Awesome Skies: Fiction with a Non-Fiction Concept

The three stories in Awesome Skies, "Beautiful Clouds in the Sky," "Claps of Thunder and Flashes of Lightning," and "Awesome Rainbows"offers simple, exciting and fun methods from which children learn and understand the concept of how things happen around them. The concepts are unfolded through a dramatic story that explains the subject discussed and then goes on to experiments and observations that can be done in the home and/or classroom with adult/teacher supervision. It is a handy tool for teachers as it offers them eclectic means of putting information across marrying the Arts, Science, Geography, History and Language. It harnesses children's creativity in terms of their colouring skills, bringing out the children's aesthetic (appreciation of beauty) awareness, stimulating their appreciation of their environment. It harnesses their reading skills, improving their general knowledge and vocabulary, enabling them to articulate themselves in a sophisticated manner at an early age. It involves the children's participation in their learning through the carrying out of experiments in the home and/or classroom. The book is a multi-sensory approach which heightens their awareness at grasping new concepts rendering the child eager to learn more. The book is not prescriptive or closed - it can be used by a kindergarten child and the same material can be developed to accommodate a grade 5 child. It can also be read to younger children by their parents or members of their family. Plays and projects can be derived from these stories, starting with the nasty drought (getting children to become aware about the importance of water and their environment), the formation of clouds (thedesperate rain-dance), going on to thunder and lightning and finally the formation of rainbows, the clearing of the air and the rejoicing of not only people but animals, insects and plants in the celebration of water, this life-giving commodity that refreshes and cleanses everything.