CRY West Volunteers: Summer Camp @ Jai Bai School (Day 1)

The day started with the kids assembling at 8:30 in Jai Bai School, Kalyan eager to start the day. The volunteers interacted with the kids and got them to do energizers like “Fun Yoga”. After a short break the next session was on Photography by Anuja Gupta, a professional photographer. It was a new and highly interesting subject for the children. They were shown a few landscape and portrait pictures which the children found very fascinating. They were told the story behind each picture, how and where the pictures were taken. Anuja then took the children through the basics of photography as to how to hold the camera and how to focus on the picture that one wants to capture.

The children were then divided into 5 groups; each group was led by a volunteer and given cameras. They had to capture photos depicting what they love about their school. The children scattered around the school with cameras in their hands and a gleam in their eyes as they clicked to their hearts content. They captured trees, their school building, their classrooms, their friends, pictures with CRY volunteers while trying to be as creative as possible.

Following this fun session, children came back and were shown photos of daily lives, these photos were shown to them so that they understand sometimes it’s not always going out for a scenic beauty and taking photos but even in our day to day life, in our vicinity we can find that life has some interesting aspects and even the little things are worthy of observing.

Volunteers then presented a fun filled puppet show for the kids. The children laughed their way through it while learning an important message about the importance of education and how important it is in life to follow our dreams, as well as to keep in touch with our old friends and keep cherishing the memories forever.

The last activity for the day was a presentation on traffic rules and road safety. The volunteers taught the kids the rules of traffic signals with an interesting game. They had prepared boards with various road signs on them. Various dangerous situations and the correct ways to act on the road were taught by acting out scenarios. In the end the kids got pictures clicked in the cutout of a car to make the activity more memorable and to add a little fun to the learning.