Scottish Fairy Tale

Title: The Maiden Fair and the Fountain Fairy

Subject: Fairy Tales-Poetry and rhyme

Objective: After reading the fairy tale, children should understand the use of rhyme in poetry.

Materials: Copy of the poem, Poem Starters

Preparations: Included in your week's lesson should be the discussion of fairy tales and the understanding of their nature, for fantasy and make believe. Introduce this tale as a Scottish tale, which will be different in language and intent from the previous fairy tales. Ask the children:

  1. What do you think of when I say Scotland?
  2. Where is Scotland?
  3. Do people from Scotland talk like we do? What is different?

Elaborate on number three by writing some of the words which they may have difficulty understanding on the board. Just as people from England speak differently than Americans, so the Scottish speak differently than we do. Explain that this is part of their heritage and cultural pride. Point to these words on the board:

Explain to the students that they should use the context to find the meaning and listen to the meaning of the sentence. Just as there are words that they might not recognize, there are repititious songs used throughout the fairy tale which include them. Ask the children to listen for these while you read it out loud.

Lesson: After reading the poem out loud, discuss the plot briefly. What happened? Who were the main characters? What was the outcome of the story? Then turn specifically to each of the refrains. What were they used for? Who said them? Are they significant to the fairy tale? Why?

Write two of the refrains on the board and compare the words and meaning of each one. Ask the children if they see anything the same in the two of them. Have them circle similar words and write their observations on the board. If they didn't point out the rhyme in the second and fourth lines, draw their attention to this now. What is a rhyme? Ask the class for examples and come up with reasons why you may use rhyme. Study the structure of the refrains, in detail, noting the address to people in the first line, the two phrases in the second, the reference to time in the third and the use of wearie in the fourth.

Activity: After reviewing the structure of the refrain, pass out a worksheet with a copy of the following refrain:

O gie me my TV, my mom, my dad,
O gie me my toys, my ain kind dearie;
For don't you mind upon the time
We met in the kitchen at the house so wearie.

Ask the children to compare this refrain to the ones in the tale. How are they similar? How are they different?

Assessment: Have the children write a few refrains in their daily journal using this format. Allow them to change the words that rhyme for variation. Check their journal for their understanding.

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