Monthly Archives: March 2019
Monkeying around – Storytime at Schoolkutti
“Kids learnt about body parts, adjectives and some interesting jungle vocabulary during our WordPlay story time last weekend.
It was based on the charming and humorous book ‘Monkey Puzzle’ by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, an all-time favourite with children.The butterfly is keen to help the poor little monkey who has lost his mom and they meet lots of other animals along the way before they finally succeed.
The monkey making craft was a huge hit with children. We had a fun counting lesson through the rhyme ‘Five little monkeys jumping on the bed””, as the five bouncy little monkeys bump their heads and get hauled off to the doctor one by one. During our free reading time, kids enjoyed reading some fantastic books – chosen by them of course. As we had an energetic group of kids, there as a lot of monkey business as well 🙂
”
Boom in home-grown books
by Seema Richard, Co-founder, Schoolkutti.com Children’s Library
(First Published in the Facebook Group ‘Her Trivandrum’)
When my friends and I started a private library for children at Trivandrum in 2013, our collection included mostly children’s literature by Western authors. Books of Indian origin were mostly limited to Panchatantra, folk tales, Tinkle and Amarchithra Katha series. Later on, I chanced upon some titles from Indian Publishers, which really appealed to me. First of all, our children can connect their every day experiences with the ‘Indianness’ in these stories. There are several books like ‘Talking Of Muskaan’ from Duckbill and ‘A Pair of Twins’ from Karadi Tales which make children think about social injustices and question cultural stereotypes, which I feel is the need of the hour. Also, there are some really good books that make children sensitive and accepting towards differently-abled and special-needs children like ‘Simply Nanju’ from Duckbill and ‘Vibhuti Cat’, and ‘A walk with Thambi’ from Tulika Publishers. Now, we have acquired a decent collection of books from popular Indian publishers including Pratham Books, CBT, Tulika, Dukbill, MsMoochie, Karadi tales and Tara books.
Books, which are written in rhyme and rhythm, with stunning illustrations like ‘Gajapati Kulapati’ from Tulika and ‘Ramu’s ride’ from MsMoochie are a big hit with the little ones who visit our library. For our storytelling and reading sessions, we always include these home-grown books and children keep asking for more.
#MsMoochie #Tulika #Pratham #Duckbill #KaradiTales #Schoolkutti #ChildrensLibrary #TaraBooks #CBT #IndianBooks #ChildrensBooksFromIndianPublishers
WordPlay Updates – So Cosy
We had some captivating stories and wonderful games during our WordPlay session today. Children had a cosy time with our facilitator Saranya narrating the story from the book ‘So Cosy’. Such a darling book, our kids loved it! We also picked a craft activity that fits with the book. Doing art and crafts in storytime gives kids an opportunity to practice early literacy skills and also interact with other children. We also read a Malayalam story from the Russian book by Sutyev.
Rhyme time
Engaging with young readers
Getting cosy
Doggie craft is so much fun
Magic of Stories – March 2 WordPlay Updates
Yesterday’s WordPlay was very special as we also included stories and discussion based on books in Malayalam.
We chose the Malayalam version of the book ‘I’m so sleepy’ about Bahadur, the little elephant, who has forgotten how to sleep.Worried, and very, very sleepy he goes to his animal friends for help. But they all sleep in their own different ways — elephants don’t sleep like that! We shared this adorable children’s book with the little ones and then thoroughly enjoyed re-creating Bahadur through a fun craft activity. Had fun playing the game ‘oru meen poyi , randu meen poyi….. 10 meenine pidiche ‘ – it’s a great way to get young kids to focus on counting in malayalam.
In English, the ‘The Mixed-Up Chameleon’ by Eric Carle was an instant hit with the children. This book attempts to educate children on the differences between various animals by presenting a morally enlightening story that features a chameleon. We also enjoyed singing some fantastic songs in both languages. Finally, each of them was sitting with a book of his/her choice going through the pictures or reading. We are definitely making progress in developing early literacy skills, imagination and a love for books in these children.