Blog entries by Popovici Simona tagged cartoons

What about Franklin?

Tue, 29 Jul 2014 11:18:00 +0100

Franklin is the green turtle, main protagonist of the "Franklin" cartoon. When my girl was little she used to watch this cartoon. We have a book with this character. It is in English. I read it a while ago, but she was not interested to cooperate, to understand the text. We gave it a try again. What we did? We paid attention to the title first "Hurry up, Franklin" and the cover image. I asked her what does she think the title wants to say. She said that Franklin is running, so the title says "run Franklin". We had this conversation in our mother tongue. I gave the right answer and we did the same with the story. I read a page and then stopped. We had the conversation about the meaning of the text, watching the images. While I was reading she was able to translate some words. Then I followed the same strategy with almost all the text from the book. She was really excited when she heard about Rabbit. She knew the meaning of "rabbit". She learned a song about rabbits at kindergarten (at the English course).
A part of the text she was excited about is:
<It wasn't far to Bear's house. Just along the path, over the bridge and across the berry patch. Franklin meant no hurry - except he saw something unusual. He wandered off the path and found Rabbit bobbing up and down in the tall, green grass. "What are you doing?" Franklin asked Rabbit.
"Playing Leap Frog," said Rabbit. "Do you want to play with me?" [...] >
The book is a little bit difficult for her English level. But I am sure that once she goes to school we will do it better. She will read it all alone. :-)
I wanted her to hear me read in English, to let her understand the text while analyzing the images and I was glad when she could also translate a few words and expressions.

Cartoons in the target language

Sun, 22 Sep 2013 02:53:00 +0100

I convinced my daughter to look at an online cartoon in English. I let her choose one. She chose "Mickey's new car". It is not so long. Almost 8 minutes. I did not answer anything, during the cartoon. I just observed and listen to everything she said. It was surprising for me that she tried to translate out loud some of the expressions. Her mind was working... :-) She also repeted some of the words and sentences as if she wanted to learn them and she also recognized some words/expressions that she learned before.
She understood the action, the video helped a lot...
Next time I will follow the indications from the phase 0 cartoons cards.

In a mood for a TV show...

Wed, 10 Jul 2013 02:57:00 +0100

She likes now the TV show named Lazy Town. I proposed her a day before to watch together a new episode while I drink my morning coffee and she drinks her milk. Like girls do! :-) And have a little talk. She was excited by the idea. I did not know when to use the questions or when to discuss with her. During the show, at the beginning, at the end... So i tried to do it in all the moments. Sometimes it disturbed her, because she could not pay attention to the show. When I felt that I am annoying her I stopped for a while. Her favorite character is Sportacus. Initially I called him Spartacus (like the Roman gladiator) for a few times. It seemed more logical to me. She corrected me until I understood. At the beginning I asked her why does she like Sportacus.

T: He is handsome, he helps a lot children in need and because he makes acrobatics.

I asked her to describe it to me. Because I don't know the character.

T: He is all blue, tall, he has glasses, mustache and a costume like a robot. He must sleep before eight o'clock in the evening because he needs energy to save and to help the children.

During the show I tryed to make her see (without naming) another features of Sportacus but she could only see the acrobatics that this character does (he runs, jumps, stays in one hand etc).

Another thing that surprised me is the fact that she invented something. She considers that Sportacus is Stephanie's father. I told her that they are only friends.

T: No. Sportacus is Stephanie's dad. He has a Airship and he rescues her all the time. Also all the children.
I asked her also which is the character she doesn't like and why.

T: I don't like Robbie. He is naughty, he takes all the toys, he is really bad.

Me: Don't you think that he might also have a good part?

T: No. He keeps people closed in his airship...

I think it would have been a good idea if I knew more about this tv show.

She also will exclude Robbie if she will have the chance.

Me: Why?

T: Because he is bad, I already told you ten times...

:-)

My next questions were answered with the same words.

She likes it when we talk but she is feeling sometimes suspicious about all this questions. Even though the questions sound natural. I told her that I care about what she thinks about different things.

We will have to still practice!