YAISHWARYAJ: {Awareness} The money tree - Hands are not for hitting [2 Attachments]

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Pedagogical Project

"The Joy of Reading"

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Stories for Everyone – stories on Slideshare

Stories for Everyone – stories on Facebook

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This week's stories with PDF attachments:

- The money tree

- Hands are not for hitting

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The money tree

In January, when Miss McGillicuddy was making a quilt in front of the fire, she noticed an unusual shape outside her living-room window.

In February, as Miss McGillicuddy was looking up from her book, she realized that the new shape was a small tree. "A gift from the birds," she said to herself.

In March, while Miss McGillicuddy was flying her favorite kite, its tail got caught in a limb of the new tree. "What a strange shape," she thought as she tugged.

In April, when Miss McGillicuddy was planting snow peas, she paused and stared at the tree, now covered in the fresh green colors of spring. "How odd," she mused, "that it has grown so very large in such a short time."

In May, as Miss McGillicuddy was making a Maypole for the neighborhood children, she realized, to her great surprise, that the leaves on the tree were not leaf-shaped at all! Being careful not to hurt the tender branches, she gave each child some of the tree´ s crisp green foliage as a party favor.

In June, while Miss McGillicuddy was gathering a bouquet of roses, parents of the neighborhood children appeared in the yard. When they said they had come to see the strange tree, she invited them to take home a few cuttings.

In July, when Miss McGillicuddy was picking cherries in her orchard, the town officials asked if they could use some of the greenery for special projects. She let them borrow her ladder—the tree was growing larger every day—and went inside to make cherry cobbler.

In August, as Miss McGillicuddy was returning home, she noticed that most of the people carrying bags and baskets away from the tree were perfect strangers! "No matter," she said, "the branches would break from their burden if someone was not picking all the time."

In September, while Miss McGillicuddy was feeding the animals, she watched the crowd around the tree surging back and forth beneath the harvest moon. "Don´ t they ever rest?" she asked herself.

In October, when Miss McGillicuddy was making faces on her pumpkins, she realized that the leaves on the tree were turning yellow and brown. She sighed with relief.

In November, as the first winter storm arrived, Miss McGillicuddy watched a few determined strangers scratching at the snow under the tree.

In December, Miss McGillicuddy and the neighbor boys cut down the tree. Although the wood was green and certain to smoke a little, she didn´ t mind, for now she had enough to keep warm through the coldest winter.

Miss McGillicuddy gave each boy a loaf of homemade bread, a jar of strawberry jam, and a bouquet of dried flowers. Then she said goodbye, walked toward the warmth of the fire, and smiled to herself.

Sarah Stewart

The money tree

New York, Sunburst Edition, 1994

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Hands are not for hitting

Hands come in all shapes, sizes and colors. There are lots of things your hands are meant to do.

Hands are for saying hello.

Hands are for greeting and communicating. There are many friendly ways you can use your hands to communicate. You can shake hands. Try it now. Shake hands with the person next to you. You can wave to a friend. You can draw pictures or write words. I can tell a story with my hands.

There´ s something that hands are NOT for. Hands are not for hitting. Hitting isn´ t friendly. Hitting hurts. How does it feel when someone hits? It hurts a person´ s body. It hurts a person´ s feelings, too.

Why do people hit? Sometimes they feel sad, jealous, scared, angry… Sometimes people want to be the boss of someone.

Have you felt these ways? Maybe you wanted to hit someone. But hands are not for hitting.

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(To be continued in the PDF attachment)

Hands are not for hitting

Martina Agassi, Marieka Heinlen

Free Spirit Publishing, 2009

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Sir/Madam,

We are a group of people with some experience in the area of storytelling and we would like to share our project – The Joy of Reading – with everyone who is in touch with children and young people in general but above all with everyone that enjoys reading.

This project consists of sending stories for free on a weekly basis. So this particular e-mail and the ones that will follow it in the next weeks are intended to share some small stories with you. All the stories we send have some values within: respect for nature, tolerance, tenderness, responsibility, solidarity and many more. They all aim at developing the reading skills among young people, as well as allowing some moments of reflection and dialogue about topics connected with human values, which seem to have been somewhat forgotten in these times of materialism and hedonism.

We thank you for your attention and hope you will welcome this project (which, it is important to say, does not have any profitable aims).

If you know anyone interested in receiving the weekly stories by email, let us know by sending their emails to us.

Please let us know your opinion about the project.

Yours faithfully

The Pedagogical Team

sg@storiesforeveryone.com

stories4ev@gmail.com