Tender Leaves conducted My Olympics Quotient – a series of workshops involving a myriad of activities ranging from creative writing to vocabulary building, mind mapping sessions, improving presentation skills, encouraging philately and highlighting Indian culture through Olympian ages. These activities were designed to enhance a child’s interpersonal and intra-personal skills.
As part of first day on December 1, there was a fun-filled introduction to Olympics with interesting activities of Map pointing and guessing the continents. The children also got an Olympic Diary which had activities, information to read, and loads of trivia to keep as a personal souvenir. There were a few take-home activities such as gathering information about the Olympic venues, Olympic rings and a special event from each Olympics. The objective was to build in the participating children essential life skills such as Perseverance, Curiosity, Critical Thinking, Reflection and Presentation.
As part of day two, the various games covered in the Summer Olympics were discussed. Information about the host countries was discussed and the games were grouped into different categories such as track & field, aquatic using pictorial representations. Children were also introduced to the world of anagrams. The objective of doing all these activities was to build in them the essential life skills like Creativity, Critical thinking, Reflection, Ability to communicate effectively and Work in Teams.
On day three, children not only learned about Venues, Hosting ceremonies but also made a pitch for India at 2020 Olympics! Children were grouped in teams to pitch for India as a host country for Olympics to be held in 2020. They created Logo and Mascots for the Games and discussed how infrastructure and funds would be improved and decided who will chair the IOA (Indian Olympic Association) team! As a home activity, children had to answer the question: If India were to host Olympics, what would you think would go into the Opening ceremony?
The fourth day of the session comprised of learning to write Acrostic Poems, Glimpse of India at Olympics, Memory Game and Mind Mapping and My Olympic Pledge! Children were taught why it is necessary to have rules and follow them in a game, how rules are formed and changed with time. As part of the session the children learned, recalled all critical details about Usain Bolt through a Mind-Map presentation.
On the fifth day, the session comprised of Movie watching, Sports, Fun, Learning, and Review Writing! They watched Chak De India – a delightful story of Indian Women’s Hockey team winning the World championship for Hockey. The children were guided to watch out for background score, the camera shots, the acting skills, direction style and editing of the movie. Children were given basic tips on writing movie reviews. There was a home activity to make a mind-map and write a review of Chak de India.
The sixth day of the session comprised of stamps, philately, autograph hunting, magic and lots and lots of fun! Children not only learnt about the importance of stamps, history of stamps, different types of stamps, but also the fun behind stamp collection or philately, the joy in pursuing hobbies and how commemorative stamps of Olympics are of special value. Magic with the hat, stamp collection and exchange with friends were an added bonus to the fun session.
My Olympics Quotient was about giving the children a chance to be creative and yet learn a great deal, giving them encouragement and enthusiasm to carry it on into later life.
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