Our little Eric Carle fans enjoyed starting off the WordPlay session today with another gem – ‘Rooster’s Off to See the World’. It was fun counting together and discussing about the adventurer group accompanying the rooster on his journey around the word.Today we also explored an absolutely beautiful book from Tulika Publishers this morning, appropriate for the season – ‘Rain Drops’ from Tulika Books. Kids could practically experience a rainy day through the simple and realistic narration by Vaishali Shroff and delightful water color illustrations by Ruchi Mhasane. It was fun listening to the guesses from the little ones about the shapes sketched by the rain drops on the window glass. Tuning into the magic of nature is indeed an important skill to be nurtured, especially in this era of technology invasion.

It is said that children are taking less interest in nature and taking care of the environment these days. However, it was a refreshing change to see that the budding naturalists attending the session at Schoolkutti.com Children’s Library by Sri Suresh Elamon were quite passionate and curious about the wonders of nature. Suresh Elamon (a famous naturalist, wildlife photographer/film maker, conservationist and popular writer in English and Malayalam) interacted with the children & parents and shared some unique moments captured by his camera. His short films screened were HOME – OUR GARDEN OF EDEN (30 MIN) shot at his home and one at Periyar Tiger Reserve called WILD PERIYAR (25 mnts).

A percentage of the admission fee collected for the ‘Wonders of Nature’ program was contributed to a needy family. Sharing a picture of Suresh Elamon Sir handing over the same to Ms.Parvathy Gopan and children.

Bina Maria Mathews of Bee’s Tales conducted a wonderful storytelling program for tiny tots who came with their parents to Schoolkutti.com Children’s Library on 21 July. The story she chose was ‘Where Is Gola’s Home?’ from Tulika Books. Kids absolutely enjoyed listening to this adorable story and participating as actors. This book introduces many new concepts for the children in an easy-to-understand manner. The lovely props also really helped to spice up the storytime. Everyone had fun singing rhymes together and making the ice stick craft afterwards.

We believe that children should have varied exposure to enable them to see the world in new ways, hence we try to invite experts from every area to interact with kids. These days, children are spending less time outdoors than ever before. We hope such workshops will teach them about nature—and maybe even inspire them to protect it. Engaging with nature, being wildlife-savvy and engaging in hobbies like nature photography will definitely help them come out of the virtual world and understand their place in the world.

We are delighted to announce a unique informative session for all vibrant young naturalists! Schoolkutti.com Children’s Library presents an interactive program on the wonders of nature (includes screening of award winning short film and lecture)

The program is to be facilitated by Sri Suresh Elamon (A naturalist, wildlife photographer/film maker, conservationist and popular writer in English and Malayalam)

Age: No age restrictions (seats to be reserved in advance)
Date: July 28 (Saturday)
Time: 4:15 to 6 PM
Venue: Schoolkutti.com Children’s Library, Vellayambalam, Trivandrum

Call 0471-4015293 or 9847320281 for registrations.

Sri Suresh Elamon is a famous naturalist, wildlife photographer/film maker, conservationist and popular writer in English and Malayalam. His illustrated articles on butterflies of Kerala published in a leading Malayalam daily in 1988 popularized butterfly watching in Kerala. His stint with the BBC Natural History Unit while they were in Kerala for capturing some sequences for David Attenborough series Life of Birds & Land of the Tiger series inspired him to take up wildlife filming in 2000. He has made several documentaries on Kerala’s biodiversity.

His short film “In Quest of the Frogmouth’s Nest” was a finalist in the BBC Wildscreen 2002 Film festival & Bird Film Festival, Abbeville, France 2003.

The film “Angels in Tigerland” on the butterflies of Periyar Tiger Reserve bagged the Award for Best Cinematography in 4th CMS Vatavaran Film Festival 2007, New Delhi. It was also BEST FESTIVAL FILM, KIRLOSKAR VASUNDHARA FILM FESTIVAL 2009, PUNE.

The film ‘HOME – OUR GARDEN OF EDEN’ was the Best Children’s Film in Vatavaran 2011 and it also bagged the GOLDEN BEAVER AWARD in the RASHTRIYA CHALACHITRA MELA, Indian Science Congress 2012.

Suresh Elamon’s latest short film Kananam, The Spirit of Silent Valley, documents the wealth of the Silent Valley National Park and also the struggle to save it from the axe.

PC Sri. Suresh Elamon

It was raining stories at Schoolkutti during the World Play session this weekend. Our little readers loved the brave little bear in ‘Bear’s Magic Moon’ from ‘Igloo Books’. We enjoyed acting out the characters from another lovely book ‘Bobby Knows Best’ by Katherine Sully. Then, we cosied up together to read this wonderful picture book “So Cosy” by Lerryn Korda.

At Schoolkutti, we had Aswins Jacob (Scientist,ISRO) facilitating the second session of the Science Workshop. We explored some fun facts through interesting science experiments – such as how sun’s radiation can be concentrated to create a hot spot at the focus using a magnifying glass, why light refraction makes a pencil appear bent in water, magnetism and lots more.

Creative Writing Workshop session 2 in the series of workshops to be conducted by Schoolkutti focused on the aspects of Short story writing. The session was facilitated by Ms Anitha S. It included information on the technical knowledge as well as the practical skills in the art of story writing. The session was attended by 15 students from different schools in Thiruvananthapuram. The different elements of a short story were discussed in detail and the participants were given a prompt for a story and were asked to develop it into a well knit short story. The level of enthusiasm shown by the students was very inspiring.

This weekend, we enjoyed this wonderful book ‘Lunch Friends’ by Srividhya Venkat and beautifully illustrated by Shailja Jain Chougule, which encourages kids to pay attention to and enjoy birds. All the little ones were eager to make some new lunch friends around their homes. We also agreed that cutting down trees is really bad, surely we do not want our best friends to suffer.
Call 0471-4015293 or email schoolkutti@gmail.com to book your seat.