the teacher introduces the next level with a one on one facilitation to the child.

While one group of children work with Montessori materials, another group of children work on a different task as a whole group with the teacher providing instruction and appropriate techniques for children to grasp the concept, especially when teaching letters of the alphabet or numbers. The Montessori classrooms have children working on multiple tasks and is at the same time synchronized with smooth transitions from one task to another and opportunities for learning are taking place for every child at different levels.

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Graphic Organizers @ EKYA

At EKYA Schools, teachers use graphic organizers to help facilitate effective instruction and meaningful learning experiences for students. Students are able to classify ideas and communicate effectively while using these organizers. The student’s ability to identify main ideas, brainstorm, recollect information and illustrate their thoughts and ideas are developed simultaneously with the ongoing learning process. The use of graphic organizers aid in the development of higher order thinking skills like problem-solving and decision making skills.
Using Graphic organizers help students at EKYA, with retention of content, increased comprehension, and critical thinking abilities. Students remember and recollect information better it when it is represented and learned both visually and verbally through these knowledge maps. This results in an improvement across learning content areas and academic grades.

Writing Activities using Graphic Organizers:
In this world of digital technology, where writing practices are almost extinct, we, at EKYA believe that children learn best in environments that support their early writing practices.
Our educators serve as responsible facilitators of this process. They guide students about the formal aspects of writing and help them in building essential writing skills. Offering thoughtful feedback, encouragement, and positive reinforcement at all times, all writing activities are dealt with ease by the teachers.
It is absolutely essential that written language is purposeful and meaningful to our students. At EKYA, a variety of Graphic Organizers are used to fulfil this purpose. Teachers give consistent feedback and encourage self editing of written work. The well planned curriculum helps students in learning the language by guiding them across grades to frame sentences, format content into paragraphs, create monologues and dialogues, write short stories, compose poems and emails, essays, summaries, write book reviews and Biographies.

Ekya School is one of the Best Schools in Bangalore to admit your child for better future.