In order to tell these stories in the target language and make it comprehensible, pictures or props are used. The pictures you will need are provided in the book. The props you will need to gather prior to presenting each episode. Most of the props are every-day objects, readily available and inexpensive. Many you will probably have around the house already. Others might take a bit of searching around for -- for example, a dollhouse-sized bed, a table and chair -- although even for these, acceptable substitutes are suggested (such as a shoebox top, covered with a handkerchief, for the bed).

I recommend that you ask your students if they can provide some of the props; after all, you probably have more than a hundred students, and someone is bound to have some doll furniture packed away or in their little sister's room. Thrift shops or garage sales are a good, inexpensive source for some items. It may take a little effort to get all the props you need the first time around, but then you will have them forever, and you will find plenty of other classroom uses for them too. I find it very useful to have a cabinet full of props; they come in handy when my students improvise conversations and want to make the context more realistic.

Some of the props have to be made, but they are very simple -- for example, pieces of green paper with $500 written on them to represent money. Simple felt cut-out characters are required for some of the earliest stories. Outlines to trace and instructions for making these felt cut-outs are provided.

Remember, you don't have to be the one who makes all the props. Enlist the help of some artistic students. They would probably love to do this, and they will feel so proud when they see their creations being used by the teacher in the classroom.

You will also need three pieces of furniture which will be used flexibly to "set the stage" in many of the episodes:

1. An empty, standard school-issued bookcase (mine is metal, 48" high).
2. A smaller, 2-shelf bookcase (mine is 30" high) which I picked up for a few dollars at a garage sale or thrift shop. As a substitute, you could use a large carton, or two boxes taped one atop the other.
3. A little table (another garage-sale find). The one I have is 26" high. Something like a folding TV-tray will do.

scampbell@eee.org

Page created November 1996 by Nerissa