Mr Sock (Pan Skarpetka) is a friendly little creature – a hand puppet who visits our Saturday lessons and always brings an interesting little book with him. This time he brought the story ‘Kto się boi ciemności?’ (Who's Afraid of the Dark?), and the discussion about it focused on children's fears and ways of coping with them.
The book tells of two brothers – younger Alek and older Franek – who share a room, toys and books. Alek is afraid of the dark, and Franek helps him overcome his fear by telling him a tale about fireflies. The fireflies found the lost sun and began to glow themselves, helping the animals survive a dark, frightening night. Through this story, the older brother helps Alek to overcome his fear on his own and shows how much a caring sibling can mean.
While discussing the book, the children talked about their own fears. They mentioned being afraid of spiders, the silence that falls in the evening, monsters under the bed and strange noises. But everyone has their own way of dealing with them: cuddling up to Mum, hugging a favourite soft toy, switching on a small lamp or fairy lights by the bed, or asking brave Dad to keep them company.
Talking about a book helps children to name their emotions, and for pupils growing up with two languages it is also a chance to learn Polish words for feelings, such as ‘strach’ (fear), ‘odwaga’ (courage) and ‘duma’ (pride).
The lesson ended with an art activity. On one side of the sheet the children drew their little frights, and on the other – a smile, joy and pride at having overcome them. Some of the drawings, done in chalk on dark paper, can be seen in the photos.
