Pitara

Grand Finale – Pitara

The ISA British Council Project “Pitara” for classes 1 and 2 had a grand finale on Oct 1st, 2016. The school was virtually converted into the Pitara Village where each corner reflected the richness of Indian culture and our folk tales which have travelled to us from many generations and yet are an inseparable part of our childhood memories.
The students enacted stories from partner country Sri lanka and also other stories of Panchatantra , Hitopdesha and Jataka. The finale had a plethora of interesting activities such as story telling, zig-zaw puzzles , story sequencing , mask making, face painting, tattoo making & story book corner. The chief guest of the event was Dr. Seema Shrotriya, a dynamic personality whose innumerable articles and stories have been published in various magazines and newspapers, was completely spellbound seeing the work of students and teachers.
Parents were distributed certificates and pots of plants as a token of appreciation.

Story Enactment

Our students brought to life the famous folk tales of India through their enactments.

Story Recitation

An indeed treat to our eyes to see our budding story tellers reciting the famous folk tales of India.

Make my story character : Ice cream stick activity

An ice cream stick activity “Make my story character” was organised for the students of class 1 and 2 where the students had to complete the animal puzzle using the ice cream sticks.

Story Sequencing

A story sequencing activity was organized for the students where they had to put the scenes of the stories in correct order.

Peeping inside our stories

Students of class 1 and 2 did various activities such as Story Webs and Writing Picture Stories wherein the students had to write about the story characters, their favourite character and one liners to depict the scenes of the stories.

Wonders of Puppet Stories

Puppets add a new and exciting element to children’s impromptu or planned performances. Through puppets, children feel empowered to speak and behave on the lines of the character.
They give students a voice and virtually put them in the story book.

Keeping this in mind, the students made puppets in their art and craft classes and enjoyed telling their own imaginative stories through them.

Living story characters with clay

Most children are instinctively motivated to explore the inviting, soft and responsive sensory qualities of the clay. They poke it, squeeze it, hit it, pick it up and pound it down, and so on. Each time they act on the clay, the clay adjusts and responds.

What better way could be than to engage our students in the clay activity where they made their story animals and were ready to tell countless stories of their own.

Puzzle Activity : Putting together the pieces of story

From early childhood right through to adulthood we love to play with puzzles. Puzzles are also an important educational learning tool for young children as they provide many skills and mental learning benefits and opportunities.
So we organized a Puzzle Activity for the students wherein the students enjoyed putting together the scenes from their favourite folk tales in the correct sequence.

Parent Volunteers – Pitching in to make the difference

Parents ,specially mothers and grandmothers are the best story tellers, each having her unique style of story telling. So we thought why not involve them in helping us with the activities of Pitara. To our surprise we were flooded with calls from mothers who wanted to come and help. Some wanted to come to school to tell stories ,some to help with art and craft work while some volunteered to help in making props at home. The parents were brilliant and their interaction added a whole new dimension to the story telling activities. Through this blog I would like to thank all the parents for their co-operation and for giving us the confidence and support to carry out this project well.

Tamasha : A live puppet show in school

A live puppet show was organized in the school for the little ones. The children immensely enjoyed themselves and interacted excitedly with the puppeteer. The expressions on their faces as they watched the stories from panchtantra unfold before them were magical.

Story Telling with Puppets

Using a puppet to tell a story is a wonderful technique as puppets have the ability to bring stories to life and spark young imaginations. The students of class I and II were taken to see a puppet show by masters puppeteers from Andhra Pradesh. We would like to share with you the glimpses of this novel art show using leather puppets through the video on our Facebook page.

Please visit our Facebook page and give comments. Also write comments as to how you are liking our work on the schoolsonline workspace.

Indian Folk Tales relived by Class 1 and 2 students

From time immemorial, storytellers have passed down tales to be shared by the members of a community-some purely for entertainment and others used to transmit a society’s customs, attitudes, values, and even philosophies of life, to the next generation. Folktales allow students to experience one of the ways a society develops a sense of moral behavior in its children.

When it comes to folk tales, India, a country of diverse religions, languages and cultures has a vast Pandora of tales and short stories. Indian folklore has a wide range of stories and mythological legends, which emerge from all walks of life. The interesting stories range from the remarkable ‘Panchtantara’ to ‘Hitopdesha’, from ‘Jataka’ to ‘Akbar-Birbal’. Being full of moralistic values, Indian folklore makes perfect stories for children, who are required to be, instilled with right values. All these ancient stories have been passed from generation to generation, creating bondage of traditional values with present-day generation.

Through this project we have tried to celebrate our cultural diversity by telling of traditional tales. Since folktales are entertaining, practical, fun and engaging we feel they are the right medium to pass moral values to the students.

Story Telling Sessions

“Story telling is one of the most powerful techniques we have as humans to communicate and motivate others.”

Children have an innate love of stories. Stories create magic and sense of wonder. Being associated with British Council ISA Project (PITARA), we the teachers of class I & II are immensely enjoying the story telling sessions with our kids. The students are told stories using different methods like animated story videos, PowerPoint presentations, story cards, enactment, puppetry to name a few. During these sessions, we are exchanging information and extending our ideas to the students with the help of face, body and hand gestures. These sessions are proving very helpful for the children in strengthening their understanding of language. The little ones have become more expressive and have shown a profound development of their language skills. Verbal proficiency has been enhanced and the children have become imaginative and creative.

The best part of these sessions is that the children have developed their listening skills and they have enriched their list of new words. Moral values have been imparted through these stories which will surely help them deal with their own life experiences both big and small.

The support of the parents in this endeavor has been a wonderful experience. They have come forward with great ideas and taken out time to assist with various art and craft activities. The story telling sessions conducted by them are full of fun with innovative props and audio visual aids.