Welcome Back PYP Assembly
To start of the first day of the New Academic Year 2018-2019, all students from Year 1 to Year 6 attended the annual ‘First Day Back Assembly’, where Madam Sandeepa, our PYP Coordinator, refreshes everyone’s minds with the true spirit of the PYP and the joy of being a PYP student at ARIS!
Of course, this Academic Year has to begin with a Birthday song! But a birthday song to who you ask? To ARIS! This year, we celebrate 15 Glorious Years of ARIS and reminisce all the hard work, dedication and collaboration that has gone into making ARIS what we see of it today, and wishing even better for the future! Our hallway is also pasted with a poster that has 15 candles to wish ARIS its 15th Birthday!
Madam Sandeepa started off the assembly by asking the students what they love about ARIS and why they are happy to come to ARIS! Each student had something different to say, from the 5 year olds to the 10 year olds. Some said, that they are happy to come to ARIS because it’s Educational, while others said that they love ARIS because they get to be with friends, and make new friends, and some others said that they love their class and they love learning! Well, that’s PYP to you!
Now, why do they love the PYP? After a little thought, hands started raising with answers like “Because it’s Educational”, “International”, “Passionate”, “Multicultural”, “Adventurous” and a sea of answers! The Year 6 students were called to reflect upon their years in the PYP, and pointed – Educational, International, Multicultural, Learners, and Passionate, as 5 words that best describe the PYP Experience at ARIS. The Chocolate Reward, of course, paid handsomely to their smiles!
But the PYP Pop Quiz, by Madame Sandeepa wasn’t done yet! She asked students to name the 5 Elements of the PYP! 4 students named all 5 correctly – Profiles, Key Concepts, Skills, Attitudes and Knowledge! Each student who named one of the Elements would name the sub-categories, like the IB Learner Profiles, the Key Concepts and so on (with the help of the student body, of course).
As the quiz came to an end, the students were asked to think of the ONE thing, that makes the PYP so distinctly different from anything else! No, not the Units of Inquiry; it’s the Themes! The Trans-disciplinary Themes – Who We Are, Where We Are In Place And Time, How We Express Ourselves, How We Organize Ourselves, How The World Works, Sharing The Planet. The students who named the Themes were also rewarded with Chocolate.
After sufficiently refreshing the PYP Wired Brains in both the Facilitators and the Students, Madam Sandeepa left them with a major task! Just as we all make Birthday wishes for one another, she asked all the students in all homerooms, to make a note to write a wish for ARIS on its 15th Birthday! The most innovative and creative 15 wishes across the whole school will thus go under each candle on the “Happy Birthday” to ARIS Poster! Stay tuned :D
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