It's the last week of our #EnvironmentMonth celebrations, and we're doffing our hat to the lungs of the planet: trees. Beautiful, nurturing and providing comfort to those who seek it, trees are the lifeline of the planet. Here are some beautiful books that celebrate trees in all their glory and also include stories of people who go out of their way to save trees.  Free to read, download and share, and available in multiple languages. 

Up World, Down World by Padmaparna Ghosh and Sunaina Coelho.

In a canopy forest in India, the Up World and Down World have always been suspicious of each other. But it all changes when Gopa the dormouse drops her book by accident on Fatima’s head. A story about the biodiversity of the canopy forests and friendship.

Every Tree Counts by Praba Ram and Sheela Preuitt illustrated by Sangeetha Kadur

From the stately Deodar and colourful Coral to the majestic Banyan and common Pipal, the book takes children on a journey across varied landscapes as they count trees, and picture the uses of each tree. Look around you to find more trees, and learn what these terrific trees can do.

My Tree-Friend by Shreekumar Varma and Rae Zachariah

We all know trees are our friends. But can friends be trees too? Just like the fruits in Ammoomma’s trees, friends can be sweet, sour, or both!

Chipko Takes Root by Jeyanthi Manokaran

Here is a story set in the hills that shows what bravery and grit can accomplish. Dichi, a brave Bhotiya girl takes part in the Chipko movement to save her beloved trees. Everybody in her village knows that trees give them all the important things in their life. Rapid deforestation in the Himalayan region of Alaknanda river caused floods in the 1970s and gave birth to a movement to save trees by hugging them. Read this heartwarming tale to learn the power of collective action as seen through the eyes of young Dichi.

Grandfather Goes on Strike by K.S. Nagarajan and Neeta Gangopadhya

Most grandfathers are content to lie back in an armchair and lazily read the day's newspaper. Not our tree loving senior citizen. He goes on strike for his beloved trees and a series of hilarious events liven up this entertaining tale. Read on to find out who saves the day and who saves the trees!

A Walk Among Trees by Nimret Handa

Trees have been growing on our planet well before human beings appeared on it. Without their comforting shade and tasty fruit, our earth would be quite a barren place. Take a walk among trees in the King's orchard to savour the taste, the smell and the legends associated with bountiful fruit trees in India. You will feel refreshed by all that you learn!

 

Let's Go Seed Collecting! by Neha Sumitran and  Archana Sreenivasan

Join Tooka, Poi, and their best friend Inji the dog, as they go around collecting seeds. The adventure begins when the three friends meet Pacha the tamarind tree.

We've hope you've enjoyed our month long sharing of environment themed books! Do come back for more stories in more languages!

 

 

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Communities Rising runs after school programs for children attending government primary schools in underserved rural villages in the Villupuram District of Tamil Nadu. When they started their  new reading program, Betsy McCoy, founder and President of Communities Rising asked the students "How many of you ever read books for pleasure?" Not a single student said yes. Fast forward two years, and a totally different picture has emerged.

“All of our students are reading every day; story books, non-fiction books, biographies, all kinds of books. They are discovering the joy of reading! Without StoryWeaver, this remarkable change in our students’ reading habits would not have been possible.” shared Betsy.

Communities Rising was struggling to find beginner reader books in English and Tamil that the children would enjoy reading at affordable prices. Plus, they discovered that once their student’s were bitten by the reading bug, they could not keep up with their voracious appetite for books!

StoryWeaver’s relationship with Communities Rising started earlier this year, when they attended one of a workshop and demonstration in Bangalore.  Through StoryWeaver, Communities Rising has access to a wealth of books in both English and Tamil, which they can download quickly and print to share with children. StoryWeaver also provides them a choice of titles in a variety of genres, including books on STEM subjects. If a particular title is not available in Tamil, they can translate it to Tamil on the platform itself and have it ready for the children to be enjoyed.

“We especially love the bilingual books printed in both Tamil and English that allow our students to read in both languages on the same page. These books are a tremendous help with comprehension - it's like getting two books for the price of one!” said Betsy.

Communities Rising have downloaded all of the StoryWeavers titles in levels 1 and 2 in English, and levels 1-3 in Tamil. They are in the process of printing and distributing one set of all these titles to each of their 6 centres, thus reaching 360-400 students.

“We tried printing the books in two formats. One with single pages hole punched and attached with rings and the second with the pages stapled in the center. Durability is an issue and so we printed samples on heavy, card stock.” shared Betsy.

     

Creating Super Readers

The organisation believes that reading makes children learners for life and encourages reading in a big way in their after school programme. Each child is assigned a 'book box' which contains books that he/she must read each week - in both English and Tamil.  Children are incentivised to read through the SuperReader program which has been developed by Communities Rising.

“Each student has a CR reading necklace. They get a bead for each book that their teacher certifies they have actually read. After reading 10 books, they get ‘Readers Are Leaders’ pencils, and after 20 books, they get pins that proclaim them ‘CR Super Readers’. I'm happy to say that we are giving our many pencils.” said Betsy who believes that the necklaces, reading pencils and Super Reader pins help build a sense of community and sense of belonging to Communities Rising amongst the children.

 

                A CR Super Reader necklace.

At the end of the year, the top readers from each center will travel to Chennai to visit Tara Boks for a program there and the top reading center will have a book party!

“Last year, I told some of our kids, that I was looking forward to hearing complaints from their parents that they were spending too much time reading, instead of playing or helping at home. We aren’t quite there yet, but with the help of StoryWeaver, I have no doubt those complaints aren't far away.” said Betsy.

We look forward to hearing those complaints too!

You can follow Communities Rising on FaceBook. If you’re an organisation working with young children and feel that StoryWeaver could benefit them, please write to us at [email protected]. Do remember to add Freedom to Read in the subject line!

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Edu-Cater, is a group of educators who are striving to create 'healthy learning environments'. They design interventions for facilitators who implement them in their respective learning environments. Each module/intervention typically spans 1-2 weeks. While their work encompasses many spaces, The Edu-Cater team strongly believes in the power of books and reading, which prompted them to start a project called Treasure Trove.

Treasure Trove sets up mini-libraries in schools or settings that have limited or no access to books. So far the team has helped set up 3 mini-libraries across Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Of the three, the team  engages closely in one of those settings as the other two spaces had all the resources except access to books, which Treasure Trove  helped them acquire.

“We work in a school called Sathya Sai school which is in semi-urban environment in North Chennai. Our target group is Class 5 children. Though this school does not have a proper library, there is tremendous support from their end to inculcate the habit of reading.”  shared Sriram Sampath, one of the founding members of Edu-Cater.  

Siram outlined what the team does via this intervention:

“In the first year of intervention (when kids are in class 5), we empower them with certain skills we deem to be most important like the ability to create, think and collaborate. In the second year of intervention (when kids move to class 6), we want them to feel confident enough to pick up books and read them.”

For both these interventions, Team Edu-Cater is using Pratham Books and StoryWeaver.

Introducing new words and books Treasure Trove shared the story  'The day the vegetables came to school' with children and using the story to introduce them to the words 'Author', 'Illustrator'  and 'Translator'.

“We gave all the children a small spiral notepad and encouraged them to maintain their own dictionary in it.” recounts Sriram. “The students carried  it with them everywhere to record new words that they come across and their meaning. During the course of sharing this story, students noted down many words that were new to them and asked us for the meanings.”

The team noted how children were excited to note down new words and curious about their meanings. “One of the boys had noted down a few words in his dictionary and had managed to locate the meanings of all the words except one during the course of the week.” remembers Sriram “The moment we entered the class at the next session, he headed straight to us and asked us for the meaning of the word!”

Children found many ways to use the notebook, with one doubling it up as a reference book. “He had drawn the parts of the brain in it.  When we asked him why he did this, he told us that he wanted to  use the book as a quick reference for tough content!”

Create your own story “We divided the children into teams and showed them the wordless version of 'The Birthday Party'. We then asked each team to come up with their own stories based on the original. It was delightful to see them express their ideas, which was the primary objective of the exercise. But what moved us was when they referred to their dictionary and introduced the new words they had learnt in the stories they weaved. It was amazing!” recounts Sriram “One group of girls was determined to use the new words that they had learnt the previous week. They created their story and were identifying spots where they could insert these new words. This sort of student ownership and little moments are what we call impact.”

When Edu-Cater asked one representative from each team to come forward and share their team’s story, more than one person came forward from each group to read out their stories.

“Many teams had more than one member reading out the stories as a result, and they took turns to do this. It really is a sign of their enthusiasm and confidence, to read!” feels Sriram.

The Treasure Trove project caters to around 85 children currently and there are plans to re-engage with last year's batch, making the total number of children impacted 170.

You can see more images from Edu-Cater sessions here: https://www.facebook.com/facilitatingisfun/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1489288461383170

The team’s future plans for class 6 include the purchase of a Library In A Classroom. “With this in the repository, we are confident that we can get the class 6 kids to pick up books of their choice and start reading!”

Good Luck to Sriram and his team! We look forward to reading more about them and their work!

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