Living Green - Story Project for Kids

Stories and they are fun - imaginative and leading to a fantasy world. "Once upon a time"....and "Happily ever after..." are the happy lines to begin and end. When kids come to the class, they pick up the colorful books and end up reading stories, comics and jokes. Later, they make their Book Journals and jot down all the fancy stories they've read. When encouraged, they narrate the stories in the language they know with the innocent gestures and start flaunting their ignorance and jumble up their own story sometimes.

Each generation has it's own charm. The tech savvy kids of today are no more confined to books nor they love to get engrossed in reading. The concentration breaks after several minutes and they opt for talks preferably willing to connect to you tube and watch a song or talk about facebook. Their thoughts have drifted more to visuals which is more preferred choice of most of the kids today. Television viewing is now shared with time accommodated for facebook and viewing their interesting videos online.

Kids at Swagat engage into Story Project every year during summer or when November Book Month is celebrated. This year, the Story Project is with a difference as Kids will explore their favorite video songs and video stories online. I am sure, you've visited the Fairyland Pages on Kidsfreesouls with Stories by Artie Knapp. Many kids have done the Story Project with Artie's stories. Here's how it goes:

1. Read the stories at Fairyland.

2. Also can read the stories at Stories with Grammar

3. Take a full size Scrap book/Drawing book.

4. Print a story sheet of Artie stories/grammar stories

5. Collect some stickers/story characters

6. In the Drawing book, make a colorful page with title 'Story Project'

7. Inside, write down 'Story Board' mentioning all the stories read.

8. Read the Artie/grammar story and paste the print out.

9. Draw and color the cover image of Artie Knapp's story that you've selected

10. Write the review and mention why you like/dislike the story and moral of the story. eg. There's a crocodile in the Pickle Jar story.

11. Paste stickers of the story characters

12. Mention guidelines from 'How to write a story' and try to write a para or two using imagination

13. Watch a story videos online. The one story video used by Swagat is "Living Green - A turtle's quest for a cleaner Planet"

14. Conclusion - Mention why Reading is important for all.

15. Credits - Thanks for the help while making the Project.

Artie's stories are favorite reads online and great picks for the Story Project. For the visuals, watch the story videos online - "Living Green - A turtle's quest for a cleaner Planet" Artie Knapp’s children’s book Living Green: A Turtle’s Quest for a Cleaner Planet is now available as a free video for kids through StoryCub.org. A shortlist finalist for the national 2012 Green Earth Book Award, Thurman the turtle is tired of seeing the land he loves cluttered with trash and decides to take action.

 "Living Green - A turtle's quest for a cleaner Planet" :Click here to watch through a direct link. 

Story telling is a gateway to the heart. When kids read, they sometimes fail to understand but when stories are told, they eagerly love to listen and drift their tiny minds to float to imaginative world. Stories influence the child and they learn the Moral Values . Read the stories aloud to kids and also find the trouble shooting areas on their reading habits. Make them read, write reviews, know the moral and find what part they like best and why.

- Fairy land Stories | Stories with Grammar | Comprehension stories | Fairy Quiz

Finally, if you're happy reading this blog post and visiting Kidsfreesouls.com, please do follow the NIE Tips on How to use Kidsfreesouls in classrooms. A special Certificate for being a Reading Member of Kidsfreesouls awaits just for "You"- Most Valuable Reader -Download and print here:-)

Kids learnt How to write a Poem

Story telling is a gateway into the heart of a child and I'm sure many of the tiny toddlers would like to listen to a story before they sleep. We have a forthcoming Story telling sessions at Swagat. You can participate by sending your child's paintings/Posters related to stories like Hansel Gretel, Red Riding Hood, etc. for Pasteboard on Kidsfreesouls. Also find Story Projects at Fairyland and await a surprize for a new story coming soon on these pages ! Help children to read a story every day on Kidsfreesouls and encourage to write a review or just narrate the story. Here's on  How to write a Story

Btw, last 21st April, we had a Poetry session in the classroom. Tulsa wrote a wonderful poetry and wrote her blog here.

You can find Krishna's Poetry below. Krishna is in third class and was inspired to write a poem after learning How to write a Poem. Her mom Shridevi Harikrishnan writes, "Sending you a poetry that Krishna wrote after getting inspired of the poetry session at her all time favorite “Saturday Class”… I am feeling very very happy that my daughter is trying to write poems. The title also seems very wonderful…she was in fact sitting in the kitchen and near the exhaust fan, she saw two birds building a nest and she wrote an instant poem.. I don’t know what went through her mind.. Just felt like sharing it with you. I should say that I envy these kids as we never got a chance to go to such wonderful classes."

Here's Krishna's Poetry. I am sure, you will enjoy reading this:-)

The Bird Flies frrrrrrrrrr……….By Krishna

One day when I was sitting in my kitchen, getting bored,

I looked up and down, left and right,

I saw a bird building its nest…

Oh! I thought if I were a bird to fly fly fly up in the sky

Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! I thank you God for making me a girl

Though sometimes I feel if I were a bird….

Would I be happy or sad…. 

Best of Luck - Examinations are here...!

Most of my students are currently appearing for school exams and some of them will have their exams at the end of March and first week of April. So, here's wishing all 'Best of Luck' and Enjoy:-) 

Fight the battle strong if you have the Examination Blues. The celebrations with the dance parties and uttarayan, holi etc.festivals are soon forgotten with a long drawn face buried in books as last minute preparations demands concentration. No more telephonic calls of friends or music and fun, television or just freaking out! Serious studies are in and extra curricular activities are just ‘Out’ for a while. But than, its Recognizing values. Exams bring about seriousness towards your goals. They measure your learning abilities and capabilities to understand the knowledge books. Exams bring out the hidden potentialities and reveal your memorization skills. To chase away the butterflies and quell away the blues, students need to have healthy attitudes. Kids Free souls Attitude make a big difference, check it out!

The learning experience is the best experience in life. One faces ‘Examination’ at every step ahead towards a reach and one has to face the trials on every walk of life. So, be prepared and ‘Get-Set-Right’ for the ‘Right Attitude’. Here’s wishing all Students ‘Best of Luck’

Read Blog Note on Examination Tips | More on Healthy Attitude Guide

- ilaxi patel

Editor, www.kidsfreesouls.com

Newspaper for Kids 

Inspirational Poet of the Year 2007

And the Kidsfreesouls Poet of Year 2007 is Josie Whitehead - a Yorkshire Teacher who influences children with her Poems on the web. She has embraced the latest technology and meets kids on Skype to read out her poem and interact with classrooms. Here's Kidsfreesouls Poet of Year 2007 - Inspirational Poet Page. Enjoy!

Poets often use the sounds of words to create effects in their poems with the most common method, using words that rhyme. The English Poet Gerard Manley Hopkins used a rhyme scheme in 'Pied Beauty' which goes abcabc dbcdc - a representing the first rhyme sound, b the second and c the third and so on.

We also often have the imagery style which refer to the sensations that language creates in the mind. Sensations of images - appealing to our sense of touch, hearing and visualizing. An American Poet Wallace Stevens has an Imaginery visuals in the stanzas of 'The Snow Man' which refer as 'Crusted with snow', 'shagged with ice', 'rough in the distant glitter' - all make sense the texture of things. 'Sound of winds', 'sound of few leaves' creates images of things heard.

And there is the most common means of creating poetry form is rhyme. Some are standard verse forms and one such form is the Sonnet. The Italian sonnet or the Petrarchan Sonnet. Josie Whitehead has experimented this form in some of her poems and has made use of the Petrarchan Sonnet. This consist of more rhymed lines than any other Sonnet. The Petrarchan Sonnet consist of an octave eight line stanza followed by a six line stanza. The rhyme scheme of the Octave is abbaabba. The sestet (six line stanza) rhyme scheme varies but often is cdecde or abcdcd. This style is influenced by Petrarch, a great Italian poet who had an unparalleled influence on world Literature who wrote more than 400 poems in Italian. Josie also is keen to use the Blank verse consisting of unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter to teach the children. Paradise Lost by John Milton is one example of a Blank Verse.

Well, I guess, children when asked to begin writing a poem, they always are first non responsive but later, make it a free verse - no rhyme scheme, no metre. Firstly, it is important to build a Vocabulary and if this is enhanced, Poetry can be a window to the Student Soul. Find more on Poetry and How to write a Poetry in the Poetry pages. Enjoy.

Btw, here's on Scrabulous - the Online Scrabble game craze leaving Game sellers at loss of word - in NYT.

- ilaxi patel
Ed, www.kidsfreesouls.com
Newspaper for Kids with Resources for Parents and Teachers

Footprints on the sands of time

These are the famous lines of an American poet who wrote about the hopes and tragedies of life in a simplistic style with technical expertise.

Lives of great men all remind us, We can make our lives sublime,And, departing, leave behind us, Footprints on the sands of time....

Born on February 27, the Poet is none other than Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Here is the Profile in Literature Pages. However, here's an interesting site for all Teachers as the Poet's Life is still offering lessons in the Classroom and the Teacher has an innovative way to teach History as well as make the students learn English Literature.

You can also find an interesting Picture Gallery of the House where Longfellow lived. Enjoy!

Btw, Let me guide you to the newly re-done page. I had noticed a shabby download on my iphone and so maybe here's a small change for quick access of this Ed Desk-main.htm page. Sometimes, too many cooks spoil the broth but it also happens that a single person with a simple brain can be Jack of all trades but master of none - That's exactly what I have experienced as I write, design, upload, manage, maintain, host and market Kidsfreesouls. Do send me your feedback or any columns you'd like to see more. Your comments and suggestions are welcome.

- ilaxi patel
Ed, www.kidsfreesouls.com
Newspaper for Kids with resources for parents and teachers

Literature Profile

W.H. Auden, an English born poet was born in York, England, in 1907 on 20th Feb. He made a remarkable contribution and best known for variety of his works W.H. Auden has written the best ballads, blues, limericks, sonnets, nonsense verse, oratorios, free verse, librettos (words) for operas and dramas.

Here's the Profile for adding to the Literature Scrap Book. Also find, selected poems of W H Auden on Google Search above. And find Quotes of Auden in Quotes Pages.

Well, the last year batch of my Students made a Literature Project. They selected their Literature Characters as John Keats, Robert Browning, William Wordsworth, Lord Alfred Tennyson and Percy B Shelley. It was a difficult Project for them, nevertheless, they collected all the information from the Library Books and added to their Project file. They got to know all the terms used in Poetry - the kinds of Poetry and How to make a Poem too. Here's the Poetry Learning Page and you can Bookmark to find more here in the Kidsfreesouls Poetry Section.

Btw, if you want to make Students to do a Literature Project online, here's My Hero where you can Participate. Guide the children to gather contents and add to My Hero. Well, Find My Hero - Robert Burns here and you can take a Printer Friendly Version to add to your Literature Profiles Scrap Book.

Freak in more to find more poetry and stories on Kidsfreesouls - coming soon! Enjoy!

- ilaxi patel
Ed, http://www.kidsfreesouls.com/
Newspaper for Kids with Resources for Parents and Teachers

Sidney Sheldon

Born on 17th February 1917, Sidney Sheldon left this world last year on 30th January, leaving a huge fan flow behind him. A crazy fan of Sid books, I have a collection of all his Books and even re-read when I am in a pensive mood.

Sidney Sheldon's first Book, The Naked Face was turned down by five different Publishers but finally, sold to William Morrow Company and it became a critical success which earned him Edgar Allan Poe Award! However, it was The Other Side of Midnight that made him a Best Selling Author. Sidney Sheldon's Novels are published in 51 languages in 180 countries. He always referred, "I try to write my books in such a way so the reader can't put them down" He use to dictate 50 pages a day, corrected next day and continued till he churned out a story with 1200-1500 pages with several re-writes.

Sands of Time is ever my fav read. However, here's some reviews on the Author Profile page.
Btw, you can find Guardian of Angels articles Translated to Romanian Language on the World of Parents 'scoalaparintilor.ro - Romanian site. The links on kidsfreesouls main. For the English versions, you can find the same there. Enjoy.

- ilaxi patel
Ed, www.kidsfreesouls.com
Newspaper for kids with Resources for Parents and Teachers