The class VI Integration programme during the academic year 2007-08 was great fun and I say this on behalf of my fellow students. This year, our topic was 'Deserts' for which the students of VI A & B jointly learnt a lot through skits, songs, dances and research. Over the last few weeks, we researched the facts and fables associated with deserts around the world. All the songs, skits and plays were written by us. The Integration Programme was divided into 2 parts - the performance and the displays. The displays were exhibited around the auditorium and most of the work was done in class.

To begin with, for English, we acted out a play- an Arabian Nights fable called the 'The Little Beggar', which was a short humorous story about the adventures of an unfortunate beggar. For the stall, we all made Acrostic Poems on any desert we chose.

For Hindi, we researched for information on the life of the Thar or The Great Indian Desert and how the inhabitants are able to survive in the barren desert living a nomadic life. For the project, each child made a file, which included our own skit, letter, comprehension, animal cutouts and word searches.

We, the young historians of class VI studied the available sources to make projects on Egypt for the stall. In geography, we researched the biomes of the deserts across the world and came up with many facts we had not known earlier. For the stall, we, with these facts made two booklets- one on a special desert we had been assigned to do and the other was on the people and climate of the deserts.

In Science, short poems on the characteristics of the flora and fauna were made which we sang in the form of a rap. For the project, we got into groups and made charts on interesting food chains from the deserts.

In Math, we did collaborative work again and made a power- point presentation that was later presented by us to all the visitors. We individually made a math file that included a math treasure-hunt game and many other interesting math related activities.

We had fun unleashing the humorous and comical aspect of the deserts by writing poems on deserts for Marathi. We even had a stall for Physical Education, which contained interesting facts on desert sports.

We did all this over a few weeks. The best part was that along with our lessons, we also had fun. And this is the speciality of an Integration programme at the Dhirubhai Ambani International School- Work combined with Fun!

Shikhar Soni


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