26 Oct 2011
Even though I had a rather long day at school, I decided to go to another session of the jornada (if you haven't been reading, this jornada is a conference on getting children excited about reading). This presentation was supposed to be given by Michael Grejniec, the author of A qué sabe la luna? (What does the Moon Taste Like?)
Unfortunately, Mr. Grejniec couldn't make it to his presentation. Apparently, he missed his train, and so he'll be coming to Alicante another day.
However, the organizers for the jornada had a guest speaker come forward to tell us the story of A qué sabe la luna?. This story is absolutely precious. The animals of the earth want to know what the moon tastes like so they try to reach it. The turtle can't reach it on his own so he calls the elephant--who calls the giraffe, who calls the lion, etc. I won't give away the ending here, but you can see and listen to the story here.
The speaker who took his place, Alonso Palacios, was also a good presenter. He focused mostly on oral tradition as a cultural reference for children. He talked about things like fingerplays, fairy tales, rhymes, proverbs, sayings, etc. as the way in which children learn about their culture as well as the way in which children learn how to read and write. He meant this in the sense that it is through stories that children learn that everything has a beginning, a middle, and an end. If children don't know this, they'll find it very difficult to write or tell others what is happening in their lives.
Throughout the presentation, he would randomly say some of these well-known phrases, rhymes, and fingerplays. I tried writing them down when I could, but I often couldn't write fast enough. So here are just a couple:
This is a tongue twister.
Tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo
en tres tristes platos en un trigal.
En tres tristes trastos en un trigal,
tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo.
This is what parents say when kids have a boo boo.
"sana sana
culito de rana
si no sanas hoy
sanaras mañana"
I've always wished English had a version of the "Sana sana sana..."
ReplyDeleteI love the tongue twisters! I can't manage them in English let alone Spanish! But I sure do appreciate any one who can.
ReplyDelete