A dragon in the bathtub

This was a session in which the students were given a prompt and had to continue the story. The following is a story written by one of my students who is just ten years old.

Dragon in a bathtub

Paul was late for school. He ran into the bathroom to brush his teeth and tripped over something.  A long, thick green tail was hanging out of the bathtub. Paul pulled the shower curtain back, and there was a dragon! A dragon in the bath tub!

Paul stared at the dragon. The dragon gave him a dirty look. “Do you mind?” said the dragon. “I’m trying to take a bath!”

Paul had to do something quick! He stepped back. “What are …..you doing…here?” Paul choked the words out. “I will ….call the cops on you.”

The dragon grinned and said, “Would you? I have come to tour the earth with some of my dragon friends. But unfortunately I got separated from them.” As the dragon spoke these words a puff of smoke erupted from his nose.

The dragon slowly emerged from the bathtub. Paul could see its whole body now. The dragon’s skin was scaly with some soap still on it. It had huge claws which could slice almost anything. It smelled like raw fish and seaweed. The dragon had a huge horn on its head and its teeth were as sharp as knives and it looked as if it might have a huge bite force!

The dragon came towards Paul and said, “Will you take me for a tour of the earth? I have wings” “Y…yes” Paul managed to say. “Sit on my back and we can leave!” said the dragon excitedly.

“First, we will go and see the pyramids of Egypt,” said Paul.

The dragon soared through the air and pointed at food stalls to stop for a break through out the journey. When the two of them reached the pyramids, they went into one and flew to the top of another.

They were on top of a pyramid talking, when suddenly the dragon sneezed and fire erupted from his nose. The pyramid was on fire!

They flew away as fast as they could. “I want to go home!” wailed the dragon.

Then suddenly a much bigger dragon appeared from nowhere and said, “I see food!”

The other dragon looked a bit like Paul’s dragon, but it was a lot more ferocious. It had bloodshot eyes and its skin was a very dark shade of black. The dragon had rows of sharp teeth.

It roared and charged at Paul, but Paul steered his dragon out of the other dragon’s way. Paul and his dragon fought fiercely, but they were no match for their enemy. Just then a group of dragons came and chased the bad dragon away.

“Thank you for saving our friend,” said a red dragon who looked like their leader. “I hope our little friend here did not cause you any trouble.”

“Trouble!” yelled Paul. “This dragon which you call small, almost got me killed!”

“It will not happen again,” said the red dragon. “We are going back home.”

“Goodbye!” said Paul and the dragons flew back to where they came from.

“I flew on a dragon and burned a pyramid in one day!” muttered Paul. “What a day!”

Written by Arjun Chauhan aged 10. 

The Slimy Slow Green

One evening after my studies, I sat down to watch television. Suddenly the door bell rang. I hesitated to open the door as my parents had gone out. However, I made an effort and opened the door. Swoosh! In came a creature dressed in slimy green. I was so scared, that I ran to my room. The creature followed me.

In a shaky voice I asked, "Who are you and why have you come to my house?"

The creature said, "I am a Slimy Slow Green and I have come from a place which is a secret." I asked the creature if it wanted some water to drink. It replied that it did not drink water. It only drank something called "apple boggle". I wondered what apple boggle was. The creature saw an apple in the fruit basket on the table and said, " Apple boggle is the liquid form of apple."

I went into the kitchen and made some apple juice for the creature. As I sat near it, I felt that the creature's behaviour was like someone known to me. The Slimy Slow Green then looked at the clock and said, "Oh no! I'd better hurry. Your mom is waiting for me. We had planned to go shopping."

When I heard this, I realized that the creature was in fact my dad! I ran towards him and wiped his face clean. He laughed and said,"You caught me! I am sorry if I frightened you."

Till today I feel like laughing whenever I think of my dad as the Slimy Slow Green!


by


Monisha Kulkarni

Personality Development Course for kids

We are starting a new batch of Personality Development for children from 7 years to 11 years. The course will be conducted every Monday from 5.30 pm. to 7.30 pm at The Know & Grow Learning Centre, Vasant Vihar Thane. The duration of the course is about 3 months.The topics covered are Self Confidence, Communication Skills, Handling Emotions, Relationships: family and friends, Goal Setting and Time Management. This is taught in an interactive manner through stories, skits, debates and discussions, poster making, songs etc. For further details contact Sunita on 9892939062.

Fun with Words

From the 31st of October to the 9th of November, a group of little kids aged 3 to 8 years are going to have the time of their lives at The Know & Grow Learning Centre. Right from having stories read to them to playing word games to drawing and acting out what they have read and learnt, the children will explore language as a medium of creative communication. The course is held at Vasant Vihar, Thane, Maharashtra. To know more please contact Sunita at 9892939062.

Personality Development for Women

Hi Friends,

We have been getting a lot of inquiries for a personality development programme for women. So we have created something very special for all of you who want to be the best you can.

Shakti: The Strength of a Woman.

(A Self Development Course For Women )

Topics that will be covered:

1. You are wonderful
2. Self Confidence : Yes I can, Yes I am
3. Mirror Mirror on the wall : Grooming and Make up
4. Words that Wow : Conversation and Communication
5. Charm Personified : Etiquette and Manners
6. Relationships : Family, Friends and Colleagues
7. Where’s the time? : Time Management
8. My home, my castle: Keeping a Beautiful Home


Duration: 10 Hours
Cost: Rs.3000/-
Dates : 4th,11th,18th,25th September &2nd October
Venue: Vasant Vihar
Call : Sunita 9892939062 or Monisha 9892299177

English Language Development Programme

Saturdays at the centre are a lot of fun. Every Saturday we conduct our Language Development Classes. The kids that attend range from 3 year olds to teenagers.

Last Saturday the third and fourth grade students read "Uncle Tom's Cabin". Most of the kids were thrilled to be reading a book that is claimed to be responsible for starting the Civil War in America and ultimately ending slavery. The group discussion on freedom made history come alive in the class room. The topic went on to include the kinds of freedom we enjoy today and the creative writing part of the course covered writing a poem of thanks for what we enjoy. The second assignment was to imagine what it was like to be a girl born 300 years ago in India and write a story of comparison between a girl born then and a girl born in India today.

The 3 year olds enjoy watching DVDs about the adventures of Zing who has become a great favourite. They learnt prepositions through play and a treasure hunt and wrote a rebus story to reinforce the same.

Every session for each age group starts with reading, goes on to vocabulary,grammar and conversation and ends with creative writing. It is a unique course that is tailor made for the students and we are always looking for ways to add to its value.

Kids and Summer Vacations

Come summer and most parents are faced with the question, “ What do I do with the kids the whole day? How do I keep them occupied? Is there anything I can do to help them utilize their time in a more productive manner than watching mindless television or playing games on the computer?”

I personally feel that the holidays are a great time to get the kids to do all that they don’t have the time to do during school days: creative stuff, having fun, learning life skills, reading, learning…

Looking at today’s scenario, most kids only “study” during school days. There is little time for “learning”; what with long school hours, home work, tuitions and tuition home work. And if we stop to think, how much does all this really help our kids in the long run?

What our children need is to learn in a joyful manner. They need to learn life skills, values and cognitive skills. They need to increase their knowledge through fun reading and exploration and what better time for this than the vacations?

To help you keep your children occupied in a fun manner where they will also learn things for life, we have planned a summer camp at The Know & Grow Learning Centre. This year the theme is “I love my earth – do you?”

This year we will help our children to realize how beautiful our earth is and how fragile. We will teach them to take concrete steps to take care of this beautiful planet of ours. This will be done through fun learning activities, skits, movies, team work and fun projects.

The camp starts on the 3rd of May, 2010 and will continue till the 31st of May, 2010. It will be held at Vasant Vihar, Thane (West).

For further details contact Sunita on 9892939062.