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Ricky Wins a Friend

Every year during the summer holidays, various events for children would be organised at Sunshine Woods. All the children eagerly looked forward to them.

Every year, Tito, the little turtle would participate in several events and would win many prizes. Everyone loved Tito because he was humble and always ready to help. His favourite competition was the spelling bee contest. Curled up in his shell amid stacks of books, Tito would learn the spellings of various words every day.

Ricky, a young rabbit, often came second to Tito in the spelling bee contest. He would become upset whenever Tito beat him.

This year, before the events began, Tito had an announcement to make. “I will not be participating in any of the competitions,” he said.

Everyone was shocked.

“But why? You are so good in all the events,” said one of his friends.

“I feel it’s about time I let someone else win. Others should also get a chance to win and develop their talents,” explained Tito.

But they still wanted Tito to be a part of the event.

“How about I train the other participants?” he offered.

“That is a good idea! You will be the best person for the job and other kids can learn a lot from you,” his friends agreed.

Tito was excited about his new role as a mentor. Weeks before the event, he chalked out a detailed plan, organised the training materials and sorted kids into different age groups and began training them. All the kids enrolled for the training except Ricky.

Ricky was happy to learn that Tito would not be participating in any of the competitions this year. He knew he would finally be able to win the spelling bee contest.

Soon, it was the day of the competition. Tito’s students were all excited to take part and so was Ricky. As the competition began, Tito sat on a chair close to the stage. He watched and cheered all the participants enthusiastically. At the end of the competition, the names of the winners were announced.

Ricky had won the spelling bee contest! As he walked up on the stage to receive his prize, everyone clapped for him. From the stage, he saw Tito also clapping for him with a big smile on his face.

Just then it struck Ricky that winning alone did not make one popular with others. It was one’s talent and personality that made one liked by all.

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Ricky felt ashamed of having been jealous of Tito. He had always considered Tito as a competitor and not as a friend. He also had a new found respect for Tito, who instead of just winning and collecting trophies, wanted to share his knowledge and skill with others.

From that day on, Ricky became good friends with Tito, and even offered to help him with his training sessions.

DISAPPEARING COLOURS

Do

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1. Use the lid to trace a circle on the white paper and cardboard. Cut both of them.

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2. Using a pencil and scale, divide the circular sheet of paper into 6 equal parts as shown, and colour each in a different colour: purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red.

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3. Glue the paper to the cardboard.

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4. Make a small hole in the centre of the disc and poke a skewer through it. Hold the skewer and spin the colour disc.

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See

As you spin the disc fast, you will see that the different colours start to merge and appear as one colour (white).

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Think about

 

Why do the different colours combine and appear white?

First, the colours combine and appear as one because of the way our eyes read moving images. When the disc spins, our eyes cannot register the colours separately, and hence perceive them as one. Second, the colours combine and appear white because of the composition of white light. All types of light travel in waves of different frequencies. Our eyes can only see lights that travel within a specific range of frequency called the visible spectrum. This spectrum consists of lights of different colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. When these colours are combined or travel together, they fuse into one to form white light. So, when the disc spins, the colours combine and appear white.

Let’s Find Out

How are rainbows formed?

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The (white) light that we receive from the sun is composed of several colours. When a beam of sunlight passes through rain drops (which is why we see rainbows mostly during the monsoon), at a certain angle on its way down, it splits into the different colours it is composed of, thus forming the rainbow.

Photo credit: Pixabay.com

Us and Them

Parrots are commonly known to imitate sounds such as the barking of a dog and security alarms. Sometimes, they also repeat words. Unlike humans, parrots do not have vocal chords or lips. Parrots use a vocal organ called syrinx that controls the movement of air within the throat to produce different sounds. The syrinx can also produce two sounds at the same time. The parrot’s thick tongue aids in speech. When air passes through the syrinx, the parrot moves its tongue to produce sounds.

tongue to produce sounds. Among all species of parrots, the African grey parrot is considered to be the most intelligent and has a greater memory. Hence, it is able to learn a greater vocabulary.

The African grey parrot does not only speak human language, but it is also the only bird known to understand what it speaks. It understands what each word stands for. Cosmo, an African grey parrot, would use different phrases depending on whether the owner was in the room or not. When the owner was away, it would use phrases that established location like “I’m here”, “Where are you?”. When the owner was in the room, it would use phrases to establish interaction like “Do you want to play?”

Alex, an African grey þarrot, was trained by researchers to speak 100 words, identify 50 objects, 7 colours and 6 shapes!

Jumbo finds new friends

Jumbo Giraffe was a cute little giraffe. He had recently shifted to Amarvan with his parents.

But Jumbo Giraffe wasn’t very happy in Amarvan, and he often wondered if he would ever be happy.

Well, the reason was that Jumbo Giraffe hadn’t made any new friends as yet, and he felt lonely since he stayed at home all day long.

One day, when Jumbo Giraffe’s parents went out of the house, he decided that he would go out and explore the forest. And so, he went for a long walk. A cool breeze was blowing, and Jumbo Giraffe looked around at the lush green trees that were growing all over. “I don’t know why Mum and Dad still think of me as a baby,” he said with a sigh. “They don’t let me go out by myself. I am so big and tall that even Khemu Uncle looks tiny in comparison,” Jumbo Giraffe muttered when he saw Khemu Rabbit who was his neighbour, gnawing on a big red carrot.

Soon, he spotted some baby tortoises. They were flying a kite together. Jumbo Giraffe really wanted to make new friends and have fun playing games with them, just like he did with his friends in the forest where he lived before. And so, he walked towards the baby tortoises.

“Hello! I’m Jumbo!” he said with a friendly smile. “I’m new to Amarvan. Can I play with you all?” The baby tortoises looked at Jumbo Giraffe and shook their heads.

“Oh no!” one of the tortoises said. “You are so big and tall! We cannot play with you!”

They then turned their backs towards Jumbo Giraffe and continued flying their kite.

Jumbo Giraffe shrugged and sighed. “Well, Mum and Dad think of me as small. And these tortoises think of me as big!” he thought to himself and quietly walked away.

He walked further into the forest, wishing that he had at least a friend or two to talk to, when something suddenly hit his leg.

“Hey!” he then heard some voices call.

“Please throw our football back to us.”

Jumbo Giraffe looked up and saw a herd of elephants calling out to him. They were playing in the forest playground, and the football obviously belonged to them.

He picked up the football and walked towards the elephants.

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“Hi! Will you let me play with you? I’m new to the forest!” he said hopefully.

“No,” the elephants said firmly. “You cannot play with us. You are very small and you might get hurt if you play with us. If that happens, your parents will be very upset with us. So, we cannot allow you to join our games!” The elephants took their football from Jumbo Giraffe and went back to their game.

Jumbo Giraffe sighed. He felt very disappointed but didn’t say a word. He sat on a nearby rock and watched the elephants quietly.

“I really cannot figure out whether I am big or small,” he said to himself. “Some of the animals insist that I am too big to play with them. And there are others who refuse to let me join them saying I am too small! Sigh!”

Tears welled in Jumbo Giraffe’s eyes. He had never felt so sad or lonely ever before. He heard the sound of chattering and looked up only to see a baby monkey hanging from the branch of a nearby tree. The monkey seemed to be enjoying himself thoroughly.

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“This monkey is far better off than I am,” Jumbo Giraffe thought to himself. “He can amuse himself with his own antics. I can’t even hang like him. Hey! Maybe I can ask him to play with me. He might just agree.”

But before Jumbo Giraffe could say a word, the baby monkey jumped on to another tree and disappeared deep into the forest.

“Oh!” Jumbo Giraffe said, feeling quite left out once again. He decided to return home since he could not find anyone to play with. He started to walk away when he saw the elephants’ football fall into a swamp.

“Oh no!” the elephants said, sounding very disappointed. Jumbo Giraffe watched as the elephants tried their level best to take the football out of the swamp with the help of their trunks.

He realised that they couldn’t go very close to the swamp since they had heavy bodies and were likely to get stuck in the swamp. Unfortunately, the elephants’ trunks were not long enough to pull the ball out of the swamp either.

Jumbo Giraffe felt very sorry for the elephants. They had been having so much fun just a few minutes ago. They looked very disappointed now. “May I try taking the football out of the swamp?” he asked politely. The elephants looked at him hesitatingly.

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One of them then said, “We would be highly obliged if you could do that. But please, do take care of yourself and don’t go very close to the swamp. We do not want you to get into any trouble.”

Jumbo Giraffe nodded and went closer to the swamp. He tried pulling the football out with his legs, but wasn’t successful. “I am unable to reach the football on my own,” he told the elephants. “Can somebody hold me from behind please? I will be more relaxed when I try to reach it then.”

One of the elephants then held Jumbo Giraffe tightly from behind as per his suggestion. Jumbo found that he could reach the football easily now. In no time, he retrieved it from the swamp and smartly kicked it towards the elephants.

“Hurray!” the elephants cheered as they picked up and hugged their football. All the elephants then thanked Jumbo for his help and invited him to play with them.

Jumbo Giraffe accepted the elephants’ invitation graciously.

He played with them till it was time him for him to go home. He then left the playground, promising that he would come back the next day, and started walking towards his house.

On the way, he saw the baby tortoises he had met earlier. They were looking at a tree and seemed very worried. “Why are you looking so worried?” Jumbo Giraffe asked the baby tortoises. “And why are you looking at that tree?”

“Our kite is stuck there,” one of the tortoises said and pointed towards a high branch of the tree. “Is that so?” Jumbo said. “Wait, I’ll get it down for you.” Jumbo was quite tall since he was a giraffe. And so, all he had to do was stand on his toes and stretch to be able to reach up to the branch of the tree. In no time, he took the kite out of the tree and gave it to the baby tortoises.

“Thanks a lot!” the baby tortoises said, feeling thrilled now that they had their kite back. “And sorry about the way we behaved earlier. We will be your friends now on. Come, fly the kite with us.”

Jumbo smiled. He was glad that the baby tortoises wanted him to be their friend and join their games. “Thank you,” he said politely. “But I will join you tomorrow. It is time for me to go home now.”

“OK,” the baby tortoises said. “But please promise us that you will come back tomorrow!”

“I promise!” Jumbo said and waved. He then walked back home, feeling quite happy. He was sure that he would be happy in Amarvan too, just like he had been in the forest where he lived before, now that he had so many friends.

 

Please Let Me Play with You

It was Sunday and the four rats Rinku, Minku, Chinku and Pinku had just finished their homework. It was raining outside so they decided to play some indoor games.

“It has been rather long since we played Ludo,” said Rinku.

Hearing what Rinku was saying about the game Chinku also got excited. He said, “Let’s play Ludo. It will be quite interesting, and I like to cut others’ token too.”

Hearing this Tinku said, “But when your token gets cut, you start crying.”

Chinku replied, “That was a long time back when I was younger. Today if my token gets cut, I will not cry.”

All of the friends started playing. They got some of their tokens cut and the other tokens reached home. They didn’t notice that the rain had stopped and the sun was shining outside.

The game was interesting, until suddenly Bunty, the rat came in and said, “My dear friends, please allow me to play with you.”

If Bunty had to play, one of the other four rats would have to leave as only four people are allowed to play Ludo on one board.

No Place to Play

They thought about ways in which they could stop Bunty from joining this game.

Rinku who had a sharp memory said, “Bunty, we would have allowed you to play, but there’s a thing we don’t like about you.”

“What is that?” said Bunty, quite surprised.

“You don’t have a bath every day, and stink. We can’t make you sit near us,” said Rinku.

Hearing this Bunty said, “Ah! Luckily today I took a shower and I have worn neat clothes too. If you don’t believe what I’m saying, you can smell me. I am not stinking.”

All of them realised that Bunty was saying the truth.

“Now what can we tell him?” thought Tinku, scratching his head Tinku said, “It’s okay that you have taken a bath but your tail is still very dirty. It is too long. When you move around, it touches the ground.”

Bunty saw that his tail was really very long and dirty too.

“No problem, I will wash it and come back,” said Bunty.

Bunty went near the tap and washed his tail nicely. He came back and said, “Now you see how clean my tail is. Can I play with you?”please-let-me-play-with-you2

Rinku, Chinku, Tinku and Pinku saw Bunty’s tail was neat and clean.

“How can we tackle him?” thought Tinku.

Right then Pinku said, “Your tail is neat but it’s still wet. Go and dry it.”

“But how shall I dry my tail? I don’t have a towel or handkerchief to dry it,” said Bunty, sounding sad.

“Go and stand under the sun. When it dries, you can come in and play with us,” said Pinku.please-let-me-play-with-you3

Poor Bunty went and stood under the sun, waiting for his tail to dry.

When his tail dried, Bunty came in and said, “See, my tail is dry. Now, do you have any problem if I join you in your game?”

All four rats saw that Bunty’s tail was clean and dry. But they still didn’t want him to join their game and they were thinking of new reasons to send him away.

Rinku said, “It would be lovely if you could play with us, but you don’t know how to count. How will you move your token?”

Hearing Rinku’s words Bunty became very sad. He did not know how to read and write. His parents tried to send him to school but he did not go. He was only interested in playing games and roaming around. He started to cry.

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Seeing this, all four of them felt bad. Pinku said, “Don’t cry Bunty, we were just joking. Play with us, but you have to be somebody’s partner. You throw the dice and your partner will move the token. This way you will also enjoy the game. And from now on if you want to play this game you have to learn to count.”

Hearing Pinku’s words Bunty said, “From now on I will also go to school and study so that I can enjoy all these things. I have lost on many things because I did not know how to read and write. I was always dependant on other people to send messages, or to use a mobile, or play games or even while dialling a phone number.”

Hearing this, all four friends said, “We will help you in your studies and also teach you.”please-let-me-play-with-you4

Everybody started playing Ludo together and enjoyed it too.