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:-)

Ban Plastics, Save Environment

Some time back, Kidsfreesouls had focused on the Ban of Plastics in Manali. Invention of Plastic dates back to 1860. A British scientist named Alexander Parks who called his invention ‘Parkesine’ discovered the Plastic in about 1860 when he was looking for a substitute for horns that were obtained from animals. He made it from cellulose and camphor which are natural materials obtained from plants. John Hyatt, an inventor from United States also discovered the same Plastic in 1868 when he was looking for substitute for ivory. Bakelite was the first plastic that was made from chemicals. It was invented by a Belgian chemist named Leo Backeland in the year 1907. This was the first artificial Plastic. Since years, Plastic has thus, become a major use.

You can find more on this topic Here on the Kidsfreesouls Search.

Well, we have a very concerned Question in our Earth Talk Q & A column.

Everybody says stop using plastic bags, but what about all the plastic, cellophane, cardboard and other materials used for packaging the food itself? What can we do to reduce how much of this unnecessary stuff comes wrapped around our food?
- Sunil Sreedharan, Mumbai, India

Read the answer in English and Spanish here on the Environment Pages. Yes, as Ed Doug Moss says, "Individuals have the power of their voices to pressure food makers to cut back on packaging. You can also try to persuade your elected officials to look into the feasibility of enacting “producer pays” laws in your community, city or state. And you can talk to co-workers, friends, relatives and others about the importance of buying in bulk and reducing waste." This reminds us of our social responsibilities and Citizen rights. It's time we adopt the Manali Hill Station Attitute to be eco-friendly, all states should go for a 'fine' for using or throwing Plastics. What's your say? Email us and email your concerned Questions too.

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

Android & Apple's iphone

Google recently provided internal data to New York Times mentioning that Traffic poured in to Google more through Apple's iphone. Google shares a lot of love for the new age phone as even Google Founder Sergey Brin mentioned of using iphone for his personal use. The Google Maps on the iphone and the You Tube are the two best features with the mobi domains coming up to cash in more to Google adsense mobile ads. But than, the Google's own Android is much awaited to offer more features I hear and even Microsoft acquires Danger Inc. which offer handsets and best mobile experience.

Well, when I got to use the iphone, it's been a happy surfing Google which provide great search as well as checking on websites at leisure. I guess, this can be a best gift for a Valentine if your partner is a tech user and of coz, the iphone codes can now be cracked over here with the Apple's exclusive store offering all it's products including even the savvy mobile covers. But, ask me and I would look forward to get an Android - ahead to be with times as you can watch the video on You Tube on Kidsfreesouls.

Btw, here's MSN Contribute where you can log in to write and even blog the posts. You can find my article 'Emotional Switchboard which I posted last year.

- ilaxi patel

Ed, http://www.kidsfreesouls.com/
Newspaper for Kids with Resources for Parents & Teachers