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AROUSING CURIOSITY AND STIMULATING IMAGINATION AND CREATIVITY
Playful curiosity is a feature common to all young, mammals. It prepares them for survival later in life. It was certainly one of Dilo’s characteristics. When he saw pairs of eyes peering out of the sand he couldn’t resist poking his beak into the sea-bed. He quickly discovered that they belonged to fish that where hiding.
Arousing curiosity with Dilo books in English lessons stimulates interest in other subjects such as biology. A fun way to combine the two is to have a quiz. A useful booklet containing a collection of fascinating facts with accompanying questions about dolphins and life in the sea is available from International Dolphin Watch.
Here is one such fascinating fact about flatfish:-
Did you know that the eyes of flatfish are not always on the same side of their bodies? In fact plaice start out like most other baby fish with eyes on opposite of their heads. When they later settle on the seabed their eyes migrate until they are both on the tops of their heads.
This explanation is followed by a Quiz Question:-
(a) Are flatfish the same colour on both sides of their bodies?
(b) Dilo chased a plaice. Can you name any other flatfish?
The answers to these questions are in the back of the booklet.
An additional fact that can be introduced into an IDEAL English lesson is:-
Do you know that there is another noun with the same sound as plaice? Such a word is called a homophone.
This can be followed by the quiz questions:-
(a) Can you spell it?
(b) What does it mean?
The answers to these are of course:-
(a) Place.
(b) A space or location.
A natural extension of arousing curiosity is stimulation of the imagination. In an age when frenetic video games which require fast thinking and co-ordination are in vogue literacy tends to be neglected. It is important to recognise however, that youngsters do need times of peace and quiet to let their thoughts wander. We adults therefore have periodically to divert the young away from their video games. We should make opportunities for them to daydream.
To say he or she is a dreamer should not be a criticism. It should be a compliment. When children let their imaginations run free they should be encouraged to write down their thoughts and ideas afterwards, or input them into a computer. When they do this they are on a path of creativity.
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