The sheep and the pig- by Adithya

Once, there was a pig. He was very naughty. He was the pet of Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam was very nice.

Once day, that pig saw many sheep on the farm. 

        

He didn't like it and started troubling them. Uncle Sam saw everything. He came near the pig and caught his ears. He pulled the pig to the house. He explained to the pig not to trouble anyone. Pig understood and realised his mistake. Finally the pig and the sheep became friends. They started playing together.

Moral: We shouldn’t be bad and shouldn't trouble anybody.

(Note: Adithya is a 6-year old curious and creative boy. He is a voracious reader. He studies in grade 1)

Public Speaking- April 2018

Public speaking workshop is one of my favorites here. It's a big learning experience for all of us. Day 1 and Day 5 look poles apart. The anxious ones become confident about speaking in front of others. We try to comfort children that we all feel anxiety while performing in front of others. It's not about not feeling anxiety. It's all about managing that anxiety to help us practise more.

We usually cover these areas broadly

Mirroring for:

1. Anxiety management
2. Content management
3. Time management
4. Ideas- Flow and organization
5. Use of condensation/expansion
6. Regulation of body language
7. Voice control (avoid- nasal, monotonous, flat, follow- pitch)

Before the stage:

1. Mirroring
2. Familiarity with the stage
3. Importance of appearance
4. Importance of reading for better general awareness

On the stage:

1. Judge and understand the audience
2. Regulate eye-contact, pace and poise.
3. Avoid the 'yawners'
4. Use gestures and movements
5. Show passion and credibility
6. Use opening lines and magnets
7. Connect with the audience
8. Use the 4-points audience technique

We have our YouTube channel. You will find our videos of mirroring here

The Kiwi War- By Tejasvi

Once upon a time, in a far away place, there was a king, Roopsingh and his queen Roopmati. They both liked Kiwi Vanilla Lassi.

One day, Raja Roopsingh sent his royal servants to bring kiwis. They bought lots of kiwis for their king. On their way back, the royal servants were attacked by another king Saajsingh, who killed all the servant but one and took away all the kiwis.

That royal servant returned to the palace and told what happened. Raja Roopsingh got angry and attacked Raja Saajsingh. Raja Roopsingh won the war and more importantly, he got his kiwis back.

But Raja Roopsingh couldn't have the Kiwi Vanilla Lassi immediately as the kiwis were not ripe yet. They all waited for the kiwis to ripe.

When the kiwis were ripe enough, Raja Roopsingh faced another challenge. The royal cooks didn't know how to make Kiwi Vanilla Lassi. King knew the recipe, so he told them how to make it. He told them to combine kiwi, sugar and yoghurt in a blender. They blended the mixture at high speed to get it smooth. He told them to add vanilla ice-cream into the blender and blend again. They did that. Then he told them to add crushed ice into the blender and blend again. They did that. They poured the lassi into tall tumblers and garnished with some chopped kiwi pieces.

Now, one of the cooks was the son of Raja Saajsingh who had attacked the royal servants for kiwis. He wanted a revenge. He added poison to the lassi. 

Raja Roopsingh and Rani Roopmati drank lassi and died. Raja Saajsingh’s son took over the kingdom of Raja Roopsingh and became the new king.

(Note: Tejasvi was given the genre of historical fiction to write the recipe)

Magic potion- by Meghali Dutta

I am Meghali Dutta.I live in Bangalore. During summers, it’s very hot here.

This summer, only exotic drinks quench my thirst. All types of drinks such a Tropical Smoothie, Mango Milkshake are thirst quenchers on these hot summer days.

Let me tell you what happened on one such hot summer day. I was all alone at home. I was watching T.V. I felt thirsty. I searched for water everywhere but there was no water. So I thought of making juice. I looked for juice recipes. There was one with black grapes. It needed four cups of black grape juice, ¾ tsp cumin seeds, ½ tsp carom seeds, 1 tsp fennel seeds, 3 tsp black salt, 1 ½ tbsp. tamarind pulp and crushed ice. But I didn't have any ingredient at home. To solve this problem, I went to my neighbor’s, Harry Potter. I asked him if he could help me. He didn't have any ingredient either. So the two of us set out for an adventure. We went to Winnie the Pooh’s house. We asked him if he had any of the ingredients. But Winnie didn't have anything either. He suggested us to go to Cinderella’s. Her house was a little far and it would take us time to reach. So we decided to spend the night at Winnie’s. Since I was very thirsty, I had some water over there. The next day, we went to meet Cinderella on Harry’s broom as we were too tired to walk. We reached and were delighted to find that Cinderella had all the ingredients. She was kind enough to give us everything. I invited her to come to my house.

When we reached my house, we had to make the juice. We dry roasted all the seeds and ground it with black salt into a fine powder. We started feeling very tired after grinding the seeds. So we told the recipe to Harry’s wand and asked it to make the juice. It mixed the tamarind pulp, grape juice, ice and ground seeds in a blender. The tasty black grape juice was ready. I served it chilled to everyone.

It was a great experience on a hot summer day.

(Note: Meghali was given the genres of magic, fantasy to write a story detailing her recipe)

A change for Lord Vishnu- by Dhruv Santosh

One fine day, Lord Vishnu was sitting on his bed of snakes, relaxing. He was thinking of all the luxuries in Vaikunta.

Suddenly a thought struck his head, “I am bored of eating rice everyday.”

“Lakshmi”, he said, “Please make me a different dish for lunch. Call Narada and tell him to go to Earth and see what food humans eat these days.”

“Yes, my Lord”, said Lakshmi.

A minute later, Narada entered Vaikunta. “Greetings, my Lord. May I leave and accomplish my job?” asked Narada.

Vishnu nodded.

Narada went down to Earth and found many dishes. The first dish he found was fish curry. He thought, “The Lord is a vegetarian and hates harming animals.” So he went ahead to find another dish. Next he found masala puri. He thought, “The lord isn’t too fond of eating spicy stuff.”

So he left that and proceeded to find the next dish. The third dish he found was cheesy bread sticks. Now that was perfect! Just by hearing the name of the dish, he knew Lord Vishnu would love it. He rushed to get the recipe and ingredients. He went back to Vaikunta. He gave everything to goddess Lakshmi. She started making the dish. She took 4 whole-wheat bread slices, half cup of cheese and some Tabasco sauce. Then she cut each slice into 5 thin strips. She combined cheese with the sauce to make a mixture. She applied this mixture on the 20 bread strips and baked at 180*C for about 10 minutes.

She served it to Lord Vishnu. He ate it all. He really enjoyed the dish.

(Note: Dhruv was given the genre of mythology to write the story detailing this recipe)

Graphic stories

Comic writing is one of the best ways to understand story formatting. This was yet again proven right when we converted those cute short stories by Pratham Books into comics. The understanding of Introduction, Narration, Conclusion gets very visual through the panels. We also talked about:

• Use of situation box as narrator
• Use of character's expressions 
• Use of speech bubble and thought bubble
• Minimising the use of text by focusing on sketch and flow

10-14 years: This was all about seeing your almost teen-students merrily drawing like tiny tots. A sweet memory for all of us

7-9 years: They not only converted a storybook into graphics, they also wanted to create their own booklet. So we cut out the panels and converted sheets into a cute little booklet. They got sweet motivation for this great idea.

Vikram Vetal- A summary by Saagarika

Name of the book        – Vikram Vetal

Name of the publisher – Tiny Tot Publications

Vikram Vetal is a collection of tales called Vetaal Pachisi written by Mahakavi Somdev Bhatt nearly 2500 years ago. Stories are shown being told to king Vikramaditya by the ghost Vetal. Tales became a collection altogether because of the number of the attempts king Vikram made to catch the corpse and hand him over to the monk who once visited the palace. 

All stories narrated to the king had a moral. Most appealing is the patience of both the king and the corpse to listen or to narrate the stories and answer the questions at the end. The king was also brave enough to answer the corpse’s questions. 

I also think that the king was smart because he answered all questions correctly.

Chinese potato- by Nickshith

Once there was a boy. He didn't know how to make Chinese potatoes.

One day, thought he would ask his best friend how to cook Chinese potatoes. His friend gave him the recipe. They mixed large potatoes with oil, chopped garlic, chopped ginger, chopped green chilli, tomato ketchup, soya sauce and salt. They cooked the potatoes.

They loved the taste of the dish.

Ok. Bye.