Launchbox FUN!!!

We have been using bits and pieces from the Launchbox over the last few weeks.  Unfortunately at Okhla where we were for the first two weeks didn't really have enough room to make the contraptions.  Now we are based at the Women Center which has more classrooms and a lot more space.

Check out the kids watching the lovely Danny explain the Launchbox and the Launchpad Gallery.  We prepared the kids so they knew that they wouldn't understand everything Danny said but to shout out any words and objects they recognised in the video.  That turned into a lot of fun and noise!

Together we viewed the "On the Move" video.  They were absolutely spellbound!  We shouted out words like rolling, falling, fire, dog, turning and burning.  

 
Here is the contraption that Alan made to inspire the kids to make their own.  We labeled it with the vocab we wanted them to get to grips with (we are totally turning into proper little teachers!).

Here we are building a seesaw.

Getting them fired up with the Stupid Egg trick!

Adding the final touches on their Big Machine!

Here's some video of the girls practicing their new vocab! 

Over a few days they built their own contraption.  They absolutely loved the experience. In mainstream Indian classrooms it's very much one answer for each question.  If they teach the sky is blue and a child might answer sometimes it can be pink or grey, this answer will be wrong.  Opinion and testing out theories isn't really the deal.  In many poorer schools we have been told the teachers only turn up to take registration and the rest of the day the kids play.  In India boys and girls attend school at different times.  At the women's centre the boys come in the morning and go to the normal school in the afternoon.  The girls attend in the afternoon after they have been to school.   

It's a fantastic project that not only supports the kids in this area but also runs classes for the local women (like sewing skills) and provides a bedroom where women can take refuge if needed.

If you donated money to this project before we left or are still collected (I know MCC South London is currently collecting pennies) you're money is definitely going to a grass roots charity that is making a hell of a lot of difference!  A massive, massive thank you to Lex and Danny who put the Launchbox together for the kids xxx