Teaching Guide

The Nis and the White Mare - Guide

Where did this story come from?

Denmark is a small country today, but its borders have changed several times over the years, as have those of its Scandinavian neighbors, Norway and Sweden. Scandinavia was once home to the warlike Vikings, but most of the people there were peaceful farmers and fisherfolk, like the farmers in this story.

What happened?

1. How did the nis show its love for the white mare?
2. Why did the first farmer stay away from the barn at night?
3. What kind of work did the mare do for the farmer?
4. Why did the third farmer hide in the barn?
5. Why did each farm end up not doing very well?

What do you think?

Why do you think the second farmer sold the mare and bought a mule? What are some possible reasons?

Vocabulary builder
Some names for things tell you if the person or animal is male or female. For each of these words, tell whether it is a male or female, and then tell what the other word would be, for some of the opposite sex. You might have to look some up!

Wife
Brother
Cow
Drake
Gander
Billy goat
Stallion

Newspaper Activity

Pretend that you are the farmer who spied on the nis. Now the nis has gone and your farm isn’t doing as well as it used. Write a letter to the advice columnist of the Fairyland newspaper. Tell her your problem and ask for advice. Trade papers with a friend and pretend you are the advice columnist. Write an answer to your friend’s letter.

Teacher's Page (Answers, tips and backgrounders)
What happened?

1. The nis groomed the mare, paid attention to it and made sure it was well-fed.
2. He did not want to disturb the nis and make it go away.
3. She pulled the plow in the field and she also pulled the farmer’s buggy.
4. He wanted to see the nis.
5. The second farmer shouldn’t have sold the mare, because the nis went away with it. The third farmer shouldn’t have tried to spy on the nis, because then he went away forever.

What do you think? (Discussion points)

There are many possible reasons. Maybe the mare was old and he thought the mule would work
harder. Maybe he’s used to working with mules and didn’t want to change. But here’s something he
should not have done: Laughed at the idea that the mare was good luck. Both of the other farmers
were able to figure out that there was a nis,but he never gave the mare a chance. (See where THAT
discussion might lead!)

Vocabulary builder (Answers):

Husband, Sister, Bull, Duck, Goose, Nanny goat, Mare.

Skill Builders:

A preposition shows the relationship between the noun, or pronoun, that follows it and some other
word in the sentence.

Notice how changing the preposition in the sentence below changes the relationship between the
verb went and the object of the preposition the farmer’s barn.
preposition object

The nis went behind the farmer's barn
into
near
beside
over

It is important that the prepositional phrase is next to its object; if it is not, the sense can become confusing. Read these sentences. Which version of each pair is less confusing?

Mother left instructions on how to bake bread in the envelope.
Mother left instructions in the envelope on how to bake bread.

Gertrude served dessert to hungry guests in paper cups.
Gertrude served dessert in paper cups to hungry guests.

Rewrite the following sentences so that they are not confusing.

The young girl was walking her dog in a short skirt.

We read that Janet was married in her last letter.

The library has several books about dinosaurs in our school.


For a complete guide to this series of stories in PDF format, including several pages of material and suggested activities on folk tales in general, click here

The Dancing Children - Guide

Where did this story come from?

The Onondaga (People of the Hills) are one of the Six Nations who make up the Iroquois Confederacy. They originally lived in the center of what is now New York State and their remaining land is near Syracuse, NY. The Onondaga are the “Firekeepers” of the Confederacy and most Grand Council meetings are held on their land.

What happened?

1. Why did the band come to the lake?
2. Why were the younger children allowed to go play instead of working?
3. Who told them to stop dancing?
4. Why did the parents say they couldn’t bring food to the lake?
5. What happened to the children?

What do you think?

Does this story have a sad ending, or a happy ending? Why?

Try this!

Get permission to go outside at night. Find the Pleiades in the sky, near the horns of Taurus the bull. Can you see seven stars? (They’re very close together. It’s hard to count them without a telescope!) Can you see them dancing?

Look it up!

The Onondaga were gathering food for the winter. In those days, there were no refrigerators and people didn’t know how to can food. How could they keep fruit from spoiling? How could they keep meat or fish from spoiling? Find out how Indians kept food from going bad. (Have you had food like that?)

Newspaper Activity

Pretend you are a reporter. Write a news story about what happened to the Onondaga children. Who would you be able to interview for your story? Who would you not be able to interview? Who do you think the police would want to talk to that they might not be able to find? Add a “fact box” next to your story, with advice for parents.

Teacher's Page (Answers, tips and backgrounders)
What happened?

1. They needed to gather and preserve food for the winter.
2. The easy gathering of food was over earlier than expected.
3. A strange man.
4. They thought it would be wasteful and they wanted the kids to come back home when they got
hungry.
5. They rose into the sky and became stars.

What do you think? (discussion points)

It is sad that the children left their parents and their homes, but to be a star in the sky forever would be wonderful. This could lead to a discussion of ambition and people who go away because there are
things they want to do that they can’t do at home. There are also people who leave, get training and
experience, and then come back home. Leaving might be sad if you don’t want to go, but it can be
great fun if you do!

Skill Builders:

The people in this story call themselves “Onondaga,” which means “people of the hills.” In the English
language, some names for groups of people are both singular and plural, depending on how they are
used.

For instance: If you were at a gathering of Iroquois people, and you were telling someone about a game you had been playing, you might say, “There were three Cayugas and two Senecas and a couple of Onondagas playing.” But if you were telling your friend where the game was played, you might say, “It was over by where the Onondaga are staying.”

In the first case, you have an exact number of people, and so you use “s” to make the plural. In the
second, you are describing an entire group and it doesn’t matter how many people are in the group, so
the plural doesn’t need an “s.” But it would also be correct to say “It was over by where the Onondagas
are staying,” because there aren’t very many hard-and-fast rules in this usage.

Names of national and ethnic groups are collective nouns, and, like other collective nouns (team,
committee,pair) they sometimes take plural and sometimes take singular verbs and pronouns.

Most often, the choice between singular and plural is based on idiom and tradition. For instance, if you follow a strict rule, “a pair of twins” could mean four people. But we know that, when someone says “I saw a pair of twins,” it means the person saw two people.

And here’s an interesting difference in traditional use of collective nouns: In both England and the US,
names of sports teams are often shortened to just their city. In America, that would mean going from a plural to a singular: “The Chicago Bears are hoping to make the playoffs” becomes “Chicago is hoping to make the playoffs.’ But in Britain, it would still be treated as a plural: “Manchester are hoping to make the playoffs.”

Exercise: Some people like to be identified by their ethnic or racial roots, and others prefer not to be.
But everyone has identifiers: Southerner, Northerner, tall person, short person, goalkeeper, drummer, city person, country person. In these stories, the people and animals all have strong identities. Choose a list of identifying nouns and adjectives that apply to you. Are some of them collective nouns?

For a complete guide to this series of stories in PDF format, including several pages of material and suggested activities on folk tales in general, click here

The White Dog - Guide

Where did this story come from?

Latvia is a small country on the Baltic Sea that has only been independent for brief periods in history. But Latvia has its own language and traditions, and, today, is an independent nation with a successful economy. One of its most important folk traditions is in a particular kind of folk music that Latvians have sung for hundreds of years. (Maybe that’s why the little dog sings!)

What happened?

1. What chore did the young girl have to do every day?
2. How did the old woman make this chore more difficult?
3. What was unusual about the little white dog?
4. What was the response of the wedding guests to the arrival of the little dog?
5. After he turned into a prince, how did the white dog show he was good?

What do you think?

Do you think it was fair to expect the girl to get water for the household every day? Do you think everything about the way she was treated was fair? What are some rules about chores that would be good for everyone involved?

Newspaper Activity

The girl’s wedding was supposed to just be a very normal wedding, but it certainly turned out differently! Imagine that you are a reporter assigned to write about this wedding. Nobody thought it would be special, so you weren’t assigned to attend it. Now that it’s too late for you to be there, you’ll have to interview witnesses and write your story that way. Make a list of things that you will need to find out. Make sure you include Who Where What Why When and How! (Do you think the old woman
will describe the wedding to you in the same way the girl will, or the fellow who was supposed to be the groom? How will you sort out the truth and still be fair?)

Teacher's Page (Answers, tips and backgrounders)
What happened?

1. She had to fetch a bucket of water from the well.
2. She punished her for dripping water, so the girl couldn’t get the outside of the bucket wet.
3. He could talk, he could sing, he could fill buckets by magic and he wanted to marry a human!
4. They thought he was cute and funny, so they welcomed him.
5. He gave a the young man who was supposed to marry the girl a good job as a reward for his
kindness and good manners.

What do you think? (Discussion points)

Answers will vary, but it is hoped that most students will see the need for young people to help out.
The question of how appropriate certain chores are, however, will lead into some interesting areas.

The Catch-22 position of the young woman -- she must fill the bucket without getting it wet -- should ring some sympathetic bells among students who often feel they are put in the same position. What are their suggestions for a solution -- barring the intervention of a magical dog?

Skill Builders:
Language arts - repetition and structure in storytelling

The white dog’s song contains a set structure:
1. The first line begins with the salutation, “Maiden,” and then has a command.
2. The second line continues the command and ends with a rhyme for “well.”
3. The third and fourth line are:

Do not turn away from me,
but keep your promise from the well!"

This is, in part, typical of magical incantation, and also part of a storytelling tradition of repeating a
phrase or expression, like “The better to see you with my dear,” “The better to hear you with, my dear” and “The better to eat you with, my dear!”

Just as the wolf’s replies to Red Riding Hood become more threatening with each variation, so, too, the White Dog’s orders to the girl become more insistent and challenging with each repetition: At first, he only wants to come and eat at her table. Then he only wants to ride in the carriage. But, just as we know the wolf intends to eat Red Riding Hood, so, too, we know that the dog wants to collect on the girl’s promise and that he will surely foil this arranged marriage.

Ask students for additional examples of repeated phrases in storytelling that help to set a mood,
increase suspense or otherwise make a story more interesting. (These repeated phrases are very common in ghost stories told around campfires!)

The structure of the dog’s poem can also lead to a poetry activity combining meter and rhyme. If the
dog’s poem isn’t enough, loosen up with some limericks and other short poems in which meter and
rhyme are clear and dominant. Then ask the students to create their own poetry.

Can you work the name of your school or your town into the last line of a quatrain and write a series
of verses that rhyme with that final line?

For a complete guide to this series of stories in PDF format, including several pages of material and suggested activities on folk tales in general, click here

How the Hawk Chose His Food

Where did this story come from?

Nigeria is a nation in western Africa. Calabar was a large trading region in the old days; Today it is a small city on the coast near the border with Cameroon. This story was originally collected for a 1910 book by Elphinstone Dayrell, a British colonial official in that area.

What happened?

1. How is the King of Calabar different from most kings?
2. Why does the king allow the hawk to choose his food?
3. What type of food does the hawk first choose?
4. How do the hawk’s friends help him in this story?
5 Why is the owl more dangerous than the chicken?

What do you think?

What is the moral of this story?

What do you want to hear? What do you need to hear?

Look up the words “pragmatic” and “idealistic” in the dictionary. How are they different?
What type of advice did the hawk’s friends give him: Pragmatic or idealistic?
Which type of advice do you like to hear better? Which do you think is more valuable?

Play act some situations where a person has a problem and some friends offer idealistic advice, while others offer pragmatic advice.

Newspaper Activity

Choose your food! Look in the grocery ads in your newspaper for food that you would like to have for dinner tonight. Have you imagined a meal that provides good nutrition? If you were to purchase enough food for four people, calculate how much it would cost.

Teacher's Page (Answers, tips and backgrounders)
What happened?

1. He rules over the animals as well as humans.
2. The king wishes to reward the hawk for faithful service, and to make the hawk’s life in old age easier.
3. He chooses the owlet, which seems easy to catch.
4. The hawk’s friends offer him good advice.
5 While the chicken makes a lot of noise, it does nothing to protect its young. The owl bides its time
and takes its revenge when the victim has dropped his guard; it says little but does much.

What do you think? (discussion points)

The moral of the story is that, just because someone makes a lot of noise and fuss, it doesn’t mean
they’re going to actually do anything. Sometimes the people who keep their thoughts to themselves
are more effective when they take action. While this story makes it a caution against making  enemies, it can also be a more general statement about people who are “all talk and no action.”

Skill Builders
Language arts – vocabulary

Look in the passage for the words that indicate the baby owl and baby chicken. –et and –ette are
suffixes that indicate a small size or a lesser position.
What are the adult animals of the following babies: cygnet, eaglet, froglet, leveret, piglet, pullet?

Language arts – sentence structure and commas

Examine the use of the conjunction to form compound sentences. Note that some examples need
commas, while others do not.

“His friends looked over the owlet, and then one them asked him a question.”

“The hawk was puzzled, but his friends were all in agreement, so he picked up the owlet …”

“… when it becomes dark and you have fallen asleep ... ” (no comma here because two very short sentences)

“The hawk swooped down, grabbed the owlet and flew off back to the castle.” (no comma -- “flew off back to the castle” is not a complete sentence)

"The king of Calabar was not just king of the people but also of all the animals that crawled
and walked and swam and flew." (no commas in front of the ands as what follow are not a complete sentences)

The general rule of thumb is that if the conjunction is joining two complete sentences, use a comma
with the conjunction. If the elements of the compound sentence are not complete sentences or are
very short, do not use a comma with the conjunction.

As with most rules in English, it can be broken!

For a complete guide to this series of stories in PDF format, including several pages of material and suggested activities on folk tales in general, click here

The Fairy Wife - Guide

Where did this story come from?

Wales is a Celtic nation that has fought to preserve its culture since the Roman invasions of Britain. Today, Wales is part of Great Britain. But, although Welsh speakers also speak English, their language remains alive to this day, as does their culture. The Welsh are noted for their choral singing, a tradition that was remarked upon by a visitor over 800 years ago!

What happened?

1. How did the young man meet the beautiful fairy?
2. Why could her family not break down the door to free her?
3. Why did she finally agree to marry him?
4. What promise did he have to make before they could be married?
5. How did he break that promise? What happened?

What do you think?

Do you think the fairy wife wanted to leave her husband? Why or why not?

Talk about it!

The way the young man met his wife seems unfair, but eventually they fell in love. Think of other stories in which this sort of thing happens. Are they realistic? How could you rewrite the story to show their differences but to be more fair?

Write about it!

Pretend you are one of the children in this story and write about how you go down to the lake to talk to your mother. What is the best part of these night-time conversations? What is the worst part?

Newspaper Activity

Read the wedding announcements in the newspaper. (You may have to look for a weekend paper to find them.) What information in contained in them? Now write a wedding announcement for the young man and the fairy. Try to include the same sort of information that is in the newspaper for other weddings.

Teacher's Page (Answers, tips and backgrounders)
What happened?

1. He used to see her dancing with her family in the countryside.
2. The door had iron hinges and an iron latch, and fairies can’t stand iron.
3. After she got to know him for a long time, she fell in love with him.
4. He promised never to strike her with iron.
5. He got mad and threw a bridle that had a piece of iron in it. It hit her by mistake, and she disappeared.

What do you think? (Discussion points)

Although at first she wanted to get away from him, by then she was in love with him and wanted very
much to stay.

Talk about it! (Discussion points)

Many movies feature love stories that begin with the couple disliking each other, and students may cite some of these.

But in fairy tales like “The Princess and the Pea” and even “The Frog Prince” the point is not if the couple is in love but whether one person is worthy of the other. In other fairy tales, like “Cinderella,” it is the beauty of a character that makes her worth marrying. None of these are very realistic reasons to fall in love!

The element of force in this story is troublesome but common to a class of fairy tale, not only in Celtic but in several other traditions. In these stories, there is some talisman that the immortal partner needs in order to be freed. This story is unusual in that the Fairy Wife no longer wants to leave her husband.

Write about it!

(Please be aware of the teachable moment here in terms of any absent parents your children
may be thinking of!)

Skill Builders:
Language Arts: Sentence types.

Using different types of sentences in a story is like using different colors in a painting: It helps add contrast and variety! The type of sentence you choose can also make a difference in the pace of a story. This story is particularly full of complex, compound and compound-complex sentences!

Simple Sentence: “The young man looked hurt.”

Complex Sentence: A sentence with an independent clause and one or more dependent clauses. “He
was bright and hard-working, but still had a great deal of youth in him.“

Compound Sentence: A sentence with two independent clauses, linked by a conjunction or by a semicolon or colon. “After a time, he felt himself falling in love with her, though he knew it could never be.”

Compound-complex Sentence: A sentence with two or more independent clauses, and one or more
dependent clauses. “Each day, as he worked in the fields and pastures, he thought of names, and
each night, he would try them, and she would smile and shake her head again, until it became almost
a game between them.”

For a complete guide to this series of stories in PDF format, including several pages of material and suggested activities on folk tales in general, click here