Spring Is a Symbol of Life

Published: 18.12.2013 · 11 min read

Open lesson (elective lessons) – Bulgarian language and literature, second grade

Prepared by: Tatyana Hristova Georgieva (school year 2006–2007)

Lesson topic: Spring is a symbol of life. Poems and stories about spring.

Type of lesson: combined lesson

Lesson aims

1. Understanding new literary works through their ideas and emotional content;
2. Developing the skills of:
   • working with literary and non-literary texts and finding one's way in them;
   • analysing characters and their relationships;
   • reading a literary work expressively;
3. Learning to tell a literary text from a non-literary one;
4. Building a positive attitude and respect for our national poets and writers, and love of and interest in literature as a whole;
5. Developing pupils' cognitive abilities through literature and popular science texts;
6. Developing pupils' imagination and figurative thinking.

Key concepts: literary and non-literary text, dialogue, monologue, literary devices – epithet, simile, repetition.

Materials needed

• Homework set in advance: an incomplete text in which pupils fill in suitable verbs (linked to the grammar being studied) by observing nature around them (linked to the world around us), and give the text a title.
• Worksheets for station work for the pupils in the class (with separate ones for pupils with SEN, following their individual programmes).
• Suitable literary works.

Methods and forms of work: interactive methods, storytelling, discussion, listening, illustrating, play, reading in roles, selective reading and others.

Lesson plan

Getting the class ready for work.

I. Preparing to take in a literary work

I know you like a challenge, so here is a riddle for you. Find the answer.

Warm sunshine is shining,
seeds are sprouting in the soil,
the storks are already coming.
Who is arriving? ............ (spring)

A second-grade girl has drawn an illustration for your riddle (on the board). What do you notice?

She has made a few mistakes, out of not knowing or not paying attention. Let's use your homework to correct the picture of a spring mood that the illustration on the board gives us.

Homework, group I – Observe nature around you and fill in suitable verbs. Give the text a title.

.........................

Spring ............ on 21 March and ............ until 22 June. The days gradually ............ . The weather ............ warmer and warmer, and the snow in the mountains ............ . The sky ............ its grey colour for light blue. Short but heavy rains often ............ . Plants ............ and ............ . Some animals wake up from their winter sleep.

(turn green, begins, lasts, get longer, becomes, swaps, melts, fall, bloom, wake up)

Homework, group II – Observe nature around you and fill in suitable verbs. Give the text a title.

.........................

The weather ............ . The sun ............ merrily. Little flowers have ............ the branches of the trees. Playful bees ............ around. They ............ on the blossoms, and the blossoms ............ them to sweet nectar. It is warm and it ............ lovely. Oh, how white everything is!

(warms up, land, shines, decorated, buzz, treat, smells)

(The children are divided into two groups with different kinds of text – literary and non-literary.)

II. Checking the homework. A text from group I and group II is read aloud.

• What do the two texts have in common? – The topic is spring.
• What is different? – One text is literary and the other is non-literary.
• Which season is described? When does spring begin?
• What feelings do you have when you watch the changes in nature? What do you like most?
• What do you expect from spring?

III. Announcing the topic

Many writers and poets have watched the changes of spring and described them in their stories and poems.

In this literature lesson we will read works about or connected with spring. We will recall which texts are literary and which are not, and how to tell them apart (on the board).

IV. First reading of the literary works as a whole

Many members of the bird world have felt nature waking up to new life.

Musical riddle: You will hear a children's song by the composer Krasimir Miletkov – "A Guest from the South" (music by Krasimir Miletkov, Music for second grade, Prosveta, Sofia).

• What is the song about? Spring is coming.
• When do the storks come back to us?
• What is the mood of the song? cheerful, joyful, lively, playful

You will find out which migratory birds come back from warm countries in spring if you solve the word puzzle on page 91 of the elective-lessons workbook "We read, write and communicate in Bulgarian" (elective lessons, second grade, Slovo publishing house).

We will find out which birds Trayko Simeonov, Stoyan Drinov, Lilyana Daskalova, Dora Gabe and Ran Bosilek wrote about, and what feelings they shared, from the following literary works (on the board). We will work in stations.

To divide into groups, we will play the game "Actors": each pupil gets a card with a picture of a snowdrop, a girl, a little bird, a little watermill or a little river. When you hear the name of the picture on your card, stand up.

A little tale

On a little river, someone built a little watermill. In a meadow by the watermill, on the bank of the little river, a snowdrop bloomed, as delicate as a girl.

The little river laughed, the watermill sang. A girl came along, an early riser like the white snowdrop. All day long she sang by the little river together with the watermill. A little bird picked the white snowdrop and gave it to the lovely girl.

Let's recall the rules for group work:

• We work quietly, without disturbing the others.
• We share out the tasks in the group without arguing.
• We keep to the time given for the work.
• We write the results in our notebooks.
• We try to get through all five stations in the time given.
• If we want, we can also go to the last two stations.

The class forms 5 groups of 4 pupils, plus 1 pupil with SEN (21 children in total).

There are two pupils with SEN in the class, one of whom works on a par with the other children (for this pupil the stations are reduced to 3).

Each group sits at the place marked with its picture and gets instructions for the work.

V. Quiet individual reading of the literary work

Every pupil reads the literary works to themselves.

VI. Deepening understanding of the texts

Together, the pupils form the answers to the questions out loud, and each pupil writes the sentences in their classwork notebook.

VII. Bringing the reading together

For the pupil with SEN – the poem "Butterfly" by Ran Bosilek (read in Bulgarian): a child tells Mum, Grandma and Dad that merry May has sent a colourful butterfly with a message on its wing.

• Who is speaking in the poem? (a child or an adult)
• Who wrote the letter? (merry May)
• Copy May's letter into your notebook.

Variant I – tasks for the stations

Station 1

1. Read to yourself the text "Children and the Stork" by Trayko Simeonov on page 92 of the elective-lessons workbook (Bulgarian language and literature, second grade), exercise 2a.
2. Copy and complete the following sentence in your classwork notebook:
   The poem "Children and the Stork" by Trayko Simeonov is a ............ text. (non-literary, literary)

Station 2

1. Read to yourself the text "Little Swallow" by Stoyan Drinov on page 92 of the workbook, exercise 2b.
2. Copy and complete the following sentence in your classwork notebook:
   The swallow in Stoyan Drinov's poem of the same name is a ............ of spring. (herald, guarantor, companion)

Station 3

1. Read to yourself the story "Spring Sounds" by the writer Lilyana Daskalova on page 93 of the workbook, exercise 3.
2. Copy and complete the following sentence in your classwork notebook:
   In the story "Spring Sounds", the writer Lilyana Daskalova tells us how little Filip, who is ill, gets better thanks to the ............ chirping of the birds that have come back from the south. (spring, merry, endless)

Station 4

1. Read to yourself the text "White Stork".
2. Copy and complete the following sentence in your classwork notebook:
   In the text "White Stork", the stork is ............ . (a kind of water bird, a literary character)

Station 5

1. Read to yourself the text "Barn Swallow".
2. Copy and complete the following sentence in your classwork notebook:
   The text "Barn Swallow" is ............ . (literary, non-literary)
3. Draw on a sheet of paper, or make a collage of, what you connect with spring.

Station 6

1. Try to write a poem about spring.
   Spring
   Every branch is full of ............
   and the little flowers ............
   and the field ............
   the little lamb gently ............
   (bloom, turns green, bleats, blossom)
2. Copy it into your notebook.

By the end of the lesson every pupil should have read five texts and written the sentences in their notebook.

The last two stations are for the fastest pupils.

The pupil with SEN works at their own station and at other stations if they wish.

Variant II – harder tasks for the pupils

"Barn Swallow"

The text "Barn Swallow" is a ............ text. From it we learn what the bird looks like, what it ............ and which parts of Bulgaria it lives in. This kind of text does not use the literary devices ............ . The bird does not speak or take part in a dialogue.

1. What kind of text is this?
2. What information does the text give?
3. Are literary devices used?
4. Do the characters have their own speech? Do they have a conversation?

"White Stork"

The text "White Stork" is ............ . It describes what the white stork looks like, what it ............, where it raises its ............ and where it builds its ............ . This kind of text does not use the literary devices ............ . The bird does not speak or take part in a dialogue.

1. What kind of text is this?
2. What information does the text give?
3. Are literary devices used?
4. Do the characters have their own speech? Do they have a conversation?

"Spring Sounds" by Lilyana Daskalova

The story "Spring Sounds" by Lilyana Daskalova is a ............ text. It tells about ............, who is ill. A ............ entertains him and talks to him. This happens in ............, which we can tell from the words ............ and the sentence ............ .

1. What kind of text is the work?
2. Are literary devices used, and if so, which?
3. Is there a dialogue between the characters, or is the work a monologue?
4. What is the mood of the work?
5. Illustrate it.

"Little Swallow" by the poet Stoyan Drinov

The poem "Little Swallow" by the poet Stoyan Drinov is a ............ text. It uses the following ............, which make the images more vivid. Spring is ............, the song is ............ . In the poem, the ............ speaks, addressing the reader as a familiar friend. This is called ............ .

1. What kind of text is the work?
2. Are literary devices used, and if so, which?
3. Is there a dialogue between the characters, or is the work a monologue?
4. What is the mood of the work?
5. Illustrate it.

"Children and the Stork" by the poet Trayko Simeonov

The poem "Children and the Stork" by the poet Trayko Simeonov is a ............ text. It uses words called ............, which make the images more vivid. The stork is ............, ............, ............, and the children's faces are ............ . In this poem the characters have a ............ . The mood of the work is ............, because the long-awaited ............ is coming.

1. What kind of text is the work?
2. Are literary devices used, and if so, which?
3. Is there a dialogue between the characters, or is the work a monologue?
4. What is the mood of the work?
5. Read it in roles.

Together, the pupils form the answers to the questions out loud. Then each pupil fills in their worksheet, glued into their classwork notebook.

VIII. Summing up what was read

At the end of the time for station work, the class sums up what the pupils have written in their notebooks (on the board):

• The poem "Children and the Stork" by Trayko Simeonov is a literary text.
• The swallow in Stoyan Drinov's poem of the same name is a herald of spring.
• In the story "Spring Sounds", the writer Lilyana Daskalova tells us how little Filip, who is ill, gets better thanks to the merry chirping of the birds that have come back from the south.
• In the text "White Stork", the stork is a kind of water bird.
• The text "Barn Swallow" is non-literary.

• What do you connect with spring? (Let's look at your drawings.) If you used bright, light colours, it means that for you spring is linked with freshness, joy and cheerfulness.

If you wrote a poem, let's hear how it sounds, so we can feel how you see spring.

The pupils read their poems from their notebooks expressively.

Using the rhyming words given on the board, let's try to write a poem about spring together (on the board). In Bulgarian the lines rhyme in pairs.

A ............ stork has already arrived,
bringing the news to your ............ door.
The ............ field is bright with flowers,
a nightingale sings in the ............ sky.
Soon, with songs and ............ flowers,
............ Spring will be here.

IX. Tasks for independent work

• Choose a work from pages 92–93 of the workbook and illustrate it.
• Make cardboard crowns or puppets to put on a play.

THE END