fairies and witches and pirate kings and
buccaneering captains with whom we have all at
one time been on such familiar terms. Let us
then begin by teaching the past to small
children by way of stories and pictures.

_Dramatization._ The play spirit that leads children to play lady,
doctor, church, and school will also lead them to enjoy dramatizing
stories, or "playing the stories," as they call it. Some stories, of
course, are so lacking in action as to be not well suited for
dramatization, and others have details of action, character, or
situation that may not well be represented in the schoolroom. The
teacher may be surprised, however, to see how ingenious her pupils are
in overcoming difficulties after they have had a little assistance in
playing two or three stories. Unconsciously the pupil will get from the
dramatization a training in oral English, reading, and literary
appreciation that can hardly be gained in any other way.

When the pupils have learned a story thoroughly, they are ready to make
plans for playing it. The stage setting may be considered first, and
here the child's imagination can work wonders in arranging details. The
opening under the teacher's desk may become a dungeon, a cave, a cellar,
or a well. If a two-story house is needed, it may be outlined on the
floor in the front part of the schoolroom, with a chalk-mark stairway,
up which Goldilocks can walk to lie down on three coats--the three beds
in the bed-chamber of the three bears.

The pupils can probably soon decide what characters are necessary, but
more time may be required to assign the parts. To play the part of a
spider, bear, wolf, fairy, sheep, or butterfly does not seem difficult
to a child who has entered into the spirit of the play.

The most difficult part of dramatization may be the plan for
conversation, especially if the text version of the story contains
little or no direct discourse. The pupils should know the general nature
of the conversation and action before they begin to play the story,
although they need not memorize the parts. Suppose that the fable "The
Shepherd's Boy" is to be dramatized. The first part of the dramatization
might be described about as follows:

The shepherd boy, tending his flock of
pupil-sheep in the pasture land at one side of
the teacher's-desk-mountain, looked toward the
pupil-desk-village at one side of the room and