Scrabble Camp
“We enjoyed keeping the children creatively engaged at the Scrabble camp last week at Schoolkutti. They had great fun challenging their friends, improving their vocabulary and sharpening their spellings.
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The Grand Finale was exciting and super fun – it kept the kids on their toes as they constantly tried to come up with new words to win the game. Thanks to Saranya for guiding the children and also making the workshop so interesting.
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 🙂
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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.
Old post on summer camps – 2019
Looking for exciting summer activity programs for children at Trivandrum? In the summer of 2019, Trivandrum is coming up with an impressive range of activity camps promising all round development and entertainment for children of various ages.
We will be listing summer camps for 2019 here.
Best Summer Camps of Trivandrum in 2019
MathsOne Academy is presenting the First Ever Math Summer Workshop at Chandrasekharan Nair Stadium, Trivandrum for 5 to 12 years old children with a lot of fun packed learning activities.
The participants will get a chance to Understand & Love Mathematics during the 5 days spent with MathsOne’s Child-Centric Experts. It’s all about kindling the fire of curiosity to understand Math in the young minds.
Highlights: Activities based on Metric Skills, Mental Math, Puzzles & Syllogism, Real Life Math, Logical Reasoning, Rubik’s Cube and much more.
Click here for more details on the MathOne Summer Camp
Bambino International Montessori School, Jawahar Nagar, Kowdiar is coming up with a Summer Camp (10 am to 1 pm) where Yoga, Fun-filled activities like Dance, Music, Cooking without fire, Brain Teasers, fun maths and many more activities will be included.
Click here for more details on the Bambino Summer Camp
Wiggles Summer Camp is back with a bang. They have a wide variety of activities and fun in areas like Sports and Martial Arts, Art and Craft, health, personality development and so on.
Click here to enquire about the Wiggles Summer Camp
Continuum – The Learning Hub is coming up with a Life Skills Camp for 11 to 15 year olds covering English, Technology, Handwriting, Self Defence, Self Awareness and Empathy, Films, Banking, Heritage, Art and Craft, Artificial Intelligence, Malayalam, Science & Math, Pronunciation, Public Speaking and Declamation Skills, Story Telling, Theatrics, Adolescence, Legal Awareness and Satellite Projects.
Click here for more details on the Continuum Summer Camp
Paadashala invites you to come and check out their unique summer camp. They also offer daycare services from 8 AM to 8 PM.
Click here to enquire about the Paadashala Summer Camp
Looking for Spoken English and Handwriting Classes? Veta English Training Academy is coming up with Summer Hangama 2019 !! Veta offers Summer classes for children from 6 years to 17 years. Spoken english & Handwriting courses will be there. Call 9349495111 for details.
Click here for more details on the Veta Summer Camp
Summer chess camps engage children in intellectual pursuit while building social skills. If you are looking for professional chess coaching for your kids, Capablanca Chess Camp is a good choice.
Click here to find out more about the Capablanca Summer Camp
Masters Chess Academy, Manacaud is also coming up with a summer camp for young players to learn the secrets of the mind game.
Click here to enquire about the Masters Chess Academy Summer Camp
Keep your kids busy, active, joyful and mindful by providing an opportunity to learn new life-enhancing skills through Yoga based Summer Camps from YogaPlus.
Click here to enquire about the YogaPlus Summer Camp
Discover science through fun filled, engaging and quirky experiments like cooking up an elephant’s ice cream , designing a Venus Rover and exploring water based rocket engines. No rote learning involved. Learn science without actually learning it. SchoolMynd is back with their fabulous science camp for kids.
Click here for gathering more details on the SchoolMynd Summer Camp
The Summer Program 2019 at LA.learningalternatives is an extension of they we do through the year, which is to explore ways of making learning interesting, meaningful and fun for children. They do that though storytelling, theatre, projects, science experiments, arts and more. This year, Tholpavakoothu and Terracotta modelling workshops are among the many unique learning experiences that they have designed for children.
While the main part of our camp is in April, the workshops are in March and May. In the evenings, they also have a camp for children with special needs.
Click here for gathering more details on the LA Camp
For parents who are looking for something that’s educational, creative, and, above all… FUN, developmental drama classes by HelenO’Grady International Drama Academy will be the perfect choice. Their classes are offered to students of different age groups with an objective of developing self esteem, self confidence, personality and enhance the communication skills, creativity, imagination, social skills, etc.
Click here to enquire.
If your institution is coming up with an interesting summer camp, please email the details to schoolkutti@gmail.com. For enquiries, please contact 8606405917 or 9847320281.
Child Safety
“Thanks to Bina Maria Mathews (Bees Tales) for the wonderful way in which she equipped children with the knowledge and understanding they need to stay safe from any kind of abuse.
Children were encouraged to speak out if they felt worried about any uncomfortable incident, either to a trusted adult or Childline. To convey the message, she chose the fantastic picture book ‘No Means No’ about an empowered little girl who has a very strong and clear voice in all issues, especially those relating to her body and personal boundaries. Interesting discussions followed about the steps to be taken in a difficult situation: to yell loudly, run away, and tell a trusted adult until they listened and responded.
To reiterate this point, Childline’s brilliant short film ‘Komal’ and a couple of other videos were also screened.
#ChildSafety #Schoolkutti #SafeyMessageThroughStories #NoMeansNo #BeesTales”
Magical performance by HelenO’Grady morning batch
At the end of the Saturday morning drama program by HelenO’Grady International at Schoolkutti, the children presented a short, scripted production for parents on Jan 20th Sunday.
It was highly anticipated, as it gave the students a chance to demonstrate their improved communication and performance skills! Parents also joined in this celebration as they observe increased confidence, communication skills, and in many cases, obvious talent!The show was a delight to watch. All the parents appreciated the effectiveness of the programme as it reflected in the quality and professionalism of the performance.
‘Celebrating Words-New Year Special’
So we had our WordPlay program at Schoolkutti after a long break. In fact, it was the first one this year.
What could be a better book to kick off our new year than our all-time-favorite ‘Gajapati Kulapati’? Had a great time sharing this awesome story with our budding bookworms at the library yesterday morning.
Kids loved this way-too-funny picture book all about the adorable elephant ‘Gajapati Kulapati’ and his sneezing adventure. We had fun imitating his sneeze and also acting out all the accidents that followed. #Schoolkutti #WordPlay #GajapatiKulapati #StoryFun #Storytelling #TrivandrumLibrary.
“Engaging with our little lap-sitting listeners at the library, during our guided-reading session. This is the best way to plant and nurture the love of reading in children. 
MsMoochie titles are one of the most chosen ones at Schoolkutti. Thanks, MsMoochie for the enriching reading experience. #MsMoochie #BillyChews #Schoolkutti #KidsLibrary #TrivandrumLibrary #EarlyReaders
Poetry Workshop
“Teen author Shelley Mishra conducted a poetry workshop at Schoolkutti.com Children’s Library on 12th January, 2019. Shelley discussed how we can turn the everyday into the extraordinary through insightful poetry. The audience loved her beautiful poetry and also learned how to interpret poems to gain a more conscious understanding of how a poem achieves its effects. Children also presented their own poems and got feedback from the young writer. Thanks Shelley for inspiring our children! Looking forward to more such sessions in future also.
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