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CONTENTS2
CHIEF EDITOR
Mrs. Megha Anand
SUB-EDITORS
Mrs. Ramadevi Chamarti
Mrs. Shabnam Irfan
Mrs. Sangeetha Arun
LAYOUT DESIGNER
Mrs. Karpagavalli Preetam
Mrs. Tahmina Kharwa
August 2014Volume 3
THE ART OF DANCE 3
AWAKEN THE SPIRIT OF
Nationality 5
BACK TO SCHOOL 6
EXPRESSION IN VERSE 7
LESSONS LEARNT FROM HISTORY
The Second World War 9
VACATION SKATING 12
KGS Times, August 2014 | 2
We invite parents to sharetheir views and experiencesthrough KGS Times. Pleaseemail your write up to thebelow email Id on or beforethe 10th of September forthe next edition.
A THE ART OF DANCEBy Megha Anand
rt is said to mould a
person’s mind and personality.
Bharatanatyam is an ancient classical
Indian dance form originated in the
temples of Tamil Nadu.
It is known for its grace, purity,
tenderness and sculpturesque poses. The
most exciting aspect of Bharatnatyam is
that it possesses the rich mythological
heritage of India.
Shubhaashree Senthil , A KGS student
from Grade 4 was always very keen at
dancing like any other child of her age.
Her mother took the initiative to put her
in Nrityasamarpan dance academy, Dubai
to learn Bharatanatyam when she was
six. Shubhaashree successfully completed
the Junior Diploma part 1 in
Bharatanatyam under the training of Guru
Mrs Kavitha Prasanna. Shubhaashree has
performed in number of events organised
across UAE.... and has bagged trophies
for her contribution to various cultural
festivals organised across UAE.
Her mother loves the positivity it has
brought to her daughter’s life. It has
helped her daughter develop focus and
coordination by keeping both the body
and brain active. As a parent she has
always been concerned about the
increasing obesity in children across UAE
and Bharatnatyam being a highly physical
form of dance helps in conditioning the
body. Dance has also given her daughter
opportunities to perform in stage shows
including the one at Global village which
KGS Times, August 2014 | 3
FULL NAME...
BARIBIE’ S Full name is
BARBARA MILICIENT ROBERTS
which has helped her overcome social
anxiety and stage fright. Children can
learn this important life skill through
dance.
Dancing has also helped her break the
monotony of studying by reducing
academic-related stress. Being an expat,
we often miss our Indian culture and want
our children to acquire them through
some way or the other. India has a
tradition of respect for elders and
especially a teacher. This attitude gets
induced automatically when you are a
Bharatnatyam dancer. Students have to
be humble enough to be willing to
emulate the teacher’s very movement.
Some Important Benefits of dancing:
Physical benefits: Helps tone the body,
improves posture, balance, coordination.
Mental benefits: The art of dance helps
to focus, be creative and disciplined.
Emotional benefits: Dance helps develop
self -confidence and self- esteem in a
stimulating environment. Coordination
benefits: Increases hand-eye
coordination and improves fine motor
skills.
Since last year, dance has been
introduced in Grades 4 and 5 as a part of
the curriculum. KGS offers a plethora of
opportunities to children to develop their
skills in music, dance, drama, sports and
digital learning.
Humility and respect towards the
teacher, the tradition and the art all
comes across in the performance. There
is no doubt that dance is an enhancing
activity for a child’s creative, musical
and artistic development and studies
have shown that there is a strong link
between involvement in the arts and
increased educational achievement.
KGS Times, August 2014 | 4
s India celebrates its 68th Independence Day on 15 August, we asked the KGS
parents to share their views on how they keep the patriotic spark alive in the littleminds....
‘Am planning to take my
children to the Indian
consulate Dubai to
experience the flag
hoisting Ceremony
during the Independence
Day and understand the
significance of the day.’ -
Raji
AWAKEN THE SPIRIT OF Nationality
‘This Independence day I am
planning to involve my
children and introduce them
to the significance of this
day by watching a patriotic
movie. Make them wear
some traditional dresses like
kurta-pyjama for my son
and chudidar for my
daughter. We will also send
'Happy Independence Day'
messages to our relatives
and friends.’ - Shabnam
A‘I am proud to be an
Indian. But being an expat
it is very difficult to make
the little ones understand
the value of independence
and how our great leaders
struggled to gain that. So
we took our daughter to
Rajghat, Theen Moorthi
Bhavan and India Gate
during the summer
vacation. She had a lot of
questions in mind but
after viewing these places
and hearing the stories of
sacrifices she now knows
there were many people
who are the True Heroes
of our Nation.’ - Shiny
KGS Times, August 2014 | 5
What is in name? The word salary comesfrom the latin word sal ..meaning salt. Romansoldiers used to be paid asalarium .. an allowance tobuy salt.
BACK TO SCHOOL
Mohammed Irfan & SangeethaGrade 2 H & KG2 W
s the summer holidays are
close to an end, back-to-school anxiety
will be soaring in most homes. Routines
need to established, books, school bag
have to be bought, schedules need to be
checked and planned accordingly.
Vacation means two things being on a
foreign land. 1st either let the kids go to
India and be carefree so that they can
meet up their olds friends and relatives
including eagerly waiting grandparents
back home. Or else let them be here with
you in Dubai. Its challenging as the kids
have practically nothing much to do here
which means I have to invest lot of time
on them. We decided this time, on the 2nd
option. Unlike every year, we had
Ramadan and vacation starting around
the same time. So managing kid’s
expectations along with getting done with
Apreparations for Ramadan was a
daunting task. However, I did have lots of
fun this vacation as it helped me bond
better with my kids and understand them
too.
It’s going to be hectic for each one of us
once the school reopens. The entire
schedule has to be realigned from that of
vacation wherein, kids had a far too
relaxed schedule.
Few suggestions to help ease the
transition after a long gap of two
months:
Ease “Back to School” stress
Most children panic because of
incomplete holiday homework. Always
plan and help them to complete their
homework at least a couple of days
before the school could re-open.
Fun Time
Plan some fun activities with the family
KGS Times, August 2014 | 6
or with the child alone as school time
approaches. Activities that involve a
little physical exertion are usually best to
dissipate the feelings of stress.
Buddy time
Helping them connect with their class
mates is a good way to distress the
situation.
Breakfast
The old saying “breakfast is the most
important meal of the day” is never more
true than when you’re going to school.
Students are more alert and perform
better in class if they eat a good
breakfast.
Stick checklist
Use poster checklist to get your child into
a smooth morning, after school and
bedtime routines
Sleep –
Studies show that students need at least
8 1/2 hours of sleep each night to feel
rested. Sleep deprivation can lead
children to fall asleep in class and can
make it hard to concentrate in class. So
make our children get enough sleep at
home.
Resources -
Keep all the resources (school’s) in one
place so you don’t have to go off in
search of printer paper, a stapler or a
book you know you saw around here
somewhere. This is all applicable for any
books, supplies, notes, research sources
etc.
EXPRESSION IN VERSEBy -Shabnam Irfan
You can teach a student for a day,but if you enhance his curiosity,then the learning process willcontinue all his life!!!
xpression in Verse for KG2 was
organized at the school, in the month of
June. The teachers practiced and put in a
lot of effort to help their students learn
the poem with proper expressions.
The students recited clearly, distinctly,
and with appropriate and varied pitch
and tone modulation. Every student
participated and was given the
E
KGS Times, August 2014 | 7
LESSONS LEARNT FROM HISTORY
by Rama Devi
THE SECOND WORLD WAR …
“
ll war is a symptom of
man's failure as a thinking animal“ -
John Steinbeck
AUGUST 6th and 9th …The entire world
shook as the two nuclear bombs– the
first of its kind ever used in history, were
dropped as consequences of World War
II, which the Japanese empire was facing
due to its attack on Pearl Harbour on 7
December 1944 – an event that pulled
the United States into the great war.
Coming just two decades after the last
great global conflict, the Second World
War was the most widespread and
deadliest war in history, involving more
than 30 countries and resulting in more
than 50 million military and civilian
deaths (with some estimates as high as
85 million dead).
opportunity to stand on the stage and
recite in a group in front of the audience.
The cheers and praise from the
supervisors was a great encouragement
for the teachers and the students. The
parents were also invited to witness and
motivate their children. It was an
assessment of the co-ordination,
expression and discipline among the
children. The judges were impressed to
listen to the little participants reciting
with full confidence and perfect
pronunciation. To further inspire them the
winning group was announced. The
winners were awarded a certificate of
participation along with a winning trophy
for the class. It was a well-organized show
put up as a combined effort by the
students, teachers and supervisors.
A
KGS Times, August 2014 | 9
World War 2 Atomic Bomb
On August 6 and 9, 1945, the cities of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed
by the first atomic bombs used in warfare.
The first atomic bomb ever to be used in a
military operation was dropped on the
city of Hiroshima, Japan On August 6,
1945 at 8:16:02 a.m. Hiroshima time. The
bomb, affectionately named "Little Boy,"
exploded 1,900 feet above the courtyard
of Shima Hospital, with a force equivalent
to 12,500 tons of TNT. By the end of 1945,
140,00 people had died as a direct result
of the bombing. Within the following five
years, another 60,000 would die of bomb-
related causes.
The second bomb, called "Fat Man,"
exploded over Nagasaki, Japan, at 11:02
a.m. on August 9, 1945. It exploded at
1,650 feet with a force of 22,000 tons of
TNT. 70,000 people lost their lives in
Nagasaki by the end of 1945 due to the
bombing. A total of 140,00 died within
the next five years.
LESSONS FROM THE PAST:
“It is not enough to win a war; it is more
important to organize the peace.”
― Aristotle
NEED FOR RECONSIDERING THE PAST
On 8 July 2014, an escalation of the
Gaza–Israel conflict began when
Israel launched Operation Protective
Edge On 13 July, the Israeli military
reported that more than 1,300 Israeli
air strikes had taken place on Gaza,
while more than 800 rockets had
been fired from Gaza into Israel
According to the Gaza Health
Ministry, 2,016 Gazans have been
killed and 10,196 have been
wounded (80% civilians) 1,976
deaths they documented were
civilians, of whom 698 (35% of all
deaths) were women or children. The
war is ongoing and thousands have
lost lives and many are homeless. It
would take another decade to rebuild
KGS Times, August 2014 | 10
the city and restore life. Thus it is evident
that ‘IT IS EASY TO DESTROY BUT
DIFFICULT TO BUILD.’
WE should learn from our history that
wars
result in human destruction primarily. A
victory is built on the grave of humanity
and loss of mankind. If this continues
there won’t be any one left to enjoy the
so called VICTORY.
It is indeed sad to see thousands of
innocent children of war dying, wounded
and scarred for life.
We need to teach our children the core
values of love, respect and peace so that
we can build a future that is safe and
peaceful, devoid of war. The seeds are
already sown at KGS as children enact
skits and present songs of peace during
assembly lessons. Students at KGS
understand and demonstrate with great
pride the core values of the school,
namely, ‘PRIDE – Perseverance,
Respect, Integrity, Discipline and
Excellence’, in all that they do, for
example, the charity drives, the
environment projects, the SEWA and
SAVE projects.
As parents we need to reinforce this
learning and strengthen the core values
in our children. To quote James Dobson,
“Children are not casual guests in our
home. They have been loaned to us
temporarily for the purpose of loving
them and instilling a foundation of
values on which their future lives will be
built. “
KGS Times, August 2014 | 11
o do something different.
We explored a new city Tirupati the
temple town of Andhra Pradesh during
our holiday visit. Tirupati is known for its
lush greenery, beautiful, mountains and
hot climate.
One day on our trip to the swimming pool
near SV university at around 5:00 AM, we
observed one section of the road blocked.
Children between the ages of 7 and 15
were skating in full speed. They were
around 50 in number. Some of them had
come to take coaching lessons for state
level championships while the rest of
them like us were keen on learning a new
skill during their vacations. In the evening
they all practiced inside the skating rink in
the municipal park. We got an
opportunity to meet wonderful coaches
there. The Skating coach Mr Siva Rajesh
was a young and passionate nationalist
and the children loved him for his jovial
Tand friendly nature. Our children
Anushka, Ananya and Anirudh
were motivated to learn skating. The
teacher arranged for temporary skating
shoes and they took to learning the art of
skating. Every evening around 6:00 p.m.
we would go to the skating rink to
practice skating. When they fell they
would get up and move on, there was no
fear or discomfort. It was really surprising
to see how Anirudh who was just in 2nd
grade pick up how to skate with great
Suchitra Naidu,
Parent - Grade 2B and Grade 4K
Skating Rink, Municipal Park
Tirupti, A.P
KGS Times, August 2014 | 12
agility in just 4 days. I would not be able
to even stand without falling. Ananya who
was in grade 4 started directly with speed
skates and enjoyed moving around in 3-4
days. Anushka who was in grade 6 just
loved any kind of outdoor games. The
teacher kept guiding her and she picked
up speed within a few days. It was
amusing to see how coaches dismantled
the shoes or repaired skates in a jiffy.
Children enjoyed every bit of it.
Children observed the different types of
skates and the techniques involved in
each type .The coach also enlightened us
about the the incredible price ranges of
the skates and some of them would cost
even up to 1.5Lakh or more….which
baffled us all!!!….
This was by far one of the most
memorable and engaging summer
vacation for all of us.
KGS Times, August 2014 | 13
Cool facts about Antarctica...
1. It contains 60-70 % of fresh water on
earth.
2. Single largest mass of ice on earth.