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.

Jai aur Veeru

Every class of kids has something new to teach you, something new to inspire you.

My Grade 2 kids fall in the category of being my, our teachers.

One set of kids are absolutely fallen from heaven category where every child is well mannered, well organised, sensitive and enthusiastic...all at the same time. Well! The very reason why I call then Angelic.

The other set is absolutely human and exhibit the navarasas of life. They juggle with all the emotions all at once and make the class overwhelming; for me and for themselves. The sessions get tiring as they keep me on my toes but with each passing day, I see a new facet of their personality.

Today, I saw two thick friends who are ready to do anything for one another. Even if people talk of their separation, they sulk and frown and get into a fight with the person.

The Jai and Veeru of 2010 teach us that friends not only help each other but also teach each other. Here I mean teaching, in its literal sense.

Jai wanted to name his self created character for his story and was struggling with the spelling. Ofcourse he looked at Veeru for help. I was sitting right there and watching in awe what happened next.

Under regular circumstances we would expect Veeru to tell him the spelling. But my man Veeru, is a true friend, because, now Jai will know how to spell!!

Veeru split the word phonetically and asked Jai to spell and write each part. By the end, Jai was thrilled to have achieved this hurdle.

This is overwhelming for a teacher to watch :)

Jai ho Veeru ki. A true friend, and teacher in the making.

Defying Sigmund Freud

For years, psychologists and students of human behaviour have tried to understand dreams. Sigmund Freud has written an entire book on Interpretation of dreams and today, I had a 6 year old challenge that!!

We were sitting in a circle and creating imagery through words. 36 little eyes were shut and some kept opening and eyeing at me from time to time. Finally, I asked all of them to keep their, eyes closed, mouth zipped up and ears open to enjoy the exercise. A little boy said, “what about our mind? Even that should be open”. Being the facilitator of the group, I immediately responded, “The mind is always open, so I don’t need to ask you to do that.”

“Oh Miss, the mind is closed when sleeping!!” I thought I was being intelligent and passed a theoretically correct remark, “My dear, the mind is always open, even when you are asleep, else, how is it that one can dream?”

What came after that, was a big chuckle accompanied by a profound statement – “Hmph!! Heheheh!! I never dream!! No, No!!People don’t dream either, they just make up stories so that someone can listen to them!!” Mr Freud, think about it.

How old is old?

I have always seen kids intrigued by adults. Boys behave like their fathers on the laptop and over the cell phone, little girls dress up like their teachers and at times scream/scold like their mothers. Boys love to be WWE champions who can box, kick and do multiple summersaults. They love being BIG, but don't know how big, big really is.

Sitting in a class filled with 4 & 5 year olds, we were talking about introductions and ages. After telling me their ages, they were curious to know mine!! One of the girls asked me my age and when I let her guess, she made me the happiest girl on earth...heheheh!!!After serious thought and pondering over her arithmetic and understanding of age, she said, "You are 9 years old!!!" She had an exasperated look on her face while uttering that number thinking she had nailed the answer. When I shook my head in denial, another boy stepped in with a response he believed cannot be wrong - you are 13 years old. After a denial yet again, they decided to give up and asked me how old I was.

On hearing 28!!! They almost fell off their chairs!

Their perception of age - 28 phew!! is ancient. I saw a changed sense of respect in their eye for me from that day on. They were now in the midst of a species surviving from the yester-years.

Three Idiots & the pig

Here I am, sitting in a classroom filled with mischievous seven year olds, cracking up at the smallest word uttered while reading Fantastic Daisy Artichoke.

I was reading to them and talking of all her pets. The one that amused my kids the most is her "pig that never woke" They listened for a while when out of the blue, this little boy asks me, "Miss, did her pig sleep always?" I said, "We'll have to ask her that, but by the look of it, it seems it is one sleepy pig" Then came the next question, "Didn't it cry while being born?" But before his question ended, another boy responded...and may I tell you, what he said was PRICELESS!!

"Miss, if the pig didn't cry while being born, we should pat it and say All Izz Well, then it will start crying!"

Well, all sure is well :) Thanks, to our very own Aamir Khan

The flying pie

Cat, bat, mat, sat are so typical and remind us of Jr Kg Rapid Reading, like one of my students mentioned last time!

How about taking simple rhyming words and converting them into out of this world work of poetry?! Poetry, created impromptu by a group of seven year olds sitting in a circle and adding lines, one after another. These children read the ever so funny, Fantastic Daisy Artichoke at our reading program and later sat down with one word; PIE. They had to create a rhyming poetry...

Here goes -

Once I had a pie,

it was very high.

It would fly high,

up in the sky,

but I don't know why?

To catch it I would try,

but it would always fly.

And then, it would die,

and that is such a lie!

It would also cry,

because it was a baby pie.

And why would it cry?

I have no idea, let me try!

- Aditya Birla World Academy Grade II

Kudos to this wonderful creation. Little seven year olds making poetry in less than 10 min.

We are here..keep pace

The experience at the Aditya Birla World Academy [ABWA] introduces me to the Gen Nex kids on the block. They are THERE, waiting for you to present them with challenges which they face head on :)

One might wonder what might be the challenges for 6, 7 & 8 year olds! Well, its writing poetry, making stories using their sensibilities and having apt endings to what they write and picking an author they like and reading all by themselves.

Not that self reading is tough, but the accompanied activities is what makes the children special, the associated relevant questions is what makes them the GenNex!

I recall a 7 year year old telling me that rhyming pattern is so Jr Kg and that he would love to do something done at university level. Thats when we made our own story titled Unconscious Dreams.

The latest challenges for parents, teachers, facilitators etc today is, to gear up to the speed of our little ones and pace ourselves to walk their walk.