Stories from Pratham Books Champions

Saturday, 10 September 2016

Pratham Books Champion : Bebook Goa

Arundhati Chattopadhyaya signed up to be a champion even before we formalized the One Day, One Story event. While we were initially testing to see if anyone would be interested in conducting storytelling sessions (in 2011), we received a call from Arundhati. Since then, we look forward to seeing her name on our champions list. Bebook Goa shares her experience on their blog :

This was the week for Pratham’s book champ and Arundatti read ‘The Elephant Bird’ at Our Lady of Succoor. She was assisted by our student volunteer, Joshua Fernandes. It was read out in the passageway which has been covered from all sides to keep the rainwater away. Joshua helped with the e-book. We used yellow ribbon strips to make the bird’s tail with the help of the children. After the story was discussed and read the children enacted parts of it. The boys were also very keen on playing Munia’s character as she came out as the brave one and the girls were amused at being asked to play a male character but they went ahead and did it anyway.

Right in the beginning when no one could’ve guessed the ending, the children came up with many innovative versions to prove the elephant bird’s innocence. Someone said that Vayu had been invited by the elephant bird to play; hence he was still somewhere in the jungle. One boy said that Munia trusted him since he was an herbivore therefore he couldn’t have eaten him. It was interesting how children were able to come up with explanations immediately.

It was an intriguing story session parts of which have been captured in the following images.

Arundatti reading the story to the children at Our Lady of Succoor with out student volunteer, Joshua Fernandes.

The children made a bird tail prop out of a broom stick and some ribbons.

Initially, boys wanted to play the elephant bird while the girls played the role of Munia.

Soon they switched and the girls played the bird while the boys were more than happy playing the role of the little girl.

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Thank you Arundhati and Bebook Goa for spreading the joy of stories.

In its fifth edition of the 'One Day - One Story' campaign, Pratham Books was joined by 3000+ storytellers who conducted 3200+ storytelling sessions. Many, many 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 stories from the International Literacy Day Celebrations held in 2016.

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.

Pratham Books Champion : Book Lovers' Program for Schools

The Book Lovers' Program for Schools sent us this heart-warming account of the storytelling session they conducted at the St Louis Institute for the Deaf and Blind on 7th September, 2016 in Chennai.

As soon as we read about the event this year, we—at The ilovereadin’ Library—decided to conduct a session at the St Louis Institute for the Deaf and Blind, Adyar.

We began a correspondence with the school to fix the date in August, 2016. It was fixed for September 7, 2016 at 2.30 pm, a day when there would be no school functions or exams.

Our storytellers Karthika and Banu settled on using voice, visuals, actions, and textures as the core of their performance.

When we reached the school, headmaster John Xavier immediately made arrangements for us to conduct the session. We were ushered to class VI in the block reserved for the visually challenged students. Karthika did a telling of The Elephant Bird followed by getting students to hold a textured metal vase, to help them imagine how heavy and coarse the feet of the elephant bird must have been.

A few students found the gap at the top of the vase and wondered what it was! The teller told

them that was where the elephant bird’s socks went.

Banu performed a story about Anansi and the Pot of Stories, followed by getting students to hold a calabash that featured in the story. We also donated four English storybooks in Braille that we procured from the Indian Association for the Blind in Madurai to the school.

Mrs Delsy, a teacher for the hearing impaired children, was kind enough to depict the story for the children in sign language as we narrated the tale of The Elephant Bird. The students identified with Munia’s cause and cheered as she saved the elephant bird. They enjoyed seeing the pictures immensely after hearing the story. The joy on their faces when they saw the image on paper that connected to the image in their head was a sight to behold.

Banu did a storytelling of Plop! that the students enthusiastically participated in. We left behind our copy of The Elephant Bird, in English, for the students to read. This was sent to us by Pratham Books for the event. We also left a copy of The Elephant Bird in Tamil that we had printed out for the students to reconnect with the story.

It was an incredible experience. We can’t wait to do it again.

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Thank you Karthika, Banu and the Book Lovers' Program for Schools for spreading the joy of stories.

In its fifth edition of the 'One Day - One Story' campaign, Pratham Books was joined by 3000+ storytellers who conducted 3200+ storytelling sessions. Many, many steps towards a 'Reading India'!

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.

Pratham Books Champion : Project Mala

The Children Emancipation Society (Project Mala Schools) conducted 6 sessions this year : 5 in Mirzapur and 1 in Varanasi. Here are some of the initial photos we've received from their sessions.

School in Guria

School in Mujhera

School in Patehra

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Thank you Project Mala for spreading the joy of stories.

In its fifth edition of the 'One Day - One Story' campaign, Pratham Books was joined by 3000+ storytellers who conducted 3200+ storytelling sessions. Many, many steps towards a 'Reading India'!

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.

Pratham Books Champion : Arthi Anand Navaneet

Arthi Anand Navaneet shared these pictures of the storytelling sessions she conducted this year. Arthi is the voice of Art's Tales with Arthi Anand, a weekend story telling initiative.

This year was a little different for Arthi. Having moved to a new country, she still managed to conduct a session from where she became a #PBChamp 5 years ago!

In Arthi's words ...

Ejjipura Ananda Vidyalaya is where I turned into a Pratham Books Champion five years ago.

Despite some network issues on Skype, the connection did not falter with one of my favourite story groups!

The story helped us touch upon unlikely friendships, the 'elephant bird' origin and animal protection. The children indulged in colouring as well.

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Arthi's second session took place in Jakarta, Indonesia. Apart from the story, finding the elephant bird's home on the map and lots of colouring ensued!

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Thank you Arthi for spreading the joy of stories.

In its fifth edition of the 'One Day - One Story' campaign, Pratham Books was joined by 3000+ storytellers who conducted 3200+ storytelling sessions. Many, many steps towards a 'Reading India'!

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.

Pratham Books Champions : Snehadhara Foundation

The Snehadhara Foundation team is all set to conduct 15 storytelling sessions. They already started before 10th and gave us a few glimpses into the absolute fun they are having!

Here's a report from them :

Glimpses of the Snehadhara Foundation @ Pratham Books Champion first day’s story telling sessions.

Our first story session was at JPA, Jayanagar 9th Block, The 60 children from Grades 1 to 5 were enthralled by Munia/Gowri’s journey with the Elephant bird. Her joys were there’s and her travails too. They joined in with the songs and sang them long after the story ended.

The 50 children at the Government school Hulimavu, were similarly very enthusiastic. Grades 6 to 9 were in a combined group and the terrace reverberated with the sounds of the various characters, their diverse colours and the drum beat added to the drama. The children named the characters, owned their unique traits and sang and emoted with gusto. A fitting beginning to the tale of friendship and courage.

See all the pictures from their sessions here.

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Thank you Snehadhara Foundation for spreading the joy of reading!

In its fifth edition of the 'One Day - One Story' campaign, Pratham Books was joined by 3000+ storytellers who conducted 3200+ storytelling sessions. Many, many steps towards a 'Reading India'!

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.

Friday, 9 September 2016

Pratham Books Champion : Aarti Srinivasan

Aarti Srinivasan has been volunteering as a Pratham Books champion for a few years now. She sends us some pictures from the first session she conducted for kids at the Salvation Army this year.

Session conducted on : 7th September

Number of kids : 20

Number of sessions : 1

Number of champions : 1

Language the session was conducted in : Marathi

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Thank you Aarti for spreading the joy of reading!

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 stories from the International Literacy Day Celebrations held in 2016.

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.

Pratham Books Champion : Divya Mohan

Divya Mohan is a Gandhi Fellow and sent us this report about her session at a government school in Surat.

Session conducted on : 1st and 2nd September

Number of kids : 300

Number of sessions : 1

Number of champions : 15

Language the session was conducted in : Gujarati

In assembly -Good Morning Bachoo...
Kahani kitne logo ko passand hai??
Many hands popped out!!!
This is how it all started. I told them that now for 2 days we will enact a story in assembly.

All students got excited. It was a first time experience for them. Eagerness on their face made me more confident that this approach will make assembly more enjoyable. I told them this week 5th class will be executing it and from next week onwards each class will come up with new stories and will be enacting it in assembly.

Even teachers liked the idea and made it their duty to allocate dates to the classes for storytelling.

With the help of 5th class teacher, 15 students were selected and we guided them. But it was all their creativity and hard work that the drama was a great success. Story was divided into 2 halves where the first half of the story was enacted on first day and other half on the second day so that the children got curious to know the second half of the story. It was noticed that on the very first day children of class 3 who generally don’t speak much came to me and asked Dii.. aage kya hua tha??

At that time I realized that story telling can be used as a very useful tool to reduce absenteeism.

Observation :
Benefits of storytelling through drama
Team work
Boost Creativity
Enjoyment
Increase verbal proficiency
And at last assembly was interesting and everyone was actively listening.

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Thank you Divya for spreading the joy of reading!

In its fifth edition of the 'One Day - One Story' campaign, Pratham Books was joined by 3000+ storytellers who conducted 3200+ storytelling sessions. Many, many 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 stories from the International Literacy Day Celebrations held in 2016.

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.