Tall Tales

Enrich a unit on fairy tales and tall tales with a set of read-aloud lessons. Second graders hone writing, vocabulary, comprehension, and literary analysis skills as they read classic stories. Complete with extension projects, discussion...

Young readers compare and contrast digital and print versions of tall tale text. The resource includes a character analysis in which pupils compare and contrast traits, and make inferences about what the characters do and say. They...

Elementary schoolers read many tall tales. They create their own tall tale about a specific event of their choosing. They must act the part of the author. This well-designed lesson takes three class sessions to complete, and is...

Tall tales are so much fun! Introduce your class to Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, and Davy Crockett, among others! Learn about their lives before reading some of the tall tales as a class. Then, write some tales of your own!

Beyond Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, tall tales can be a great way to teach young writers about word choice and voice in their writing. Using Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee  and the Six-Trait Writing process, they begin to write their own...

Seven quick slides give your class the "facts" on Paul Bunyan. This tall tale was made up to entertain lumberjacks and many interesting points are detailed here. As you study various folk tales, show this presentation to portray one of...

Students compare and contrast the details from the life of the real David Crockett and the legendary folk hero he later became. They identify the characteristics of a tall tale and follow a rubric to create a tall tale of their own.

Using Keynote, pupils will collaborate with their peers to create a tall tale. Each person in the group will participate by creating slides, adding text, and recording their voice. Tip: Have each group present their tall tales to the...

Infusing critical thinking into the mix, this lesson has pupils analyze events in story to determine which are real and which are exaggerated. They begin the activity by discussing how to use Kispiration to create a story map. Then, they...

Here is a lesson that can work for virtually any grade level! Pupils study parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, proper nouns, and adverbs. They create fill in the blank tall tails on a web page for their classmates to complete.