African Storybook website #5: Some lovely new stories

Every couple of months SAIDE who administers the African Storybook project sends out an update. This is a one of those updates.  This is a crosspost of the post I wrote about the update on the SchoolNet blog. This project is worthy of being known by teachers everywhere.
This week the African Storybook Project sent out a newsflash showing their most recent story updates. We have displayed them below with links to their spot on the website.

Have you visited http://www.africanstorybook.org/, the home of the African Storybook Project (ASP)? It is a truly amazing, local website.  The stories, which are all for the younger grades,  can be read on site or downloaded to print and use. Their current collection of Featured Stories on the website home page is a great reflection of the ASP's growth and diversity after just one year in existence. The aim of the African Storybook Project is to provide Creative Commons-licensed stories for the children of Africa in all the local African languages as well as the languages of wider communication used on our continent.

Do click on the links below and read the English versions of their  latest offerings shown below:

Anansi and Turtle http://goo.gl/RrwRhV	A very tall man http://goo.gl/CRLB3R
'M'e Maneo's pumpkin http://goo.gl/GLrlmH	Hen tricks Eagle http://goo.gl/59fRhl
Elephant and Chameleon http://goo.gl/b3Smco	Colours of a rainbow http://goo.gl/qZez62
A Tiny Seed: The Story of Wangari Maathai http://goo.gl/HiuaCd	The animals dig a well http://goo.gl/lJIlxn

African Storybook website #4: Stories about the proverbial 'Hare'

Every couple of months SAIDE who administers the African Storybook project sends out an update. This is a recent update.  This is a crosspost of the post I wrote about the update on the SchoolNet blog. This website is worthy of being known by teachers everywhere.

These are lovely stories that are beautifully illustrated that you can use in your reading lessons.

“The hare is a popular and clever character who pops up in many traditional (and modern) stories. This month we showcase some of the tales we have on the website about the hare, and especially about the mean tricks he plays on other animals. (Although surely nothing is worse than the joke Rooster plays on Hare!) We hope you’ll be inspired to translate and share the stories, and also to add your own stories about the adventures of this character. Special thanks to Little Zebra Books for their donations and translations”. (Quoted from the African Storybook project newsflash August 5th)

	Story Title
	Hare and Elephant
	Hare and Hyena
	Friends become enemies  (Hare and Hyena again)
	Lion is sick (Hare and Lion)
	Animals dig a well  (Hare and all the other animals)
	Why hippos have no hair  (Hare and Hippo)
	Hare and Tortoise (Again!)
	Rooster and Hare

African storybook website #2: Translated African folktales

Every couple of months SAIDE who administers the African Storybook project sends out an update. This is a recent update.  This is a crosspost of the post I wrote about the update on the SchoolNet blog. This project is worthy of being known by teachers everywhere.

The African Storybook Project is a wonderful Literacy website with a wide range of stories from Grades 1-3 learners in a multitude of African languages. Visit www.africanstorybook.org to see the amazing spread. The stories and folktales have beautiful illustrations, can be read online or they can be downloaded as PDFs and made into hand-held books. Best is that the African Storybook Project is OER and uses Creative Commons licensing which enables the books to be adapted if so desired.
In their latest newsflash the African Storybook Project highlights some of their most translated folktales. Folktales are one of the oldest genres of stories, and they usually have an important life lesson to teach us.

	Girl who got rich
	Why hippos have no hair
	Anansi and Turtle
	King of the birds
	Khayanga and her gourd
	How night came to Opio's village
	Nonkungu and the imbulu
	Demane and Demazane
	Mulongo and the hyenas
	Children of wax

African Storybook project #3: 91 books have been translated into French

Every couple of months SAIDE who administers the African Storybook project sends out an update. This is a recent update.  This is a crosspost of the post I wrote about the update on the SchoolNet blog. This project is worthy of being known by teachers everywhere.

The African Storybook Project is one of the most amazing Literacy websites with its wide range of stories from Grades 1-3 learners in a multitude of African languages. These stories found at www.african storybook.org each with beautiful illustrations, can be read online or they can be downloaded as PDFs and made into books. They use the Creative Commons licensing which enables the books to be free to use and adapt if so desired.

This month the African Storybook project is celebrating its French translations! Ninety-one ASP storybooks have been translated into this important language of wider communication in Africa, and they'll be adding more soon. They give particular thanks to Translators without Borders volunteers for contributing most of these translations.

Here is a small selection of the African Storybook Project’s French storybooks.

	Kalabushe, the talkative Kalabushe, la bavarde
	Monkey and the hunter's wife Maman Singe et la femme du chasseur
	Counting animals Compter les animaux
	Girl called Norah La fille du nom de Norah
	Crushed louse Le pou écrasé
	Jaaka the fisherman Jaaka le pêcheur
	Goat, Dog and Cow La chèvre, le chien et la vache
	Pam-Pam bird L’oiseau Pam-Pam
	Rabbit under the tree Le lapin sous un arbre

 
 
 

African Storybook Project #1: The African Storybook project and me!

The African Storybook Project is a wonderful Literacy website with a wide range of stories from Grades 1-3 learners in a multitude of African languages. Visit www.africanstorybook.org to see the amazing spread. The stories and folktales have beautiful illustrations, can be read online or they can be downloaded as PDFs and made into hand-held books. Best is that the African Storybook Project is OER and uses Creative Commons licensing which enables the books to be adapted if so desired.

I was privileged to be involved with this project for a couple of years, creating and running digital storytelling courses for teachers in South Africa and then Africa in order to populate the website. In this post I want to link to some the posts I wrote about this memorable experience for the SchoolNet blog. 

• The free, online African Storybook Project’s 2014 Digital Storytelling course for teachers in Africa has been completed
• The African Storybook website and Grade 3 students - using the story circle idea
• Grade 2 students love reading the stories on the African Storybook website
• An exciting, free digital storytelling course and writing opportunity for educators starting 21 July. Please sign up…
• Teachers please sign up for a free ‘Digital Storytelling for the African Storybook Project 2014’ online course starting on 21st July…
• 10 takeaways from the Multilingual Resources for Early Literacy Development Symposium on 3rd and 4th June
• Update on the exciting African Storybook Project…
• Teacher selected to accompany the African Storybook Project team to Nairobi!
• The African Storybook Project downloadable brochure
• More about the African Storybook project and the free online course starting on 15th April. Please join us..
• An exciting, free digital storytelling course and writing opportunity for South African educators. Please sign up…
• Welcome to the African Storybook project

African Storybook Project #1: New stories added to the African Storybook Project website

I love the African Storybook project website http://www.africanstorybook.org/. For a couple of years I was involved in the discussions around creating it and I also ran online courses in digital storytelling for teachers wanting to create stories with their classes. This week the African Storybook Project sent out a newsflash showing their most recent story updates. I have displayed them below with links to their spot on the website.

Have you visited http://www.africanstorybook.org/, the home of the African Storybook Project (ASP)? It is a truly amazing, local website.  The stories, which are all for the younger grades,  can be read on site or downloaded to print and use. Their current collection of Featured Stories on the website home page is a great reflection of the ASP's growth and diversity after just one year in existence. The aim of the African Storybook Project is to provide Creative Commons-licensed stories for the children of Africa in all the local African languages as well as the languages of wider communication used on our continent.

Do click on the links below and read the English versions of their  latest offerings shown below:

Anansi and Turtle http://goo.gl/RrwRhV	A very tall man http://goo.gl/CRLB3R
'M'e Maneo's pumpkin http://goo.gl/GLrlmH	Hen tricks Eagle http://goo.gl/59fRhl
Elephant and Chameleon http://goo.gl/b3Smco	Colours of a rainbow http://goo.gl/qZez62
A Tiny Seed: The Story of Wangari Maathai http://goo.gl/HiuaCd	The animals dig a well http://goo.gl/lJIlxn

An African Storybook Project Report back from Stirling Primary in East London

Here is another class hard at work creating stories for the African Storybook Project.  I have written about the African Storybook Project in a number of posts. The website is hopefully going live in July with stories written by South Africa teachers. If you would like your class to write stories suitable for Grade 3 students across Africa to read, please submit them by 21 June and use the guidelines found in this post. There’s still time to submit a story suitable for a Grade 3 reader for the African Storybook project. Join us!

This is a picture of Liesel Kruger from Stirling Primary School in East London.

Liesel Kruger from East London

"We are finally finished writing all the stories and I am nearing the end of
the editing.  We will be using Story Jumper to illustrate our stories and
then we will snip the pictures to use them in our PowerPoint shows.  My children
are so  enjoying Story Jumper.  In fact, my class today asked if they could
stay in at break and carry on! That says it all don't you think?  Still
quite a way to go, but so far so good... Thank you."

These are photos of the Grade 3s at work with their stories.


Thank you so much Liesel for sending this lovely report back.