A Journey to Tales Land by Drama

Abstract

Various definitions of tales compromise on some points that they are created by the folk, they are usually told to kids and they are supernatural. They are the best narrators of the language and culture of their times. However, cartoons and technology have replaced the tales narrated by grandparents. This study focuses on protection and survival of Cyprus culture by adapting tales to current circumstances. Besides, the study aims to introduce the adapted Cyprus tales to pre-school kids and to use tales in different ways in instruction process. For this reason, Cyprus tales have been examined and seen that many tales exist in the TRNC but they haven’t been integrated into instruction. The working team comprises 20 volunteer parents, 16 high school students, 44 pre-school students, 20 kindergarten teachers and 1 nurse. During the project, a face to face interview was conducted with 8 kindergarten teachers, 427 people filled in a survey and the participant's verbal and written perceptions were collected about the activities in the project. In accordance with the collected data, many tales were compiled with the participation of the grandparents, families and volunteer nurse and narration studies were conducted by creative drama methods. Besides, with the participation of high school students, puppet stage and puppets were developed in harmony with tale narration techniques. “A journey to tales land”, a history of tales themed activity, was performed. Participation of 360 people to this activity was found significant. Cyprus tales should be adapted in accordance with current circumstances and they should be introduced in terms of the needs of kids by using technology.