- Announcer: The Wisconsin School of the Air
presents The Friendly Giant,
adapted for third grade use as a classroom aid
to stimulate individual expression
in writing and drawing.
- Friendly: Once upon a time, not long ago and not far away,
there was a road.
Do you know where that road goes?
All the way from the farm to Goose Lake and beyond.
It disappears in the hills.
There's the farm.
Now, find the boot.
There's the boot.
Now look up.
Way up.
Whose boot is that?
It's my boot.
The Friendly Giant.
And that road does go all the way to Goose Lake,
all the way from the farm to Goose Lake.
That's where Jerome is.
That's where he's been.
He missed a day of school.
I think he's back now.
Rusty is in the castle.
It's recess time, and he's in the book bag.
So, let's go over.
I'll hurry over first and go in the back door
so that I can let the drawbridge down
and open the big front doors for you.
Are you ready?
Here's my castle.
[whimsical music]
Here we are inside, and here's a desk for one of you
and another desk for someone else.
Let's see.
Everything here?
Here's the workbook and the pencils and the paper.
Everything's ready.
Now, look up.
Way up, and I'll call Rusty.
Rusty?
- Oh! - Oh, hi.
- Hi, Friendly. - What are you doing?
- Well, I was reading. - Oh.
- I was reading all the things the third graders wrote
about nonsense and things. [laughs]
- Yeah, last week we talked about nonsense,
and the third graders wrote nonsense poems and stories.
You read 'em all? - All of them, mm-hmm.
All are good.
Oh, I like them. - Has Jerome read them?
- No, he hasn't read them yet.
You know, he was up at Goose Lake.
- Oh, yes, we were talking about that.
- He's coming back today, I think.
- I think so.
We were talking about Goose Lake
because we saw the road that goes to Goose Lake.
- Oh, no, it doesn't.
- Yes, the road that goes from the farm over the hills
all the way to Goose Lake and beyond too.
- No, no, it doesn't really go there.
It doesn't go anywhere.
The road is right there.
It stays right there.
It doesn't go anywhere. - That's right.
I mean, if you travel on the road, you will go to Goose Lake.
- That's right.
That's a riddle that I learned once.
- What? - The riddle is like this.
What goes uphill and what goes downhill
but doesn't really ever move?
- That's right, a road.
- A road. - A road.
That's a good riddle. - Oh.
- Why don't, I'll whistle for Jerome
and then you could tell him the riddle, see if he could guess.
- Oh, wait, I have a better idea.
- What?
- I'll be down in the book bag when he comes
and you tell him the riddle, and tell him that I don't know it.
And then he will ask me the riddle, but I will know it.
- And you'll know the-- and he'll be surprised.
- And he'll be surprised, mm.
- That's a little trick on Jerome.
He won't care. - Oh, he likes tricks.
- Good. - He likes to have fun.
- While you're down there, would you look in the big blue book
for the poem about the ocean?
- Oh, that's right. - About sea fever.
- All right, I'll do that.
- I'll whistle. - Mm-hmm.
[Friendly whistles] [Jerome whistles]
- Here he comes.
Hi, Jerome. - Hi, Friendly.
- How are you? - Fine, how are you?
- Good. - Where's Rusty?
- Oh, Rusty is down in the book bag on a little errand for me.
- Oh, I see.
- Back from Goose Lake? - Back from Goose Lake.
It's good to be back, Friendly.
- Jerome, I know a riddle.
- Oh, I like riddles.
- What goes uphill and goes downhill,
but never really moves?
- What goes...
Uh, hmm...
An automobile?
- No, because an automobile moves.
- Oh, that's right.
Uh... I know!
A river.
- Well, not a river, because a river doesn't go uphill.
- Oh. - And the river really moves.
The water moves down. - Oh, that's right.
I give up, Friendly.
- A road.
- A road!
- It goes uphill and goes downhill
and doesn't really move. - That's a good riddle.
I'll tell Rusty that riddle. - That's a good idea.
- Why don't you call Rusty and I'll tell him?
- I'll call Rusty, and you tell him the riddle.
- Oh, that's a good one, mm-hmm. - Rusty!
- Oh, oh, hi, Jerome! - Hi, Rusty.
- Friendly: Back from Goose Lake, Rusty.
- Back from Goose Lake.
Did you have a good time? - Oh, yes, I had a fine time.
I know a riddle, Rusty. - A riddle, oh, I like riddles.
Tell me.
- Well, see if you can get this one.
What goes uphill and downhill, but doesn't really ever move?
- Oh, uh...
An automobile?
- No.
An automobile moves along.
- Oh, that's right.
What goes uphill and what goes downhill and doesn't move?
A river. - No.
A river doesn't go uphill.
And anyway, it moves along.
- Oh.
A road. - No.
Oh--
He answered it! - Friendly: He did.
- A road, he knew it. - Friendly: He knew the answer.
- How did you know it? [Rusty laughs]
- Friendly: Tell him, Rusty. - Oh.
- Well, it's really my riddle.
I told Friendly,
and then I told Friendly to tell you so you would ask me,
and you'd be surprised when I knew the answer.
- Oh, you fooled me again. - Just a little trick
we played on you, Jerome. - That's funny, though.
That's a good one, Rusty.
- And we're glad you're back from Goose Lake.
- Oh, yes, it's fun to have fun again here.
- Was it cold in Goose Lake? - It was cold.
That's why I'm wearing the hat.
But it's not so cold here. - No, we can hang the hat up.
- We can hang it up now, yes. - I'll hang it up.
- Well-- - Oh, the lights are off!
The lights are off! - Friendly: Oh, excuse me.
I meant to hang it on the peg. - Rusty: Oh, it was the hat.
- Oh, that time Rusty was fooled.
- Oh, I thought the lights went off.
- Excuse me, Rusty. - I'm sorry.
- Rusty has been reading all the nonsense poems and stories
the third graders wrote last time.
Remember? - Oh, yes.
- And you can read them later. - Oh, that'll be fun.
Are they good? - Oh, they're wonderful.
- But you know what
we're talking about today? - What?
- What we're going to write about?
- No. - And draw pictures about?
- What?
- Faraway places. - Faraway places.
- And you're all ready, aren't you?
- Well, I can write about Goose Lake.
- Goose Lake. - And all the things I did
up there. - What did you do?
- Well, I went sliding.
They have snow up there. - Mm-hmm.
- And I went walking in the snow and building snow forts.
And I fell down twice. - Did you?
- And I was going to ski, but I only had one ski.
- Oh. - So, I couldn't.
- But you could write about everything you did there.
- Oh, yes. - And about everyone you saw.
- All the friends up there. - That you don't see here.
- That's right. - Mm-hmm.
- And the way things look there. - Mm-hmm, oh, yes.
- You can write about a faraway place you visited.
- Yes, I could do that.
- You could too, Rusty.
- Well, I wasn't up there with Jerome, though.
- No, but you've been to Goose Lake.
- Well, I was up there last summer.
- And you remember what it's like?
- Well, yes, I remember it. - So?
- Well, I could write about that, couldn't I?
- You could write about that.
- And it'll be different from Jerome's because I was up there
in summertime. - Mm-hmm.
- And, well, it'll be different than wintertime.
- You can write about the same faraway place.
It would be very different from what Jerome wrote.
- Different thing, that's right. - So, you can write about
a faraway place you visited. - Mm-hmm.
- Just the farthest place you've been if it isn't very far away.
- That's right.
- What's another way of writing about faraway places?
What's another kind of faraway place?
- Well, you could write about a place that's make-believe.
- Friendly: That no one has ever been to.
- It doesn't really... - Friendly: Mm-hmm.
- ...anywhere.
It's just make-believe, a pretend, made-up place.
- Friendly: You could make it up just the way you want it to be.
- I know!
Like the song I know.
The "Big Rock Candy Mountain." - Yes!
There isn't really a Big Rock Candy Mountain.
- No.
- But it's just the way someone wanted it to be.
- It's a make-believe faraway place.
- Sing it. - Oh!
- Do you know it all? - I know the whole song.
- Sing it, sing it.
- ? Oh, the buzzing of the bees in the bubblegum trees ?
? Near the soda water fountain ?
? At the lemonade springs where the popsicle sings ?
? On that Big Rock Candy Mountain ?
? There's the ice cream hill where you have your fill ?
? And the donuts grow like flowers ?
? You can play each day ?
? Every day's a holiday ?
? And the days have a hundred hours ?
? Oh, the buzzing of the bees in the bubblegum trees ?
? Near the soda water fountain ?
? At the lemonade springs where the popsicle sings ?
? At the Big Rock Candy Mountain ?
- Very good. - Oh, I like that, Jerome.
That was good.
- And that was a faraway place that no one has been to,
but you make it up. - Make it up.
- Just the way you want it to be.
- Make-believe.
- Any kind of a place. - That's right.
- So, that's two ways of writing about faraway places.
- Yes.
- A faraway place that's real and that you've been to.
- Mm-hmm. - And visited.
- Mm-hmm.
- And a make-believe faraway place.
- Yes.
- What's another kind of faraway place you could write about
or draw a picture? - Jerome: Another?
- Rusty: Another place?
Well, I don't know.
- Well, a real faraway place even if you've never been there.
- Well, how could I write about a place I haven't been to?
- You could write about a real faraway place
even if you haven't been there if you've read about it
or heard about it or talked to someone who's really been there.
- Rusty: That's right. - That's right.
Now, Rusty has never been to Scotland,
but you know about Scotland.
- That's right, you told me a lot about it.
- Because Jerome has been to Scotland.
- And I've never been to the ocean either.
- Or the mountains.
- Or the mountains, but I know some things about them
because I've read about them.
- Yes, Rusty? - That's right.
- Did you read that poem about the ocean in the big blue book
when you went down in the book bag?
- Well, that's about the ocean. - That's the book.
- Yes, yes, I did.
- Friendly: That's why we wanted the big blue book.
- Rusty: Here it is.
And Friendly, I have a marker in the right place.
- Friendly: Oh, good.
- Jerome: Watch out for my hat there.
- Friendly: Oh, I'll be careful. - Jerome: All right.
Good hat.
- Oh, [chuckles] excuse me.
- Oh, almost got caught.
The lights almost went out again.
- Caught behind the hat. - Mm-hmm.
- This is about the ocean? - Mm-hmm.
This is written by a man who's been there.
But if we read what he says about it,
then we'll know about it.
- Even though we haven't been there, ah.
- Everyone has read something about the ocean.
- Mm-hmm. - Oh, here it is.
- I've got a marker in there. - I found it.
- Oh, you found it, uh-huh. - Should I read this one?
- You read it, Friendly. - Yes.
- It's by John Masefield.
And it's called "Sea-Fever."
Ready? - Rusty: Mm-hmm.
- "I must go down to the seas again,
"to the lonely sea and the sky.
"And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.
"And the wheels kick in the wind's song
"and the white sails shaking.
"And a gray mist on the sea's face,
"and a gray dawn breaking.
"I must go down to the seas again,
"for the call of the running tide is a wild call,
"and a clear call that may not be denied.
"And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
"and the flung spray in the blown spume,
"and the seagulls crying.
"I must go down to the seas again,
"to the vagrant gypsy life,
"to the gull's way and the whale's way
"where the wind's like a whetted knife;
"And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow rover.
"And a quiet sleep and a sweet dream
when the long trick's over."
- Oh, I could just about feel the ocean, Friendly.
- And you could see the ocean. - Yes.
- The wind and the spray and the white sails.
- I like the white sails, woo, hoo-hoo!
That was nice, mm-hmm.
- So, there are three ways to write about faraway places
that we know.
One, Rusty?
- Well, you can write about faraway places
that you've been to.
- Friendly: Jerome?
- And you can write about faraway places that aren't real.
Just make-believe places.
- And faraway places that are real,
even if you've never been there.
If you know about them by reading about them.
- Mm-hmm. - Or talking to someone
like Jerome, who's been there.
- That's right, mm-hmm.
- Well, Rusty, would you get the giant's pipe, please?
- Oh, all right.
- Can we put your hat on again, Jerome?
- All right, fine.
- Rusty gets caught in the... - Rusty: Oh, Friendly.
- What? - Here's the giant's pipe,
but oh, just a minute, there's something else down here that...
Oh, my!
- What? - Rusty: Friendly, look at this.
Look what I found down here.
- Oh! - Rusty: Ooh!
- What is it? - Jerome.
- Oh!
Well, for goodness sake.
Wow! [laughs]
- Friendly: A ski in the book bag.
- A ski in the book bag.
Well, now, Jerome, you should've had this along with you
up at Goose Lake.
Well, then if you had this one, you could go ski.
You could have gone skiing while you were up there.
- Well, no, I couldn't, Rusty.
- Well, you said you had one ski.
- Well, whoever heard of a giraffe skiing with two skis?
I need four!
[gentle recorder music] - Oh!
Well, anyway...
I think I'm gonna write about the mountains, Jerome.
Write about the mountains.
Even though I've never been there.
- That's a good idea.
Mm-hmm.
I think I'll write about, let's see...
What should I write about?
- Friendly: A make-believe place?
- A make-believe place, I think.
- Friendly: Where everything is tall.
- Everything is tall!
That's a good idea.
Because I'm tall. - Friendly: Bye, Jerome.
- Bye, Friendly. - Friendly: Bye, Rusty.
- Rusty: Goodbye.
- Friendly: It is late.
But this desk will be waiting for one of you.
And the smaller desk for another.
When you come again to school in the castle.
And I'll close the big front doors and pull up the drawbridge
after you're gone.
Goodbye.
[whimisical music]
- Announcer: The Friendly Giant
is produced and portrayed by Bob Homme.
Ken Ohst plays the parts of Rusty and Jerome.
Direction by Gary Nathanson.
The program has been adapted for third grade use
as a classroom aid to stimulate individual expression
in writing and drawing.
First and second grades may use it with limited participation.
This program was produced
by the University of Wisconsin Television Laboratory
for the Wisconsin School of the Air.