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

Play that you are holding a wand in your hand. Wave it as you think the fairy waved it round the head of a sleeping child.

      Written Exercise. Copy that part of the poem which you like best. Copy all the little marks that you find. Write capital letters where you find them. Every line of the poem begins with a capital letter. Perhaps you can do this copying without making a mistake.[12]

      Memory Exercise.[13] Read the poem aloud over and over until you can say it without looking at the book. Then stand before the class and recite it. If you make a mistake, you must take your seat. The pupil who saw your mistake may then recite the poem.

5. Story-Telling

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      Oral Exercise. Think of some dreams you have had. Choose the one that the class would probably like to hear most, but not one that will take long to tell. Explain to the class how the dream began, what came next, what after that, and how it ended.

      If you cannot remember any dream, make up one. It may be that you can make up one that will be more wonderful than any real dream of your classmates.[14] But do not make it too long.

      Group Exercise.[15] After you have told your dream, your classmates will point out what they liked in the story itself and in your way of telling it. Then they will explain to you how you might have told it better. Perhaps, like Tom, you left out many interesting little points.

      Oral Exercise. Make believe you dreamed that, as you were on your way to school one morning, you came upon a big elephant standing on the sidewalk. Tell the class what you did in your dream and how you got to school.

      Or play you dreamed that a smiling elf met you on your way to school. He gave you a pretty box. He told you to open it when you reached the schoolroom. Tell your classmates what you found in it.

      Or make believe you dreamed that a lion came into the school. Tell the class what you did. Were you and the teacher the only brave ones in the room? Tell what some of your classmates did in your dream.[2]

      Or play you dreamed that you found a gold coin in the schoolyard. When you could not learn who the owner was, you made a plan for spending the money for the school. Tell the class about this plan.

      Perhaps the teacher will ask you and the other pupils to play some of these dream stories, if they are very interesting.

      Written Exercise. 1. The teacher will write on the board one or more of the stories told by you and the other pupils.[16] The class will read them carefully and point out where each could be made better.[17] Copy one that the teacher has rewritten. The next exercise, which you may read at once, will tell you why you should do this copying without making mistakes.

      2. Now the teacher will cover with a map the story on the board that you have copied, and will read it to you, while you write it again.[18] This exercise will show whether you can write a story without making any mistakes. You will need to know where to put capital letters and the little marks that are placed at the ends of sentences. Besides, you will need to know the spelling of words.

      3. Compare what you have written with what is on the board. Look for three things:

      (1) Capital letters

      (2) The mark at the end of each sentence

      (3) The spelling of words

      Did you have everything right? If not, correct the mistakes you made.

6. Correct Usage—Saw

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      Some pupils use the word seen when they should use saw. Mistakes of this kind spoil stories, just as a song is spoiled when some one sings wrong notes. Let us begin to get rid of these unpleasant mistakes by learning how to use the word saw correctly.[19]

      Oral Exercise. The word saw is used correctly in the three sentences that follow. Read these sentences aloud several times.

      1. Tom said he saw an owl in his dream.

      2. I saw a pretty dollhouse in my dream last night.

      3. I dreamed that I saw a beautiful yellow bird sitting on a fruit tree and singing.

      

      Game. Let all the pupils, except one, play that they have fallen asleep. When they have closed their eyes and rested their heads on their folded arms, the one pupil who plays that she is Queen Mab tiptoes up and down between the rows of seats. With a fairy wand she makes a circle round several heads. Then the fairy disappears, the class wakes up, and each pupil who has had a dream tells his classmates the most interesting one thing that he saw in it. Thus, one pupil might say:

      I saw an elf. He was sitting in front of the door of his tree-house. He was making a toy for a little boy.

      Another pupil might say:

      I saw a dwarf. He was riding over the fruit-tree tops. He was on the back of a beautiful eagle.

      Another might say:

      I saw an owl. It had big, round, shiny eyes. It looked at me, but I was not afraid.

      Still another might say:

      I saw a fine white horse. It had a golden harness. A brave soldier sat on its back.

      Each pupil begins with the words I saw and tries to say something that is very different from what his classmates say they dreamed, and much more wonderful.[20]

7. Study of a Fable

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      Oral Exercise. Did you ever read the story or fable of the ants and the grasshoppers? Read it carefully as it is told on this and the next pages. See whether you can tell your classmates the lesson that it teaches.