“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. This proverb highlights the importance of playful activities in our life. Most schools arrange for ‘Annual Sports’ once in a year. The purpose is to encourage students to participate in various sports, hone their skills and above all develop a sportsmanship.

Our School has sports event every alternate year.  The Sports event was organised for three days - 27th, 28th and 29th December 18’. But the preparations began from the beginning of December. During the days of the event, the students of grades 7 to 10 performed their assigned duties with responsibility, which facilitated a smooth functioning of the Sports event.

Flags of different colors fluttered all around the ground.  Participation of all the students from Pre-K to Grade 10 was witnessed by our enthusiastic parents. The students were divided into two groups: “Black Eagles” and “Green Parakeets”. Our Sports Event consisted of Games Meet and Athletic Meet. Students from Grade 1 to 10 participated in the Game meet in the morning and the Athletic meet in the evening. The Athletic meet included Smart Walk, fun races for pre-primary students and various competitive races beginning from 40m to 100m and 200m, hurdles and the relay races also. It was fun and a moment of pride to watch our children participate in the races. Winners were awarded certificates for the races and the games. Drills performed by all the Grades and the Mentor’s drill were the show stealers. Tumbling act performed by our tiny tots from the Pre-primary section was the most popular.

On the third day, the programme culminated with parents and teachers’ races. The students were very excited to the see their parents on the tracks.  From day 1 to day 3 the curiosity and the eagerness to know the name of the team who would earn the winning cup was reaching heights. It reached its peak when the winning cup was being announced …………..and was finally taken away by the Black Eagle team. The cup was handed over by our beloved trustee Shri Vinubhai Patel. The Green Parakeets, too, joined the celebration.

This was the time where students showed true spirit of sportsmanship- Purpose achieved!

The teaching learning process at SMIS is student-centric, activity-based and engaging. Our lessons are designed keeping in mind different learning styles and abilities of children. We believe that real education moves beyond textbooks and confines of the classroom. Thus, we lay emphasis on relating knowledge to the world around, on drawing linkages between theoretical knowledge, its practical application and social/emotional significance as well. Children from Grade K2 to G10 learn different elements of the unit ‘Money’. Younger children learn exchange through different denominations and older children learn financial planning, interest calculations etc. The culmination is done through activities where children experience application of the concepts like e.g. ‘tuck Shop’ wherein they decide on products they can sell, make samples of the same using their knowledge of proportion, size and artistic skills, do budgeting, decide on the selling price and then sell the products made by them and earn profit. 
SMIS guides students’ development as critical thinkers, collaborators, creative contributors, problem solvers, multifaceted communicators, and global citizens prepared to face 21st century challenges. Integrated learning helps students to develop a meaningful understanding of the complex associations and influences learning within a topic. A happy by-product of this is project-based learning, it makes learning more interesting and productive for students and teachers. We place emphasis on building connections between different topics and ignite curiosity of a learner. Our little learners of K2 did a project on ‘Adaptation’ last year. Children worked in groups throughout the project. They did some exciting activities like going on field trips, interacting with experts, inquiring, viewing videos etc. Presentation of Learning was done in 3 different forms – a booklet, models & gallery walk. Through this, children not only learn the targeted academic content but also life skills like collaboration, leadership, presentation etc.
 We, at SMIS design our activities keeping students’ need in mind and that helps them to enhance their academics, social/emotional and creative skills. An example of one of such integrations is, the unit of 4 letter words (phonics) and bar graph (math) was planned wherein children were expected to make floor graph first using flash cards of 4 letter words and same thing was represented on paper as pictograph using pictures of same words. After a few such interventions, the mentor led them towards the understanding of Bar graph. 

There is a saying, ‘People don’t take trips, trips take people’. Most of the schools organize school trips. But there is something unique about SMIS trips.      
 
The importance of Educational trips includes giving students the chance to build closer bonds with their classmates, experience new environments and enjoy away from the classroom. When students and teachers are together outside the classroom, new educational environments and experiences are possible. Students may have the opportunity to observe many things that are not available at school, including exotic wildlife, rare plants and maybe even the stars if the Educational trip is to a planetarium. They may be able to connect on more of a personal level without the structure of the normal school day. Students may be able to spend much of the day of the trip in small groups, observing, chatting and learning about each other. Life skills is another objective we wish to achieve so children are ready for various kinds of situations they may face in their life.

SMIS organises trips of mixed grades. This year Grade 1 and 2 visited Sasan Gir. They had built a connection of trip to the major topic of animals and plants, which is always fun when practically experienced. Grade 3 and 4 visited Panchmarhi where there is a huge deciduous forest area along with wide ranges of Satpura mountains. This trip helped to make academic connection with landforms and Indian culture. Another fun filled experience Grades 5 and 6 children had was when they visited ‘Kambre’ in Maharashtra. It was a great learning to spend time in nature while doing activities like tent pitching, cooking, getting to know some wild flora and fauna and so on.  Our eldest group visited ‘Bairagarh’ situated in Uttarakhand which was an adventure trip.

School trips leave a great impact in the mind of the students, where they go without their family, with their friends and mentors, which allow them to rely on themselves and take responsibility and enjoy the activities of the trip.

Such episodic memories created during trips are long lasting and leave a great impact on their mind and heart. 
 
 “Better to see something once than hear about it a thousand times”