East Byculla Municipal School
East Byculla Municipal School is a public school in Mumbai. Many underprivileged students in Mumbai attend this school. I was honoured to be invited to this school to conduct a special session, Tales 'N' Treats style! As a part of this session, I read Panchatantra folk tales with the students and then we made a Solar System styled wind chime.
Almost every Indian kid has grown up reading or listening to Panchatantra stories. These stories have been passed down generations. In these stories, the protagonists are animals. They all end with a moral.
For my session, I chose the story of the Ghost and the Tail and the Sun and the Wind. After this, we learned about the Solar System. The students were interested in learning more about the Sun and this connected to the Solar System.
We kickstarted the session with introductions one by one!
The students studied in a Hindi and Marathi medium school. This meant that English was their third language. So, as I played the videos of the stories in English, I would also help the students translate the story to Hindi. We discussed the morals of the stories in depth too. There was a diverse group of kids, ranging from ages 8 to 16. The lively bunch actively participated in our discussions and added thier two bits to enrich the conversation. Towards the end, the students expressed interest to join my Sunday classes as well!