Van Mahotsav, a week long festival of tree planting is organized every year in the first week of July across India when millions of trees are planted. This movement was initiated in the year 1950 by India@aps@s Union Minister for Agriculture, Kulapati Dr. K M Munshi. The celebration of Van Mahotsav Week at GIIS Noida was an ideal opportunity to instill personal and social responsibility in our students towards safeguarding trees and forests. The focus of these celebrations is towards forming a personal connect between the students and trees through a process of experience, reflection and creation. To celebrate the Festival of trees called Van Mahotsav primary students of GIIS Noida participated in various activities conducted in a week long event.

Activity 1 - Slogan writing competition (2nd July’15) - Grade VI Chart papers sheets were provided to the students and they were told to bring decorative material to do the slogan writing. Children showed a lot of enthusiasm. Students came up with beautiful and inspiring slogans relating to plants and the earth. Ms. Beena and Ms. Shazia took the efforts to judge the slogans. The award winning students are I - Adwitiya Singh, II - Rajshibhu Pandey, III - Megha Singla.

Activity 2 - Special Assembly (3rd July’15) - Grade III-B and students of Eco Club pitched in together to present a Special Assembly dedicated to Van Mahotsav. The flow of event was

a) Morning prayer song
b) Speech on importance of van mahotsav supported by a presentation
c) Song on trees
d) Play on chipko movement flowed by narration on Chipko movement
e) Pledge

Activity 3 - Inter House Quiz Competition - (6th July’15 ) - Grades VII & VIII - Four student from each house was selected by the house masters to participate in the quiz competition. The topics covered in the quiz are as follows.

• Information regarding Van Mahotsav
• Plant physiology
• Amazing world of plants
• General questions relating to plants.
The Quiz comprised of three rounds
• Direct round
• Bonus round
• Rapid fire round

Students participated enthusiastically. Hibiscus house emerged as the winning house and chrysanthemum house took the second lead.

Activity 4 - Inter house poster making competition (7th July’15) - grade IV & V - To promote environmental awareness Student of grade IV & V had participated in poster making competition on this occasion. Four students from each house (two from each grade) were selected by the house masters. Two groups from each house were made. Chart papers were provided to the students Each group had made their poster on Tittle ‘Amazing world of plants’. All groups had depicted different ideas on various aspects of plant life. The first prize was bagged by hibiscus house, second by orchid and third by chrysanthemum house. Overall this activity was very informative.

Activity 5 - Exhibition (10th July’15) - Grade I - VIII - this was the final phase of week long celebration of Van Mahotsav. The work compiled by the students as their holiday homework, which was designed around the theme of Van Mahotsav was put up on display. Thus it turned about to be a grand event involving all the grade from I till VIII. The work display was as follows.

• Grade I - Taking care of small potted plant
• Grade II - Preparation of collage using dried flowers.
• Grade III - Growing plant in waste plastic containers.
• Grade IV - Spice route
• Grade V - Medicinal plants
• Grade VI - Rain water harvesting
• Grade VII - Best out of waste
• Grade VIII - Organic food.

Van Mahotsav week came up to be a great success. The event helped to bring awareness about the green cover around us. It also helped in strengthening the bond between plants and human. Students got to learn a lot and will always cherish the memories of this important occasion.