“Values aren’t buses… They’re not supposed to get you anywhere. They’re supposed to define who you are.”

Keeping in mind the importance of value enhancement at an early stage in life, Udgam School for Children runs ‘Life Skills and Value Enhancement’ program through regular classes. Our teachers go through regular training workshops to conduct meaningful classes for students. Recently, two of our teachers took training of one such unique program called – ‘The Awakened Citizen Program’, developed by Ramkrishna Mission. Further, the same teachers of Middle section – Ms. Preeti Naik and M. Hinakumari Dholakia, conducted an in-house workshop for all the Middle Section teachers.

Ms. Naik and Ms. Dholakia briefed the teachers about the program details and how the program works, through a practical and an interactive hour-long session. We strongly believe that as teachers, we are the facilitators for making our children realise their inner potential and bring out their latent capabilities and guide them in their journey from ‘I can’t to I can’.

It was an enlightening and interesting session for all the participants. Teachers will be further conducting the same program with the students in class during the year.

As a part of the reading year for students of our primary section, a set of challenges were given to them. The ones who successfully completed the ‘Reading Challenges’ earned a badge from their teachers. To mark this achievement, a wall of fame is created in the premises of our school. Together with their teachers, our little readers beautified a big wall with their colourful palm prints,signing their names and also, wrote the name of their favourite books. Our talented teachers, transformed the cluster of palms into a wonderful tree. What a lovely way to create fond memories of school days!

Gratitude is a very important trait that needs to be expressed as much as it needs to be felt. To ensure that our students are thankful for those little joys in their life and acknowledge and appreciate everyone around them, an assembly ‘Gratitude be the attitude’ was organized for students of class 4. The participants expressed their gratitude for each person that they are close to, presented a skit on the theme and also sang a melodious song. Before returning to their classes, the students conveyed special messages personally to each teacher present, gifted them a token of gratitude and enjoyed a photography session with them. This pleasant assembly added a dose of sweetness to look forward to the rest of our day!

Speaking is a very important skill and we at Udgam School, see to it that our students develop this essential skill early on. ‘Igniting Minds’ was one such event for the 4th graders that tested their public speaking skills. The theme of activity was ‘ inspirational people’ who ignite the minds of our young students. The judges of ‘Igniting Minds’ were Ms. Priya Jha and Ms. Rohini Nanda (both primary section English teachers). Each and every participant delivered their speech with optimum confidence, loaded with solid information, once again leaving the judges in quandary while choosing the top 3 among all. Children spoke on several inspirational personalities like Sudha Murthy, Helen Keller, Rabindranath Tagore, A.P.J Abdul Kalam, Sudha Chandran, Beethoven, Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Kōnosuke Matsushita,Mother Teresa, Lata Mangeshkar , Mary Kom, and Swami Vivekananda. The event was very well organized and stimulating for the audience. A special mention goes to Manisha Gajjar , Brigith Vasava , Sudipta Joshi & Deepal Patel for arranging everything to perfection. It concluded with a short speech by Meetika Ma’am and distribution of certificates by Arathi Ma’am. Every participant received a certificate of appreciation.

Sandwich Making Activity in Grade 2

As the academic year comes to a close, our grade II students enjoyed a sandwich making activity at school. Throughout the year, many enjoyable activities were planned for them such as bookmark making, poster making, spelling antakshari, awareness rally , carnival etc. The sandwich making activity was equally fun for our students, which added to their memories of class 2 experiences. Students brought various items from home required to make a sandwich. Some made aloo matar sandwich, some made cheese jam sandwich and others made with vegetable mayonnaise.

All the students worked their way through to making yummy sandwiches which they relished with their friends. They enjoyed working with their teachers too, especially when they served the sandwiches to the students with so much of love and affection. While being fun-filled, this activity encouraged the students to eat homemade food and also taught them the etiquette of presenting food properly and serving the same.