Republic Day Celebrations!!! :)

FREEDOM IN THE MIND,
FAITH IN THE WORDS,
PRIDE IN OUR HEARTS &
MEMORIES IN OUR SOULS...
LETS SALUTE,
THE NATION ON Republic Day!
VANDE MATARAM

The day started with a heavy fog and a chilly weather but the spirits were high for the Republic day celebration with our little friends at Open Skies and Jaagriti. As me and Anchit reached at the Open Skies, Manish and Sidhant were already there and were helping Master Ji and Chandan in settling the kids to start with celebrations.

We started with talking about the Republic day with kids. And then we started with a game where we blindfolded the participating kid and then kid trying to hit a hanged ball with stick or a bat in the provided three hitting chances. Kids seems very excited to participate in the game. Many children secured their prize in the game.

The second game was Hoopla, where children had to throw the ring on goodies like chips, cake, chocolate, biscuits, bathing soaps. This game provided a chance for lot of kids to participate and check on their throwing precision. Third game was fruit eating competition, where group of four kids participated in each round and winner were awarded with fruits, fruits for fruits :). At last we held prize distributions for the winner of the first game and fruit eating competition. Winners of the first game were awarded with coloring book and colors. Later Mr. Saharan and Dr. Goel, distributed Samosa and Ladoos to the children. And we ended the ceremony at Open Skies with Gayatri Mantra and National Anthem.

Our next destination was Jaagriti where we saw that children were eagerly waiting for us. At Jaagriti we were also joined by Kumkum. The celebration schedule was same for Jaagriti too. As we talked with kids about Republic day, then followed by same set games and activities for children at Jaagrirti. At Jaagriti, volunteers also tried hands on the Hoopla game but we realised the children are much better than us. :)

Everyone enjoyed to their fullest and celebrated the Republic Day with full enthusiasm.

Jai Hind :-)

More Pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/kantkishoresharma/RepublicDayCelebrationOpenSkiesAndJaagriti?locked=true&feat=email#

Thanks

Kant Sharma

Origami Classes

“A chilly Sunday morning…lots of used A4 sheets in one hand…color-boxes in the other…where the hell are you going ??”…that’s what an acquaintance in my society asked me when we met at the society gate. I just smiled back. The mission was to revive the arts and craft classes at Project Jaagriti.

So we reached there at Open Skies site and found the class going on as expected. The attendance was good and the excitement quite evident when the kids spotted us. A hearty ‘Good Morning’ welcomed us and erased all my doubts about whether the kids will be excited about this class or not. We quickly made the kids sit in circles and assigned one volunteer to each group to help them. One of the kids took the paper and got his pencils ready as he thought we are going to paint something. He was puzzled when he was told that we are going to make something using only paper.

Origami, the art of paper-folding, has been on our mind for some time for the project. What can be more interesting than witness a useless-looking paper turn into a bird or a frog or just about anything under the sun? So for our first class we chose a simple yet interesting shape … a jaw-snapping dinosaur (http://www.origami-club.com/en/fun/wiggle/index.htm). As the dinosaur took shape fold-by-fold, the kids’ excitement was a treat to watch. Even the coloring part was fun, with someone drawing as many as two pairs of eyes on his dinosaur!!

As we continue to dig the internet for more interesting origami, a word of caution to others who plan to conduct such sessions with kids: The number of pages missing from kids’ notebooks is directly proportional to the quality of Origami classes!!

Happy Volunteering!!

Ankit