Writing humour

Children are always fascinated by humorous stories. It tickles their funny bone and makes them roll on the floor and laugh.
We thought of trying our hand at humour stories and a story-inspired poetry. The outcome was wonderful and an eye-openner for most of our kids; humour is difficult to put together.

Thanks to the hinting story-cubes, we were able to narrow down on a plot and write around it.

One such poem written by a 11 year old is praiseworthy -

MY  FUNNY POETRY

Stars falling on earth made the morning bad,

The people were so very sad,

Somebody’s magnet,

Didn’t remain a gadget,

It went crazy,

All non-living went frazy,

It attracted shooting stars,

It didn’t even spare racing cars,

Cosmic balance was disturbed,

Through nothing it could be curbed,

Lifeless started living,

For life they started craving,

Letters ran to their destination,

Without any arms or ammunition,

The letters the postman wanted to catch,

For him were no match,

Mobiles went dead,

So they went to bed,

Tired were also the aeroplanes,

So they gave their job for a while to the trains,

 Their wings started aching,

& the magnet became menacing,

Everyone closed their fridges,

To see the road themselves make bridges,

Everyone including the flea,

Saw bridges across the sea,

Hammers expressed,

But became depressed,

So they hammered the magnet down,

& humans again wore the crown!!!

 Rhyming was their clue and the humorous story we wrote before this poetry was the source/inspiration for the wonderful output.

If fairies made the raibow

Working with a group of 8-12 year olds is an exhilarating experience. Their knowledge is sound, their vision is clear, their creativity is superlative.

I had one such group write a short story on fairies making a rainbow. This writing exercise was followed by designing of their own book cover and writing of a preface.

The outcome was beautiful! Thier very own cover, their very own story, their small summary and finally they had their first published/printed book in hand.

The story was then decorated with a poetry which was imagined and penned down on the same lines. We saw a combination of an inspirational revolting rhymes [Roald Dahl style] and some fairy tale inspired sweet poetry.

I'm quite sure, the readers of this blog may choose of the the rainbow stories to tell their toddlers.

Cinderella's Prince Harming

Cinderella an all time favourite....Rapt attention and dreamy eyes. Every child lives in the ballroom and dances in his/her mind every time the story is told.

What made the children scream and laugh was the Cinderella Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl!!! However much Cinderella is loved...children love the distorted version a LOT as it teases their brain, tickles their funny bone and they can't stop adding more and more gory elements to the story.

This Sunday saw one such moment!

Laughter over the the change in the plot, the Prince Charming who was named Prince Harming, the spooky devilish voice of the evil step sister and final the uproar on hearing that Cinderella marries a Jam maker in the end!!

Cinderella...the fairy tale or the distorted tale...loved happily forever.

Saree in a museum

My Mother's saree, the book  comes across as a simple no nonsense book. A book which many a time we as narrators and storytellers wonder what to do with!
Grade 1 children sit around listening to the story...lines are read one after another...but what fascinated them most was that, I, their regular storyteller has draped a saree. They are amused. Why? Well, for one, even their mothers don't wear sarees anymore.
They associated the saree with their grandmother and for some....their great grand mothers!
After browsing through the book and playing satisfactorily with my saree, they felt they were now ready to depict the saree.

The consensus was 'Saree in a museum'..One would wonder, why a museum?!! The children of this group believed and almost made me believe, that thats wear this attire belonged...Why? Rarely seen, is something special and difficult to wear!
I believe that there are reasons enough to categorise a material/thing as an antique special piece.

Well for them, the Saree surely belongs in a museum.

Who will be the egg

In a class filled with bubbling enthusiasm, role play and theatre blossoms. Children are waiting to enact the books we read together. The little egg was one such experience.

The book was a simple read for Grade 2 but what made the whole story interesting was, creating their own twist in the tale and enacting the tale and playing the character of an egg rolling down a bran, travelling all over the farm and finally cracking.

The stage was surrounded with 3 1/2 feet kids and one little girl tinier than the rest. She was made the egg.
One would have never come across a bubblier egg who fit her role so well.

Stories made alive through imagination are far far superior than rehearsed and written plays.

Goldilocks and The Bigg Boss

Bigg Boss is making waves in India this season and all the more, this week. Suddenly, the entry of Pamela Anderson into the show has made the TRPs go up and Big Boss has now entered household discussions.

One mother was narrating this incident to me; the family was watching Bigg Boss a couple of nights back to see what the huge hue and cry over Pamela is. Their little 2 year old and my favourite little student also watched the episode.

At the sight of Pamela, the little girl screamed out to her mother. The mother hoped she would not have noticed something inappropriate and pass a comment or ask an awkward question!! To her surprise and happiness, she said, "Mamma, thats Goldilocks and she has golden hair like in my story!!"

UNFORTUNATELY some kids have also been watching the show!! But, what comforts me is that my kids are totally mesmerised by the stories we do each week.

Script writing - Our little budding authors

A discussion circle at the time of storytelling is the best way to get little ones put their ideas down.

This week, we talked about the elements of a good story and the answers that came from 7 year old kids was fascinating.

We talked at length about the different writing styles of authors and the plots of different types of stories. This motivated me to involve them in story writing. The final product was splendid!

We skimmed through the book TUESDAY by David Weisner. Once we completed watching this picture book, the children sat down to write the same story in different formats. We had a pair which wrote it in the form of a traditional folk tale and even attempted to incorporate a moral , another that wrote it in the form of a mystery story and the best was the pair which wrote the entire story in the classic Dr Suess style using humour and rhyming pattern.

This activity reinforced my belief that reading and thorough involvement during reading can sculpt a child's overall creative ability.