An elocution event is not very easy especially for children of Class 6. And when the event is in Gujarati, it requires true skill and plenty of practice. There was a preliminary round in individual sections in which students were selected. This was followed by the final round. Topics were varied like Swachch Bharat, Sachin Tendulkar, The importance of time and so on. The children spoke eloquently in fluent Gujarati.

The Talk Show held in Udgam School Auditorium today was nothing short of an eye opener. It was a guiding push given to the students of Class X by their seniors. No amount of career guidance can be as effective as when you learn about the real picture from your own seniors, as they say ‘from the horse’s mouth’. Following this Mrs. Sharmistha Sinha, Secondary School teacher, moderated a talk show that is sure to make students of Class X be the final judge and decide their subject options better in Senior Secondary.
Students of Class XI, Saumya Gupta, Rutvik Shukla, Ritika Kapoor, Jahanvi Shah and Ishita Shah, toppers in the examinations held in the first half of the academic year, spoke at length to the students of Class X about the right choice of stream after Class X. Simply going with the flow and taking up Science is not recommended. One should have the dedication, passion and aptitude for the subjects. They stressed on the difficulty level of Class XI as compared to Class X and the amount of effort that students need to put in, the vagaries of coaching classes, the need to forsake hobbies and sports, constant fatigue, health issues and the 24 hour regime that goes into the day of a student of Science. The transition from Class X to XI is nothing short of a quantum leap. So it is better to be sure of one’s abilities and aptitude before taking the leap. They also generated awareness about the hyped results of coaching centres and the negative issues associated with not being able to clear JEE or AIPMT.
There are so many options that are available to students these days that they should take the CBSE conducted SGAI aptitude scores seriously and follow their passion. The old cliché about following the heart to reach the goal is very true and more relevant now with so many options available. And thereafter one should put in 100% effort regardless of the chosen field of endeavour. The bottomline is one should be happy…and pursuing a goal that is close to the heart ensures that. And if one is sure of the goal then no amount of effort and sacrifice can unnerve her/him.

Reading is very necessary for learning a language well. Only a good reader knows the finer nuances of speaking a language like an art. At Udgam we always recommend fostering reading habit as early as possible, beginning right from Preschool. To further emphasise the need for regular reading, our school celebrated Reading Week from December 1 to 6 in English, Hindi, Sanskrit and Gujarati.
The Primary Section made the most of the week by inculcating activities like answering riddles, extempore speaking from chits drawn, sequencing jumbled stories, rapid fire, spinning the yard, poster making, tongue twisters, writing and reading aloud simple poems, reading newspaper articles and discussing, character description from folk tales and noun games. 
In Middle Section activities that were pursued to enhance reading were news reading like a reporter after dividing new into categories like International, National, State, Sports and Weather. Along with sessions of story, book reading penned by famous authors was undertaken. In Hindi, children were encouraged to chant dohas by Kabirdas along with video screening. In Gujarati class, children had to draw lots to read books. Sanskrit reading was made interesting by giving them topics from grammar. The groups took down names and presented their topics on charts, quiz, dumb charade, housie, flash cards and so on. 
The senior school children presented book reviews of novels read by them. The students shared with their classmates the highlights of the novels read, the various characters depicted, the ratings the book deserved,etc.While some students used PPTs to present their reviews, others depended on their verbal skills to interact with the others and convey the content of the book read.

In the main action area of reading, the School Library, the students were shown videos of famous stories with morals. There were activities like story writing, paragraph writing, draw-a-picture, writing about your favourite character and Read-a-thon. 
A Book Fair was a Grand Finale to the Reading Week. It was attended in large numbers by students, parents and teachers. The children went around excitedly from shelf to shelf and selected books to buy and take home. We hope the spirit of reading will continue in the times to come…

Nature played the role of teacher when children of Class 1 were taken on a Nature trail to Vasant Nature Cure Centre. They gained first hand experience about the process of planting. They were able to see a variety of fruits and vegetables growing from very close quarters. Nowadays children of this generation do not have the opportunity of getting to see vegetables growing and only see them being sold in markets and stalls. They were amazed at the beauty and wonders of nature and even an ordinary thing like a radish growing underground did not fail to amaze them. Facts when supported by evidence add to the knowledge and this was 100% true in the Nature Walk which was guided by their teachers with interesting bits of information.

Just like we cannot imagine a world without colours, a world without black and white is unimaginable too!
Based on this idea, children of Preschool observed Black and White Day. The story of “The Hare & The Tortoise” was explained by PLE activity teachers by arranging the lovely “Shadow Show”. Children enjoyed this different method of learning stories and had lots of fun. All the soft boards were displayed with different theme based on “Black & White” like Penguin world, Football, Animal Kingdom, Musical Harmony, Panda, Night, Sheep, Dog, & Chess. Beautiful activities were arranged with this wonderful themes & ideas. A day not be missed and always cherished by one and all.”

The moment I finish the lesson for the day, my students start shouting, “Teacher, O. Henry story.” I had promised them a-story-a-day!

I have told my class all the O. Henry stories that I could remember. By now, they even know the famous ‘O. Henry twist’. The other day when I narrated a real-life incident the students pointed out that it was like an O. Henry story. This writer is a big hit in my class. The students are looking for his books in the library.

After O. Henry, I went on to short stories written by Maupassant, W.W. Jacobs, George Orwell, Ruskin Bond, R.K. Narayan, incidents from Charles Dickens’ and Shakespeare’s books too and stories of unknown writers.

Little did I realize then that indirectly I was getting them interested in reading. Every day some student or the other brings some book to me, just to show that he or she is also reads books of such classic writers!

It is a pleasure and gratifying feeling to know that children can appreciate the subtle humour, sorrow and other emotions found in many of the stories. Even at a time when they are exposed to the melodramatic serials churned out on our television channels.

Some day, when are grown-ups, I am sure they will remember the stories and themselves go to read the originals!

– Ms. Radhika Iyer

As a part of FA activity, students of Class VII were assigned the task of interviewing their teachers.
Students were divided into various groups and asked questions to various teachers such as:
1) What brought you to teaching?
2) Where do you see yourself after 5 years?…

India is a land of diversity and our rich colourful culture is a testimony to the different kinds of people we have in our motherland. Sardar Patel, the iron man of India, was instrumental in bringing India together as one despite all the differences. He united the smaller princely states into one to make the system more organised and work towards a common goal, progress. This did wonders to the newly independent country and administration and governance became easier and more effective. So his birth anniversary on 31^st of October is very aptly celebrated as Rashtriya Ekta Divas.

Udgam School for Children actively participated in the Ekta Diwas celebrations held at Maharaja Agrasen Vidyalaya as per CBSE guidelines.

In spite of the ongoing Diwali break 25 students from the school became a part of celebration for Unity.

The energetic children were involved in several activities like Debate, Jingle Making, Poster Making, Collage making, Indigeneous Sports, Oath Taking Ceremony, Run for Unity, etc.

It was a collaborative effort to bring students of different schools together on the same platform and create the feeling of oneness among them through activities. Keeping the feeling of ‘my school’ aside the children participated in the common ground with a lot of enthusiasm.

The hard work put in by the host school Maharaja Agrasen Vidyalaya was commendable as the purpose of the whole event ‘instilling unity’ was solved.

To commemorate the birth anniversary of Gandhiji, the doyen of non-violence, an elocution event was conducted for the students of senior school. The students spoke eloquently on the topic ‘Global Violence: Are we civilised or not?’ This generation has come across global violence in a major way and they realise the need for non-violence now more than ever before. After all we followed the great leader and won freedom 68 years ago supporting fearlessly his tenet of ‘non-violence’. Basically, the fight against global violence is not more violence but by stopping further heinous acts through treaties, rules and awareness. Most of the speakers spoke forthrightly about the drawbacks of violence and the need for implementing World Peace. The young minds are the best judge as they have learnt from examples and experiences taken from the past. The young speakers have left many questions unanswered though which the doyens of world peace need to listen to and respond.

One of the tenets, among many, that our Father of the Nation strongly believed in was ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness’. Paying homage to this tenet CBSE has launched a Clean India Campaign which Udgam School has implemented in a major way. Of course hygiene and sanitation has always been given prime importance here earning us the title of ‘Cleanest School’ by the media. But we strongly believe that improvement is possible in each and every sphere. We support the motto of ‘catch them young’ when it comes to inculcating good habits as these will remain even when the kids grow up.

In keeping with the directive, we began the campaign from 25^th September and although Ministry of Human Resources has specified that this campaign needs to go on until end of October, for us here at Udgam it is a never-ending drive to encompass months and years to come.

Various activities are being held in different sections of the school to spread the awareness of the importance of keeping our surroundings clean. The junior classes took a pledge on cleanliness which has been followed up by daily teacher-student interaction. The children ensured that the classrooms remained clean reprimanding their classmates who did not conform to the cleanliness of the class and corridors. Competitions were held to make the drive exciting and the rally slogans are sure to reverberate long after the period. Teachers also conducted surprise checks in classes for cleanliness and followed this with appreciation and recognition.

In the middle and higher classes students staged a skit to bring out the essence of being clean. There were also talks and group presentations by the students to reiterate the value of ‘Swachh’. In addition these students ensured that they had clean classrooms and corridors refraining from any such acts like ‘dropping paper or food’ on the floor. Regular supervision by teachers and heads has ensured that the drive is going on very successfully at Udgam School.