(By Keshav Ramamurthy, V Grade Student, ILP Volunteer)

Day 1: 2/5/2016: On the first day, we came and we needed to set up many things such as the computer, projector etc. After setting these up, batch-by-batch the children started coming, so we needed to set them in straight lines and make them sit in a row. We anticipated that there will be more Tamil than Oriya students, and we will be able to communicate easily. But, out of a 100 students, only 7 were Tamil, the rest 93 were Oriya or Hindi! This was a problem as we couldn’t communicate easily, but Bitika Aunty, talked to each of the children in Oriya and asked their names. For the first session of the morning we had nursery rhymes for all of the children. For example; Roly Poly, Skeleton Dance. We also made them dance to these songs using the speaker. Then they went for their break and we (the volunteering children) set up the height and weight stand. We decided to use paper and write their names in English, height, and weight and we made them put their fingerprints and (if they could) write their name in Oriya. We made drawings with the fingerprints. Meanwhile, we were showing the healthy habits, good diet etc., and they played passing the ball. Then after that we packed and we left. Their homework was to create a drawing at the back of their cards.

Day 2: 3/5/2016

There was a major disadvantage on the second day. We didn’t have power! So we continued with nursery rhymes while the other volunteering children and I started getting the experiments ready. It was really hot so we had to keep on drinking water. Our experiments were: Straw Flute, Color Mixer, Irremovable Plungers, Moving Balloon on string, Balloon Rocket and Balloon Bottle. After a while, the children came to see our experiments, the straw flute was the most popular as they were getting free straw flutes to blow on! The children stayed a long time and we also waited for a long time to give each and every one of them a straw flute, then they started dancing to Tamil songs in the room near us. After that they came and each one of them collected a smiley badge, soap, chocolates and combs. Then we all left.