Ms. Devika's Class !

‘All we are saying is give peace a chance’- John Lennon

Day 1- 3rd October’12-  Peace is the basic requirement for our existence. Keeping with the spirit of Peace Day and Gandhi Jayanti, the Primary school students kicked off the Joy of Giving Week in the school premises with an assembly on 3^rd October. Early Years students in Nile displayed their own meaning of peaceful existence such as being non-violent, being tolerant, holding moderate views, and celebrating wondrous-life. At Panini the function was compeered by Aditya Sagar and Vaanya Sharma from our class. The event started with a Tabla performance by Chandan from Grade 5, an inspirational song by 2^nd Graders followed by the message of peace and non-violence by the 5^th Graders. We also got to see a unique dance as 3^rdGraders brought to life the Father of the Nation and his famous televised character through Lage Raho Munnabhai’s song on stage. A PowerPoint presentation shared by few students reiterated that if there is peace the world actually becomes a better place to live in. The message sent was very clear and crisp. These are not just lessons for the classroom but lessons for life of immediate relevance, empowering individuals to achieve a just society in which all human rights of all persons are valued and respected.

Day 2- 4^th October’12- The students had the privilege to meet four UN Peacekeepers. They came and interacted with the students and gave them information about the UN and it’s various activities towards peace and conflict resolution. Grade 4 is currently inquiring into the unit ‘Sharing the planet’ and one of the strands of the TD theme talks about peace and conflict resolution, thus they were able to relate to this week as well as today’s interaction. The Primary students have written their peace messages on charts which have been put together to create a peace scroll. This Peace Scroll was presented to the Peacekeepers today and it will be sent to the UN Headquarters in India for display to share our peace messages. 

Lunch was a very exciting event for the students as they had a ‘sit down lunch’ which was organized and served to them by the Middle School students. The middle school students were very hospitable and humble and made us all feel very comfortable and I really appreciate their efforts. The students enjoyed the lunch and also the many stalls outside the lunch hall which were showcasing the local culture, cuisine and traditions of Haryana. There were local dancers and the students merrily joined in the frolic. Goats were tethered to a post and the students were fascinated with them. The didis who work for us in school were dressed in their finery and traditional clothes and were busy making butter and grinding bajra for the ‘Bajre ki roti’ and serving the same to us with spicy chutney. There was a stall selling beautiful anklets, bangles and other traditional accessories. It was difficult to pull the students away from all this excitement.  The entire experience was beautiful and the students spent a happy day in school.

 Day 3- 5^th October’12- The students were asked to bring gifts worth Rs. 50 as presents for the children from a village school. These gifts will be given to them during the festival of Diwali next month. A Giving Tree was placed in the atrium at Panini and the students went down this morning and placed their gifts around the tree. The sheer joy of giving was seen in every child as some of them sacrificed their pocket money to buy the gifts for the village children.