Walk to school week

When the school reopens after the summer vacation, the first week is generally a ‘light’ week. Knowing the new classroom, new teachers, new books and some new friends. The load on your back may not be as heavy as it is during the rest of the year. So why don’t you take a walk to the school?

This is for those who reside within a kilometer around the school and get dropped at the school by bikes and cars.
We know that the kids who take the school bus or van cannot do it.

But what does it bring to you?
A leisurely chat on way and back with your friends and parents.
A simple but energising exercise.
Save some fuel.
Save some pocket money.
And some fun observing the streets.

For the young reporters of YOCee, a lot of story ideas!

If you find this interesting, why not take a walk to the school for a week in every term?

Post your comments!

Do you own your street?

Do your own your street?
Let me put the question in another way – do you love your street?
Then what do we do to keep it clean?
There are dust bins put up by the cleaning agents of the city, Neel Metal Fanalca and Chennai Corporation almost in all the colonies.
But how much litter is found near the dust bins? May be more than what is inside!
How many of us throw the chocolate wrappers on the road while walking and through the window while travelling in car?
Imagine if the Corporation workers would just pick the litter from the bins and not from the streets.
Imagine no litter pickers pick up the plastic from the roads.
The road would be full of litter, but the bins would be clean!

So how about summer volunteering for our own streets?

Choose a car park in an apartment in your area and gather the public, children and the maids working in the colony and tell them why they should not be dropping litter on the road, but put them on to the bin.
You may not earn pocket money for this but I am sure you will earn a lot of goodwill!

In Manchester, England, as part of the Own Your Streets scheme, litter collectors won’t be cleaning up the streets on Thursdays! Read more here!

Comments

1. May 24, 2009 @ 2:11 pm, by P.S.Nandini

   Even in our school the van children used to throw chips covers and wrappers out of the window even when the van was parked outside the school. they didn’t listen when some of us told them not to.. so we requested our vice-principal to make an announcement regarding this.

2. June 20, 2009 @ 8:37 pm, by sivaraman

   We have another problem in our street that is the
   shop workers and construction labours and others use the street corners and open grounds as open toilet. It makes the streets unhygenic as well as smelly.

YOCee on Express Indulge

Here is how Reshma Iqbal of Indulge, the Friday supplement of The New Indian Express (Chennai Edition) looks at www.yocee.in

Click on the image to read from the enlarged picture.

Safety drive in schools

A few schools in Kolkata join hands to maintain vigil on theie campuses through volunteer groups. The senior students of the schools will be part of the team.

A few school students, the scouts and guides helped the police regulate traffic and keep a watch on the security during the recently held temple festivals in Mylapore.
Do they volunteer to do the same in their own campuses?
Will this initiative Kolkata has shown, be followed by schools in other cities?

Which language do you speak at home?

When we Indian speak in Englishg even at home, England finds more kids speaking languages other than English in their schools.

The reason they say is more kids are from other countries. Even the Govt. is giving extra money to schools where lots of languages are spoken.

They say they don’t want kids to be at a disadvantage at school because they don’t speak English at home.

Read the story…

Design a symbol for Indian Currency

The major currencies across the world have definite symbols.
But the Indian currency is written with the prefix Rs. So why not a symbol for our currency?

The Finance Ministry of Govt. on India has announced a contest for designing the symbol for Indian Rupee.
Open to only Indian nationals.
Last date to submit the design – April 15, 2009.

Five entries shall be shortlisted for final selection. The shortlisted Designers would be required to make a presentation to the Jury and would be awarded a prize of Rs.25,000/- each.
The designer of the finally selected design will get a prize of Rs.250, 000/-
Spread the word across. Hey, you too could submit a design!

All the details of the contest is here

Summer : time for camps or jobs?

Summer vacation is India is really hot. And you difinitely need a break and rest to re-energise yourself for the next academic year.

But all play (or TV all the time?!) and no work also make you dull! So the Summer Camps are here to stay as they are preferred by parents.

You learn something new in a fun way at these summer camps. They are also cool places to link up with new friends outof your regular school circle.
But what do you do after these camps? If you had learnt an art or a craft or to make paper planes, how long do you put this knowledge to use?
I had come across two friends who conducted a painting camp for younger kids during the holidays after their 10th standard Board exams. Just for fun and enjoyment! At the end of the camp, the ’students’ presented their ‘teachers’ a lovely gift by pooling money from their savings and that was a wonderful idea I thought!

In the West, kids pick up summer jobs. There are laws on what job the kids can do and how long, etc.,
In India, the law prohibits kids below 14 years to work for money.
If not a job for money, how about an internship on stipend?
If you want to take up a job this summer, what would you like to do?

Share your thoughts with YOCee!

Perhaps the readers of YOCee have an interesting assignment for you!