Sleep- Why tennis players need it by Dr Sunita Maheshwari

How often do tennis players do 500 rallies, 1000 skips, 200 serves and then come home and watch TV until midnight? And then wake up in 5 hours to begin the routine all over again ?

How often have you 'crashed all day' on a holiday 'making up your sleep'?

Sleep is one of the most under-studied, undervalued. Kids fight it, teenagers feel they don't need it, adults are so busy handling the stresses of life that they don't use it either.is used to help muscles grow.

Anabolic hormones such as growth hormones are secreted preferentially during sleep which help with overall growth. Tennis players need to grow...height for serve, muscle mass for stroke power. So, sleep is of the essence.

Interestingly, children who get enough sleep also find it easier to focus on school work. Their memory tends to be better, they grasp concepts faster. All this for tennis players is essential as they have limited time periods in which to do homework and school work catch up.
Interestingly too much sleep is also hazardous and there appears to be an ideal number of hours of sleep that one needs.

Age Average amount of sleep per day

3-5 years 11-13 hours

5-12 years 9-11 hours

Adolescents 9-10 hours

Adults 7-8 hours

Recent studies in adults, publicised in the medical community, have shown that 7-8 hours of sleep reduces blood pressure. Interestingly people who are sleep deprived take time losing weight..

In children the sleep is even more important - it is during sleep that muscles rest and the bones and muscles grow.Food consumed during the day is converted to protien which helps the muscles grow. Anabolic hormones such are as growth hormones are secreted preferentially during sleep which help with overall growth.

So start puuting your kids( and yourself) to sleep early. You will need to stop TV by 7 pm (you can turn it on once they have slept!!) and change your lifestyle to be able to give them their dinner earlier. If they haven't completed their homework, keep it for the morning.

Don't try to teach them at 10 pm, they will not retain anything and will just land up being sleep deprived leading to further lack of concentration the next morning.

On school nights:

1)Feed your kids dinner early ie by 7-7.30 pm, have them wash their feet and brush their teeth

2) Lights and TV and all noise except soft soothing music off by 8-8.30pm.

3) A nice oil leg message may help in-duce the zzzzzzzzzzz time or a cosy

cuddle in bed!

Contributed by Sunita Maheshwari , a parent of Alisha ( Grade 8) and Adil Kalyanpur ( Grade 5) of Inventure Academy.

Sunita is a US Board certified Pediatric Cardiologist who did her training at Osmania Medical College and then at Yale University in the US. She was the winner of the 'Young Clinician Award' from the American Heart Association and the 'Best Teacher Award' at Yale University.

She was Head of Department at Narayana Hrudayalaya in Bangalore for a decade. She was nominated one of the Top 20 women achievers in medicine in India in 2009

Habitat- as I see it

Recently in our Theme class we learnt about habitat- that it is a place where the living creatures find food and shelter and also safe from their enemies. We also learnt that a home is a small part of the large habitat. My friends and I later made drawings on our favorite habitat and animals found in it. Please find them below

Anuron Datta and Diya Varma

Grade 1A

 

Inventure Academy Choir at `Glorious- Festival of Harmony'

From an inspiring “Lord, make me an Instrument of your Peace”, a prayer of St Francis of Assisi, through the harmony of “We go together” to a frolicsome “Rockin Robin”, 63 tuneful voices from as many smiling singers, captured the hearts of a large audience last Saturday.

The Inventure Chorus made its debut at the 19th Festival of Harmony, on August 21st, 2010, sponsored by “Glorious”, Bangalore’s most celebrated Choral group. Under the baton of Ms Salome Rao and with accompaniment from Sub. Major Ravinder and his pupils at Inventure, on flute, guitar, keyboard and drums, this group of students from Grades 1 to 6 made a huge impact on an audience which celebrates the human voice in a variety of musical forms, year after year. There were participants from many schools and some groups of adults from the city and Hyderabad. Awesome...!

Complete entertainment...! best school choir of the evening...! excellent debut performance... were some of the comments from the audience, who were completely awe-struck by our choir!! A brilliant confident performance, full of spirit; it was hard for people to believe they were onstage in public for the first time.

The energetic dance moves, rock and roll jibes, splits and cart wheels got the audience cheering, screaming and clapping for our students.


Thanks to our talented music teachers, Salome and Ravi, Inventurers have been acclaimed in yet another area of learning and performance. The support of our colleagues, Mrs Meenakshi R, Ms Smith and Ms Priya, Mr Donovan was invaluable. They kept spirits up and indiscipline down! This takes some doing in such a large number of excited, keyed up, animated children!


Those who supported and inspired deserve a mention and a heap of thanks too…


We want to thank Nooraine for all the support, Shaheen and Mallika Ma'am for organizing time for practice, Jagrithi Ma'am and Mrs.Benjamin for the constant guidance and support.

Heartfelt gratitude to all the enthusiastic parents especially to Shikha Rana who stepped in to help us get the kids ready to go on stage.

Want to thank Preet especially for ALL the help in coordinating with the parents, your assistance allowed us to focus more on the music while we could rest assured knowing that you would take care of the rest. BIG thankyou to Varsha for taking care of ticket sales !! Also want to thank the grade teachers and subject teachers for sending the students for choir practices that were held durings their class time.

Last but not the least where would we be without our amazing and talented kids who exceeded all expectations with their phenominal performance. We hope that this is the first of many more such performances in the future!

The Inventure Chorus
Grade 1 Anvita Vishwanath, Mukul Jha, Arushi Menon; Grade 2-Sahil Kuchlous, Amisha Deb,Eshan Tripathi, Rohan Malvi,Manvika Satish, Nikhil Niranjan, Diya Abrol, Anushree Arora, Advaita Dubey, Rosalyn Mathews, Anushka Athreya, Anjali Mallampooty, Taamara Kellappan, Niharika Ghose, Megan George; Grade 3- Sheryl Thomas, Pranav Mishra, Anusha, Ananya Bharadwaj, Varun Bali, Agastya Rana, Yash Podar, Anay Mehta, Mihika Birmiwal, Alina Ahmed, Nikita George, Roshini Senthil Kumar, Aashna Parekh, Sunaina Bose; Grade 4- Sanjana Bakre, Ananya Parthasarathy, Inika Kandwal, Samyukta Rajagopalan, Sadhana Chellapa, Natasha Aji, Rivka Aarons, Armani Vikram, Rohit Rangan, Bharatha Ramaswamy, Maigun Rekhi, Rudri Mehta; Grade 5- Stuti Sen, Aryaman S, Rajshree Mahabalesh, Tanya Thatha, Karan Buntval, Dhruv Bhatia, Anika Desai, Ishi Tripathi, Aditya Narayan, Aryaman Dubey, Riddhi Bhatt, Samhita Ramji; Grade 6- Anirudh Bakre, Nikhil Sharma, Abhay Rao, Soundarya Chellappa, Maya Shenoy, Anarv Mathur, Yun Seohyum.


Soloists: Anvita Vishwanath, Anushree Arorra, Rphit rangan, Ananyya Bharadwaj, karan Buntwal , Anika Desai, Rivka Aarons.

Accompanists: Keya Vishwanath and Abhay Rao (guitar), Dhruv Bhatia (drums), Yun Seohyum (flute), Anarv Mathur (keyboard) and S Ravinder (Base guitar and flute),

Right To Education Act- News Article

INVENTURING- A unique foundation program at Inventure Academy

A new academic session at Inventure Academy does not start with books, uniforms or in classrooms but with Inventuring - a unique foundation program aimed at cementing bonds between teachers and students, making new students comfortable and setting the key note for expectations at Inventure Academy.

Students engage in projects – both single and in groups – and experience first hand, the creative process, thinking-out- of- the- box and being active participants in a team. The hidden agenda is helping students realize their inner potential, making them believe in themselves, understanding ways of true learning and respecting interdependence.

“It is because there is no `One Way’ to get the best out of the children,’’ states Inventure Academy Head of Kindergarten and Primary, Shaheen Shafi, who has been the architect and part of this tradition of Inventuring since inception.

Designed on Howard Gardener’s theory of Multiple Intelligences and Inventure’s core values , the 2010-11 ‘Inventuring’ started with a daily schedule of students participating in four broad categories- Outdoor, Classroom Projects, Choice Time and Golden Time.

During Inventuring, each day started with an outdoor activity, like dance or sports, to kick-start mental and physical agility and facilitating team bonding. This was followed with classroom projects based on exploring Multiple Intelligences (MI) of students.

The classroom projects on multiple intelligences had larger themes like Colors Of Our World, Creative Sparks, Think-a thon under which students were tasks specific to their grades.

In Colors of Our World, students of grade 1 and 2 created pictures using cardboard shapes, grade 3 and 4 created a family using balloons, wool, paint, fabric and cotton. Grades 5 and 6 students created a chandelier using empty bottles, straws and paper cups. Grade 7 and 8 painted their groups to create a “people sculpture” based on a few topics/themes, and grades 9 and 10 had to create an installation based on the topic of the cityscape using the fabrics & card board.

Similarly under creative sparks, each class was divided into groups of five students who made an advertisement either on washing powder, shampoo, dog food, energy drink, tooth-paste and sell it in the most convincing manner to their peers and teachers!

Think-a-thon was equally fun as students in primary section were either asked to make a toy using plastic glasses and straws, make a card game and define its rules and demonstrate how to play, make a 3-D model of a house from a given floor plan.

``The activities of project, were designed to judge their logical thinking, functionality, creativity, variety, co-ordination, rhythm and stage presentation,’’ adds Shaheen.

``It was amazing to see the creative ideas in students and their conviction in presenting it as the best,’’ exclaims Ekta Bhasin a teacher of grade 5B.While students from smaller grades designed telephone, bells, bouncing balls and juice set for Barbie by using only five plastic glasses and straws, the higher grades students designed different phases of a space ship prior to its launch.

Classroom projects were then followed by Choice Time which would give students a choice of activity from options like sketching, climbing wall, mosaic art, gardening or cooking. The aim of having a Choice Time as part of Inventuring is to nurture individuality and give students an opportunity to explore different choices before zeroing in on what they are best at.

The Inventuring day wrapped up with Golden Time- an integral part of learning, where students’ reflected on their day’s learning and sharing related experiences.

`` My project on choosing natural elements to create music during Wild Wide World has changed my view towards my surrounding. I realized that even a few pebbles in a plastic bottle can create a beautiful beat,’’ says new student Aishwarya Hirve, grade 4 summarizing her understanding facilitated by Golden Time.

Curtains came down on Inventuring with a Sleepover for grades 3 and above during which students along with teachers stayed back in school for a night, a once-in-a year event. ``It was sports, bonfire, music, dance and good food on offer. Most of the arrangements were made by our school and it was only fun and activity for us,’’ says Tarang Shah of grade 5 B.

Students and teachers went around the campus, collected wood for the bonfire, and danced around on music, played games. ``While some used mattress provided by school, others got their sleeping bags and chatted till late in the night.

``This is what the aim of Inventuring is, to notice one child amongst many and to look at the world through his eyes,’’ summarizes Shaheen.

Indian Express News Article

The India Week-A Visual Treat of Indian Splendour

Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people,
dispenser of India's destiny.
Thy name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sind,
Gujarat and Maratha,
Of the Dravida and Orissa and Bengal;
It echoes in the hills of the Vindyas and Himalayas,
mingles in the music of Jamuna and Ganges and is
chanted by the waves of the Indian Sea.
They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise.
The saving of all people waits in thy hand,
thou dispenser of India's destiny.
Victory, victory, victory to thee.

Reveberating the meaning of our National Anthem, the Primary section of Inventure Academy celebrated the India Week.Here is a glimpse of the colourful plethora of Indian Culture.

Grade 1A celebrated the unique features of Tamil Nadu.




Grade 1B toured the fields of Punjab:







Karnataka Darshanam with Grade 2A




Delhi Darhsan with Grade 2B

Chatpata chat stalls of Delhi

Grade 3A rolled down the slopes of Himachal


The Himachali Caps

The Apple Orchards

Rajasthani View with Grade 3B


Made by our Learning Lab Students

Indira Gandhi Canal,the boon for Rajashtan

Jai Maharashtra with Grade 4A

Goa, the state of Sun,Sand and Sea-Grade 4Ba href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZgSPKw2aSi_xVG6bBbiaHSUjbWBjWQgHCAsvoXLlapoTzdezHas_A9eFNk0H8wqHYU0ajMyrzjjmrKthjJaM24ous5ozx6_hZEJFkctSZbuKrHxnviYZFK9WzhfSrp_0voSoh7dCQUsRa/s1600-h/20032010089+w.jpg">


Garba with Gujarat-Grade 5A

Nagaland, the land of hills and warriors-Grade5B

Fun with colours

Dyeing is Fun!


Cloth,colour,thread and a little bit of magic gave us a beautiful piece of art.


We never knew that we could tie so well and the result was brilliant!

As part of our activities at the Learning Lab we had Tie and dye as a whole class session for grades 1 through 4 in the month of January. The children diligently tied the cloth with strings – This was till we discovered the joys of rubber bands!! They enjoyed all the water soaking, splashing (accidental of course!) involved. The MOST exciting task though, was to put on their myriad coloured gloves to dip the cloth in the dye. They did this with all the earnestness of a doctor going in for surgery! only to break into giggles at more accidental splashing!! We now have many gorgeous tie and dye material in many hues to show for all the fun work.

Grade I -Students Portfolio

Theme-Based Learning in Grade 1 Theme in Progress - The Plant World A family that eats together stays together! We gather to eat breakfast together. This is how school begins!

Look-Listen-Think-Speak Circle time; time to discuss and share important things. What makes us happy? What makes us sad? Do we know what it means to be kind?

Assessment Time Today, it’s our English Unit Review. We ask many questions that help us learn to listen, understand and express ourselves.

Let the Games Begin! We do 15 minutes of PE Fitness using fun games, and exercises to make us strong and co-ordinated on the Adventure Course or the climbing wall, and then our favourite, a 20 minute fast game of soccer followed by a 5 minute warm down /relaxation exercise.

Math in the Real World As part of our theme we learnt how fruits and vegetables grow. Today in Math we are setting up shop to sell vegetables and fruits. The teacher gives us 50 paise, and 1, 2 & 5 rupee coins. We are very busy, making sales, calculating, writing out bills and keeping track of accounts. I discover I am quite good at handling money. Can’t wait to visit the market with my parents!

Art Attack! Ma’am helps us put final touches to our plant journal covers. I love to write my observations in it.

Learning about our Beautiful Environment We went on a field trip to a nearby farm last Friday. Today, in English, we complete our poems on “The Little Seed”. Later we will go and visit the plants we are growing in our little patch near the football field and record our observations in our journals.

The Journey of a Banana This week, we learnt about the journey of a banana from the farm to the table. We pretended we were monkeys and mimed climbing trees and eating bananas. Today we are exploring how bananas grow. Tomorrow, we’re going to try out a recipe for Banana Split in the dining hall!

Competing is Fun! Today we made teams for the upcoming Tournament of Minds. All the houses will compete with each other to win the trophy… music, dance, art, debates and quizzes, elocution, storytelling, clay modelling… each one of us will get a chance to show what we are best at. Snack time and off we go home. Whew! Lots of work…but school’s fun!