A helping hand for Bookworms Library

Today we came together in the home of Umm Uzair. When smaller bookworms sat down for their reading, Umm Uzair asked them about their very favourite toys - everybody had a turn telling others about theirs. Then she asked, if ever anything bad had ever happened to their favourite toys, and children shared some of their sad experiences of toys getting broken and even lost.

All of this this discussion led to the selected reading for the day, which was "Raggedy Ann" by Johnny Gruelle - a story about a doll, who also happened to go through a very rough experience. Bookworms also learned that Raggedy Ann was, in fact, a real doll, who used to belong to a real girl named Marcella. Because Marcella was often ill and had to spend much of her time at home, her father, the writer of this book, looked for ways to keep her entertained. He was inspired by Marcella's rag doll, which had bright shoe-button eyes and red yarn hair. They named the doll Raggedy Ann. Knowing how much Marcella adored Raggedy Ann, Johnny Gruelle wrote stories about the doll. He later collected stories he had written for Marcella and published them in a series of books - one of these bookworms got to read!


After the reading, smaller bookworms continued on with a crafts activity. With the help of their moms, they outlined on a piece of paper their hands and coloured them with their favourite colours of crayons and pencils. Later, Umm Uzair attached these colourful hands to straws, creating a bunch of beautiful flowers!

While smaller bookworms were busy in story-time, the bigger book club girls got started on a serious project - repairing the picture books of Bookworms Library. Even though our library is still small, books do suffer from reading and need some attention for making their life longer.

The bigger bookworms worked under the supervision of Hafsa and aunty Almas, who ensured the smooth proceeding of the fixing process. One group of girls identified the broken books, while the other started to work on fixing them. This time, scotch-tape and scissors was all the girls needed. However, Umm Uzair promised that for bigger chapter books, some more serious work would be coming up - she would teach the girls how to bind books into new covers, Insha'Allah.

As the girls were busily working, aunty Almas came up with a poem, describing the book-fixing workshop:

We worked in a line, for our books to shine,
Because a stich in time saves nine.

When my books feel fine, I'm on cloud nine,
Because a stich in time saves nine. 

I see in them plants, trees and pine, I'm through them, they're all mine,
Because a stich in time saves nine.

I find them sweet as cane and sour as lime. When I see them, my heart chimes.
Because a stich in time saves nine.

Aunty Almas and the girls presented this poem to the rest of the book club - aunty Almas reading one line and the girls all together chanting the repeating line. Thank you, aunty Almas, for the beautiful poem!

With all the colours of rainbow

This week, bookworms gathered together for having some fun at the home of Haneen and Safiya - thank you for welcoming us! At a previous book club, we had agreed to discuss the topic of rainbows and colours in general, so children had brought along something colourful for show-and-tell. Here is what we enjoyed:

Hassan had constructed and coloured a rainbow house. He had some rain-clouds on the sides, too.

Haneen demonstrated to us her rainbow top - when she spun it,  all the colours mixed into a yellowish glow of light.

Fatima had drawn a story about rainbow - children came to park to play, it started to rain, and they saw a rainbow.

Hibatullah showed us a beautiful multi-colours mat made by her mother.

Hibatullah had brought with her a pack of colourful t-shirts arranged according to the colours of rainbow.

And that's Sulaiman showing us a colourful rainbow with the letters of each colour marked inside.

Hajrah had a colourful plastic spring - she shifted it from one palm to the other, forming the colourful bow of the rainbow this way.

As children were showing their colourful items, all of us discussed, how rainbows are formed - how the sunlight breaks down in the droplets of rain into all the colours of rainbow. Hajrah's mother reminded her, how they saw completely round (not bow-shaped) rainbows at Niagara Falls. Hafsa's mother reminded her, how they had been sitting in a train, over which a rainbow was arching - as they drove closer to the rainbow, it seemed to disappear from view.


After this wonderful show-and-tell, Umm Haneen red for us a story about a rabit, who was trying to find out, what colours made up a rainbow. This reading was followed by another book read by Umm Uzair - about an orange cat named Archie, who hated (but later learned to appreciate) the colour pink. Umm Uzair also asked all the bookworms about their favourite colours and the reasons why they liked them.

The reading was followed by an art activity - all the children were invited to make their very own rainbows by looking at Hassan's house for guidance, as to which colours to have in their rainbows. Even the smallest bookworms tried out their hand at creating rainbows!

Later on, Haneen and Safiyah showed to all their friends, how to make your own rainbow at home. All you need is a glass of water, white sheet of paper and bright sunlight. You place the sheet of paper flat on the ground in sunlight and hold a glass of water slightly above it. Move the glass of water up and down, to find the right distance at which the reflection of water will form a colourful rainbow on your sheet of paper. 

As usual, the book club ended with some snacks, which this time were followed by games in Haneen's and Safiya's garden - thanks to the beautiful cool weather! :)

Eid ul Fitr with Amma Fatima

The Bookworm Book Club resumed today after its Ramadan break. Sister Almas hosted the special Eid party session at her place and had the children involved in its preparation by handing them paper ribbons and balloons. Her family had installed fairy lights over a mirror giving the room a festive look and furthering the children's excitement when Sister Almas read about another Eid party with lights to decorate.       

 Mothers and children alike listened intently to the story Celebrating Eid with Amma Fatima as her family prepared to celebrate Eid with a party, games , tasty food and also special packages for the poor and orphans to make sure they were not forgotten and were able to enjoy this special day too.

 The interactive narration by Sister Almas had the room resonating with takbeer and then followed by an Urdu poem marvelling at the beauty of Allah's creation and the love of the Creator Allah SWT.

 Next the Book club members stretched their limbs to action nursery rhymes and then settled down to some tasty snacks, free play and chatter.
 
Alhumdulillah what a wonderful beginning to a new club session.

13 Shawwal 1434

Sunny Summer Salad

This week the Bookworms decided to take a break from their books and enjoy Allah's blessings on Karachi; our summer season fruits. Our summer heat is perfect for ripening our world famous mangoes as well a variety of juicy, fleshy, sweet and tangy summer salad cocktail fruits. So the Bookworms (under the watchful eyes and gentle guidance of their mothers) gathered in the Pirani kitchen, each family bringing a different fruit, rolled up their sleeves, grabbed a variety of knives and began peeling, chopping, dropping, gigging and sampling an array of fruit which eventually was tossed together to make our Sunny Summer Salad. What did this consist of you wonder? Well make a guess:

1

2

3

4

5

6

To further the fruity fun, some of the younger children had their eyes covered and were made to feel some of the fruit, then asked to describe them and guess their names. The juice from the pineapple and a sprinkle of dried mint for the moms added to the zest of this salad . Unfortunately we don't have a picture to share and words can not describe the glee of the children and the pleasure of their mothers as they literally enjoyed the fruits of their children's labor.

The Fruits:
1.Garma fruit; cantalope
2. lychee
3. Sindhri mango
4. peaches
5. bananas
6. tinned pineapple (not a local fruit but enjoyed locally)

Shaban 1434

"The Silver Sword" - 1

Today, our big bookworms started reading a new book - "The Silver Sword" by Ian Serrallier. The introduction to the book from the back cover says: "When the Nazis seize their father and mother, in World War II, the three Balicki children are left to fend for themselves in occupied Poland. Bravely they survive the hardships of war, and never completely lose hope of finding their parents again. This is the exciting story of their quest, of the clever orphan boy Jan who helps them, and of the silver talisman that accompanies them on their dangerous journey."

 

The little bookworms were busy with the adventures of the famous three bears family and the Goldilocks. No, they didn't read about the Goldilocks - they read about what happened after the Goldilocks had left the bears' house.

As it turned out upon inquirying, all the little bookworms were really well familiar with the story of the Goldilocks and helped Umm Uzair with details about what had happened in the bears' house, when Goldilocks had visited it. The book they read this time was "A Chair for Baby Bear" by Kaye Umansky and Chris Fisher. Now, we won't give you out all the details of the story, in order not to spoil it for you, but we can assure you that the baby bear got a new chair by the end of the book.

After reading the book, little bookworms gave a try to drawing their very own chair for the baby bear - one that they would like to send to him. Have a look at the chairs we've got - don't you think the baby bear would be happy? :)