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.

Career orientation session by LMonk and Viza International at schoolkutti

Enabling a child to speak with confidence, engage an audience and, above all, to believe in themselves are absolutely fundamental to their development, and to their future success in life. Schoolkutti.com Children’s Library in associated with HelenOGrady International is conducting Grady’s Super Skill Program at the library premises. The techniques employed by its specially trained staff are specifically designed to build a child’s confidence, self-esteem and communication skills, all of which will play a key role in their future development – and all in a fun way! Parents have been telling us how much the children look forward to attending the sessions. Here are a few glimpses from the program.

We sang some songs, we shared some tales, we learnt new words and we made new friends while having LOTS of fun! Join us next week for another session of non-stop fun!

Sharing a love of words.

It is such a delight to see the kids reading independently and with enthusiasm.

At Schoolkutti.com Children’s Library, we believe all children should have the chance to enjoy the benefits of tapping into their inner creativity. That is why we have collaborated with HelenO’Grady, the world clas drama academy. Their drama classes are dedicated to making that happen, so every child can shine. The Super Skill Program kicked off on June 8 (saturday morning) at the library. Children had a lovely time expressing, acting out and learning to be more confident and creative – and all in a fun way!
Thanks, HelenO’Grady team, for making this happen!

We absolutely enjoy what we do on saturday mornings at the library – stories, songs and games with the bubbly little ones. This saturday we kicked off our ‘Word Play’ session with a cute little story – ‘in Where’s That Cat’ by Manjula Padmanabhan. It is one of those books that makes your smile grow bigger as you move from page to page savoring the delightful illustrations. All the kids joined Minnie in her search for Pooni- it was such fun trying to spot that naughty cat in each page.