Beginners' Book in Language Part 4

1. I saw many children all going in the same direction.

2. I saw a poster of the circus that is coming to town next week.

3. I saw a farmer driving a cow.

4. I saw a policeman.

Each answer begins with the words _I saw_. After half a dozen pupils have spoken, the one who gave the most interesting reply[23] takes the teacher's place. He asks his cla.s.smates a question beginning with the words _What did you see?_ He might say:

1. What did you see at church last Sunday?

2. What did you see when you visited your grandfather?

3. What did you see when you went to the woods?

After half a dozen answers, another pupil becomes the questioner. Each pupil tries to ask interesting questions and to give interesting answers.[20]

=11. Words sometimes Misp.r.o.nounced=

It often happens that a story is spoiled because the person who tells it makes mistakes in English. It is as unpleasant to hear a mistake in a speaker's language as it is to see a spot on a picture. You have already learned the proper use of _saw_ and _seen_. In this lesson we shall take up another matter. Sometimes pupils do not p.r.o.nounce all their words correctly. We must get rid of mistakes of this kind, too.

=Oral Exercise.= 1. p.r.o.nounce each word in the following list as your teacher p.r.o.nounces it to you:

can catch just when where why what which while often three because

2. Read the entire list rapidly, but speak each word distinctly and correctly.

3. Use in sentences the words in the list above.

=12. More Making up of Fables=

Of course you have heard the fable of the foolish little chick. That chick paid no attention to its mother's warning to stay near her. You probably remember that it boldly wandered away from her and was caught by a hawk.

=Oral Exercise.= 1. If there are any pupils in the cla.s.s who do not know the fable of the foolish chick, some pupil who remembers it clearly should tell it to them, so that all may know it. What is the lesson of that fable?

2. Make up a short fable like the one of the careless chick and the hawk. Read the following list of ideas for such a fable. Perhaps it will help you to make up an interesting story to tell the cla.s.s. Perhaps the cla.s.s will wish to play your story.

The Foolish Lamb and the Wolf

The Bear Cub and the Bear Trap

The Heedless Puppy and the Automobile

The Reckless Mouse and the Cat

[Ill.u.s.tration]

=Group Exercise.= The teacher will write on the board the best of the fables that you and your cla.s.smates make. Then you and they may try to improve these fables, as Tom improved the story of his dream. Make each one as interesting as you can.[24] Think of bright things to add to each one.

=Written Exercise.= Copy from the board one of the fables that the cla.s.s has improved. Write capital letters and punctuation marks where you find them in the fable. What you write should be an exact copy of what is on the board.[25] Do you think that there is any one in the cla.s.s who can make such an exact copy? Are you that one?

=13. Story-Telling=

=Oral Exercise.= Did you ever see a sign with the words SAFETY FIRST?

Explain to your cla.s.smates what you think it meant.

The three pictures on the opposite page tell three stories. Each story teaches the lesson, "Safety First."

=Oral Exercise.= 1. Make up a story that you and your cla.s.smates may play. Let it fit one of the three pictures. Tell it to the cla.s.s.

2. Together with two or three cla.s.smates, whom you may choose yourself, play your story. Perhaps you and the other players will meet before or after school, and then you can tell them how each one must look, what he must do, and what he must say, in playing his part. Try to do it all without the teacher, but if you need the teacher's help, ask for it.

Play the story once or twice before playing it in the presence of the cla.s.s.

=Group Exercise.= Other pupils will play their stories. The cla.s.s will tell what it likes and what it does not like in the playing of each story. These questions will help to show whether a story was well played:

1. Did the players say enough?

2. Did the players speak clearly, distinctly, and loud enough?

3. Did the players look and act like the persons in the story?

4. How might the story have been played better?

[Ill.u.s.tration: SAFETY FIRST]

=14. Telling about Indians[26]=

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Long ago there were no cities and no railroads in our country. The white men had not yet come. Only Indians lived here. As you probably know, their houses were tents made of skins. They had no guns, but hunted with bows and arrows. Their clothes were very different from those we wear.

=Oral Exercise.= 1. You have probably read or heard interesting things about the Indians. What can you tell your cla.s.smates about them?