Story

Crow & Peacock

A crow lived in the forest and was absolutely satisfied in life. But one day he saw a swan. “This swan is so white,” he thought, “and I am so black. This swan must be the happiest bird in the world.”

He expressed his thoughts to the swan. “Actually,” the swan replied, “I was feeling that I was the happiest bird around until I saw a parrot, which has two colors. I now think the parrot is the happiest bird in creation.” The crow then approached the parrot. The parrot explained, “I lived a very happy life until I saw a peacock. I have only two colors, but the peacock has multiple colors.”

The crow then visited a peacock in the zoo and saw that hundreds of people had gathered to see him. After the people had left, the crow approached the peacock. “Dear peacock,” the crow said, “you are so beautiful. Every day thousands of people come to see you. When people see me, they immediately shoo me away. I think you are the happiest bird on the planet.”

The peacock replied, “I always thought that I was the most beautiful and happy bird on the planet. But because of my beauty, I am entrapped in this zoo. I have examined the zoo very carefully, and I have realized that the crow is the only bird not kept in a cage. So for past few days I have been thinking that if I were a crow, I could happily roam everywhere.”

That’s our problem too. We make unnecessary comparison with others and become sad. We don’t value what God has given us. This all leads to the vicious cycle of unhappiness. Learn to be happy in what you have instead of looking at what you don’t have. There will always be someone who will have more or less than you have. Person who is satisfied with what he/she has, is the happiest person in the world.

What does “being content” mean? Being content means being happy with who you are and what you have. Each of you has different gifts One of you may be a good singer, another a good dancer and yet another may be able to paint very well. There are so many things (ask them to name a few..) we have to be about. There are many children who do not have enough food to eat or clothes to wear. Shall we say a simple prayer, thanking God for all the things He has given us? Shall we also ask God to give the poor children in the world the good things we have?

Sit straight, close your eyes and fold your hands. Repeat this simple prayer.

Dear God,
Thank you for your lovely gifts
It gives us joy, it does!
Please do give our poor friends,
All that you have given us.
Give them and us the power to pray,
And thank you for your love.
And may we always be happy
With all the things we have.

Story– The Camel and the Goat

One day a camel and a goat went for a walk. They passed over a grove of trees. Since the fence was very high, they could not go into the grove. But the camel saw many branches hanging over the fence.

Because it was tall, the camel munched up tender leaves from the branches till its stomach was full. The goat did not get anything. The camel laughed and said, “O friend Goat, it is better to be tall.”

They walked along. Soon, they reached a vegetable garden. This time the goat saw a tiny gate that was open. It rushed in and happily munched up plenty of fresh, juicy vegetables.

The camel could not squeeze through the gates.After eating to its full, the goat came out and said, “ O friend camel, don’t you think it is sometimes better to be small?”

Both understood that it was good to be as each is made.

Activity

• List some of the similarities and differences between you and your friend. Note write the ones you cannot see also.

What does ‘being content’ mean? It means being happy with who you are and what you have.

Story of Snub nose

A small boy fervently prays to God to grant him a sharp nose so that he can look handsome like his friend.God sends angel Gabriel to grant him his wish. The boy is initially very happy because God has granted him a sharp nose but on looking into a mirror.… is horrified to see his very long snowman nose. He now realises that GOD KNOWS BEST & has already given him everything that is very good for him. He now apologises to God & asks him to grant him back his original nose. God is happy with him & grants him his original nose.

Do you and your friends look alike? No! There are fat, thin, dark, fair tall and short children. Some of you may be a good singer, good dancer, have good handwriting, good drawing etc.So always be happy about what you have and how you look.

Song

I am the way I am
And I am very happy with that
I may be short or I may be tall
My body may be thin or fat
But it really doesn’t matter at all
I am the way I am

Activity

• Name all things that you have. Each of you have different gifts. It is easy to be happy when one by one,you think of all the things that you have. Count your blessings.

Silent Sitting

• I will be happy with what God has given me. I will also be happy for my friends for what God has given them.

Always be happy. When we look at flowers, birds, rivers, animals, sun, moon, stars and other things in nature we become very happy. If we are happy then others around us will also be happy. Help everyone to be happy.

Song

Smile, Smile, Smile (tune – wheels of the bus goes)

God in the heaven says smile, smile, smile
Smile,smile,smile, smile, smile,smile
God in the heaven says smile, smile,smile
Ha Ha Hi Hi Hey!
The smile that keeps you bright and beautiful
Bright and beautiful; Bright and beautiful
The smile that keeps you bright and beautiful
Adds more friends in your life
Anger gives you an awful look
Awful look, awful look
Anger gives you an awful look
Scares others around you
That’s why ….. God in the heaven says …. Smile, smile, smil

Game

Be cheerful and smile. Smiling can make you happy. Give your teacher a big smile. Then smile at your friends on your left and right. How do you feel after smiling at each other? Do you feel nice and happy after the lovely smiles you gave and received? When you smile others begin to like you. When you smile you make others happy. When you make others happy, it makes you happy too.

Song

The time to be happy is now and the place to be happy is here..
And the way to be happy is to make someone happy
And to have a little heaven right here..
And to have a little heaven right here..

• When you are happy and you know it clap your hands
• Do you know who Smiley is? He has a face that always smiles.

Activity

• Draw a Smiley in your notebook. Follow what your teacher has drawn with coloured chalk on the board.Colour him bright yellow. Make sure you give smiley a big smile. Give him a bright red smile. Write “Smiley” on the top of your page. Don’t you feel like smiling when you look at Smiley? You too can be a Smiley!

Silent Sitting

• God always wants you to be happy. He likes smiling faces. Smile and greet people. They will become happy.

Story

Evil Tellies

There was once a boy who was so obsessed with watching TV that wherever he went, he would arrive late. He was so keen to return to the telly that he never finished his breakfast or anything.

One day, in his post-box, was a mysterious parcel. Inside the parcel were some special spectacles,along with a piece of paper saying,

”With these you’ll be able to see time”.

The boy didn’t understand. He put the glasses on, looked at his brother and saw an enormous pile of flowers on top of his head. The flowers were falling down to the ground, one by one. And it wasn’t just his brother. Whenever he looked at anyone through those glasses, exactly the same was happening.The only difference was that the older the person was, the smaller was the pile of flowers on their head.And according to how that person behaved, the pile gained or lost flowers.

The next morning, while having his breakfast, the boy remembered his glasses. Putting them on, he was horrified to see that, coming from his own pile, was a constant stream of flowers going in the direction of the television. Not only that, but the television now had an enormous mouth, and was ferociously gobbling up all the flowers.

And everywhere he went he would see wild-looking televisions devouring flowers.

Finally, after realising what televisions actually are, the boy decided he would never again allow them to eat up all his time.

Activity

• How do we waste time?

Let us see how things in nature is always on time. What would happen if the sun did not rise on time? Would you not have to go to school in darkness? And what else? Think! Have you noticed that the sun never rises late. Everything in nature keeps time, except people.

Just doing something on time is not useful unless it is done well. Just because you want to do something on time,you should not do it carelessly. You must do it well and on time. Even if you cannot do this at first, keep trying.Soon you will be able to do it.

Story

The Monkey and the Fox

Once a monkey and a fox were invited to a feast. As they went along, they came across a huge tree with low branches. The monkey told the fox, “That tree looks like a great place to play on, doesn’t it? Let me swing on its branches for a while and then we can go on.” The fox said, “I like to be on time for everything. You can swing on this tree on another day or on our way back.” But the monkey was already having great fun on the tree. The fox went on ahead and reached early. After a while, when the monkey began to feel hungry, he remembered the great feast. He rushed as fast as he could. By then, dinner was over. All he saw was the fox returning slowly with a full belly licking his lips. Latecomers miss all the fun everywhere. People do not like to invite them. Who wants a person who arrives when everyone else is leaving?

Being on Time

You should be on time for whatever you have to do and wherever you have to go. When we do not do so we trouble others. Even if one child comes late to class, the whole class is disturbed. If we do not keep time we cannot finish anything we start. When all our work is half-done it is of no use to anyone. If you are late to class and the story is half over can you enjoy it? Even when you eat ice-cream you have to keep time. If you eat it too slowly, what would happen? It would melt and drip all over your clothes!

Story

Have you seen the tail of a Hippopotamus? He has a very thin, tiny tail? Doesn’t that tiny tail look funny on his huge body? Do you know why his tail is so small? Here is the story.

A long time ago, animals did not have tail. They had great trouble with insects, mosquitoes and flies since they could not keep them off. They could not sleep as the insects kept on disturbing them.

So all the animals went to their king, The lion to seek a solution. Lion said even I am finding it difficult to keep the insects and mosquitoes away. Don’t worry I will get a solution to this problem.

He prayed To God very sincerely to help them. God appeared before him and gave him a tail. Lion asked for tails for all animals. God was very happy to see that the Lion King wanted to help all the animals in his kingdom. So he gave tails of various sizes, shapes, colours to Lion and asked him to distribute it to all animals.

Lion announced all animals to assemble near his den the next day early morning . All animals came near Lion’s den on sunrise. They wanted to know whether the king had a solution to their problem. The Hippo was a lazy fellow and decided to eat, rest and then go to the king. Lion told them that God has given them all tails to solve their problem. The lion had a huge heap of tails for the animals to choose from. The animals rushed forward to get their tails.

The first animal to reach the lion was the fox. So he picked the finest, bushiest tail. Then came the squir30 rel, the horse, the wolf. They took the tails they liked from the heap. One by one, all the animals chose a tail each.

By the time the hippo got up from his long sleep, it was evening. Seeing all the insects around him, he remembered that he had to hurry.He rushed to the Lion’s den. There was only one tail left. It was a thin,tiny tail that no other animal had wanted.

All the animals were chasing away insects with the tails they had chosen. The Hippo’s tail was too small to chase insects away. All the insects went after Hippo. He rushed into the river and sat in it.

Even today the Hippo sits in water most of the time with his tiny tail – all because he was not on time to choose his tail.

Silent Sitting

• I will get up early. I will do my homework in time. I will not be late for school.

What is the meaning of being helpful? It means making others happy by doing something for them in any little way you can. You can help your little ways in the house. You can help your younger brothers and sisters with their homework. You can help animals by being kind to them, feeding and petting them. You can help your classmates by lending them your things when they need them. You can also help them with classwork when they are ill and miss school. Even a big smile can help. People love to see a big smile, do they not? You make others happy when you help them. It is the best way to show them that you love them. If you help others when you can. Others will be happy to help you when you need help.

There are so many people who help us to live a happy life. Let us call them our helpers. Shall we see who are they?

Our Helpers (with the help of cards and charts), Please include the picture of house maid. Tell the children that they do all the hard work lie sweeping mopping and cleaning. They help us. Without them, we would have to do all that work. So, we should be very kind to them. We should not call them by name. They are elder to us. We should talk to them with love and respect.

Activity

• Puzzle forming the word Help – show the children picture of Horse, Elephant, Lion, Pig(Parrot).
• Ask them to write the first alphabet of the names of these animals.
• The magic word formed is “Help”. Ask them to colour it

Story

The Race

Once God wanted to find who amongst the animal was fastest? He decided to conduct a race Most of the animals were not willing to participate in the race.

However, the deer, the cheetah and the tortoise came forward to run the race. Those days, these three were considered as the fastest runners among all animals. God cheered the participants and blew the whistle at the starting line. The three sprinters ran at a very good pace and the race turned out to be very exciting.

The tortoise had an evil friend, the snake. He advised the tortoise to play a trick on his fellow competitors. The dumb-headed tortoise absorbed the poisonous idea and decided to play a wicked trick.

Halfway through the race, when the three participants were running parallel, suddenly, the tortoise moved his right foot in front of the deer. The deer at once stumbled, crashed to the ground and broke his leg. The tortoise picked up speed, and the good natured cheetah, instead of running and winning the race, stopped to help the deer, his opponent. The tortoise finished the race as the winner and his friend snake came to give him a hug.

But God Himself was witness to the snake’s plan and the trick played by the tortoise. So, instead of giving prize to the tortoise, he declared the tortoise as the slowest runner among all animals and made the snake crawl in shame for his evil suggestion. However, He was very pleased with cheetah for his unselfish act. He bestowed upon cheetah a gift; he made him the fastest animal on land. He also blessed the deer as the second fastest runner of the jungle. This tradition of the jungle is valid till today.

Moral

• If you play fairly without cheating you will be rewarded at the end, But if you do not, then sooner or later, your lie will be called off, And no one will ever believeor trust you again.