STORY MAKING 31 Do you ever go to see moving pictures? If you do go, you know how the plays are acted so that you can understand the story by seeing the pictures. Let us suppose that the story of The Sour Grapes is shown in moving pictures. Tell the story just as you think you would see it on the screen. You would see the fox walking along a country road. How does he look when he happens to glance up at the grapes? How many times does he jump for them? How does he look when he finds that he cannot reach them? Can you imagine just how he looks when he turns away and says they are sour anyway? Show the class how he said it. Say in the way the fox did: "They are sour anyway, and I wouldn't take them if I found them lying in the road." Do you think the fox really meant that he wouldn't take the grapes if he found them? If he didn't mean it, why did he say it? Story Making One day a cat found a pantry door partly open and crept in. On a high shelf was a plate of meat. Make up a story about the cat and the meat like the story of the fox and the grapes. What did the cat do when she saw the meat? Did she get the meat? What did she say when she turned away and left the pantry? If you and your classmates can tell the whole story very well, your teacher will write it on the blackboard for you. Perhaps you will like to copy it to take home. Be careful to copy it exactly as it is written on the blackboard. LESSON 8 Speaking Distinctly Can you always hear what the other pupils in the class say when they are telling stories? Do they speak each word distinctly? You cannot hear what some of your classmates say because they do not sound the ends of the words. See if you can say these words and sound the ends of them: Notice what your tongue does when you give the sounds of t, d, and g in ng. When you pronounce the words in the lesson, see that your tongue is in the right place. The next time you hear any one speak in public, notice the words that are not pronounced distinctly. Tell the class what the words are. have a guessing game with the words. Your teacher will choose some one for a leader, and he will go out of the room. While he is out, the class may choose a word for him to guess. When he comes back into the room, he will try to find out which word was chosen. This is the way he will do it: Leader: Ruth, is the word stand? Leader: Harry, is the word test? Leader: George, is the word post? Leader: Mary, is the word send? Mary may now become the leader. If the leader does not pronounce a word distinctly, he loses his place, and the teacher will appoint some one else. If another pupil says aint for isn't, or does not pronounce the word distinctly, he is out of the game. If no one told you, how should you know that it is October? In what ways is October different from September? How do the weather, the length of days, the leaves and flowers of October all differ from those of September? Tell all the ways that you can think of. Have you noticed the October sunsets? If you see a beautiful sunset, tell the class about it the next day. Here is a beautiful poem that tells you about October. Does it tell the things that you thought of? Learn to repeat the poem. In what ways do the fall days differ from the days in spring? What month in spring is October most like? Tell why these months are alike. Do you like to see moving pictures? How should you like to have real moving pictures in your schoolroom? To-day you may act a story without talking, just like the moving pictures. Then your teacher will choose a few pupils to prepare and to act a story for the next lesson, and the others in the class may see if they can tell the story from seeing it acted. Farmer Brown's Apples is the story that you or some of your classmates may act to-day. First you must read the story; then your teacher will choose the ones to take part in the play. Remember that you are not to speak at all, but you must act every part so that those who are watching the play will see the whole story just as you do in moving pictures. |