BOOK 20#

Title - 'A Butterfly Smile'

Publisher, Year - Pratham Books, 2017

Grade - 3rd

Genre - Picture Book

Theme - Environment/ Migration

Author - Mathangi Subramanian

Brief Biography

'Mathangi Subramanian' is a writer, educator, and activist who believes that stories have the power to change the world. A former American public school teachers, assistant vice-president at Sesame Workshop and senior policy analyst at the New York City Council, she has received numerous awards, including a 'Fulbright-Nehru' Fellowship, a 'Teachers College Office of Policy and Research' Fellowship and a 'Jacob Javits' Fellowship.

Synopsis

Kavya’s family has just moved from her village to Bengaluru and she is the 'new' girl in her class. Go along with Kavya as she visits a butterfly park where she discovers a special connection with butterflies and also makes a new friend.

 

Reading - Writing Strategies

Pre- reading

• You can ask the students to predict the story by looking at the cover page.
• Point at the first picture , ask the students to identify the setting.

 

During reading 

•  Do you know what is a caterpillar?
  
• Kavya is feeling nervous about speaking in the class, do you ever feel the same?
• Has it ever happened that you changed your school within the city or because you moved to another city? How did you feel then? Can you connect to what Kavya is feeling?
• What is a cocoon? 
• Have you ever seen a butterfly come out of its cocoon?
  
• Kavya's favorite insects are butterflies; what is your favorite insect?
  

 

Post reading 

• You can ask the students to collect information about various species of butterflies found in India.
• You can ask them to write about / find out about experiences of people who have migrated from one place to another. For e.g- they might have a grandparent who migrated during partition, a parent who moved to another city for a job like kavya's parents etc.
  
• You can also organize a trip to Aravalli Biodiversity Park in Delhi, where they have a butterfly zone.
  

Reflection  

'A Butterfly Smile' deals with the experiences of a young child , who has migrated with their family to a new city. She faces her own challenges while adjusting inside a new classroom. While reading the book I remembered the time when I switched schools in 8 th standard. Like Kavya I would also feel very shy and would be scared to say anything in the class. I feared people would judge me, because this new school was quite elite and people here were quite fluent in English. Other challenges were to adjust with new teachers , new rules and make new friends.

The parallel's drawn between the migration of butterflies and Kavya's family , felt like a metaphor for the way our lives are symmetrical with nature.

Sources

https://storyweaver.org.in/stories/11627-a-butterfly-smile

 https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/iucn-proposes-butterfly-zone-at-aravali-biodiversity-park/articleshow/59209806.cms

BOOK 19#

Title - 'Anna's Extraordinary Experiments with Weather'

Publisher, Year, – Pratham books, 2018

Genre – Biography, Picture Book

Grade –  ^3rd

Theme – Science

Author - Nandita Jayaraj

Brief Biography

'Nandita Jayaraj' is a science communicator and co-founder of the feminist science media project The Life of Science. She travels to  various laboratories around India tracking the lives and research of the scientists who work in them. She has authored several children's books.Some of her works are 'The Louse's New House', 'Raju's First Flight' , 'Arya Cockpit' and '31 Fantastic Adventures in Science: Women Scientists in India'.

Nandita writes science-oriented storybooks and her aim is to raise awareness about Indian science and start conversations around gender equality in academia.

Synopsis

'Anna's Extraordinary Experiments with Weather' is a piece of creative non fiction around the life of Famous Indian Meteorologist Anna Mani. It traces the events in the life of Anna Mani from the time she was a little girl to when she became the Deputy Director General of Indian Meteorological Department.

Reading - Writing Strategies

Pre reading

• Have you ever heard of 'Anna Mani'
  
• Would you like to know who she is ?

During reading

• Anna got diamonds as a gift for her birthday ; do you also get gifts on your birthday?
  
• Anna doesn't look happy with her gifts , has it ever happened that you got gifts you didn't like?
• Do you recognize the other scientist in the picture?
• What is a laboratory? What are experiments?
• What is weather? Can you tell us about today's weather?
• Who is a meteorologist?

Post reading

• You can ask the students to find more about Meteorology by going to the library and using various resources there like Encyclopedias.
• You can also ask the Students to compile a list of  Famous Indian Scientists. And look for contributions made by other Woman scientists.
  

Reflection

'Anna's Extraordinary Experiments with Weather' is one of the very few stories that depict the life of an Indian Woman Scientist. The book shows Anna Mani as this quirky little girl , who is more interested in reading books than jewellery. The thought of having diamonds annoy her , until of course they are for experimenting.

Anna Mani' s character fall against a lot of gender stereotypes. In a country like ours where woman face casual sexism in their lives everyday , Anna Mani provides an example of what a woman can achieve if she has the freedom to what she wants. 

Sources-

https://storyweaver.org.in/stories/28270-anna-s-extraordinary-experiments-with-weather

BOOK 18#

Title- 'Mithai'

Publisher, Year, Place- NCERT, 2008, New Delhi

Grade- 1st and 2nd

Genre- Picture Book

Theme - Food

Name of the Series- 'Barkha Series'

Brief Biography

'Barkha Series' has been published by NCERT with a special focus on Early Grades . It is understood that children enter school with an existing vocabulary that has several words. So they already have a rich language resource of their own , even before they start learning reading and writing. The aim of 'Barkha Series' is to utilize this existing knowledge source of children.

The stories in the series are usually around day to day events of children's lives. The illustrations have been designed by keeping a young audience mind. And the text is easy to read and comprehend.

Synopsis

This story is about a donkey , who wishes to eat something sweet. But he couldn't think of a sweet he shall eat. He asks his friends to help him in making a choice.

 

Would you like to see what he finally does?

Reading - Writing Strategies

Pre- reading

• Show the cover of the book to the students and ask them to predict the story.
• Ask them where does a donkey live?

During reading

• Have you ever seen an animal eat sweets?
  
• Point to the picture and ask them about the animal in the picture; what animal it is? what does it eat? where does it live?
• Why is the donkey saying no? Do you also say no to eating certain things?

Post reading

• You can ask the students to write about any sweet dish that is cooked in their homes.
  

Reflection

Stories in Barkha Series have very relatable themes. They have great visuals and are not loaded with text, which allows us as practitioners to keep young children engaged. Stories like 'Mithai' quite cleverly depict human like features in animal characters. As the way the character of the donkey is fussing over what to eat, is quite similar to the way young children and sometimes adults as well, act when it comes to eating.

BOOK 17#

Title- ' Phooli Roti'

Publisher, Year, Place- NCERT, 2008, New Delhi

Grade- 1st and 2nd

Genre- Picture Book

Theme - Food

Name of the Series- 'Barkha Series'

Brief Biography

'Barkha Series' has been published by NCERT with a special focus on Early Grades . It is understood that children enter school with an existing vocabulary that has several words. So they already have a rich language resource of their own , even before they start learning reading and writing. The aim of 'Barkha Series' is to utilize this existing knowledge source of children.

The stories in the series are usually around day to day events of children's lives. The illustrations have been designed keeping in mind the young audience. And the text is easy to read and comprehend.

Synopsis

Food is an essential part of our lives. It nourishes not only our bodies, but our souls. Its a daily occurrence to see food being cooked in our home. Who cooks the food in your house? How is the food cooked?

Would you like to see how 'Jamal' cooked his first 'Roti'?

Reading - Writing Strategies

This story can be used to do 'Recipe Writing' with students. You can create your own sample recipe to use it as a sample text with students.

Pre- reading

• Ask the students about their favorite food.
  
• Ask them where is the food cooked in their houses.
  
• How is the food cooked in their houses?
• Ask them if they have ever cooked before?

During reading

• Here Jamal's mother is cooking food , who cooks food in your family?
• How do you think roti is made?
  
• Is it only made from wheat? What all other things are used to make 'Roti'?
  
• What do you think Jamaal will do next?
  

Post reading

 

• Ask the students to think if 'Roti' is cooked the same way at their houses as in the story.
• You can ask them to write the steps involved in making a 'Roti'.

or

 

• You can ask the students to bring the ingredients for Sandwiches , Bhelpuri etc. and ask them to make it in class.
  
• You can ask them to write the way they are making it an do recipe writing with them.
  

Reflection

Stories in Barkha Series have very relatable themes. They have great visuals and are not loaded with text, which allows us as practitioners to keep young children engaged. Stories like 'Phooli Roti' depict the everyday occurrence of a child's life. And food is a very important part of our childhood, so many of our happy memories revolve around food. I remember the way I would go for ice- cream if my dad came to pick me after school instead of my mom or the way we would go out to eat 'Kathi rolls' after my final exams every year.

Something that i found very unconventional about the story is depiction of a boy , who wishes to learn cooking. In that way the story debunks a certain stereotypes around gender , where it is only the 'girl' child who does the household chores.

BOOK 16#

Title - 'Chupan-Chupai'

Publisher, Year, Place- NCERT, 2008, New Delhi

Grade- 1st and 2nd

Genre- Picture Book

Theme - Games

Name of the Series- 'Barkha Series'

Brief Biography

'Barkha Series' has been published by NCERT with a special focus on Early Grades . It is understood that children enter school with an existing vocabulary that has several words. So they already have a rich language resource of their own , even before they start learning reading and writing. The aim of 'Barkha Series' is to utilize this existing knowledge source of children.

The stories in the series are usually around day to day events of children's lives. The illustrations have been designed keeping in mind the young audience. And the text is easy to read and comprehend.

Synopsis

There are so many games that we play with our friends , siblings and parents. What is your favorite game? Who do you often play with? Have you ever played hide and seek?

Would like to see how Jeet and his friends play hide and seek?

Reading - Writing Strategies

Pre- reading

• Divide the students into groups of 4. Then ask them to make a list of games they really like to play.
  
• Ask them to divide the list into two parts- a) games they play alone b)games they play with someone.
• Ask them , who do they play most games with?

During reading

• Show the cover of the story to the students and ask them to read aloud the 'Title'.
• Have you played hide and seek? Who did you play it with?
• Where do you usually hide? what is your favorite place for hiding?

Post reading

• Ask the students if they have any rules while playing hide and seek.
  
• Are these rules similar to the ones in the story?
• Ask the students to write a few lines about their favorite games.

Or

• Ask the students to pick a game of their own choice and write down its rules.

Reflection

Stories in Barkha Series have very relatable themes. They have great visuals and are not loaded with text, which allows us as practitioners to keep young children engaged. Stories like 'Chupan-Chupai' depict the everyday occurrence of a child's life. As games are a very important part of growing up. We learn a lot about social behavior , what it means to be a part of a group etc. through games.

This story depicts the friend circle of the main character called 'Jeet'. There are both boys and girls in the group playing together.And the name of the characters indicate that they are from different religions. There is no gender stereotyping or discrimination of the basis of religion that the text shows.