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.

Children have vivid imagination and can create beautiful worlds with their stories. They are influenced by so many things around them that we adults consider mundane. Therefore they can breathe life into even the simplest of stories and make us wonder…
A story telling event was conducted for Class 1 and the students entertained the class with their colourful stories. Although a few were well known ones from fables, some of them had a fair margin of originality in them. The little children were eloquent and spoke well while using props to go along with their stories and break the monotony.
 

Udgam School for Children has a scholarship program for merit students based on certain criteria, such as Academic results of the child for the past year, Behaviour and discipline of the child during the past year, Financial position of the parents and family as such, Attendance record of the child, Punctuality and other habits of the child.
Scholarships were given to the selected students yesterday in a special ceremony which was attended by their parents too. Executive Director Mr. Manan Choksi and Principal Ms. Radhika Iyer handed over the scholarships to the students. 
It is our firm belief that this kind of positive encouragement enables the child to pursue studies without hindrance while going the extra mile to achieve more because of the faith placed on them.
We wish the scholarship recipients a happy and bright future!

Around 260 students of primary section of Thaltej Municipal School, a school adopted by Udgam School, visited Udgam premises today. This is the first of such visits to follow.
In wake of 2014-15 being the 50th year of the school, students of TMS along with their teachers visited our premises.
They were involved in indoor and outdoor activities like cricket, tennis, badminton, singing, dancing, ball games, watching motivational stories etc. arranged by the team Udgam .
In each activity children were given prizes too which kept their morale up for upcoming event.
Not a single minute of their visit to our premises was wasted and they enjoyed the facilities to the utmost.
At the end of their visit they were provide with snacks and sweets.