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African Folktales
Young scholars study the elements of folktales. They write, perform and produce their own African folktales using camcorders and movie software.
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Folktales of Zora Neale Hurston
Do you know why woodpeckers have red heads? Why the possum has no hair on its tail? Why a cat has nine lives? Find out by downloading this resource that uses Zora Neale Hurston's collection Mules and Men as the basis of a study of...
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Reader's Theater: Presenting Asian Folktales
Learners, working in groups, rewrite Asian folktales as Reader's Theater scripts. Depending on grade level, they visit Websites and copy assigned stories. Students then perform their versions for classmates.
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Splendid China: Chinese Folktales
Students investigate Chinese culture by reading their folk tales. In this creative writing lesson plan, students practice identifying the different elements in a folk tale and examine the related vocabulary. Students organize thoughts...
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Family Folklore
Learners complete activities to explore family folklore. In this folklore lesson, students define in writing family folklore, identify aspects of family folklife through discussions of their own traditions. Learners identify examples of...
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Readers' Theatre with African and Chinese Folktales
Students investigate genre of folklore, specifically African and Chinese folktales, and script and perform folktales with examples from The Magic Brocade and Fire on the Mountain. Seven lessons on one page.
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Oral History: Park City Museum
Bring U.S. history to your language arts class with this lesson. Middle schoolers complete an interview for an oral history project, and discuss the importance of oral histories - and how they embellish written accounts. They write...
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Rooster's Night Out
Students explore folktales. In this folktale lesson, students listen to a story from another country and discuss the characters. Students retell the story using puppets and do coloring sheets. Students do a sequencing cut and paste...
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The Ancient Art of Shadow Puppet Plays
Shadow puppetry has an ancient past, it is also a great way to build oral expression and reading fluency. Young thespians research folk tales, compare and contrast reality and fantasy, then create and perform a shadow puppet play based...
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Desert Drama
Young scholars read both fiction and nonfiction books with desert themes. Then they write desert stories and reports, reviewing texts for information to include in writing. Students also design desert scenes with details and setting...
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Lesson Plan for The Little Red Hen
Cultivate young performers while teaching them about helping one another with this interactive storytelling lesson. Elementary schoolers read or listen to the story The Little Red Hen by Mike Lockett and then act out the story while...
Montana State University
One Mountain, Many Cultures
Americans may think of Mount Everest as a region dedicated to adventurous hikers, but many cultures have flourished there! Learners read informative books, watch videos, participate in classroom discussion, analyze folk tales, and...
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Why Koala Has A Stumpy Tail
Students examine Australian folktales. In this folktales lesson, students read the Australian folktale, Why Koala Has a Stumpy Tale. Students list characteristics of the characters from the book. Students act out these characteristics...
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Her stories: African American folktales, fairy tales, and true tales
Students discuss the illustration's allusion to the myth, Pandora's Box. Students locate instances of folk sayings or expressions that make these tales seem authentic to the reader. Students draw a Venn diagram comparing Catskinella and...
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Those Fabulous Fables
A video leads off this activity on fables, introducing the class to this important form of traditional storytelling. The group defines fable and hears an explanation of the origin of this type of folk tale. They summarize the story they...
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Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears
Young scholars appreciate African folktales, make "connections" between geography and literature, and research facts about Africa's animals and present findings through art and writing.
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Your Story, My Story
Students write from differing points of view, and act out stories in pantomime as another student narrates.
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Cuentos
Students revise Spanish mystery stories. They sequence the events from a group's mystery story and suggest revisions for the setting. They revise their stories using the suggestions from classmates and describe characters in folktales....
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Goldilock and the Three Bears
Pupils explore folktales. They create artwork that represents the setting, charactes, and key events of the story. Working collaboratively, students assemble their own artwork to create a class mural. Working collaboratively, pupils...
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Telling Stories Through Creative Drama
Students examine fairy tales. As an introductory activity, students play the statue game. In groups, they write statements that tell the plot of the story. Using props, and without voices, students retell the story by creating...
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Choose Your Path
Middle schoolers identify the plot and theme of cartoons. In groups, they discuss and compare the written and movie versions of popular fairy tales. Individually, they write their own fairy tale and share them with the class. They...
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A Rooster and a Bean Seed
Students hear a folk tale and participate in a simulation that helps them recognize problems with barter and benefits of monetary exchange.
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Our Side of the Story: African Americans Share Their Experiences of Slavery
Seventh graders listen to a variety of folktales sharing experiences of slavery. As a class, they compare and contrast reading a story and telling a story. They participate in a role play activity to discover the journey of a slave and...
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Can You Stretch the Truth?
Students study folk tales. They write a class folk tale and then one of their own using a famous character or known celebrity as their main character. They put on a class play of one of the student's folk tales.