Beginners' Book in Language Part 25

6. What did you like best of all you saw and heard?

2. If you were old enough to travel with a circus, and if your parents would allow you to go, what should you most like to be? Should you like to be an animal trainer? Should you like to be a horseback rider?

Should you like to be a juggler, a tightrope walker, or a clown? Tell your cla.s.smates what you would be if you could join a circus. Besides, tell what that kind of performer needs to know and do. Tell how he does some of his tricks.

You and your cla.s.smates may now plan to make a book about the circus.

Each pupil should write a page for it. One could tell about the parade, another about the tents and the seats and the rings, another about the horses, another about the jugglers, another about the trapeze performers, and so on. When all the pages are finished, they should be bound and a cover put on them. On the cover might be written or printed in large letters:[74]

+----------------------------------+ THE CIRCUS BOOK MADE BY THE PUPILS OF MISS SMITH'S CLa.s.s

=Written Exercise.= Choose what you will write about for the circus book. Think what you can say that your cla.s.smates will enjoy reading.

Then write the account. Better write a short and bright account than a long and stupid one. First, write on your paper rather rapidly the best account you can. When this is finished, read it several times and try to make it better. If you were writing about the juggler, your first, rapidly written account might read like this:

THE JUGGLER AT THE CIRCUS

There was a juggler at the circus. I cannot tell all the tricks he did. It must take a long time to learn to do tricks. I wish I could do some.

Of course this first, rapid account can be made much better. It does not tell how the juggler looked. It does not tell clearly what he did. After you have added these and other points, the account might be like this one:

THE JUGGLER AT THE CIRCUS

I saw the wonderful j.a.panese juggler at the circus. He was dressed in red silk. He stood in the ring before all the people. I saw him do one trick after another. It was like magic. He threw five shiny, sharp knives up in the air. He kept them flying up and down without dropping one.

=Group Exercise.= Some of the circus stories should be copied neatly on the board. Then the whole cla.s.s may try to make them better before they are copied on the pages of the circus book.[75]

=64. Making Riddles=

=Oral Exercise.= Make believe that you are one of the performers or one of the animals in a circus. Tell your cla.s.smates two facts about yourself: (1) what you look like and (2) what you do. But do not tell what you are. Thus, you might say:

I look just like you, but I spend much of my time in a cage. No, I am not a monkey. It is my business to be in a cage. Lions are afraid of me, and I am afraid of them, but you can see us side by side in the same circus cage in every parade. What am I?

Or you might say:

My face is pale, and my clothes are white. I look like a very foolish, sad, and solemn person. Everybody laughs at me. I don't mind it. It is my business to look silly. If I did not look silly, I should lose my place in the circus. What am I?

Your cla.s.smates will try to guess what you are.

=Group Exercise.= 1. Some of the riddles may now be written on the board. Then the cla.s.s will try to make them better. The teacher will write each improved riddle beside the one from which it was made. 2.

When everybody in the cla.s.s has made a riddle, and all the riddles have been guessed, you and the other pupils will enjoy having a circus parade. In this circus parade the whole cla.s.s marches around the room and up and down the aisles. Each pupil plays, as he did in making the riddles, that he is one of the performers or one of the animals in a circus. Each without speaking tries to show what performer or animal he is. For example, if you are a circus horse, show it by prancing about, but do not lose your place in the parade. If you are an elephant, show it by your walk. You might use a piece of rope or cloth for an elephant's trunk. If you are a horseback rider, show it by talking to your horse in low tones and by holding him in line. If you are a clown, show it by acting as clowns do.[76] If you are a musician, play your instrument as you march.

Perhaps the teacher will let the parade pa.s.s into the hall, so that the piano may be played as the cla.s.s marches.

=65. Telling about Wild Animals[77]=

Sometimes boys and girls play menagerie. Each makes believe that he is the keeper or trainer of some wild animal. When his turn comes, he stands before the cla.s.s and tells about the animal that is supposed to be in a cage at his side.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AFRICAN LION]

=Oral Exercise.= Choose the animal of which you will play that you are the keeper. Then tell the cla.s.s about this animal. Tell everything interesting that you know or can find out about it. Perhaps the following list of questions will help you to think of what to say:

1. What does the animal look like? What is its size, color, and shape?

2. Where does the animal live?

3. How does it live? How does it obtain its food?

4. Is the animal very different from most wild animals in any important ways?

5. Can it be easily tamed?

=Group Exercise.= 1. The two following accounts are such as a make-believe trainer might give of a lion. One of these is much better than the other. Can you tell which is the better one?

2. What do you like in the first account? Notice that all of the sentences begin in the same way. Do you like that?

3. Do you like the word _frames_ in the second account? What is the difference in meaning between _dangerous_ and _cruel_?

4. After each talk the cla.s.s should tell whether that talk was more like the first or the second of these accounts:

I

The lion is a large animal. It has four legs, one on each corner.

Its body is covered with yellow hair. It has a s.h.a.ggy mane. It has a long tail. It lives in the wild parts of Africa. It will eat human beings.

II

Ladies and gentlemen, the big animal that you see in this cage is a lion. See his beautiful yellow coat. See the s.h.a.ggy mane that frames his head. You probably know that the lion is a dangerous beast. But do you know that he is the most dangerous and cruel of all the wild animals? The father of this fine-looking specimen before you was caught in Africa. Human bones and several copper bangles were found in his den.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BENGAL TIGER]

=66. Making a Little Book=

Now you and your cla.s.smates are ready to make a book about wild animals.

Every page of the book should contain a short but interesting account of some wild animal. A cover of stiff paper might have these words written or printed on it:

+---------------------------------+ A BOOK ABOUT WILD ANIMALS WRITTEN AND MADE BY THE PUPILS OF MISS SMITH'S ROOM

=Written Exercise.= Write your page[78] for the cla.s.s book about wild animals. Better write it twice. After the first, rather rapid writing is finished, read it over several times and try to make it better. Try to put better words in the places of some of those you used. Try to add a bright sentence or two. Leave out sentences and words that are not needed. Copy what you then have.