Report: Thinkers' Club Session # 24

Date: 25th January, 2015
Session # 24
Attended by: 11 participants
Report written by: Fatima Salman

In this session, we discussed poetry. Everyone had brought some poetry to share with the others. First, everyone shared the verses or couplets of poetry they had brought. They were mostly of Iqbal. Then, we were asked if we knew who is our parents' favourite poet. This question was asked in the previous session to ask our parents. Most people's parents' favourite poets were Iqbal, Ghalib, or Faiz. Some parents of the members didn't have any favourite poets!

Then we talked about what should every poem have. The answers were syllable pattern, rhythmic pattern, a topic, etc.
There are two things that every poem should have. They are:

1. Rhythm\Pattern of sounds
2. Meaningfulness

Then we talked about poets. We were asked if anyone can become a poet if they want to. Some people said yes, anyone can become a poet if they want to, while others thought the opposite. Some kids said that a poet should have a great imagination and should think very deeply about something to write about it. But these things do not always happen to the people who write or compose songs, that are sung instead of recited seriously.

After this discussion, we did an activity. It was a bit like the one we did in Session 22. Everyone had to open a page in his\her notebook. Then we had to draw a line measuring one inch from our estimation. Next we had to draw a rectangle measuring one inch by three inches vertically across the page. Then we had to divide the rectangle into three squares of one inch each. Then we had to write in a small handwriting 1, 2 and 3 on each square respectively, and draw in square 1; a small circle, in square 2; a small triangle, and in square 3; our favourite fruit. Then we had to get our ruler and check how close our estimation was when drawing and dividing the rectangle.

This was an interesting activity, and a fun session too. There was no home task given in this session.

Thank you.

Report: Thinkers' Club Session 23

Date: 18^th January, 2015
Session # 23
Attended by: 14 participants
Report Written by: Fatima Salman

In this session, we discussed many things. First we talked about Emotions. We were asked to name some emotions. The responses were love, hate, anger, excitement, etc. We were told that there are four basic emotions which are; Hope, Pleasure, Grief and Fear. Other emotions include Love and Anger.

Then we talked about Poverty. There are several ‘Forms of Poverty’. We discussed the ones below:

1. Intellectual Poverty
  (Having no ideas and opinions)

2. Linguistic Poverty
   (Having ideas but no words to express)

3. Social Poverty
  (No friends and people to express themselves)

4. Ethical Poverty
  (no manners, etiquettes, ethics)

5. Financial Poverty
  (Shortage of money)

When we hear the word poverty, only ‘Financial Poverty’ comes to our mind. There are actually five main types of poverty. This list shows financial poverty at the very bottom, which shows us that money is the least important. The more important things are our knowledge, language, social circle and manners.

Like Intellectual Poverty, Linguistic Poverty, etc. There is also something called being Intellectually Rich, Linguistically Rich, Socially Rich, Ethically Rich, and lastly, Financially Rich. These things are the opposite of intellectual, linguistic, social, ethical and financial
poverty.  

A person may be financially rich but intellectually poor, or financially poor but socially rich.

After this detailed discussion, we were asked to think about what is the most valuable and precious thing each person has. The responses were:

• Talents
• Emotions\Feelings
• Thoughts\Opinion
• Heart
• Mind

Then we played a guessing game called kasoti (in Urdu) and Twenty Questions in English (we did it with ten questions). We were divided into two teams of seven children in each team. First, one team had to think of a person and the other team had to guess it by asking ten questions which can be answered in a yes or no only. (Questions were like Is it a male? Is he alive?)

After playing the game a couple of times, we discussed some poetry. Some people recited some verses of poetry from their memories. We talked about which poet has written the verses that were shared. We were told to bring three verses of poetry to share in the next session.


Overall, it was an interesting session, with many things discussed and talked about.

Session 22: Activity

This is about the activity we did in Session 22. Everyone was given a piece of paper. In this activity, we were given instructions about what we had to do on the paper. 
First we had to put the paper in a landscape position and then we had to draw a line vertically across the page to divide it in half. Next, we had to draw a square in each part of the paper. Then, we had to draw a triangle above one of the triangles. 
Everyone did the work. Then, we had to draw three circles in the square on which we hadn't drawn a triangle.
Then we had to make the square with a triangle look like a house, and the square with the circles to look like a happy person.
These are the complete works of the kids.

Report: Thinkers' Club Session 22

Date: 11th January, 2015

Session # 22

Attended by: 7 particpants

Report written by: Fatima Salman

In this session, we played many different games. First we played the obstacle game, the same one that we played in the previous session.  Then we discussed what we had learnt from this game. After that we were given a long piece of rope. Everyone had to hold the rope. There was a triangle drawn on the board, and we had to form the triangle with each person holding the rope. The challenge was that we weren’t allowed to speak to each other. We had to communicate using sign language, or actions. It wasn’t that hard though. Then we had to make another shape. The purpose of this game was to see how people communicate without speaking.

Then, we all were given a piece of paper. We were given instructions about what to do on that paper. Here are the instructions the way they were given:

   1.       Put the paper in a landscape position.

   2.       Draw a line on the center of the page from the top to bottom.

   3.       (There were now two parts of the paper.) Draw a square in both parts.

   4.       Draw a triangle on top of one of the squares.

Now came the interesting part. We all were following the instructions very carefully until now. When we had drawn the triangle, we were asked: On which square did you draw the triangle? The one on the left, or the one on the right? It wasn’t mentioned that on which square we had to draw a triangle.

This was just a game, but it showed us that whenever we are given instructions, we have to make sure that we know exactly what is wanted from us.  Then the instructions continued.

   5.       Give the square on which you have drawn a triangle, the look of a house.

   6.       In the other square, draw three circles.

   7.       Give the three circles the look of a happy face.

The completed work was really interesting. Each person’s work was unique and showed that everyone perceived instructions in different ways. I will post the work on the blog soon.