Keekli Reporter, 30th December, 2013, Shimla
As winters descend on Shimlaites with almost a three month break until the next academic session, parents have a tough time deciding how to keep their wards busy. The Winter Camp held at Shemrock Buttercups, (a play school) Khalini, offered some amazing activities such as Yoga, Art & Craft, Dance, Cooking, Personality Development and Creative Writing. Principal Umang Banga said, “The 15 day camp began on 13th December and about 26 children from age group 3-12 years participated. The focus was to provide a playful and entertaining environment coupled with some serious learning”. She further added that children were eager to learn cooking and dancing, while through Yoga they learnt the benefits of exercising and healthy living.
The mornings started with a daily routine of Yoga exercises for children wherein they were taught asanas such as butterfly asana, dhanurasan, pawanmukta, tree posture, bhujangasana, pranayam, anulom vilom and kapalbharti. A small demonstration on the final day amply showed the kind of skills the children had picked up and were more than happy to follow the routine during their holidays.
In Arts and Craft section all the children learned how to make pen stands from ice cream sticks, flowers from tissue paper and disposable glasses as well as pop-up cards. The Personality Development classes focused on leadership skills and its growth. Games such as ‘tower building’, ‘tug of war’, ‘role play’, and ‘ice breaking’ were used to showcase examples and explain various concepts to children.
The children also demonstrated their acting skills through a simpler version of the famous Disney Classics Cinderella. Both groups, that is the juniors comprising of age group three to seven years and senior group of eight to twelve years old performed their versions of the story and gave a great performance.
Principal Umang ensured that all children participated with equal enthusiasm and zeal. All children were taught various dance forms like hip hop, contemporary, and Bollywood through some foot tapping Bollywood numbers. The dance activity was taken up by Shiml’a renowned choreographer Vishal Badwan, who has undergone training from the famous dance group of Bosco Caesar, Mumbai.
Through cooking classes children learned how to make ‘rainbow sandwiches’, ‘bread pizzas’, cake and chocolates. Children were given easy recipes so that they could make food items without any assistance from anyone and at the same time were tasty and nutritious.
On one hand while the children were honing their culinary skills, at the same time they were being engaged in creative writing by penning short stories. The best mode to teach writing was by providing children picture or incomplete stories and then were guided towards completing the stories. Through special assistance from madam Jinni, a teacher from Convent of Jesus and Mary, children gained few interesting inputs and suggestions for writing good stories.
For the younger section in the age group 3-7 years, special emphasis was laid on their handwriting and colouring skills.
Students participating in the junior group (3-7 years) were Anadya, Gurbani, Gurleen, Inaayat, Ragmya, Akshita, Ridhi, Sehyadri, Sherin, Neeyati, Saanvi, Medhansh and Rudraksh. Meanwhile in the senior group (8-12) Tasheena, Jeshna, Danika, Saanya, Umang, Anmol, Harshdeep, Jiya, Saranya, Innayat, Nyssa, Mehek and Saisha.
As a special treat they were also shown a short video called No Arms No Legs to inspire them to never give up in any situation and that nothing is impossible if you have determination and will to reach your goal.
At the end of the Winter Camp all children received participation certificates and a small pack of goodies!!!
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