Hand Writing Skills

1. Good hand writing is good manners: It is also good sense. Good handwriting helps your teacher to see what you have written without stress. So if your  handwriting is poor; make a real effort to improve it.
2. Paragraphs: It is a distinct section of a piece of writing, usually dealing with a single theme and indicated by a new line, indentation, or numbering. A paragraph is a group of sentences. To use a paragraph, you must leave a space at the beginning of a new of a new word
3. Laying out your work neatly: Here are some tips:
4. Always write a heading, and underline it.
5. Always date your work
6. Always check your work before handing it in, and making necessary corrections

Sentences: All sentences begin with a capital letter. Most sentences end with a full stop.

Comprehension Passage

The palm oil daughter(part 1)

There was once a very rich woman who lived in a village near a stream. She had a lot  of palm oil trees. She and her servant collected the fruit from the trees. crushed out the oil, and put in jars. When the market price for palm oil was high,she sold it and made a lot of money.

But though she was rich, the woman was not happy because she had no children. In the evenings, while the young men and women danced in the moonlight, the woman sat alone crying ‘How I Wish I had a child!’

One morning the woman went to market with with her servant to sell a few pots of oil.As soon as she had gone , a strange thing happened. Some palm oil began to flow out of the largest oil jar.

The oil went straight up in the air, and turned into a beautiful golden brown girl. She sang this song:

Palm oil flow,

Palm oil flow,

Mother needs firewood

Who will go?

Who’ll fetch the water?

Who’ll sweep the floor?

Who’ll pound the millet

Come forth, maidens four.

Literature: Folktales

Folktales (or folk tales) are stories passed down through generations, mainly by telling. Different kinds of folktales include fairy tales (or fairytale)Folktales are stories that grew out of the lives and imaginations of the people, or folk. They have always been children’s favorite type of folk literature

Characteristics of Folktales

• Settings:Most folktale settings remove the tale from the real world, taking us to a time and place where animals talk, witches and wizards roam, and magic spells are commonplace.The settings are usually unimportant and described and referred to in vague terms.
• Themes: In folk literature are usually quite simple, but serious and powerful. Folktale themes espouse the virtues of compassion, generosity, and humility over the vices of greed, selfishness, and excessive pride.
• Style: The style of language is economical, with a minimal amount of description and a heavy reliance on formulaic patterns, e.g., conventional openings and closings. Some folktales have powerful visual image.
  
  

Exercise

1. What is a folktale?
2. List and explain the  characteristics of a folklore.
3. From the comprehension passage above, answer the following questions-

Questions –

1. What did she have?
2. Who used to collect the fruit?
3. What did they do after collecting the fruit?
4. Did she make a lot of money?
5. Was the woman happy?
6. Who danced in the moonlight?
7. When did they dance?
8. Did the woman dance?
9. Where did she go one morning?
10. Who lived in the village near the stream?