like proverb dumb charades,word building, mono acting, enacting short skits,

spin ayarn, composing poems and debates. The club organized different
activities throughout the session.Students and the teachers took active interests
in all the activities of the club.

Activities
The success of club appeared since its first days of creation. Our first successful project
was a book promotion, where we organized the book promotion of one of A.U.K. students,
who is a young, talented writer and wrote her second book. We continued our activities
with Poetry Time, where students had the chance to expose their own poems and listen
to new and lovely poems offered by their colleagues. At the same time they also enjoyed
delicious cookies and coffees. We did not stop here. We also organized a short story
competition, in order to a give a chance to talented student to prove themselves. We
offered great prizes to winners of competition. Afterward we continued with the Poem of
the week, where every week we launched a new poem and place it on the front desk, so
that everyone could take a poem, read and enjoy it. International Book Day was another
project that was realized on the partnership with Charity club. Dear Syria is another
great project. In this project students were asked to write letters to the young Syrian
refugees and show their support and prosperity to them. Members of literature club have
often discussions with their colleagues on the books that they read, and share their
experiences. The other thing is that the members also decide collectively to read the
same book, and then they simply gather together drink coffee and share their thoughts
about the book. Literature club is generally made of people who loves literature, and
want to share their experiences, readings and thoughts with others, who have the same
interest.

The Literary Club, established as the Book Club in 2008, aims at fostering a love
for books and literature in students, and promoting literary activities in school.
The wide spectrum of literary activities undertaken by the Literary Club includes
book discussions, interaction with authors, review writing competitions, literary
quizzes, visits to book fairs and libraries, workshops, book jacket designing
competitions, screenings of films based on famous books etc. The club members
are also given summer reading lists, and recommendations for books to read
over the holidays.

A Declamation Contest was conducted for students of class VI on 14

October 2014 on the topic 'All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy'.
Students were judged on parameters of content, clarity of speech and
confidence.

Role Play Competition for class VII was organized on 15 October 2014.
Students were given situations on the spot. Students were judged on
parameters like content, creativity and dialogue delivery.

Impromptu - A competition for the students of class VIII was held on 16

October 2014. Participants were given one minute to prepare. Students
were judged on the basis of content, clarity of speech, creativity &
presentation.

Scholastics conducted an interactive session with the India's popular

children's writer, Mr. Ruskin Bond on 7 November 2014 at K R Mangalam
World School. Five club members accompanied by Ms Meenakshi Talwar
(Librarian) and Ms Deepanjully Mahanta (TGT, English).

An activity by the name of 'Treasure Hunt' where children were to locate

books from the racks of the library by getting certain clues was organized
for the Primary Department.

An activity 'Mathematics Wizards of Indian Origin' was conducted on 17

November 2014 for the students of class VI. Students gathered
information about the personalities who have contributed to the field of
Mathematics and presented it as wall hangings.

To honour and appreciate the contributions of women in the field of

Science, Technology & Research, Literary Club conducted an activity
'Women Science Geniuses' on 19 November 2014 for the classes VII and
VIII. Students of class VII made project files while students of class VIII
prepared PowerPoint Presentations.

To honour and appreciate the contributions of women in the field of

Science, Technology & Research, Literary Club conducted an activity
'Women Science Geniuses' on 19 November 2014 for the classes VII and
VIII. Students of class VII made project files while students of class VIII
prepared PowerPoint Presentations.

Scholastics held the following activities for students.

On 20 November 2014 'Book Mark Making' activity was conducted

for students of class IV.

On 21 November 2014 'Book Cover and Pledge Writing' activity was

conducted for students of class V.

'Reading Together' activity conducted on 28 November 2014.

Students expressed themselves through writing on the 'Graffiti Wall'
about their favorite book, author, fiction etc.

305 books of all genres were collected by students for donation to

NGO Rani Arya Dutta Vidyalaya.

19 students accompanied by Ms Rita Razdan (Librarian) and Ms Deepika

Bhasin (TGT, English) attended the launch of a book titled, 'Eat the Sky,
Drink the Ocean' edited by renowned editors and authors - Kristy Murray,
Payal Dhar and Anita Roy. The event was organized by Australian High

Commission and Young Zubaan Publishers on 14 November 2014 to

celebrate Children's Day and National Library Day. Students were briefed
about the book and guided to use their imagination to write stories.

National Library Week (21 November to 28 November 2014) was

celebrated for the students of classes I to X. Activities undertaken included
making of Book Marks, Word Play, An Interactive Session with Renowned
Author: Ms Anushka Ravishankar, Draw a Dream contest & a unique
activity 'Write a letter to Gandhiji' was conducted in which students
wrote letters to Gandhiji describing current scenario in India, dreams
fulfilled & unfulfilled and suggestions for realizing unfulfilled dreams.

Workshop on 'Active & Passive Voice' was conducted for the club members
of Middle Department by Ms Deepanjully Mahanta (TGT English) on 15
December 2014.

Book Discussion for club members of Middle Department on the book

'Untouchables' by Mulk Raj Anand was held on 24 December 2014.

Poster making activities on the theme Independence Day, Raksha

Bandhan, Janamashtmi were conducted.

A Hindi Poetry Recitation competition for club members of class VI to VIII

was held on 8th September.

A video of Annual English Play 'Macbeth' was screened for the club
members.

Book discussion on the book 'Jane Eyre' by Charlotte Bronte's was

organised for club members of Middle department on 1 October 2014. This
was followed by Collage making, Paragraph writing and Book review on
the life of the author and her work.

On 23 April 2014, Literary club of Senior department celebrated 'World

Book and Copyright Day', with an interactive Session with two eminent
guests namely - Dr Amitabha Bagchi, well known writer of fiction and Ms C
M Anand, Scientist, NISCAIR, CSIR. The celebration continued on 24 April
2014 with 'Drop Everything and Read Activity' in which the entire school
participated.

On 23 April 2014, Literary club of Senior department celebrated 'World

Book and Copyright Day', with an interactive Session with two eminent
guests namely - Dr Amitabha Bagchi, well known writer of fiction and Ms C
M Anand, Scientist, NISCAIR, CSIR. The celebration continued on 24 April
2014 with 'Drop Everything and Read Activity' in which the entire school
participated.

The series of activities conducted to commemorate 150th birth

anniversary of Swami Vivekanand concluded with an activity of designing

the profile page of Swami Vivekanand on 20 October 2013. It helped

students learn about his life his famous works and his ideas & philosophy.

The Literary club (Sr. Dept) organized a 'Shakespearean Monologue'

Competition for its members on 16 November, 2013 in the senior library.
Students enacted the roles of famous characters like Hamlet, Lady
Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Portia, etc. from Shakespearean plays. Geetanjali
Gakkar and Sanaya Mahajan were adjudged Best Performers for their roles
portraying Lady Macbeth and Portia respectively.

Warm Up Activities For

English Clubs
20 Questions
One person thinks of an object (person, place, or thing).
Everyone takes turns asking yes/no questions until someone
can guess correctly (or until 20 questions are asked). The
difficult part is that you cannot ask "wh" questions!
Example: PINEAPPLE. Does it talk? No. Does it make life
easier? No. Do you eat it? Yes. Is it something you would eat
for dinner? No. Etc...
If someone makes a mistake in forming the question, other
club members can help turn it into a proper question.
Can't Say Yes or No
In this game everyone is given a certain number of coins or
squares of paper (about 10). Everyone moves around the
room starting conversations and asking each other questions.
The only rule is that you cannot say the words YES or NO. If
you accidentally say one of these words, you have to give a
coin or square to the person who you said it to. Try to trick
each other by asking questions that you would almost always
answer with a yes or no. Think of other ways to trick your
friends. Sometimes asking two quick questions in a row works
well. (Especially tag questions: Are you new here? This is your
first time in America, isn't it?). This game is a great way to
practise using small talk and to add variety to your vocabulary.
It also makes everyone laugh.
Fact or Fiction
In this game, one person tells a short story about themselves
or someone they know or heard about. Usually it is something
funny or crazy. It can be a true story, or something made up.
Example: Josh tells a story about his Uncle Leo who sleeps in
the nude. One day Uncle Leo was sleepwalking and he went

outside and took his dog for a walk. The next door neighbour
was coming home late from work and saw him! She called the
police and he got arrested for being naked in public.
Everyone around the room has to say whether they think
Josh's story is fact (true) or fiction (made up). Josh reveals the
truth when everyone has guessed. Members can take turns
telling a story.
Chain Fairytale
This is a fun writing warm-up. Everyone has a piece of paper
and writes the first sentence or two to start a fairytale (not
one that already exists).
Example: Once upon a time there was a frog that had no legs.
He wanted to get married, but there were no female legless
frogs in the land.
After one minute the leader will say "SWITCH". At this time the
writers have to put down their pens and pass the papers. They
cannot finish their sentences. Then, the next writers will
continue the story. After about ten minutes you will have as
many silly stories to read as you have club members. The
leader should warn the writers that they will soon have to
wrap-up the story during the last two minutes so that each
story has a conclusion. Read all of the stories out loud for a
good laugh. You can extend this activity by trying to edit each
other's writing and spelling errors.
Draw the Picture
In this activity members split up into pairs or small groups.
One person looks at a scene from a magazine or book (the
leader should cut out enough pictures, or bring in enough
magazines for the club). The other person has a pencil and a
blank piece of paper. The person with the picture will try to
describe everything he sees to the drawer. This is good
practice for using prepositions of place. When the describer is
finished, compare the drawings to the real thing! Whose is the
closest to the original?
Categories
For this game, one person thinks of a category, such as
MOVIES. In a circle, everyone must take a turn thinking of a
Movie title (in English of course). If someone takes too long to
give an answer (the leader should count to five) then that
person is out and a new category begins. If someone gives an
answer that doesn't make sense or is incorrect, he is also out
of the game. For example, if the category is VEGETABLES and

someone says "banana" that person is out. The game

continues until only one person is left!
Who am I?
In this game, the leader prepares cards with famous people's
names on them. The leader tapes one card on the back of each
member. Then everyone pretends they are at a party and asks
each other questions to find out their own identities. When
someone guesses their own name correctly, the name-tag gets
taped to their front and they continue to chat with the party
guests until everyone is wearing the nametag on the front.
Jeopardy
In this game, which is based on the famous gameshow
Jeopardy, everyone writes down ten answers to questions
about themselves. After writing down the answers, people
have to form pairs or small groups and try to find out what the
questions are.
Example: (answer = purple) "What is your favorite colour?"
"Blue." "What colour do you hate?" "Green." "What colour is
your underwear?" "Purple!" You can stop at three guesses if
you want, or keep going until someone in the club can guess
the question.
Hot Seat
In this game, the club is split up into two teams. One member
from each team sits facing the group. The leader holds up a
word (or writes it on the board if you are in a classroom) for all
of the team members to see except for the two players in the
hot seats. The teams must try to get the person in the hot
seat to guess the word or phrase. The first person to guess
correctly gets to stand up and a new member from their team
takes the hot seat. The person on the other team has to
remain in the hot seat until she gets an answer first. You can
keep score or just play for fun. This game can also be played
in pairs. One pair member closes their eyes while the leader
shows the word to the other pair members. The first pair to
get the word right gets a point.Warning! This is a loud game
because people tend to get excited and yell!
Broken Telephone
This is a listening and pronunciation activity that always gets
people laughing. The leader first must think of a sentence or
phrase and whisper it to the person beside her. That person
will then whisper what she heard to the next person. Each
person can only say, "Can you please repeat that?" one time.
When the message reaches the end of the chain that person

must speak out loud. Oftentimes the message will be

completely different when it reaches the end. Try to find out
where the chain broke! In a big group you can send the
message two ways and find out which team comes closest to
the real message. (A famous example is the army message
that started as "Send reinforcements, we're going to advance"
and ended as "Send three and fourpence, we're going to a
dance.")
oetry Presentation (Pen down the poem)

15.03.2014

Short story presentation (Say the story)

15.0

Know the Writer

29.0

Know the Book

29.0

Know the Language

29.0

Varthai Vilaiyattu: Dumb Charade

19.0

Elocution: Mann Payanura Vendum

19.0

Varthai Vilaiyattu: Translation

02.0

Logo Designing Competition

02.0

10

Varthai Vilayattu - Oru Varthai Oru Parisu

The Heritage and Social club carry out the following activities every year:
1.

Collecting ancient cultural heritage samples like coins, pictures of ruins of Mohenjo-Daro
and Harappa cities.

2.

Collecting pictures of ancient popular temples and make an album of it.

3.

Preparing models of temples and important cities.

4.

Conducting debates and oratorical competitions on topics of our Cultural Heritage and
how to preserve them.

5.

Pictures of environmental pollution and how to control them are collected and paste them
as charts.

6.

Conducting mock elections for school pupil leader as well as class leaders on the basis
of our countries election process methods i.e. secret ballot system.

7.

To create awareness in the young minds, students are asked to buy useful things by
saving money given to them by their relatives, parents on the eve of the festivals, birthdays etc.

8.

Activities are given to students to prepare models/pictures of natural calamities like

avalanches, Tsunami, flood, earthquake etc.

9.

Students are asked to make the models of renewable resources like windmill; model
globe, collecting various countries currencies, names and their current exchange rate viz. Indian
rupee.

10.

Albums are prepared on National leaders, First President to current President, First
Prime Minister to current Prime Minister, Social Reformers their works, important sayings etc.
Eco Club
The school Eco club plays an important role in creating environmental awareness amongst the
future generation. The school coordinators have been working tirelessly to improve the
challenging environmental conditions. The coordinators and club members have undertaken
various environmental friendly activities including

1.

Solid Waste Disposal

2.

Help in Pollution control

3.

Work on prevention of the storage water

4.

Planting trees

5.

Create awareness to stop wastage of water

6.

Bring about friendly approach, attitude and interest of the people towards environment
improvements

7.

Educational trips are arranged to Bio-Diversity exhibition organized by Environment and

Forest Department (Science Express)

8.

Environmental related inter school competitions and debates are arranged under this
program.

9.

Celebrate festivals like World Environment Day, World Population Day, World Ozone Day,
Van Mahotsav, etc.

10.
11.

Activities like making paper bags and discourage use of plastic bags.
Educate students to create awareness among public to stop the indiscriminate burning of
waste which causes respiratory diseases.

Eco clubs of our schools provide an eco-friendly atmosphere and strictly support
"Go Green Drive". Mushroom cultivation using organic materials, "Deeksha's"
herbal gardens, Loinness Club's Medicine plants groove, Vanmahotsavs, planting
new saplings are the attractions of the club. Eco clubs also conduct various inter

school poster making, slogan writing competitions and debates on burning

environmental issues to sensitize the students about their responsibilities
towards the planet. Our teachers attended "Teach Earth" a national level
conference held in Kullu, since teachers can better inspire the students to save
earth in all possible ways and our students are always ready to pledge for, Green
Delhi- Clean Delhi.

LITERARY CLUBS
Tamil Elakkiya Mandram, English Literary Club and Hindi Sahitya Sabha of DTEA
schools conduct competitions monthly to enhance the language skills of the
students. They come out with innovative ideas and bringforth new vistas in their
learning experience. Debate, Extempore, Recitation, Versification, skit, One Act
Plays, Story Telling, Speech are some among the
activities of the Literary Clubs.

Aayaam
Aayaam is the Hindi Literary and Cultural Society of National
Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli. The idea of having
such a forum was conceived by Hemant Kumar, Anirudh Roy and Rahul Gadewadikar. As an
outcome of their efforts, Madhushala - an online portal on the intranet of NIT Tiruchirappalli,
came into existence during 2004-05.
This portal was primarily dedicated to the people who were willing to contribute towards
Hindi Literature. This literary group was the first of its kind in Tamil Nadu and the whole of
South India, where Hindi is not widely spoken. The motive behind establishing Aayaam was
to promote the love for Hindi in Trichy in general and NIT Trichy in particular. It provides a
common platform to all the Hindi speaking people to make their voice heard on a mass
scale, in form of their literary works. It is a platform for those who admire Hindi literature and
want to bring forward their creativity in story writing , poem composition or any form of
composition in Hindi.
This Student's Society aims at keeping the elegance of the national language, Hindi,
blossoming in NITT. Having won numerous competitions outside the college, the members
are brimming with confidence as they organize the Hindi literary competitions at the inter
college level in the College Cultural Festival, Festember, apart from celebrating cultural
events like Holi etc.

Activities Of Aayaam

NITT's biannual Hindi magazine "Pratibimb"

Hindi Literary Competitions at inter-college and intra-college Levels.
Hindi Section of The Pirrean Spring, NITT's Official Hindi Magazine.
Aayaam's Website
Holi Hungama
Aayaams website is the perfect platform to showcase ones Hindi literary talent
and interact with similar people. On the other hand, itll prove as the space for

the Hindi lovers to read the creations the budding talents as well as other
interesting articles. Once in full swing, it can become a networking site for all the
Hindi lovers.
Such a forum will be one of its kind in the world wide web which will not only
promote Hindi but also social causes in its own way. The write-ups put up on the
website might be an eye-opening experience for many.
Aayaam's Website : http://aayaam.co.in

Several of you have asked me about the environmental education activities

(Forest School, Eco Club, Gardening Club, Master Composting) I get up to, so
this is the first in a series of posts about them. This post is about the Eco
Club I run after school at Compostgirl's Primary school. I hope, as always,
that you find it interesting :-)
Eco Club aims to:- foster an understanding and appreciation of the natural
world; let the children gain a hands on appreciation of what is around them
in real life rather than just watching it on a TV screen; discuss a more
simple, reduced consumption, reused and recycled way of living; and shows
the children how to use natural and recycled materials to make new things so
challenging the concept that "things" can only be made by "other" people
and purchased from a shop.
Eco Club also teaches practical skills such as plant and animal identification,
tracking, gardening and various crafts, and it gets the children out in the
fresh air taking "free range" exercise. All these things help to promote
positive self esteem in the children, caters to their various different multiple
intelligences and encompasses children with different learning styles.
Oh, and did I mention it is FUN? :- ))
So, what is a "typical" Eco Club session like? Our sessions at Eco Club run
after school from 3 15 to 5 pm. Membership is voluntary and we charge a
small termly fee to cover the cost of various memberships. We have so many
children wanting to be in Eco Club (which is nice!) that we have had to hold
two duplicate sessions each month. We usually have around 10- 15 children
in each session, Sue (Yr 2 teacher) and I lead them with a couple of parent
helpers, usually Compostman is one of them, bless him. Sue and I are both
qualified First Aiders, any non teaching staff have CRBs and we take a
register at the start and end of the club to ensure the safety of the children.
We have found mixing children aged from 5 to 11 in a meeting is a really

good thing as the older ones help the younger ones. We duplicate sessions
each month so each group (Ants or Bees) does roughly the same thing as the
other group. We get lots of external support as anRSPB Wildlife Explorers
Club, a Woodland Trust Nature Detectives Club and we have been a Wildlife
Trust Watch group. Each child is an individual member of the RSPB and gets
a magazine every two months as well as various goodies from the Woodland
Trust or RSPB on occasion.
We start with the children getting changed into old clothes in the classroom
(we want everybody to be able to have fun without worrying about getting
cold, hot, wet or mucky so old clothes, warm coats and wellies/sun hats and
sun cream are essential wear. We than have a drink, a snack and a general
chat about what we plan to do in the session; this is also the time for the
children to share any exciting news with the rest of the club, or show a book
or magazine they have found. Sometimes we look at a web site or a DVD
which relates to what is planned for the session. We also talk about what we
would like to do in future sessions and ask the children what they would like
to do.
Unless the weather is really vile, we tend to be outside, starting with a few
environmentally based games (more on those in another post) or just a
general "free run around" time. This is a very important part of the session!
Children who have been in a classroom all afternoon NEED to run around and
let off steam! Then it is on with the activities planned for that session. Eco
Club activities cover a wider range of green interests. For example; we talk
about recycling and make recycled paper (more on that in a later post),

We have planted native hedgerow trees, have made and put up bird feeders
all over the school grounds, have instigated a paper recycling bank at school,

have made bat and bird boxes and erected them around the school,

We have made a hedgehog hibernaculum, we take part in various RSPB and

Woodland Trust events and we make insect shelters in the Autumn. Eco Club
has several raised beds in the school grounds where we grow herbs and
insect attracting plants. We go on regular rambles to see the changing
seasons unfurl around us.

We make a lot of compost as well, bug hunts in the compost heap whilst
turning it is always a VERY popular activity! We have held HUGELY
successful fund raising events, for the RSPB Albatross appeal alone we raised
over 300.
We do a variety of recycled-based crafts.

and a LOT of bird and plant identifying throughout the year and above all we
have FUN.
What we are doing is part of a bigger message, that of living in a more
sustainable way. This encourages the children (and hopefully their families)
to compost, grow veg, recycle etc at home as well as at school. It has
benefited the children in oh so many ways, they all seem to love what we all
do and come up to me in town to tell me so :-)
The school has also benefited in many ways and is now working for the

highest level an Eco School can achieve, the Green Flag award. We have also
won recently won a prestigious Woodland Trust award at Gold Level.
All this is a lot of work! The planning and organising the sessions and
memberships, having meetings and exchanging emails and phone
conversations with Sue to arrange it all, all takes time. I do it as a volunteer
so I don't get paid BUT I enjoy doing it and I love helping the children to see
the wonders of our natural world, as does Compostman. We both feel very
privileged to be able to share our knowledge of the environment with the
next generation and that is worth a lot! I am also lucky enough to have
converted my interest and passion for educating about sustainability/the
environment into a whole new career as a Forest School
Leader/Environmental Educator, all springing from becoming a volunteer
Master Composter and volunteering to garden at school.

Heritage club

Check out these ideas!

Use your heritage expertise:
1. Hold a children's "The way we used to do it" workshop. Ask seniors to show a typical day when they were
children, and include props, costumes and activities.
2. Hold a workshop featuring a speaker on a topic of heritage interest to your community, such as rehabilitation of
industrial buildings for community use, or restoration of Victorian gingerbread architecture.
3. Hold an old-time craft workshop, focusing on quilting, metal working, butter churning or bread making.
4. Conduct a "What is it?" workshop. Invite community residents to bring miscellaneous antique or period items
for identification by an expert (e.g. museum curator, or elder).
5. Arrange a lecture on a specific aspect of local history.
6. Hold a "How to..." session on genealogy, to assist people in tracing their family tree.
7. Set up a "summit meeting" of heritage-interest groups in your community, such as museums, historical groups,
Native Sons & Daughters, genealogical groups and others. Give each a short period to "show and tell" the other
participants about their activities, and allow time and encourage networking' after the presentations.
8. Have a murder mystery weekend with a period theme and costumes.
9. Stage a music recital or other performance, featuring traditional themes, folksongs, and ideally some older
kinds of instruments.

Use your heritage buildings:

10. Hold a traditional tea or meal. Servers could dress in period costume and old-style entertainment may be
offered.
11. Unveil an early photograph of a heritage building, putting it on display in a window or foyer (note this should

be a replica copy-print, keeping the original protected and away from bright light).
12. Arrange a workshop or demonstration of traditional construction, such as arch masonry, wallpapering,
woodworking or decorative crafts.
13. Sponsor a Heritage Show Home. Refurbish an old building for a community purpose, using the services of
designers, heritage professionals, antique dealers and others, and charge admission as a fund-raiser.
Contributions of expertise and materials should be given visible acknowledgment during and after the project.
14. Hold an auction, a party or a reception in a historical location, with special mention of being made of its
history and earlier significance as a place of business or other community service. Perhaps a local scholar or
historian could deliver a brief talk about heritage in your town.
15. Have a contest for the Best-Maintained Heritage Building, and contact local media about the competition.
Local suppliers involved with building materials and services may be willing to donate prize incentives in return
for publicity. Be sure to let your media know who wins, and have a ceremony on the site of the winning building.

Use your local museums:

16. Have a "Museum Day" to highlight your local museum(s). Do some combined promotional materials such as
flyer, media release, and an 11 x 17" poster, and perhaps provide a local radio station with some give-away
admission tickets during Heritage Week.
17. Stage a live historical interpretation using replica costumes or displays.
18. Host a party at a museum with a particular theme, or several related ones, displayed.
19. Have a museum tour especially designed for children, and another for seniors. Include one or more behind
the scenes' opportunities to demonstrate the background preparation that is needed to create displays.

Use your merchant organizations:

20. Merchants could wear costumes during Heritage Week.
21. Create heritage-theme window displays. Long-established businesses could feature the story of their
beginnings and early role in the community.
22. Ask merchants to sponsor a Heritage Treasure Hunt. Clues can be placed in various locations downtown to
attract pedestrian traffic (and sales!).
23. Propose an "old-time prices" promotion during the week: offering a five cent cup of coffee to anyone in
costume, or a 99-cent special on a basic hardware item, or...?
24. Ask merchants to acknowledge Heritage Week on ads, shopping bags, paper placemats, bookmarks, etc.
25. Offer old-fashioned entertainment (barbershop, dixieland, etc,) in-store.

Use your local schools:

26. Sponsor a Heritage Poster contest. You may want to let any topic be chosen, or suggest a certain set of
possible subjects to help focus the creative energy! Do specify the dimensions (say, 38x50cm/15x20"). A thin art
board will be more durable and easier to display than works done on paper. A display venue should be chosen in a library or other publicly accessible indoor space.
27. Inform your local paper about the poster contest and be sure the winning entry is available for publication.
28. Visit local museums and collect ideas for a school play or series of skits.
29. Send invitations to teachers, schoolchildren and parents to help plan and attend your events.

30. Do a parents-and-children costumed walking tour.

Use your local government:

31. Stage a re-enactment of your community's founding or some other important historic event, using the City
Hall or other traditional setting.
32. Encourage council and staff to get into the heritage spirit' by hosting a best costume or hat contest.
33. Suggest your local government holds a Heritage Open House featuring displays of archival materials about
its evolution as an administrative service, including early photos.
34. Stage an outdoor public event with local leaders, such as a torch lighting, ceremonial event, ribbon-cutting,
gun salute, ice-skating party, or...? Use your imagination to tie in with other planned events.
35. Arrange to have government staff celebrate the week by honouring key participants with civic awards.

Use your heritage landscapes:

36. Conduct a landscape walking tour.
37. Go for a hike, snowshoe, cross-country ski, jog, horseback ride or ice skate along a historic trail or corridor.
This could also be organized as a pet walk!
38. Re-enact a historic outdoor activity, like a sleight trip from homestead to town, an ice-fishing festival.
39. Referring to historic photos, go and find the photographer's original viewpoint and see what has changed.
Take new photos, trying to match the early view as closely as possible - and then plan on a show!
40. Hold a heritage Winter Garden or landscape festival.
41. Put on a fireworks display (expensive but a crowd pleaser; encourage some local sponsors).

Use your historical facts:

42. Have a Street Names Contest, where the origins of old street names have to be guessed (for example,
Sparkle-plenty Road, for the first suffragette).
43. Hold a Heritage Trivia Contest: invite a cross-section of the community and divide participants into teams.
They guess the answers to questions about local history. Prizes or trophies add to the fun.
44. Set up a Matching Contest, with participants attempting to match old photos with present-day ones (this could
include viewing the results of doing Idea 39!). Trees, houses, pioneers, monuments, etc.
45. Arrange special radio, local cable TV or newspaper interviews during Heritage Week.
46. Organize a special tea party with reading excerpts taken from local histories.

Use your community pride:

47. Organize a clean-up spree at a heritage site, or elsewhere in your community.
48. Hold a meeting to plan a warmer-weather work bee to accomplish a special project, such as painting a
community-owned heritage building, landscaping an important site, or making a replica item for use in a local
museum display.
49. Make plans to plant trees in the spring at a special site commemoration the pioneers or other ancestors of
your area. Different individuals can do the research into stories, tree species that would be best to use and their

costs, fund-raising, generating media interest in the project, contacting local officials about a site, etc. By the time
the next Heritage Week arrives, you'll have a new location to use for special presentations!

Use your costumes in your attic:

50. Have a Costume Ball, with proceeds for a worthy cause.
51. Hold a Heritage Fashion Show. It could be either "fun" using made-up costumes, or "serious" using accurate
reproductions based on museum items. Consider a specific era.
52. Have a Heritage Dress Up day at school.
53. Put on a Heritage Fashion Contest, with theme' prizes.
54. Arrange a Heritage Fashion Swap meet.
55. Invite a portrait photographer with a costume inventory to set up in a special venue such as a mall or heritage
site.
56. Have a guys-and-gals Heritage Bathing Suit Contest (at the local pool?).
57. Do a Heritage Hat Contest.

Use your large indoor spaces:

58. Set up a multi-museum display featuring local museums, historical associations and other heritage-related
groups.
59. Hold an antique sale, inviting antique shops to participate and gain publicity.
60. Arrange a display of vintage cars or older farm equipment.
61. Set up a Treasures from the Past Flea Market. Invite seniors, in particular, to select items from their attic
they're willing to let go. Ideally they can be on hand to chat about what they bring.
62. Hold a Heritage Homes event. Feature restoration displays, replica items, antiques, salvage goods, etc. Invite
shops and tradespeople doing restoration, sales and services.
63. Hold a heritage Winter Garden or landscape festival.

Use your community talent:

64. Have an Art or Photography Contest using heritage as the theme. Display the entries in a secure, accessible
place. Adapt appropriate liability clauses and other details from other contests, and have a designated
coordinator.
65. Have an Essay Contest. Ask your local newspaper to commit to publishing the winner or to the best entries.
66. Arrange a Heritage Model Contest, with different groups or school classes building models of how your
community used to be, or interesting specific heritage subjects.
67. Have a Window Painting Contest, with a heritage theme and prizes for the best.
68. In consultation with local municipal advisors about locations and washable materials, have a Sidewalk
Painting Contest (and take pictures)!

Use your written records:

69. Have a local author read excerpts and talk about their work
70. Your local library can feature local history books in a window or display case, possibly in combination with
entries from a children's drawing contest depicting some aspect of local history.
71. Have a book exchange, perhaps with a focus on books printed over 50 years ago for example.
72. Sort through old family journals, diaries, photos and other material, organizing it chronologically and ensuring
the items are safely stored away from humidity, temperature extremes or dust.

Use this opportunity:

73. Inventory the resources of interest to your community. Invite people to come and register special items, such
as quilts, old farm equipment, fossil collections, items known to have been transported to your town by wagon,
steam trains or Cape Horn clippers! Ideally the items-would be accessible, by arrangement, to researchers or
during tours.
74. Publicize your group's activities and accomplishments on behalf of you town.
75. Join forces with other groups to hold a week-long festival. Each would take turns to sponsor a theme dinner
representing traditional fare of the many cultures that have been established in the province.
76. Have a few spirited volunteers dress as historical characters to greet people on the street; one could be
appointed as Town Crier.

Use your team spirit:

77. Coordinate a "for fun only" sporting event. Teams could represent a cross-section of the community, such as
local government, heritage professionals, business people and volunteers. Players could be in older styled outfits
or costumes; old-style entertainment could be arranged, and proceeds if any could go toward a specific local
heritage project.
78. Organize a "Heritage Cup" sporting event, like a hockey game, soccer or volleyball match). Have appropriate
half-time' entertainment of a heritage nature.

Use your old-style hospitality:

79. Have a "Heritage Handshake Day" for neighbouring communities. Invite your neighbours to come and see
how things are done in your community. Open houses, special business discounts and informal information
sessions could all be part of giving your neighbours the "keys" to your town.
80. Hold a Pioneer, Elders or Seniors "Appreciation Day". Pay tribute to long-time residents by providing special
discounts on this day, entertainment that will appeal to them, and other features. Ensure some special activities
are held in community nursing homes. A simple skit re-enacting an important moment in local history may be
something you can present and would no doubt be fun to do!

Use your culinary skills:

81. Hold a cooking contest. Invite entries for a trademark' food item in which the winning entry will become the
community's official recipe. Judging could be done by area pioneers or local dignitaries, and the food item could
be given a special title, like the Anytown Heritage Hamburger! This could be expanded into a longer project to
prepare a collection of heritage recipes for publication next Heritage Week, either as a booklet or through your
local newspaper.
82. Hold a sale or dinner featuring the traditional foods of your community.
83. Put on a mutli-cultural Food Fair with the foods of the various ethnic groups that have populated your
community over the years. The greater the diversity the better!

84. Coordinate an "old-time value" sale on traditional foods at local restaurants. Ask restaurants to feature one
traditional dish itself is full-price, a five-cent cup of coffee or similar item may be offered.
85. Hold a pancake breakfast, a hot dog roast, or other community meal. Look for old-fashioned recipes
especially, and use stoneground flour for the pancakes!

Use your historic downtown:

86. Organize a Heritage Parade. Encourage entries to have a heritage theme. Invite local heritage groups, clubs,
bands, museums, and vintage car collectors to participate, in addition to the community at large.
87. Arrange a Costume Promenade. Invite the community to tour the historic area, with costumes on participants,
and guides as much as possible, displays at various stops along the way, musicians, re-enactments on street
corners or in town parks, and refreshments to help make a simple tour a happening'.
88. If your local climate is practical for an outdoor concert during Heritage Week, feature a string quartet, jazz
ensemble, or similar group playing some standard favourites!
89. Honour long-time family businesses with a community service certificate or similar award, and seek media
coverage of their stories.
90. Stage a non-time "salute" to the community. Invite the local leadership to light a torch or cut a ribbon every
year to open Heritage Week activities.

ommunity Connections
Take Your Learning Beyond the Classroom
1.

Read, Review, and Recommend: Partner with a local library to create a display of Hispanic heritagethemed books. Have each student select a book and write a short review to be displayed at the library.

2.

A Day in the Life of Our Class: Share your classroom culture by creating a web page filled with photos
and captions.

3.

Plant a Memory Forest: Plant a tree in your community for each Hispanic hero your class selects. Tag
each tree with a mini biography highlighting that hero's contributions.

4.

Ecudorian Migajon Miniatures: Students can create tiny animals, flowers, and people just like artisans
in Ecuador do. To make the dough, each student will knead one slice of white bread, crust removed, with one
tablespoon of white glue. The dough will be quite sticky at first but will become manageable with kneading. Mold
the dough into tiny shapes and allow to air-dry overnight. Decorate with acrylic paint and display!

5.

Ponce Carnival Masks: Bring the vivid colors of Puerto Rican Carnival to your classroom with
traditional papier-mch masks of red, yellow, and black. Begin with one large paper plate for each student.
Thinking of the plate as the face of a clock, cut 2-inch slits at 2 o'clock, 6 o'clock, and 10 o'clock. Overlap the
edges of the slits and affix with tape to make the mask 3-D. Cut two holes for eyes. Add horns to the mask by
rolling small sheets of poster board into cones and attaching them with tape. Using a thin paste of water and flour
and strips of newspaper, cover the mask with 3-4 layers of papier-mch. Once the mask is dry, bring it to life
with brightly colored paint and traditional patterns of dots. Then take your masks on parade!

6.

Papeles Picados: Add a festive touch to the classroom with traditional Mexican punched papers called
papeles picados. Fold thin construction paper in a variety of colors into quarters, eighths, cone style, or fan style
to achieve a variety of looks. Use scissors and hole punches to create a perforated pattern. Hang the completed
papers along a string using tape.

7.

Zapotec Rug Paintings: When there's not enough time to weave, recreate these beautiful geometric
rugs from Mexico using paint. Begin with a sheet of poster board for each student. Using rulers and pencils, draw
zigzag, stair-step, and straight lines across the poster board. Incorporate angular shapes such as diamonds and
triangles. Once the pencil layout is complete, use poster paints or markers to fill in the design.

8.

Grow a Heritage Garden: Plant staple crops common in many Spanish-speaking countries, such as
corn, beans, squash, and peppers. Have students keep a log tracking the growth of the various plants. Extend
the project by researching staple foods of other regions.

9.

The Air We Share: Monitor the daily air-quality index for your city (available at Airnow.gov). Have
students study the results and look for trends. What are small actions we can take to help improve air quality for
everyone on the planet?

10.

Try Your Luck: Play a simple Mexican game called Toma Todo. Create six-sided tops and have
students spin them to see if they have to take or contribute chips into the pot. Whoever scores the most chips
wins!

11.

Adopt a City: Select a world city to "adopt," such as your city's international sister city. Display photos
of people and places, as well as a clock set to the local time. Have students report on local news events.

12.

My Home Country: Celebrate diversity in your classroom by inviting ELL students to share photos of
their hometowns, important cultural items, and basic phrases in their native language.

13.

What's Your Heritage?: Ask students to investigate their own heritage and report back to the class on
the origins of their ancestors. Graph the results and discuss how the class reflects, or differs from, city, state, and
national demographic statistics. For current census data, visit the United States Census Bureau.

14.

Aztec Math: Spice up a math review activity by replacing the Arabic numerals with Aztec numbers.

15.

International Outfits: Do you know how far your clothes traveled before they even reached the store
where you bought them? Have students inventory the items they are wearing and the country of origin for each
item. What is the total number of miles for each student? For the entire class?

16.

My Spanish Dictionary: Have the class create a lively illustrated dictionary of Spanish words, complete
with visual or verbal memory tricks for remembering words' meanings.

17.

Label Maker: Give pairs of students a pad of sticky notes and a Spanish-English dictionary. Play festive
music while students label everything in the classroom with a bilingual label. When the music stops, have
students take a tour of the room and practice the new words.

18.

World Alphabet Collection: Gather newspaper clippings or online printouts showcasing scripts from
other languages. Create a special bulletin board celebrating the myriad of ways people write. An excellent
resource is Omniglot.com.

19.

Play Color, Colorcito: In this traditional Spanish street game, the child who is "It" says "color, colorato"
("color, little color") and then the name of a color. Everyone must run to touch something that color in order to be
"safe." If It tags a player, he or she becomes the new It and play continues.

20.

Move to the Beat: Reenergize students between activities with a Latin dance party. Play selections of
tango, merengue, folk music, or Tex-Mex and ask students to feel the differences in the beat as they move their
bodies.

21.

Can You Read Mayan? Introduce students to the ancient Mayan alphabet and ask each student to
write his or her name in Mayan glyphs on a sheet of paper. Collect all the sheets, then give each student a sheet
to decode.

22.

Write Your Own Folktale: Read one of the many traditional folktales from Spanish-speaking countries
and then write new stories based on the traditions of these tales.

23.

Our Heritage Album: Compile a class album of significant Hispanic Americans throughout history
featuring lots of drawings, invented memorabilia, and simulated newspaper clippings. Browse theSmithsonian's
Hispanic Heritage Teaching Resources or take your kids to the virtual Smithsonian's Latino Center's Kid's
Corner for inspiration for your album.

24.

Musical Stories: Give students the beginning paragraph of a traditional folktale, and then play a
selection of Spanish music to inspire them to write the end of the story. Is the music sad or happy? On what kind
of occasion would this music be played?

Communication Skills

Teamwork and Team Building

Leadership Qualities

Negotiation Skills

Time Management

Basic Grooming and Business Etiquette

Problem Solving & Decision Making

Stress Management

Creativity & Innovation

Dealing with Difficult People