Buddy System in class I

The last week of August, 2012 introduced the Buddy System amongst our youngest members of the primary. A time- tested tool internationally, the concept attempts to build bonding between students by assigning them tasks as either pairs or groups. It is found that the product from such partnering is an exponentially enhanced one. For the exercise, we had 5 students of class 7 volunteer for a whole period in class 1.They divided the junior students in groups of 6. Then the senior buddies set out to bond with their junior buddies. They made small conversation at the level of the juniors to break the ice and then embarked upon story-telling for them. Thereon there was no looking back. The junior buddies got extremely animated and volunteered imaginative observations as the session unfolded. They squealed with delight as the senior buddies exclaimed with their enthusiastic approvals and the corridor resounded with unbounded bonhomie. With ease, the seniors carried through the rest of their task, namely, refreshing the story and reinforcing the values that came off it in the class. We felt reassured that this first effort was extremely encouraging and we expect to use this principle of buddying more regularly. As filed by Ms. Rupinder Kaur, primary teacher.