Grade2 Parent -Teacher Reflections on Field trip to Hyper City

“Learning outside the 4walls of the classroom” – Teacher Reflections

The saying is no doubt the best I have heard in my teaching experience. This all happened during the unit of inquiry “Making balanced choices for a healthy lifestyle”. Children of grade 2 planned a healthy snack and for the follow up activity were taken on a trip to Hyper City. Our young learners came out beyond our expectations. All that is told both at school and home reflected pretty well while they were given the roles of that of an adult. They planned a healthy snack as well as shopped within the budget given to them. Each and every child was so much engrossed in their roles that many a times they had to rethink on the quantity or had to drop out on certain items as they were shopping. This activity taught them how to be responsible, stay within their budget and work in a team as a family.

This clearly shows that for today’s kids sky is the limit and it all depends on the teacher as well as parents to drive them to the thrust.

The 9^th and 10^th November was a day filled with fun and learning for grade 2’s. The learners had been to Hyper city for their field trip in context to their unit of inquiry. The learners had planned their snacks and listed down the items to be purchased. They were grouped according to the color of the food pyramid. Each group had a parent volunteer to support them. They with the help of parents checked the expiry dates and then took the items. They had hands on experience at the billing counter, checked the bill and paid the money. The parents were very interactive and kept the students busy with lots of questions. Tomorrow the learners will be preparing their healthy snack. All are invited to these classes!!

Grade2

Earlier this morning, a very excited and enthusiastic bunch of second graders embarked on a field trip like no ordinary one. They had a mission - a mission to make healthy snacks from scratch. Earlier in the week, they have been talking about the food groups and their importance in our daily diet. It was now time to put that into action.

So, we at off on a beautiful November morning to Hyper city, with a list in hand and spirit in tow.

The teachers divided the kids into colors of the food rainbow. Each colored group of 5 kids was assigned a parent chaperone. We were the orange group. Each of the kids was assigned a specific job. There was a team leader, cashier, guide, a helper and a principled in each group.

Our list was small, but our learning was not. With the help of the chaperone, the team lead us through our mission while the guide and helper carefully navigated the cart through the maze of our little friends.

We picked up the white and wheat breads and talked about their ingredients, why the white was white while the wheat was brown and finally on what the presence of sugar in the top 5 ingredients truly indicates. We also talked about some other types of breads and how to interpret the nutritional chart.

Our next stop was to buy some sprouts for a salad. We observed the various choices available and picked the one with the highest protein content. We also talked briefly about protein and it's significance in our daily lives. In the process of buying sprouts, we observed there was a promotional item attached to the product. We briefly discussed about what it meant and why we were getting something "free". in our shopping experience, we also inculcated some math wherein our "cashier" kept a tally of how much we were spending to the amount at hand.

As the last step, we proceeded to the checkout counter where we patiently waited for our turn and then proceeded to buy our goods.

All in all, it was an awesome real life learning experience for the kids. Thank you grade 2 teachers for organizing the trip and to Shraddha Madam for giving me the opportunity to be a part of it. Specially thanks for my little friends for being such an awesome team.

A morning well spent!

Cheers,

Madhavi Kanugo

M/o Annika Kanugo

First of all I would like to thank Oakridge for organizing this wonderful trip to Hypercity and also for inviting us parents to spend time with the dynamic, energetic group of kids. Their vibrant and peppy 'good morning' greeting made me feel so special as soon as I entered the class. They seemed excited and on their toes all very much ready to explore the grocery store. The teacher then introduced us to our own robust group of students and off we went to our field trip with our very own list of grocery items. The kids were all very clear about the role they would play in the store, thanks to the prior systematic coaching by the class teacher. I was impressed at the fact that they already knew a lot about the food group in question which incidentally was ‘fruits’. We discussed about the different types and the importance of eating the fruits everyday. In the store they stuck to their pre-assigned titles and that made our job very easy and we were able to get all our items in the stipulated time. We even had some extra time to check out some other fruits that they were not very familiar with like figs, lychee, musk melon etc. At the check out counter they learnt about the scanner and the bar coding system. All in all, I am so thankful to Oakridge for letting me spend time and learning from these magnificient and spectacular group of kids. Kudos to class teacher Ms. Lily for making this trip exciting and rewarding. Great job!!! Thank you once again and looking forward to be a part of more such wonderful experiences in future.

Sudha Bhat

(Aayush mom, class 2B)

It was such a pleasure to be a part of the field trip to buy healthy food with the kids! I must admit the kids were so enthusiastic about this uoi and seemed to know quite a bit about healthy choices in life. I was impressed with the kindness and discipline balance that  teachers go forth with while dealing with children. Am sure the  snack making today will also be such a hit with kids!!! Looking forward to more sessions  with a happy lot of kids.Thanks again for inviting me for this funfilled morning.                                               

Warm Regards             
Vandana Agarwal
(Parent 2A)

With the current UOI topic Healthy Lifestyle, I was wondering what would be the hands on activity for the children this month.

When I heard that the kids are going on a shopping trip to Hypercity, I was eager to accompany them. When I entered the class today, I realized they were very well prepared. Each of the five kids in one group had a specific role like a cashier, helper, guide etc. They already had prepared the menu, had a list of ingredients and each group had a budget of their own also.

The 15 min. bus ride from school to Inorbit mall itself was a lot of fun. They were extremely confident shoppers. They made smart choices according to the budget and nutrient content. They learnt to look at Mfg. dates of packaged foods. They even asked for smaller packets or substitute products if they were exceeding their budget. It was amazing to see the children calculating to make sure they stayed within budget. When they had money to spare, in a true show of team spirit, they even shared their money with another group which was running short of money.

This was an excellent field trip to put so many skills they learnt at school into practice. I am sure if the parents take the children out on their next shopping trip, you will have very active helpers. It was so much fun to see the children proudly carrying back their purchases with so much enthusiasm.

I hope they have another fun filled day preparing the snacks!

Regards,

Beena (Arnav's mom 2B)

At the outset when Ms. Prashoba called about being a parent volunteer to accompany children to Inorbit mall for purchasing food items I wasn't too excited. But my time with kids changed the perception. What else would be most important in the world than spending time with kids? I enjoyed every moment and liked the concept of learning about food groups.

I was assigned to Green group with 6 wonderful children. We started off to Inorbit mall in the school bus at about 9.30am. In 20 minutes we reached Inorbit mall and started shopping in Hyper city store.

Our group was assigned task of purchasing 6 different vegetables and learning about the food group. I was excited about showing kids how to make sure they pickup healthy vegetables and weigh them. Once we picked all vegetables we went to check-out counter. Once again kids were lot of help in making sure the amounts were paid correctly and ensuring we had our change back. It's always interesting to see how these shops sell plastic bags while government is trying to push them going green. Why not sell paper bags instead of plastic? We as a group decided to go green and each of us carried one vegetable package without purchasing plastic bag. We then hopped into the bus and returned to school by 11.30. These two hours are going to be most memorable moments and look forward to more trips like this.

Thanks to Oakridge management and staff for organizing this event.

Ratna Kumar Garapati

Parent of Sree - Grade 2C