Field trip to explore aquatic animals of Bay of Bengal

Learning about aquatic animal life of our own region comes into areas of learning i.e Science, animal habitat, and Bangladesh studies. On 12 March, Saturday 2016, 'Earth House Alternative School' planned a field trip to discover 'Bay of Bengal Aquatic animals'. This workshop was organized at 'Bays Galleria' at Red Shift Book Lounge, Radius Centre, Gulshan.

This event was organized to discover Bangladesh's ocean giants: Dolphins, whales, sharks, rays and marine turtles. The hour-long program was tailored towards children.

The event was open to all but most of the participants were foreigners.

Main workshop leader was Elisabeth Fahrni Mansur (Environmental Educator and Director Education and Livelihoods of the Wildlife Conservation Society Bangladesh) with her team members Farhana Akthar and Abdullah Al Masud. There were some English and Bangla books for sale about aquatic animals.

Spring vegetable show and mini master chef competition

Cooking is a development and learning tool adopted by many schools in the world. The best way of learning is by touching, tasting, feeling, smelling, and listening and cooking offers use of all these senses. Children love activities relating to cooking because they can use all their senses.

Our 'Spring vegetable show and mini master chef Plan' was made few days ago, and we decided to add more activities for this evnet. Cooking and baking is part of our curriculum at our school so learning objectives were to teach kids about local and seasonal vegetables, few spices, variety of eggs and then making omelet with these ingredients.

March 3rd, Thursday was not a very bot day but as we arranged all the activities at outdoor, sunlight became uncomfortable after 10 am. Still all kids, few parents and teachers were excited to participate in activities.
In the ground we set up the tables with vegetables, few fruits, different kind of eggs, spices for omelet making, coriander leaves, mint leaves, soy sauce, tomato sauce.

Yearly sports day celebration

Sports day of 'Earth House Alternative School' was being waited for many weeks. There was no doubt that it may be an event full of fun, exciting, challenging and rewarding. 'Earth House' at Kashimpur was the perfect place for celebrating these kind of events.

Why sports or games day?

'Earth House' school strongly believes that sports/games should be included in school curriculum and students should be provided enough time for play/outdoor activities.
Sports and games are the ways of enhancing the children’s mental and physical growth. Sports help them in character building and provides them energy and strength. Sports also eliminate mental exhaustion of the children.

Exercise is also known to relieve stress. Some children experience as much stress, depression, and anxiety as adults do.  Even moderate physical activity has been shown to improve a child’s skill at arithmetic, reading, and memorization.

Visit to birds zoo with early year kids

The grace and beauty of birds give us simple aesthetic pleasure of enjoying. Diversity among their looks, color, their habits simply amazes us. Birds symbolize freedom for many because they fly with such ease. For some, it has spiritual qualities and evokes feelings of peace and tranquility.

Their exquisite plumage and vivacious songs enliven our sense of the magnificence and beauty of the world we share.

 Allah has created the birds, and their aerodynamic is a miracle of Allah.

In Quran, Allah says:
“Do they not see the birds suspended in mid-air up in the sky? Nothing holds them there except Allah. There are certainly signs in that for people who believe.” [Al-Qur’an: Surat An-Nahl (The Bee) – 16:79]

The way that birds comply with the principles of aerodynamics continues to astonish scientists. Using no form of trial and error, they cope with the laws of aerodynamics in the most perfect manner.

Water play on a hot day

Today it was a hot day and perfect time for 'Water Play' activity. Under hot, shining sun, kids enjoyed playing with water. Students were allowed to bring their water guns, and after getting some instructions for safety and precaution, they started playing water games. The ground looked like a battle field where kids were shouting, running and throwing water at each other with their water guns.

Kids throwing water at each other

We know that play is essential for children’s development and it helps children to improve their gross, fine motor, co-ordination and concentration skills.

Importance and learning benefits of water play for kids:

Playing with water fosters learning in all developmental areas. It provides opportunities for children to experiment with math and science concepts, strengthen their physical skills, advance their social and emotional skills, and enhance language development.

An adventurous and learning tour

Learning can be fun when it is integrated with play or leisure activities and creating links with real life situations and 'Earth House at Kashimpur is the place where it happens. Earth House- Kashimpur (Gazipur District) was created few years back "to be a place where learning in natural environment takes place" 

Our Friday 8 May 2015, trip was part of 'Adventure Journey' program for 'Duke of Edinburgh Awards' and as being an award leader, I was excited too.

Earth House- Kashimpur

We left Dhaka at 7.30 am (morning) and reached there at 9.00 am and the first view of the place was enough to refresh our minds and souls. After breakfast we were ready to explore the place and do some educational activities. The first part was to gather the group of our children and ask them to follow teacher's instruction while following safety rules.

Story of a travel and learning- Part 2

Manali (Himachal Pradesh)Tour:

Manali is a hill station nestled in the mountains of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh near the northern end of the Kullu Valley, at an altitude of 2,050 m (6,726 ft) in the Beas River Valley. It is located in the Kullu district, about 270 km (168 mi) north of the state capital, Shimla.

This small town, with a population of 8,096, is the beginning of an ancient trade route to Ladakh and from there over the Karakoram Pass on to Yarkand and Khotan in the Tarim Basin.
It has become a tourist attraction in recent years.

Manali welcomed us in morning 9am with cold breeze

The climate in Manali is cold during winters, and moderately cool during summers. We visited Manali during first week of April, and it was cold there. Weather is very uncertain, as within few minutes, you can feel warm sun light and other few minutes, rain starts with cold wind.

Story of a travel and learning -Part 1

Someone said 'We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment'. We four people traveled for around 15 days in neighbor country 'India' but cannot say for sure 'if we could feel fulfillment (deep inside us) or not',  but I can say for sure that this long trip gave freshness and vigor to our mind and souls.
I would start my post by referring to more quotes:

• “Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” – Gustave Flaubert
• “The use of traveling is to regulate imagination with reality, and instead of thinking of how things may be, see them as they are.” – Samuel Johnson
• “Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” – Seneca

Our travel plan was discussed few months ago, when my husband felt that he needed further medical checkup at Calcutta. We Bangalis frequently visit our neighbor country India to avail medical treatment and our closest and first destination is Calcutta.
I have visited Inida two times before, but it was long ago (once 15 and then about 12 years ago). Both times I could travel Calcutta and Darjeeling. This time our plan was different from the past ones. Our nephew searched online and found a ready made plan (many travel agents offers these kind of plans). It was a twelve days package including travel to Calcutta, Delhi, Agra, Shimla, Manali etc.

Manali (picture taken with a DSLR camera)