The aim of the pre-primary school, Grassroots, that is launching in Chennai, is to construct a teaching and learning environment in which children and teachers are given opportunities to make decisions, pursue authentic questions and concerns, connect what is known to the unknown, and be successful as they explore, test ideas and discover through play, informal learning activities and projects.
Great importance has been given to the environment by ways of the secure location, green landscapes and well-planned and ventilated spaces conducive to learning and growing. These air-conditioned learning spaces have specially-designed seating arrangements providing optimum focus on each child.
Researchers feel that at the pre–primary-level learning and writing the alphabet and numbers is not of utmost importance. Rather, focus should be on holistic development.
At ‘Grassroots’ emphasis is on:
Fine motor and gross motor coordination
Eye–hand coordination and visuo-motor skills
Communication through listening and speaking skills
Social and emotional development
Basic literacy and arithmetic concepts
logical thinking and metacognition
Children’s minds are storehouses of imagination and spontaneity especially when stimulated by the right choice of toys and educational teaching aids. All this will be achieved through the Vivriti Curriculum specially created by D. Sharanya Anil Bajaj (Ph.D., USA).
What Children Learn
The following three principles, based on research, will be incorporated into the pre-school and formal curricula:
1 Young children develop ideas and concepts that help them understand and make sense of their world. Teachers provide experiences and scaffold the children to build on and extend what they already know.
2 Young children need basic factual knowledge and skills and a foundation of conceptual understanding in mathematics, science and literacy to develop expertise that will enable them to learn. Our curriculum is designed to promote the learning of these basic concepts and skills.
3 Metacognitive skills can help children learn through problem-solving in meaningful ways. Metacognitive skills or learning strategies enable children to reflect, question, predict and hypothesise. These skills foster evaluation and monitoring of their own learning. Teachers will guide children develop these tools that are crucial for learning in all ages.
Grassroots is located at:
Old No. 19, Ethiraj Lane,
Off Commander-in-Chief Road,
(Opp. Shivalaya Building)
Egmore,
Chennai - 600 008.
Phone: +91-44-2825 5969/72008 16345
E-mail: grassroots.chennai@gmail.com
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