Meeting #4: Moral Stories Read-Aloud Session

Our 4th 📚  Al Jimi Bookworms 🐛 meeting, themed "Moral Stories Read-Aloud Session" was conducted at the Rooftop Garden. It was a cool and breezy summer evening, and the hour-long session was attended in great numbers by the enthusiastic Midi Bookworms of Al Jimi - Kavni, Yuuvh, Jiya, Surya, Yug, Esa, Fatima, Shraddha, Alankrita, Ara, Vedhika, Rahil, Filza, Mishita, Sarisha, Mahima, Amina, Anaika, Prisha and Aadhya. We welcomed three drop-in members as well- Ahmed, Maryam and Malak.

We began the session by introducing ourselves and greeting each other with loud, lively hellos! Then I introduced the theme of the evening and explained what Moral Stories mean. We looked at some of the colourful posters that our volunteer artists had made for the evening with some popular morals. 

After that, we drew lots and began to read out our favourite Moral Stories aloud to our friends. First up was Alankrita who read us a story about "Two Mean Girls" with the moral that "We must think twice before inviting trouble". Then Yuuvh, a confident 5 year old reader, told us the story of "The Royal Parrot" from his collection of Tenali Rama anecdotes. It taught us that "Freedom is more important than luxurious captivity". 

Ara was next and she too fluently read us the story of "The Hen and the Swallow" which had an interesting lesson for us- "Affection may be deep, but it must be shown with care." And finally, our last little reader was Mahima, who told us a funny tale about the "Red Birdie's Party" with the moral that "It is okay to make silly mistakes sometimes!". She personalized the story with an account of when she tried to copy a YouTube video and how that went wrong- and what she learned from it. This was a good reminder for all of us to not trust everything we see on the internet! 

While the children enjoyed some snacks, I told them two stories- one about "The Cow who Wanted Green Grass" and the other about "The Greedy Farmer". Both the morals "Be content." and "Do not lie or cheat." were well-received by our avid listeners. 

We wrapped up the evening with some tips on how to read, and also shared our favourite parts about the session. 

A big thank you to all the children for making it and participating in the session. Thanks also to our volunteer artists- Yug, Surya, Sarisha and Kavni who coloured in some beautiful posters for our event. And of course thank you also to my super helpful volunteer mummies who provided mats, as well as a lovely selection of healthy snacks for the children- Prema, Prachi, Thanha, Shradha, Amrita, Satya, Shagun, Reshma, Dhara and Anita. 

Keep reading, and waiting to see you all again at the next meet-up!