The 6th edition of the CPS GS, Thirumazhisai English Fest, Nova Veta 2023 opened the horizons for the young minds on an adventure and wanderlust for knowledge and literary and linguistic skills. Like Ulysses, the students set sail into a foray of interesting and intelligently curated gamut of events for all graders, right from ELPs to highschoolers.
The day dawned with the toddlers of ELP dabbling in colouring objects creatively as well as joining dots to create amazing creatures in Pixel Artistry– teachers and student volunteers earnestly wished to rewind to their childhood and try a hand at the activity! ELP 2 & 3 students were challenged some more wherein not only their artistic skills were judged but also linguistic skills through the activities like Wordplay and Puzzle Blend– the activities were a perfect showcase of the right and left brain coordination.
As the day progressed the CAIE 1to 3 students indulged in creating story boards as they listened to the short stories told by their mentors. Their aural skills perfectly matched their motor skills as they completed the Picture Tales within the time limit. Picture Tale is one of the activities that support the development of early literacy skills by creating individual story boards which develops confidence in the learners. Apart from developing observation skills, visual thinking, analysing skills, picture stories are always fun. The lower primary learners were completely engaged in listening to the stories and sequencing the pictures according to the story. It was a double whammy for these grades as they got the opportunity to dress up as pirates and showcase their acting skills through short Pirate Ramp Walk Videos. All the parents’ hard work and assemblage are truly appreciated, besides the oratory skills of the tiny tots.
Learning how to spell develops linguistic skill and fosters reading cementing the connection shared between alphabets and phonetics. Our Spelling Wizards from CAIE 4 to CAIE 6 showed great enthusiasm as they unscrambled, corrected spellings and journeyed through word search maze boards in preliminary rounds before becoming true Spelling Wizards on a spelling treasure hunt. This engaging activity would help the learners progress to higher grades with enhanced vocabulary.
The middle schoolers of CAIE 7 & 8 had great fun as they participated in Quickfire– an extempore with fun prompts as “How to annoy elder siblings?” to “Ghosts I would want to meet” to slightly more serious (!) ones like “How to overcome the fear of Math!” A tip or two would have surely come from this session which can help the youngsters in achieving either goals- annoy siblings or get better at Math!!!
The senior Clash of the Clans witnessed verbal fights over whether highschoolers should have part time jobs or not to whether healthcare should be made universal and free for all. It was amazing to see how critically they approached the topics without losing the humane touch and maintain decorum of a debating forum. The on-the-spot motion for the final round with 30 min of prep time exhibited the self-management and focused research skills of the debaters to establish their claims convincingly thereafter during the debate.
The morning’s literary and linguistic adventures culminated in an assembly nothing less than a gala show. The compiled Pirate Ramp walk videos followed by a drama with all the elements of a blockbuster, yet spreading the message of diligence, perseverance and friendship took the students and teachers on a piratey tale! The participants and winners were lauded and all teachers who helped in making the event such a huge success were acknowledged. The best part of Nova Veta 2023 was the collaboration between students and English facilitators, both working shoulder to shoulder conceptualize, organize and execute this huge event. The CPSGS Chronicles , the school’s newsletter was also launched by HOS and Deputy HOS jointly opening the flood gates of creative and academic ideas to flow in the coming months and years.
It was, indeed, a day of Adventure and Wanderlust… watch out for this space for the 7th edition of Nova Veta!!!
