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

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),

Story Of An Alien

This is a story written by me. We were asked to do a creative writing by using the following words- Knock,Wander, Wonder, Knob, Fuzzy and Sparkling. These words were introduced to us in the class as part of the vocabulary enrichment programme.

Amisha Deb
Grade 2 A
Inventure Academy

Samit Basu interacts with Inventure Academy students

Meet Samit Basu, one of the first Indian English writers, who dropped his management course at IIM Ahmedabad to pursue course in broadcasting and documentary University of Westminster, London.

Having written three best selling novels, The Simoqin Prophecies, The Manticore’s Secret, The Unwaba Revelations, Basu now 31, published his first work when he was 23, making him one of India’s youngest authors at the time. He was also declared as India’s most promising `Emerging Indians’ by a survey conducted by IMRB and The Week.

The writer is in the city to launch his fourth novel- Terror of the Titanic- Morningstar Agency Adventure and also visited Inventure Academy to address the students, prior to the launch on Tuesday, 13th July 2010.

``I chose to be a writer because of a complete lack of other skills,’’ chuckles Basu while answering a question from one of the students on the reason for him being a writer.

On a serious note he elaborates, `` There is nothing magical which inspires me to write. Be it writing a script for a movie, a graphic novel or a column in a newspaper, it is something that I love doing and comes to me easily.”

Explaining to students on how to plan a story, he suggests, “ I had read somewhere that every story, real or reel, happens as we all want something and the story ends with us, either being successful in getting it or failing to do so. Design your plot first as that helps a big deal”

Students quizzed him on various topics ranging from the reason why Hitler is one of the most well known personalities from history; influence music has on creative writing and if he could name one of his future characters in graphic novels after Ishaan Pujari, their mischievous classmate!

Summarizing his healthy interaction with Inventure Academy students Basu opines, “There are obviously not many schools in India which encourage a child to think and Inventure Academy is one of them.’’

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

India Shining-Poem

India shining project for Grade 2B
Was a presentation on Delhi & UP
We did the Krishna dance and sold panipuris
Our parents liked the Taj Mahal and the ppt’s.


.... and a few pics clicked by us....




Nikita George
Grade 2B

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

Book Reviews by Arya Mididaddi of Grade 2A

Title: A pirate story
Character: Captain Hook
Setting: An island
Conflict: Once upon a time there was a pirate. He was climbing on the mountains, but then he fell onto a huge palm tree. It was the tallest palm tree in the whole world. He jumped from the palm tree on to his favourite ship and escaped.
Solution: The pirate’s problem was fixed because of the palm tree and the ship. He would have been dead if he had fallen from the mountain to the ground.

Title: A new coat of leaves
Character: Trees, woodcutters, villagers, goats, birds, people and animals.
Setting: A forest
Plot: There was a tree that wasn’t happy with its leaves. It wished for its leaves to change. The next day its wish came true. But its happiness was only for a short while. It kept wishing for different types of leaves and because of this it faced problems. Finally it wished for its old leaves and got them back.
It learnt a lesson that one has to be happy with what one has.

What if I had Super Powers-Poem

If had super powers…
I would use them for a good reason,
I would fly all over the sky,
And the beautiful clouds,
Like a butterfly.

I am wondering if I had wings,
And I could sparkle everything,
I could carry the injured birds,
For a ride because they couldn’t fly.
All over the sky.


I would take my friends up there too,
To see the sky.
What if I could run up there?
I would have races,
And have lots of fun.

I wonder if I could meet TINKER BELL,
My dreams would change a lot.
I would want to make
good use of my super powers
and help and save people.




Nikita George
Grade 2B

Saving the Old Apple Tree-A Book Review

Title: Saving the old apple tree
Characters: Children, adults, Mayor and horses.
Setting: In a town
Plot: Once in a village there was an old apple tree. The people in the village loved the tree. One day the Mayor told the village people, “There is going to be a railway track built. So we need to cut down the apple tree.” At first the adults were concerned but then they thought that the railway track would be useful. The children felt sad that the apple tree would be cut. They decided to move the tree. The adults agreed too and they replanted the apple tree away from the railway track. The new railway track was built.


Neha Suryadevara,
Grade 2 A

A Pirate’s Story-A Book Review

Title: A pirate’s story
Character: Ruddy
Conflict: Once there was a pirate named Ruddy. Ruddy had a ship called Mudder. One day an evil pirate called Jack Sparrow came. One day Ruddy fought with Jack Sparrow. Jack Sparrow ran away. Ruddy kept thinking how to catch Jack Sparrow.
Solution: Ruddy made a machine which could find his enemies. Ruddy found out where Jack Sparrow was hiding. Ruddy put a net and put invisible ink. When Jack Sparrow came he was caught and put in jail.

Nikhileshwar Sen
Grade 2 A

A Pirate’s Story-A Book Review

Title: A pirate’s story
Character: Captain Funnel
Conflict: The pirates knew that the good people were also looking for treasure. They tried to attack the good people but were defeated.
Solution: Good people took away the treasure. Captain Funnel fled.

Yash Podar,
Grade 2 A

A Pirate’s Story- A Book Review

Title: A pirate’s story
Character: Mr. Benti Wolfie (Fatty)
Conflict: Mr. Benti Wolfie, the pirate, anchored his ship on a tiny, low island because he wanted to rest and to look for treasure in the next island. When he was resting the high tide came in. Soon he was floating on water.
Solution: He woke up and he was terrified. He climbed up a tall tree and took a big jump to the top deck of an enormous ship and sailed away.

Agastya Rana,
Grade 2 A

My Favourite Books in the Library

My three favourite books from the library are-

1. Robinson Crusoe (Osborne young reading).
Why I like the book-I like the book because it shows how the life might be on a lonely island.It teaches you that with hard work you can recover life.

2. The mystery of the missing necklace (Enid Blyton)
Why I like the book-I like the book because it has an interesting mystery.The five children explore fun and dangerous places.Enid Blyton is a really good author!

3. A midsummer night’s dream (Shakespeare).
Why I like the book-this book is very nice because it has an interesting pixie,Puck who does a lot of naughty tricks and makes the story funny.



Pranav Mishra
Grade 2-B

Saving the Old Apple Tree-Book Review

Title of the book: Saving the Old Apple Tree.
Characters: Children, the parents and of course the old apple tree.
Setting: Countryside.
Plot: Once there was an old apple tree and all the children loved it. They never imagined that the tree would be cut. They cared for it a lot. But one day, the Mayor of the village told that the tree was in the way of a new railway track. So the tree had to be cut. The children were sad. But they said, “oh! We can take the tree and put it in a nicer place. Then we don’t need to kill it!” So they all did that and they were very happy for saving the apple tree.

Nandita Gupta
Grade 2A

Saving the Old Apple Tree-Book Review

Title of the book: Saving the Old Apple Tree.
Characters: Children, adults and an apple tree.
Setting: Countryside.
Plot: Once upon a time, there was an old apple tree. The brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers would pluck apples and make them into lots of dishes. One day, the Mayor had a letter from the government. It was about the new railway track. It will be put in the centre of the village. However, because the apple tree stands in the way, it must be cut. The kids in the village were very unhappy. The adults were only interested in cutting down the apple tree. The kids said, “we will dig the roots and replant the apple tree.” They started replanting with the help of the adults. Then the apple tree was planted somewhere in the village and the apple tree is still there

Saloni Dalal
Grade 2A

A new coat of leaves-Book Review

Title of the book: A new coat of leaves.
Characters: Cedar tree, woodcutters, animals and people.
Setting: In a magical place at the side of a lake on the edge of a quiet, green forest.
Plot: There was a cedar tree, but the tree was not happy. The cedar tree wished for coats of leaves like golden leaves, green leaves and feather leaves. All the leaves blew away or got plucked.
Then the tree learned that you should always be happy with what you are.

Sunaina Bose
Grade 2A

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.

Fun in the Flow Room

Revelling in the joy of creating new forms and structures.




We enjoy creating things together-It's so much fun.


Reading is so much fun.


Creating Rhythm by trial and error-we call this music!!!


Zooming away in the Hoola Hoop

This poem is close to our heart.

“Beat of a Different Marcher”

by Debbie Silver & Monte Selby

Bobby marches to the beat of his different drummers
Jeffrey does his reading, but he can’t do numbers
Shawna’s up and talkin’90 miles an hour, again
Can’t find his book or pencil, that would be Ben,
…………………………
Little Amy’s a challenge; Martin’s a dream
We’ve seen them all, they all need to be seen.

All children in Flow when we find their rhythm-
The step, the dance, the song within them
That’s a better journey, but so much harder
Too extraordinary, but so much smarter
To drum to the beat of each different marcher.