The Golden Watermelon is a folk tale from Uzbekistan. I found it in the collection “Golden Watermelon and Other Stories” by Shodiyar Doniyorar and Kamal Tashtemirora.
Here is the suggested order of activities to support English learners access to the story. Word Orchestra provides experiences in a supported and scaffolded structure with the words of the story. The example is for a small class. I did this with a group of 11 teachers in Uzbekistan. You will have to adjust depending on the size of your class. For this one, I decided to use all the words of the entire story for part task 3. I did this because it was a group of adult learners. You don’t need to include every word, of course—how you break it up and what words to include depends on your goals.
Word Orchestra task 1 (key words groups of 3)
Word orchestra task 2 (Key phrases + questions)
Word orchestra task 3 (the story in 4 parts)
Listen to the story
Tableaux + human slide show creation and performance
Word Orchestra
The Golden Watermelon
Task 1 (groups of 3)
Peasant
Stork
Watermelon Seeds
Gold or Wasps
Task 2 Key phrases one each
1. Poor peasant
2. A stork
3. Broken wing
4. He helped
5. The stork recovered
6. Three seeds
7. Watermelons grew
8. Full of Gold
9. “I wish I had so much gold”
10. Captured Stork
11. Watermelons full of wasps
What do you think the story will be about? Who are the characters? Can you guess the location? What more would you like to know?
Task III Vocabulary and complete story
peasant plough stork sowing fertilized ripened distributed wasps
Part I.
1. Once upon a time, there was a poor peasant.
2. He had a small plot of land, which he worked on day and night.
3. Spring came, and the peasant began to plough the soil.
4. After a lot of hard work, he decided to rest near a large pond.
5. There he saw a stork falling from the sky.
6. He ran over and saw the stork had a broken wing.
7. He decided to help, so he took the stork home, tied up his broken wing and took care of him for a while.
8. The stork recovered and flew away.
9. One day, when the peasant was sowing his seeds, the same stork flew over him.
10. The peasant continued sowing his seeds.
11. However, the stork flew over him again, and he dropped three watermelon seeds.
Part II
1. After several days, the watermelons grew.
2. The peasant watered them and fertilized them every now and then, and the time of gathering the crop came.
3. He picked three watermelons and took them home.
4. The watermelons were very big. The peasant called over his relatives and friends to feast.
5. He wanted to cut the first watermelon with a knife, but he could not pierce the skin.
6. He tried to cut the second watermelon but again could not pierce it, and with the third it was just the same.
7. The peasant and his guests were amazed.
8. He smashed one of the watermelons by throwing it onto the floor with all of his strength, and he saw it was full of gold.
9. The other two watermelons were also full of gold. The peasant was very happy and distributed the gold among his relatives and friends.
10. From every watermelon seed, ten watermelons grew.
11. The peasant picked the rest of the watermelons, and the poor peasant became a rich one.
Part III
1. The peasant had a rich neighbor. He came to the peasant and asked him. ‘How did you become so rich?’
2. The peasant told his neighbor the whole story.
3. Hearing this, the rich man said, ‘I wish I had so much gold.’ So he went to the field to find the stork nearby.
4. He quietly crept up to him, and, waiting for his chance, he hit the stork on the leg with a stick. The stork could not fly away.
5. After hurting the stork’s leg, the rich man immediately caught him and took him home, tied up his leg and took care of him.
6. A few days later, the stork’s leg as healed, and the stork flew away. The rich man went to the field every day and waited for the stork.
7. One wonderful day, the same stork flew over him and left two watermelon seeds.
8. The seeds grew and watermelons appeared.
9. As soon as the watermelons ripened, the rich man called over all his relatives and friends.
10. The rich man beat the watermelon with a knife, and wasps flew out of it and began to sting the guests along with their host.
11. When the rich man got up, he wanted to drive them away, but the was began stinging the rich man on his head and face.
Part IV
1. After some minutes
2. the rich man’s head
3. nose and lips
4. swelled
5. unable to stand the pain
6. he ran up to the pond,
7. threw himself
8. into the water and drowned.
9. The poor peasant
10. gained good fortune
11. and lived
All: happily with his family.