Beginners' Book in Language. A Book for the Third Grade. Harry Jewett Jeschke

open the door if you were Tom? Why? What questions might Tom ask before he opens it?

      Play that you and a classmate are Tom and the elf in the third picture, standing in front of the door in the tree. Talk together as they probably talked together. Some of your classmates may be other elves, peeking out from behind large trees.

      4. Just as Tom reached out his hand to open the door in the tree, what do you think happened? Look at the sleepy but surprised boy in the fourth picture. Why is he surprised?

      Play that you are Tom. Show the class how you would look as you awoke from the exciting dream.[3] What should you probably say?

      Play this part of the story with a classmate. The classmate plays that she is the mother. What do you think the mother is saying to Tom? What might Tom answer?

      5. Now you and several classmates will wish to play the entire story.[4]

      Then it will be fun to see others[5] play it in their way. Perhaps these will play it better. Each group of pupils playing the story tries to show exactly what happened, by what the players say and do and by the way they look.

2. Story-Telling

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      Tom awoke just as he was opening the door in the tree. We do not know what would have happened next. Perhaps there was a stairway behind the door. Perhaps this led to a beautiful garden in which were flowers of many colors and singing birds. We do not know whom Tom might have met in that garden. We do not know what might have happened there.

      Oral Exercise. 1. Play that you are Tom. Tell the class your dream. But make believe that you did not wake up just as you were opening the door. Tell your classmates what happened to you after you opened it.

      Perhaps you found yourself in a room that was full of elves. Perhaps the king of the elves was there. How did he show that he was glad that you had saved the life of one of his elves? What did he say? Did the elves clap their hands? Did they play games with you in the woods?

      Or perhaps the room was full of playthings, like a large toystore. Perhaps the elf told you to choose and take home what you wanted most.

      As you and your classmates tell the dream, it will be fun to see how different the endings are.

      2. It may be that the teacher will ask you and some classmates to play the best dream story that is told. The first part of it you have already played. Play it over with the new ending. The pupil who added this may tell his classmates how to play it. Should he not be one of the players? He will know, better than any one else, exactly what should be said and done.[6]

3. Making Stories Better[7]

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      On the morning when Tom awoke from his dream he found his mother at his bedside. The first thing he did was to tell her his strange dream. This is what he said:

      Mother, I dreamed about a door. It was in the trunk of a tree. A kind elf showed it to me. I drove away a wicked owl that was trying to carry the elf away.

      Oral Exercise. 1. Do you think that Tom told his dream very well? Did he begin at the beginning or at the end of it? Did he leave anything out?

      2. Does Tom's story tell what he was doing when he first saw the elf? Does it tell how the elf looked?[8] How might Tom have begun his story?

      3. Does Tom's story tell how he drove the owl away? What might Tom have said about this? Look at the second picture of the story and see what it tells.

      4. Tom's story says nothing about going into the woods. It does not tell what was written on the strange door. Look again at the third picture. What does it tell you that Tom left out?

      The questions you have been answering are much like the questions that Tom's mother asked him. When he answered them, Tom saw that he had not told his dream very well.

      "I left out some of the most interesting things," Tom said, as he thought it over on his way to school.

      A few days after this, Tom's teacher asked the pupils whether they remembered any of their dreams. Tom raised his hand. The teacher asked him to tell his dream. This is what he told his classmates:

      I dreamed that I was picking flowers. The sun was shining, and the meadow was beautiful. Suddenly I heard a cry. Some one was calling for help. I turned and saw a big owl. Its claws were spread out. It was trying to get hold of a little elf and carry him away.

      

      I ran to help the elf. The owl flew up in the air. I waved my arms and shouted and frightened it away.

      The good elf said that I had saved his life. He led me into the woods where there were very large trees. In the side of one of the largest I saw a little door. OPEN ME AND STEP IN was written on it.

      At first I was afraid to go near the door. But the good little elf told me to fear nothing. Just as I reached out my hand to open the door, I awoke.

      Oral Exercise. Did Tom tell the class the same dream he told his mother? Read again what he told her. Now point out where he made it better. What did he add? Which additions do you like most?

4. Study of a Poem

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      Some say that one of the fairies brings the dreams. They say that it is Queen Mab, a queen of the fairies, who brings them. The following poem tells about this good fairy, who flutters down from the moon. It tells how she waves her silver wand above the heads of boys and girls when they are asleep. Then, at once, they begin to dream. They dream of the pleasantest things. They dream of delicious fruit trees and bubbling fountains. Sometimes, like Tom, they dream of an elf or a dwarf who leads them over fairy hills to fairyland itself.[9]

      QUEEN MAB

      A little fairy comes at night,

       Her eyes are blue, her hair is brown,

       With silver spots upon her wings,

       And from the moon she flutters down.

       She has a little silver wand,

       And when a good child goes to bed,

       She waves her wand from right to left

       And makes a circle round its head.

       And then it dreams of pleasant things,

       Of fountains filled with fairy fish,

       Of trees that bear delicious fruit

       And bow their branches at a wish,

       Of pretty dwarfs to show the ways

       Through fairy hills and fairy dales.

      Thomas Hood (Abridged)[10]

      Oral Exercise. 1. Let us make sure that we understand this poem. Find the following words in it and tell what you think each one means:[11]

flutters	circle	delicious	dwarfs
wand	fountains	branches	dales

      

      2. Have you ever read about fairies? Tell the class how you think a fairy