Rostislava Grozdeva works as a primary teacher in "Dimitar Talev" secondary school, Dobrich. She graduated "Preschool pedagogy and a foreign language" at Konstantin Preslavsky University of Shumen, College Dobrich, and is currently studying "Primary School Pedagogy" at the same college. She has a daughter Bozhidara (Dara for short) who is the inspiration of her stories, songs and rhymes. Email: rostislava.2204@gmail.com

 

Introduction

This story is a continuation of the story “Dara“ in October 2021 issue (Grozdeva 2021). I like fair tales and I love reading tales and creating stories for my daughter. They bring us a lot of fun, we learn about the world and discover ourselves and the people around. It is a pleasure to share our stories with you.

Stories are a mighty technique of teaching relationships, social issues, of vocabulary development (both in native and foreign language) and I use this technique as a parent first.

Wright (2019) and Cho and Krashen (2019) claim that “all aspects of language learning are improved“ by suitable texts. Coles (2012) views the advantages of working with stories in a few directions (lexical, syntactical, structural). Ilieva (2014, 2015) states that children learn the phrases from the texts and start developing interest in books and stories. She sees stories as a possible basis of a few approaches in foreign language teaching (Ilieva 2016) and especially of the lexical approach (Ilieva 2017).

Stories are often used as a basis for cross-curricular links (Brewster et al 2002, Ellis and Brewster 2014). The story “Dara and friends“ exemplifies activities creating links to nature and ecology: animals, seasons, arts: colours, mathematics: counting.

 

The story

Dara and friends

by Rostislava Grozdeva

After finishing breakfast, Dara called Hera to her and they both went to the other room. The little girl kept thinking about her dream. About the fish, the bird, the forest, the meadow. How magical everything was.

"Hera, do you want to go for a walk?" Dara asked.

Hera jumped happily and began to turn her tail.

It was a beautiful spring day. Nature was waking up to new life. Everything outside was colourful and had an incredible scent of blooming spring flowers. Dara and Hera went for a walk to admire this wonderful day. As they walked, in the distance, Dara noticed that there was someone. As they approached, Dara saw that it was a little girl and her dog, white with brown spots.

"Hello," Dara said.

"Hello," replied the unknown girl.

"My name is Dara, and this is Hera. What's your name?"

"My name is Mina, and this is Eddie! Nice to meet you, Dara!"

“Me too! Said Dara. Are you going for a walk with Eddie!”

"Yes, we're going for a walk! It’s a wonderful day!"

"Mina, do you want to go out together?" Dara asked.

"With pleasure!" Mina replied. “And I think Eddie and Hera would also like it.

The two girls and their dogs continued their walk together. Mina offered to go to a meadow nearby.

"Meadow! Of course!" Dara replied vigorously. “Maybe this is the magic meadow!”

"A magic meadow?" Mina asked in surprise.

Dara was a little worried, but she told her new friend about her dream. As she spoke, they reached the meadow imperceptibly.

"Is this the meadow of your dreams?" Mina asked.

"I don't think so," Dara said. "I don't see a green bush with pink flowers. But it's very beautiful."

The meadow was covered with green grass, and beautiful spring flowers. They were in different colours. There were pink, purple, yellow, orange, red flowers. It looked as if the rainbow had touched them.

Dara, Mina, Hera and Eddie continued their walk across the meadow. Dara explained to Mina that she liked reading fairy tales very much, and Mina told her that she liked painting. As they talked, Hera and Eddie slipped into a game so far away from them.

"Let's go to them so they don't get lost," Said Mina.

"Let's go," Dara replied.

The two girls went to Eddie and Hera, who were tired and went to bed to rest.

"Dara, look!" Exclaimed Mina. “Hera and Eddie are lying by a rock. Could it be the rock from your dream?”

"No, it's not the same," Dara replied. "It's very small and the box with the book can't fit under it."

"Look, Dara, look!" Mina exclaimed again. There are three orange leaves here!

"The wind must have brought them here." Dara replied.

"But, Dara, it's spring now, all the leaves are green! Maybe only those of the magic trees are orange!"

Was it really a dream? Could it really have happened?

TO BE CONTINUED

Here are some of the activities we can use with this story:

 

Activities

Aims: to acquire new words and expressions (e.g. What is your name?, My name is, Nice to meet you, it’s time for)

Skills: listening and understanding, speaking, asking and answering questions

Cross-curricular links: environment, mathematics

 

1 Warm up

Children are introduced to Dara: Children, this was the story of Dara and her friends - Hera, Mina and Eddie. Now it's time to meet Darra and Mina /two dolls/ and remember some moments from the story. Let's play and have fun!

Teacher: Children, let’s meet Dara! What is your name? (to Dara)

Teacher (Dara): My name is Dara!

Teacher: Nice to meet you, Dara! My name is Rosi. Now you meet Dara!

The teacher points each child. Children have to use the following expressions: What is your name, Nice to meet you, My name is. Teacher helps when necessary.

 

2 Activity 1 Let’s meet Mina

The teacher suggests Let’s meet Mina! Hello, Mina! Nice to meet you.

The following dialogue is practised between Mina and the children:

What is your name?

My name is.

Nice to meet you!

Nice to meet you!

 

3 Activity 2 Which animal is in the story?

Pictures and words are used: A dog? A pig? А cat?

This way we make a revision of animals.

 

4 Activity 3: How many animals are there in the fairy tale?

1. one                        b)  two            c) three

Here is realized a cross-curricular link to Mathematics.

 

5 Activity 4 Which is the season in the story?

(cross-curricular link to nature and surrounding world).

1. spring                   b) summer                   c) autumn                    d) winter

 

6 Activity 5 Find the treasure!

The teacher shows pictures of flowers. The children have to name the flowers correctly in order to make a step forward towards the treasure.

 

7 Close up

I hope you found it interesting and entertaining. This time we met Dara and Hera's new friends - Mina and Eddie. We realized how beautiful nature is in spring. We learned and remembered some of the colors. We also, recalled some numbers and animals. Well done! You did well!

 

Conclusions

Dear reader, don't stop dreaming and exploring the world! Be a good friend and have good friends! With them, miracles sometimes come alive and everything is more fun. Explore, learn, have fun and play! Enjoy nature and take care! Keep reading and remember that books reveal the world of fairy tales.

 

References

Brewster, J., Ellis, G., Girard, D., (2002). The Primary English Teacher’s Guide. London: Longman, Penguin.

Cho, K., Krashen, S., (2019). Pleasure reading in a foreign language and competence in speaking, listening, reading and writing. In TEFLIN Journal, 30:2, July 2019, pp. 231-236.

Coles, R. Oscar Wilde for teachers and pupils: a model for teaching L2 to young learners. In A.R. Torres, L.S. Villacanas de Castro, B.S. Pardo (eds.) I International Conference Teaching Literature in English for Young Learners. Valencia: Reproexpress, S.L., 2012, pp.42-47.

Ellis, G., Brewster, J., (2014). Tell it again! The storytelling handbook for primary English language teachers. London: British Council.

Grozdeva, R., (2021). Acquiring Expressions through Texts for Children: Lexical Approach with Young and Very Young Learners. Humanizing Language Teaching, 23:5, Oct. 2021, https://www.hltmag.co.uk/oct21/for-young-readers-of-fairy-tales.

Ilieva, Zh., (2014). 4.6. Lexical approach with young learners. In T. Pattison (ed), IATEFL 2014 Harrogate Conference Selections. 48th International Conference, Harrogate, 2-5 April 2014. Editorial Committee E. de Chazal, C. Lima, A. Paran, ISBN 1-901095-64-9, IATEFL: Faversham, pp.86-87.

Ilieva, Zh., (2015). Acquiring Expressions through Texts for Children: Lexical Approach with Young and Very Young Learners. Humanizing Language Teaching, 17:6, Dec 2015, http://old.hltmag.co.uk/dec15/index.htm, http://old.hltmag.co.uk/dec15/idea.htm.

Ilieva, Zh., (2016). Approaches in the Education of Young Learners Foreign Language Teachers. JoLIE (Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education), 2016, 9:1, ISSN: 2065-6599, pp. 47-64.

Ilieva, Zh., (2017). Analysis of texts for children: lexical approach for young learners. JoLIE (Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education), 2017, 10:1, ISSN: 2065-6599, pp.93-119.

Wright, A., (2019). Stories: Their Importance In and Out of the Classroom. Humanizing Language Teaching, 21:1, Feb. 2019 https://www.hltmag.co.uk/feb19/stories-their-importance

 

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