Embedded Files
Pre-Project:
Teachers brainstormed about the topic and represented in the form of a web
Our Project Journey with Children: The ‘Stories’ Project
We all have grown up listening to stories and telling stories. Stories encourage children to imagine, express and think in different ways. Children love stories as they travel to a different world while listening to one. So we planned to conduct an in-depth study of animals through the project approach pedagogy.
Phase 1-Beginning of the Project:
At the start, we posed questions to children to understand their prior knowledge and experiences about stories. They not only shared their understanding of stories but also shared about the places and the people associated with stories. Children shared their feelings and learnings from stories and poured their hearts and minds out through their responses.
Verbatims of children on their understanding about Stories
Jihan - "Stories etle vaarta jema majja ave listen karvani." (We enjoy listening to stories)
Ayaan - "I will show you magic, that is in stories also."
Reyansh - "Story matlab story sun ke mai happy feel karta hun." (I feel happy when I listen to stories)
Shivansh: “Story has title, moral, characters and also imagination. Story garden mai bhi hoti hai jo mamma sunati hai, school mai roj teacher story sunate hai.“ (Mother narrates stories in the garden and teacher narrates it at school everyday)
Sharanya: “We learn new words from the story.”
Panthi: “I have book name mucho sing, this is because, funny story hai,”
Anant : “Super heroes pretend life.“We don’t find them in real life.”
Children also named different places associated with stories like houses, libraries, school, youtube, mall, online, crossword.
Verbatims of children about places where stories are heard/told
Vaarush:"Sheshu vihar ma ke che." (Stories are heard at ‘Sheshu Vihar’)
Yadhvansh: “TV mai dekhte hai, turtle and rabbit story”. (We see “Turtle and rabbit story’ on the television.
Madhav: "Books mai mobile mai bhi dekha hai vo story" (I have seen stories in books and in mobile)
It was much easier for children to talk about the people who tell stories, and they mostly related it with their family members and teachers in school.
Verbatims of children about people associated with stories
Riyansh: “Papa writes story.”
Sfurna: ”Books se, nani aese hi story sunati hai mummy ko.” (Grandmother narrates stories to mother from the books)
Amay Jain:“Postman uncle story book le ke atte the” (Postman uncle used to bring story book)
They also talked about how their grandparents heard stories.
Unnati:Meri nani ko uski nani story sunati thi”. (Great grandmother narrated stories to my grandmother)
Children not only shared about the people who tell/listen to stories but also shared their knowledge about various ways of narrating stories.
Jihan - "Stick puppets, finger play through fingers, Priya mam pictures ma thi stories kahe che." (Priya Ma’am narrates stories from pictures)
Reyansh - "Story of savaj maine uska video dekha." (I have seen the video of the story named ‘Savaj’)
Shivansh - " Theater."
Prisha- "Mumma stories keh che books ma thi." (Mother narrates stories from books)
Mishti - "Shadow thi. Torch ni light hoy.” (Stories are narrated with shadow and by throwing the light of the torch)
They also showcased their thoughts about how stories help them to learn new things.
Naksh: “Story mai se we try to become strong.”
Shivansh - "We don't know anything if we do not listen to the stories and we won't know what happened in other stories and books also.
Waamik: "We know fast na drive karay slow karay." (We should not drive fast, we should drive slowly)
Children also expressed their thoughts through their art work like drawings, clay models, and stick puppets using indigenous materials.
In their own way children expressed their emotions about stories:
Haksh: "I love crocodile monkey, monkey didn't give grapes to crocodile that's why Haksh doesn't like monkey."
Shivaksh: "Fresh, happy laage." (I feel fresh and happy)
Vaarush: “Peaceful lage che.” (I feel peaceful)
Phase 2- Developing the Project:
By this time we had a fair idea about the understanding of children and their prior knowledge about the topic.
As teachers, we realized that the children had little understanding about different genres and elements of stories and so to enhance their knowledge, we planned a virtual field trip to the bookstore ‘Latitude’.
Exploring Genres of Stories through a virtual visit to the bookstore ‘Latitude’
Children saw many books related to different themes like friendship, kindness, horror, autobiography and moral stories. Their vocabulary was enhanced as they were introduced to new terms like fables, fairy tales and mythology.
Anecdotes of children during the virtual field visit to bookstore “Latitude”:
Naksh: "Book store mei many books, reading area , fables, mythological stories."
Anvit: "Krishna bhagvan book."
Aryahi : “Fairy tales, Rapunzel, Cinderella”.
Mishti - “The very hungry caterpillar che aa”. (This is ‘The very hungry caterpillar’ book)
Anant : “Latitude book shop, books we see, animals, wolf, on the wall.”
Shivansh - “I know about this book and it's a book on shark and it's looking very scary”.
Jihan - “We can buy books from the shop”.
Children made representational drawings (i.e.,drawing while observing) which were very colorful and vibrant. Their drawings depicted their understanding of the Genres.
Mathematical representation was done in the form of tally marking where children counted the genres explored by them during the visit.
Exploring Elements of Stories
A resource person Ms. Priti Shah, a professional storyteller, narrated the story of ‘Little Red Hen’ and ‘Once a mouse’ to explain all the five elements of stories like theme, character, settings, problem and solution. The entire session was very interactive and children understood the elements of the story in a fun way.
In-depth Study about Authors
Children explored and learnt about various children’s authors, their style of writing and the things they keep in mind while writing any story.
Children read and researched about different stories written by ‘Eric Carle’ and ‘Julia Donaldson’. This helped them to compare the themes, characters, settings, and plot of stories written by both the authors.
Kiaan: "The hungry caterpillar che."
Avyan "The tiny seed."
Naksh: " I have all the stories of Eric Carle."
After such a rich exposure children were equipped with some information about how to write stories. With some discussion, brainstorming and negotiation, children decided to choose themes for creating their own stories in groups.
Junior KG A: Group 1 “Hard work” and Group 2 “Friendship”
Junior KG B: Group 1 “Magic” and Group 2 “Hard work”
Junior KG C: “Magic and Helping”
Junior KG D: Group 1 “Being Helpful” and Group 2 “Magic”
Few anecdotes of children while deciding the theme:
Shanaya: “Ma’am I like hard working”.
Aarya: ‘My favourite is magic story.”
Panthi: “Giant was helpful.”
Rajeshwari - “No one was helping the little red hen.”
Abhay: “Super heroes batman, spider man all are helping.”
They continued the process of deciding the characters, settings and plot of the story through fruitful discussions and brainstorming.
Reyansh - “Story banane ke liye hume characters chahiye, settings chahiye, problem aur solution bhi”. (We need characters, settings, problem and solution to weave any story)
Ayaan - “Hamari story mein forest hoga”. (We will have a forest in our story)
Navaynsh: “Mai 6 characters banana chahta hu.” (I want to have 6 characters in my story)
Riyansh: “Princes will live in the castle.”
Dhruhi: “Cottage mai captain America hoga.Woh kaam karega.” (Captain America will be in the cottage. He will work)
Children now were equipped with some idea of how stories are weaved and were ready to write their own story. They were divided into groups and they worked in collaboration to complete their story.
Once the story outline was ready, they created the blueprint of the story and presented their story in the form of drawing and made a prototype of the same using play dough. They started visualizing how they would give shape to their story and what would be the materials required for the model. Children had divided their duties and decided what characters and settings they would create individually. Parents partnered with their children in the entire process of making the model.
Shivansh-"I will make a big castle using cardboard box".
Ayaan-"I will make lion and dinosaur using cardboard, par mujhe dinosaur banate nahi aata". (I will make lion and dinosaur using cardboard but I don’t know to make the dinosaur)
Phase 3- Concluding the project:
Children recalled the entire project journey and expressed it in the form of anecdotes, stories, rhymes, riddles and art work which was documented by teachers and parents. They shared their feelings stating their likes and dislikes from the project:
Saavi: “I like the hungry caterpillar story. I like castle making. I like all activities.”
Parina: “I liked ‘Friends in the jungle story’. Hum logo ne ye story clay thi banayu hatu. riddle banavi gami, ne rhyme nathi gami.” (....We made this story with clay. I liked making riddles but not rhymes.)
The project helped in children’s holistic development. With immense support from parents we were able to conduct the project online while children were learning remotely.There were challenges for all, but together we could do an in-depth study and expose children to some new experiences.
Few riddles created by children:
Niyansh: “Who writes stories?”
Anvit: "I am the little girl who eats baby bear's porridge, Who am I ?"
Shivaksh: "Jungle mai mogli rehta tha which story is this?”
All in all, this virtual project on ‘Stories’ was a memorable journey for children, parents and teachers. It was a fun-filled journey with a blend of hands-on experience and incredible learning.
It is said that “Good things come in Small Packages” and indeed, our beautiful journey with children and stories came to an end.
From Junior Kindergarten teaching team,
Junior KG A: Dimple Solanki and Urja Doshi
Junior KG B: Mital Raval and Smriti Jaiswal
Junior KG C: Priya Sant
Junior KG D: Jharna Matani and Puja Raval
Junior KG Academic Coordinator: Pooja Kapur
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