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Children
Sesame Street is 40 years
Dear Children,
Television has become part of our lives and specially children love
to spend long hours in front of the small screen. Do you know World
Television Day falls on November 21? Children love to watch cartoons,
films and the famous children’s program ‘Sesame Street’ is no exception.
‘Sesame Street’ celebrated its 40th birthday on November 10. Even the
older folks love Sesame Street because it brings out the child in them.
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‘Sesame Street muppet characters.
Courtesy: Google |
More than a generation ago, Marshall McLuhan predicted that
television would bring us together into a ‘global village’. Today, with
satellites and other technologies making it easier for television to
cross borders, we are closer to that vision than ever. Our world is more
and more a single ‘information society’ and television, as the world’s
most powerful medium of communication, is a key part of that society.
Children should select and watch good programs like the Discovery
Channel, quiz programs and news reports. Television can educate great
numbers of people about the world around them. It can show us how much
we have in common with our neighbours, near and far. And, it can shed
light on the dark corners, where ignorance and hatred fester. The
television industry is also in a unique position to promote mutual
understanding and tolerance - with content that tells the stories not
just about the powerful, but about the powerless, and not just about
life in the world’s richest, but also in the developing countries that
are home to the majority of the world’s population.
U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama joined the Sesame Street anniversary
celebrations by planting a vegetable garden with Elmo and Big Bird, she
spoke about importance of home gardening.
The success of this series is the superb combining both education and
entertainment. Sesame Street is well known for its Muppet characters
created by Jim Henson. It premiered on November 10, 1969, and is the
longest running children’s program on US television now airing in 140
countries. The show is produced in the United States by the non-profit
organization Sesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children’s
Television Workshop (CTW), founded by Joan Ganz Cooney and Ralph Rogers.
Sesame Street: A Celebration - 40 Years of Life on the Street is a
304-page book celebrating the 40th season of Sesame Street. The book
tells the behind-the-scenes story of the show, and profiles the people
and puppets who have created this cornerstone of children’s television.
The author, Louise Gikow, has written for Sesame Street and worked as
Editorial Director and creative consultant at Jim Henson Productions.
The Bear family is a family unit of characters on Sesame Street,
based on The Three Bears of Goldilocks fame, plus a younger sibling.
Curly Bear, Mama Bear and Papa Bear have never appeared on the show
without Baby Bear. The Bear Family Dance, as demonstrated in a Hero Guy
segment, is a step forward, a step backward, a step forward, a step
backward, a shimy, and sidestepping from side-to-side.
Some of the other Sesame Street characters are; Ernie and Bert,
Cookie Monster, Gladys the Cow, Kermit the Frog, Grover and Samny the
snake.
By the way dear children you all must be studying and revising now
that the term tests have already begun in most of the schools. So good
luck with your exams.
Bye for now.
Aunt Anji
Iraq
Iraq is in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the
Zagros mountain range, the Eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the
Northern part of the Arabian Desert.
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Highrise buildings near the Tigris
River bank, Baghdad. Courtesy: Google |
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Capital-Baghdad
Official languages -Arabic, Kurdish
Recognised regional languages- Aramaic,
Turkish
Demonym-Iraqi
Population - - 2009 estimate
31,234,000[1] (39th)
Currency -Iraqi dinar (IQD)
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Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the West, Syria to the northwest,
Turkey to the North, Iran to the East and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the
South. Iraq has a narrow section of coastline measuring 58 km (35 miles)
on the Northern Persian Gulf.
The capital city, Baghdad is in the center-east of the country.
Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run through the centre of
Iraq, flowing from North to South. These provide Iraq with
agriculturally capable land and contrast with the steppe and desert
landscape that covers most of Western Asia.
Historically, Iraq was known in Europe by the Greek eponym
‘Mesopotamia’ (Land between the rivers); after the foundation of the
Kingdom of Iraq in 1932, it became known by its ancient endonym ‘Iraq’.
Iraq has been home to continuous successive civilizations since the 6th
millennium BC. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is
identified as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of writing
and the wheel.
Throughout its long history, Iraq has been the center of the Akkadian,
Assyrian, Babylonian, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid and Abbasid
empires and part of the Achaemenid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Mongol,
Ottoman and British empires.
Beginning with the invasion in 2003, a multinational coalition of
forces, mainly American and British, occupied Iraq. Courtesy: Wikipedia
An unexpected intruder
Part 63
By Uncle Sachi and Aunt Ruwi
The story so far...
Pramodaka, Nalaka, Champika and Chinthaka go on a trip to the woods
with their parents for their school holidays. In the middle of the night
the children are awakened by a strange noise. On following their dog,
Scooby, Chinthaka is snared by the age-old spell of the ‘luring stones’.
Pramodaka departs with Ruwi, a pixie, to recall a book of spell to cast
off the spell while Nalaka, Champika and the dog remain behind with
Sachi, a gnome who updates them on the life of mythical creatures.
Shamilka, a friend of the mythical creatures joins in and they begin
hunting for Pramodaka and Ruwi as there is no sign of their return. Just
as they were coming to terms with the fact that they were lost, six
rabbits scamper along the way.
 The rabbits take pity upon the children and agree to guide them part
of the way. Meanwhile Sulo, the goblin who is always trying to make
trouble for the mythical creatures, grabs a basket of goodies from a
gnome named Russell and makes off. Scooby scents her and attacks. Ruwi
senses that Russell is in danger but she also gets the strange feeling
that there is a mysterious link between Pramodaka. Suddenly a storm
breaks out and Pramodaka, Nalaka and Champika are blown away with the
wind. As they make their way back to their friends Sulo notices them and
comes up with a nasty plan. She rushes off gang up the rest of her pack.
There she reveals a secret that could hold the key to all the goblin’s
troubles.
There is a sudden break of trouble in the pixie camp as one of the
pixies, Dina, develops weird symptoms. Emida, a middle-aged gnome goes
in search of peace and stumbles upon a discovery. Now the friends have
to find each other and the only way for them to get through is by suing
the ‘Mythic Scope’ but first they have to find a way to deal with HE.
At last, what seemed after nearly more than ten minutes, the gnome
pulled out a tiny bottle out of her pocket. She unscrewed the lid to
reveal what seemed to be a gold coloured powder.
“Watch out. This stuff is strong,” she gasped as she sprinkled only a
pinch of it on the sleeping dog.
“Now how does it go... Diddlely dum diddly dee, open your eyes and
look at me!” she exclaimed.
Chinthaka glanced down at the dog. He did not even budge.
“That is not quite right. Let’s try again... One more time...” the
gnome seemed to have forgotten his presence in the scene and was
concentrating on how to gather her memories and release Scooby form the
spell.
Finally after the fifth attempt there was a small yelp followed by a
small bang. Scooby’s eyes fluttered open much to Chinthaka’s joy. The
dog got on his feet, jumped up at Chinthaka and turned curious eyes on
the gnome.
“Scooby... Down! This is a friend. Sit!” Chinthaka ordered but for
once the dog did not heed his master.
He trotted up to Emida and sniffed at her feet and wagged his tail.
Then with a small whine he licked her outstretched hand as if to say
thank you for rescuing him from his deep sleep.
“Dogs are especially friendly with me, dear. They are all my fiends
and I look after them in time of need. Why, you should have seen my home
some years ago... It was simply crowded with rabbits, squirrels, badgers
and other friends. Chinku used to go mad when he came home to see all of
them having dinner on our table. Why ...,”she trailed off a sad look
took over her features.
Chinthaka wondered what happened for her to look so sorrowful but
felt shy to pursue the subject. It must be a private matter because she
really did look crestfallen. He looked around helplessly but thankfully
Scooby provided the answer for a distraction.
With a deep growl then German shepherd jumped into the heart of a
bush nearby much to their astonishment. They were even more surprised to
hear painful squeaks following the action.
“Hey, what is the big idea jumping on me like that... I wasn’t doing
any harm to anyone. Let go, you brute. Yow, ow, ow. I say, let go!”
To be continued
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Under 15:
First place
Dilrukshi Gunasekaran |
Under 9:
First place
Mohamed Aslam Fathima Hasnaa |
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