Aesop's timeless fable ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’ introduced the pupils to the theme of their Saturday lesson. Throughout the day they were accompanied by some unusual guests – three live tortoises.
In his tale of the race between the tortoise and the hare, Aesop, the ancient Greek fabulist, shows that perseverance and consistency can triumph over haste and overconfidence. For centuries this simple story has helped children understand that it is worth working towards a goal step by step.
The class owed the tortoises' visit to the kindness of Ms Małgosia, who spoke fascinatingly about the animals and answered all the children's questions. The pupils were absolutely enthralled – everyone could touch a tortoise, hold one and even give it a cuddle.
Along the way, the children learnt a new letter: ó as in żółw (tortoise). They practised it in their exercise books and in a word search hiding words such as ‘ósemka’ (the number eight) and ‘królowa’ (queen). The spelling ó can often be explained by its alternation with o in other forms of a word, as in the pairs ‘stół – stoły’ (table – tables) and ‘wóz – wozy’ (cart – carts). In the words ‘żółw’ and ‘król’ (king) there is no such alternation, so their spelling simply has to be memorised.
At the end of the day, every pupil took home their own paper tortoise. The paper tortoises were given colourful, patterned shells, and some of them stood on the table beside a real tortoise. More photos from the lesson can be seen in the gallery.
