A BOOK OF PLAYS FOR LITTLE ACTORS BY EMMA L. JOHNSTON PRINCIPAL OF THE BROOKLYN TRAINING SCHOOL AND MADALENE D. BARNUM TEACHER OF ENGLISH IN THE BROOKLYN TRAINING NEW YORK .:. CINCINNATI .:. CHICAGO PREFACE THESE plays are intended to give little school children a great deal of pleasure as well as to train them in expressive oral reading and in intelligent silent reading. They have been read and acted with ease by many children in second-year classes who had had no special preparatory lessons on the words used in the plays. The plays are to be read at sight and acted at the same time. In Part I there are no directions for actions, but every necessary action is suggested to the children by the words of the characters. In Part II the expressions in italics, which are directions to the actors, should be read silently by the children. It will be noticed that in Part II much acting is suggested in order that the children may get considerable practice in silent reading. Most of the plots for the plays have been borrowed from nursery classics. It will be found that these rhymes and stories, though subjected to some fanciful interpretations, have been treated with all the consideration that a real classic should receive. |