Pratham Books Champion: Neelam Joshi and Aditi Bhide

The following story was shared with us by Aditi Bhide. This session was the 2nd session of the TENTASTIC pledge that she and Neelam Joshi took :

Session conducted on : 22nd November, 2015
Number of champions : 2
Number of kids reached : Approximately 35 kids
Language the session was conducted in : Marathi

The third Saturday of November, that is 22nd Nov saw Neelam and I jointly conduct our second storytelling session for the students of Stds. 1 and 2 at Dnyanada School in Karvenagar. The kids who remembered us from our first visit, started waving out to us and jumping up and down in their seats as soon as they saw us. We directly started the story session.

We chose the story ‘Paplu the Giant’ in Marathi. This time we had decided to adopt a new method. We wanted to introduce the children to book reading. We read out the story to the children and explained it at the same time. The moment we told them that the hero in today’s story was a giant, their awestruck faces were worth looking at.

I first gave them a brief introduction about Paplu; who he was, where he lived etc. Then Neelam took them through the first part of the story. As she read out to them and explained the story, the kids were intently listening and absorbing what Paplu’s mother told him, how he was very different from other giants, how they went to Raghav’s village and so on. The intermittent questions posed to the kids had them all enthusiastically participate.The next part of the storytelling was done by me. The children couldn’t hold back their laughter when they heard that dreaded dacoit Angar had been beaten up by his father for eating too many jalebis. They were very amused when they heard that the dangerous dacoit Angar was petrified to see Paplu. They were very perceptive and answered correctly why a storm brewed up and what made a loud ‘Whoooos’ sound.

At the end of the story they asked to see all the pictures in the book again. So, we went through the whole book once again..this time with us asking questions pertaining to the illustrations and the kids answering and thus narrating the story all over again.Then it was time for the finale of this session. A few students were called to the fore by the teachers. We then assigned them the roles of Paplu, Raghav, tailors, Soni and the villagers. The children then enacted the part from the story where the tailors take measurements and stitch clothes for Paplu. And what a fine job they did! Some were very bold while others could barely get themselves to speak. But the student audience as well as the teachers enjoyed the little skit.

After the skit, we showed them the collage samples of Paplu; a picture of Paplu standing tall, and a hand and stick puppet of Paplu. The teachers asked them to make similar pictures or puppets at home over the weekend and bring them to school on Monday. As we closed the session, most kids turned around and said, ‘Bai (teacher in Marathi) see you next Saturday.’ That was the best receipt we could have got for today’s story session of Paplu the Giant. Once again we thank the Principal of Dyanada School, the teachers of Stds. 1 and 2 and of course the oh-so-enthusiastic children for making the day’s session a huge success. 

Thank you Neelam and Aditi Bhide for helping us spread the joy of reading!

In 2014, Pratham Books is inviting people to become TENTASTIC Champions. This year's champions initiative is a year-long storytelling drive. Join our tribe of champions and commit to conducting ten storytelling sessions for children during the year (including the main one on International Literacy Day). Lets make reading contagious!

Register to be a TENTASTIC Champion.

Pratham Books Champion : Ankura Foundation

Dr. Shobha Shashihdara (Ankura Foundation,Bangalore) shared the following story with us:

Session conducted on :
Number of kids : 40
Number of sessions : 1
Language the session was conducted in : English

Storytelling at Ankura Foundation a center in Bangalore catering to middle and low income group, for children with Delayed Milestones and Inclusive Preschool was a GREAT EXCITEMENT and a SUCCESS. The target was to make 40 young and special children understand rather than reaching more number of children in a week long program. 

Since we work with very young children in the age group of 2 to 4 years normal children and children in Early intervention for children with special needs like Autism Spectrum Disorder, Down’s Syndrome, Mild Cerebral Palsy and Global Delay the process of storytelling was important, to make the children understand and reinforce the plot and concepts of the story. Storytelling began with first hand and sensory experience and later the story was told to make it more effective.

To make story telling more exciting:

A stick puppet was played to make children familiar with Takloo's Face and friendly Uncle Basava Takaloo added fun to the situation . 

Amusing Mouths cover was done to show Dracula’s teeth in a pleasant way 

Dogs were played on two legs to make the story telling enjoyable 

Sensory and first hand experience was created to reinforce the concepts along with some videos like- Finger painting’ Fishes in the Ocean’ and viewing the video on ocean with fishes 

Sorting of different colours and video on squirrel eating nuts 

Sorting various shades of brown 

Seeing the smile of Vasubhau’s Umbrella and beak of the Parrot 

Sticking cotton to feel the texture 

Tasting salt, feeling of different texture of salt and different gradation of texture 

Carrying different weight- heavy and light of stuffed toy with stone and cotton in it 

Feeling different sizes of pots and Imaging of coins and counting of pots for the money. 

                      

Later, the story was shown and narrated with the help of the smart board to make it more effective.

Thank you Pratham Books!

Thank you Ankura Foundation and Dr. Shobha Shashihdara and Sruthi Shashidhara for spreading the joy of reading!

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In its third edition of the 'One Day - One Story' campaign, Pratham Books was joined by 1300+ storytellers who conducted 1500+ storytelling sessions. More than a 1000 steps towards a 'Reading India'!

What started as a small step by Pratham Books to spread the joy of reading has become a movement. In 2012, Pratham Books initiated the One Day-One Story initiative on the occasion of International Literacy Day . We will be sharing the stories of all our volunteer storytellers (Pratham Books Champions) through our blog.

View more pictures from the International Literacy Day Celebrations held in 2014.

This blog contains stories sent in by all our champions. Browse through the blog for more stories. You can also go through the tags on the right side of the blog to find stories happening in your own city.

Note : If you want to be a Pratham Books Champion and join us on our journey of getting 'a book in every child's hand', write to us at champions(at)prathambooks(dot)org.