One Day One Story 2023 of Pratham Books at Advesa Trust's Alphonsa Library

The Annual Pratham Books NGO storytelling event of OneDayOneStory2023 was conducted at Alphonsa Library of Advesa Trust on October 21st inside the Jeevodaya Hospice campus. The picture books selected for the storytelling event were Hakeem’s Hiccups by Sadaf Siddique and Hello Sun by Rajiv Eipe.

Hakeem’s Hiccups is about Hakeem, a medicine seller selling powders and potions in the busy marketplace. During the Ramzan season, he is fasting and cannot drink water. So, he gets hiccups. The patients who visit him ask him to hold his nose and pull his ears. Later in the day, each of his patients comes with a special dish to treat his hiccups. They all then gather at Hakeem’s home to break the fast. After eating all the dishes, Hakeem lets out a loud belch instead of a hiccup.

Hello Sun is about a boy who visits the forest area around his house when the sun comes up. There he meets the millipede, touch-me-not, moth, barbet, spider, snail, frog, and finally hugs his father’s big boots.

Storyteller Anitha Selvanathan told both these two stories to the 26 kids who attended the event. One of the kids, Vishnu Prasad retold the Hakeem’s Hiccups story in his own words. Kids later split into groups and drew pictures from both the books and won prizes. Librarian Sushma coordinated the event.

A big thanks to Advesa Trust and its Managing Trustee Dr. Shanthi for the opportunity. 

One Day, One Story 2022 of Pratham Books at RKM School

The One Day, One Story 2022 event of Pratham Books is back. The two stories selected for the event this year by Pratham Books are “Beauty is Missing” – a level 3 book and “Croak” – a level 2 book.

Ramakrishna Mission School in Chennai gave an opportunity to do the storytelling for their students. So, today, 3^rd Sep, we told the Beauty is Missing story for 5^th and 6^th stds, and Croak to 3^rd and 4^th stds at their Infosys Hall.

Beauty is Missing is a beautiful story about a buffalo named beauty that goes missing. How Jincy Jose, the new constable, finds out Beauty is the interesting part of the story. Croak is about a frog that enters a classroom. The children try to alert their Masterji about the frog. But, he does not accept it as he thinks the students are up to pranks.

The children sang songs, narrated the story, attended quiz sessions about the story, and drew pictures from the books for a painting competition. The children were very enthusiastic and eager to participate in all the activities. The boys were in a majority, but they clapped loudly when the girls won a prize.

A big thank you to the management, teachers, and coordinators of the event at RKM school. Right from projector to hand mike, they made all arrangements in a jiffy.

Here are pictures from the event.

Beauty is Missing Story

Children drawing and painting for the competition

Winners of Beauty is Missing drawing competition

A student retelling a story

Winners of Croak drawing and painting competition

After Croak Storytelling

Children participating in activities

Chocolates for Winners

What is Portmanteau?

 

Kanaga said to Martha, “Shall we go out for brunch?”

Martha said, “Brunch. What is it? I’m hearing the word for the first time.”

Kanaga said. “Brunch is food that we have between Breakfast and Lunch. Brunch is a combination of the words Breakfast and Lunch. Breakfast + Lunch is Brunch. Br from the word Breakfast joins with unch from the word Lunch."

Martha, “Wow. I learnt a new word Brunch.”

Kanaga said, “These words are known as Portmanteau in English. Portmanteau is a combination of parts of different words. The word Smog is a portmanteau. It is a combination of Sm from the word Smoke and og from the word fog.

Some more examples are

Spork = Spoon + Fork

Emoticon = Emotion + Icon

Chillax = Chill + Relax

Email = Electronic + mail

Motel = Motorway + Hotel

.”

Martha asked, “Is portmanteau always a combination of two words?” 

Kanaga said, “No. Portmanteau can be a combination of two or more words. For example, the name of the dish turducken is got from the combination of the three words turkey+duck+hen. This is because turducken is made with all these 3 birds.”

Martha said, “Ok. I got some clarity about portmanteau. Let us go for brunch now."

Activity:

1. Can you guess the two words that are combined to form the following portmanteau words?

1.     Hangry 

2.     Romcom

3.     Biopic

 

Author – Anitha Selvanathan

Image – Pexels.com

Will a Lion Brush Its Teeth? - Short Story for Children

 Hi All - I have translated this story from Tamil to English on the StoryWeaver Website. 

Synopsis: Laya does not like to brush her teeth. Laya doubts if animals brush their teeth. This story is about her search for the animals.

This is a Level 2 Book that has stories with simple plots.It for children who recognize familiar words and can begin to read new words with help. Happy Reading!

Note: Enter full screen mode to read the story.

Takloo Storytelling at AIKYA - A PRATHAM Books Initiative

Takloo - the Little Salt Seller is a beautiful book. The story teaches a lot of concepts to children and the illustrations are very attractive and eye catchy. 

The storytelling at AIKYA happened on 5th, September. I told the story to a group of eleven kids. Everyone was very excited about the angry Banabhai scene in which her hair is left loose, her dracula teeth is seen, and she flungs her arm.  The kids were asked about the meaning of the various terms in the book like soft, caring, west, and more. The students were asked not to waste anything and try and see if they can recycle the unwanted items. 

Later, Kumail, a student, read out and explained the Takloo story to the kids. The students looked at coins of different value. After listening to Kumail, the students started drawing pictures about Takloo story. The students came out with beautiful illustrations of trees near a beach, pots, umbrella, and Moti the dog. It was a fun event and we thank PRATHAM for giving us this opportunity. 

For more event pics, click here.

Paplu the Giant - A Pratham Books Storytelling Event

Pratham Books, a not-for-profit based out of Bangalore conducts annual storytelling sessions. This year the International Literacy Day fell on 7th Sep and so the gala and mega storytelling event date was fixed on 7th Sep. Around 600+  storytelling champions volunteered to tell the story "Paplu, the Giant." 

This event is the 4th storytelling event i was conducting for Pratham. The previous events were conducted with the books named - King Cobra's Summer, Yakity Yak, and Susheela's Kolams.  I conducted the session this year in my flat. There was just one person in the audience this time. Little one Elizabeth volunteered to read the book. She read the book with great enthusiasm. I gifted the book to her as a token of appreciation. 

I was glad that i was able to be part of this mega educational event conducted in 25 Indian languages through more than 1000 storytelling sessions. As the famous proverb says, "Little drops of water makes a mighty ocean." And so i hope Elizabeth's reading will contribute to the Pratham Books Event in a small way.

A Story on Children's Day - Rukmani and Her Jewel Box