January 2006

A monthly e-zine of the British Institute of Sathya Sai Education  www.ssehv.org.uk

Welcome to the January 2006 issue of our monthly e-zine.

This month, we provide a particular emphasis on human values lesson plans:

• First Human Values Holiday School in Muscat, Oman
• Classroom Experiences of Teaching SSEHV
• Lesson Plans online
• Training Update
• Lesson plan for nursery level: TRUTH

If you have any feedback about this newsletter, or would like to share your experiences of SSEHV, please write to us.

Kind Regards,
The Newsletter Team

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First Human Values Holiday School in Muscat, Oman

Vijay Ramanaidoo, who emigrated to Oman from the UK not long ago, is continuing to foster human values in his new local environment. Vijay was one of the pioneers of SSEHV holiday schools which first took place in London several years ago. Vijay writes: "After successful summer camps in the UK, we have tried it out in Oman! The first winter camp on human values was held in Muscat, Oman from 21st to 25th Jan 2006."

We reprint below an article about the holiday school which appeared in the Times of Oman Online.

MUSCAT — Holidays are always welcomed by both children and adults alike but having fun and spending time in an effective way during these leisure hours will keep the children occupied and boredom at bay. Holiday camps based on human values have been held in many places around the world especially in the UK in recent years. These camps are a great way of teaching human values to children combining education with entertainment in a big way.

After a series of successful presentations by the Serve And Inspire (SAI) Group to the teachers, school owners and Ministry of Education officials, the programme on human values will be directly taken to the children through this value-based, fun-filled winter camp to be held in cooperation with the Ministry of Education exclusively for the students of Ahmed bin Majid Private School from January 21 to 25. Children between the ages of eight and 11 studying in the Ahmed bin Majid Private School will be allowed to register for this camp to be run exclusively by committed volunteers trained in the Education in Human Values programme in the Institutes of Sathya Sai Education in Human Values (SSEHV) in Thailand, the UK and India. What makes the camp unique is that it is absolutely free of charge for all the children. The idea is to encourage children to have fun while experiencing human values teaching.

The programme will begin at 8am and goes up to 1.30pm every day and will include lesson plans revolving around human values, creative activities, value sports, performing arts and presentations to drive home the human values of truth, love, peace, right conduct and non violence in an interesting and memorable way. All the children will be given a certificate of participation.

The valedictory function will be held on Wednesday, January 25, between 7.30pm and 9pm, on the school premise. There will be a variety programme of skits, pantomime, and choral songs by the children who have participated in the five-day winter camp

The SAI Group had in the past conducted many workshops and seminars for school teachers, parents and administrators on value education, citizenship education in various schools in Muscat, Salalah and Dubai.

The highly successful Times of Oman open essay-writing and poster-making competition for all school children under the theme ‘Spreading the Light Through Human Values’ organised by the SAI Group in cooperation with the Ministry of Education is into its fourth year now and is an annual event looked forward by the student community in Oman.

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Classroom Experiences of Teaching SSEHV

by Subita Mahtani

The lesson plan used by Subita and fellow volunteers is provided in this newsletter below (see:Lesson plan for nursery level: TRUTH).

On 17th January, Subita Mahtani, Rita Pohoomal and Jyoti Bharwani gave some SSEHV demonstration classes to the Nursery Groups (age four) in one of their local schools. Subita writes:

"We started with three of the five classes with a lesson on Truth. We were given 30 minutes with each class and were able to go through each teaching component leaving them with the activity introduced for them to complete with their own teacher. The experience was elevating and has left us all eager to go back and complete Lesson 1 with the other two classes.

During each class a teacher was with us, supervising our lesson and the children. They took notes and were very enthusiastic about our return. The teachers commented that the lesson was well planned and very clear. They themselves enjoyed the lesson and remarked that the children did as well.

The classes are divided into groups of 16-20 students and are referred to as Penguins, Giraffes and Zebras, they were enthusiastic and excited at the prospect of different teachers. They answered our questions with intelligent, imaginative and adorable replies. We did a guided visualisation, an imaginary walk to the park, which they followed attentively and suggested at the end that we should have stopped for ice cream.....so we will definitely work that into the silent sitting next lesson.

The story was received well and they were able to answer the questions which lead into them sharing with us their understanding of the repercussions of not telling the truth. The song was what we found to be most challenging as they cannot read. We began by telling them the lines one at a time and asked them to repeat them. They did a wonderful job and by the end they were singing the words to the song. One student even recognised the tune from its original song. As we handed out the activity we went over all the posters we had put up and did a recap of the class. They were all able to repeat the quote loud and clear and could remember why the value of Truth was represented by the apple. They understood that Truth was one of the five Human Values and that we would be learning about Love next week.

Teaching at the school was an experience to remember. We are looking forward to our next time there and hope to be invited back to teach the older children."

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Lessons Plans Online

A reminder to all our readers and any teachers looking to use human values lesson plans in the classroom, in addition to the Teaching Workbooks provided by the British Institute of Sathya Sai Education, we also provide 23 downloadable lesson plans on our website. The lesson plans are available at the following link, and cover the following values:

To visit the download page click here.

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Lesson Plan For Nursery Level: TRUTH

Below is a sample lesson plan which may be used to stimulate understanding of the value of truth at nursery level.

Value: Truth Lesson 1
Telling the truth
Nursery class

Objective: To stimulate awareness of the importance of telling the truth

Key words: truth, lies, damage, believe, happy, human values

________________________________________________________________________

Quotation/theme for the week:

Always tell the truth

Silent Sitting:

Step 1: Sit in a comfortable position (on a chair or crossed legged on the floor)
Step 2: Relax your body, stretch out all the tension, feel your whole body relax and be at
ease. Think happy thoughts.
Step 3: Take in a deep breath, letting out all the tiredness and worry, breathing in all the
goodness and love. Keep breathing deeply. Now more gently listen to the stillness
of your breathes.
Step 4: Imagine you are in the park on a lovely summer day……
The sun is shining and you feel happy……
There is a young boy playing football, he is having lots of fun.
He kicks his ball and it lands just near you in the bush.
You like that ball, it's really nice .
He comes over looking for his ball.
Will you keep the ball, or will you tell the truth……..
You point to the bush….
He is so happy……….You are happy because you told the truth.
Step 5: Now bring your attention back to the classroom. Open your eyes, turn and smile
at the person next to you.

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Story: Tammy's Tummy Ache

"Mummy, I can't go to school today, I've got a tummy ache," said Tammy looking sad, her hand holding her tummy.

"Tammy you had a tummy ache last Monday as well and for such a short time. As soon as I said you could stay off school, it was gone and you wanted to go out and play. Don't you think it will soon go if you go to school?"

"But Mummy, it's worse than last Monday. It is all round here." Tammy rubbed her tummy. "And I won't be able to stand up and read. Why do we have to go to school anyway? Danny doesn't go on Mondays because he always has tummy ache, so his Mum doesn't send him."

"So! You do reading on a Monday then?" replied her Mother, smiling down at her.
"Yes, but if my tummy hurts, I can't read," wailed Tammy.

"Has Danny really got a tummy ache?" asked her Mother.
"No," confessed Tammy, going a bit red in the face.

"Have you got a tummy ache?" asked her Mother gently.

"Not really, Mum. But I don't want to go to school." Tammy looked at her miserably.

"Why?" asked her Mother.

" I don't like reading," Tammy admitted, looking down at her feet.

" Oh! I see, so that's the truth…. Tammy you must always speak the truth. Never tell lies. It is not right," her Mother explained.

"Yes Mummy, if you tell lies, people will find out and they won't believe you, even when you tell the truth afterwards," replied Tammy, a bit brighter.

Questions

1 Did Tammy really have a tummy ache? How do you know?
2 Why didn't she want to go to school on Monday?
3 Did you ever tell a lie? Why did you do it?
4 How did you feel?
5 Why is it wrong to tell lies?
6 Can you tell us of a time when you spoke the truth even though it was difficult?
7 How do you feel when you tell the truth?

________________________________________________________________________

Song
From Track 7, CD1, Title: Human Values

We are learning Human Values
One by one
We are learning to be truthful
To ev'ryone
We will speak truth to each other,
Mother, Father, Sister, Brother
We will never tell a lie
To anyone

Singing i yi yippee, yippee, yi
Singing i yi yippee, yippee, yi
Singing i yi yippee, i yi yippee
I yi yippee, yippee, yi.

Group Activity:

Give each child pictures to colour in.
While colouring, ask the children to think about keeping themselves happy by always telling the truth.

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Training Update: 2006

The following courses are confirmed for the early part of 2006. Please email the named contact next to each, if you would like further information, or to participate.

Foundation Training - Stratford, East London: 11th, 18th, 25th February, 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th March. Contact: Pamela Nash .

Easter Intensive Foundation Course - Broadstairs, Kent: 1st - 6th April. Contact: Pamela Nash .

Parenting Course - Leicester, 5th & 19th March, 2nd & 23rd April, 7th & 21st May. Contact: Michele White .

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