Week 3-- What is a Fable?

I finally got to head back to Mrs. Kawakami's class today. They've been out of school for the last month (they have year-round school). So the kids were pretty excited to see me and I was glad to be there again!

Since we had such a long break since I had visited their class last, I reviewed with the kids what fairy tales and folk tales were. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they remembered almost everything we had talked about!

We then did a game I called "Fairy Freeze." I didn't think I would need my wand for this, but wouldn't you know it, those kids asked where my wand was! Ha! This was an exercise where I would call out animal movements like "waddle like a penguin," "soar like an eagle," "scurry like a mouse" or "sleep like a lion!" They loved it and all of them got so into it by making noises and everything!

I wanted to get them moving with this activity and also give them an intro into talking about the animals in our story, a lion and a mouse.

From here, we came back to the rug and I pulled out my lion and mouse puppets. I asked Mrs. Kawakami to choose 2 people who had been great students that day that got to come up and help me. One student got to be the mouse and the other got to be the lion. I then passed out some string for 5 students to be the "hunters" in the story. I told the story and helped the kids with the puppets tell the story by telling them to make the noises at the right time, and make the puppets do what they need to in the story, etc.

At one point during the story, the lion roars for help when he's been caught by the hunters, so at this part, I told the boy who was playing the part to roar like the lion. His roar was small and quiet and the class giggled. So I said "I think you can do a better roar than that!" And I was right! He gave me a great roar and the rest of the class was so thrilled!

We then talked about the elements of fables and I asked them what the moral of the story of the lion and the mouse was.

From here, I split them into 3 groups by having them do a toe-to-toe exercise and I gave them each a poster where I explained to them that they were going to write everything they knew about fairy tales/folk tales/fables (depending on which poster they got). They could write or draw anything to do about the genre they got.

The writing on the posters part turned out fine, although it seemed as though I learned that I needed to give more instruction about what a fable is because the fable group had a hard time coming up with things to write on their poster.

Once they were done with that, they were to come up with a story that fit in their genre to perform for the class. This was a pre-assessment for me to see how well they performed in front of their peers.

The performances were fantastic though and I was impressed with the kids' enthusiasm and creativity. One boy was cast in the fairy tale group's version of Cinderella as the Fairy Godmother! He surprised us with a stunning British accent and hilarious conversation with Cinderella about her purse.

The British Fairy Godmother and Cinderella

The other two groups chose "The Three Little Pigs"and "The Tortoise and the Hare."

...and the tortoise WINS!

Overall, the activity was a bit crazy in the rehearsal phase. Next time, I would change it so there are only two groups that perform or talk to Mrs. Kawakami beforehand and see if we can split our time between 3 groups. I think we both relied on Becky because she was there, but it would've been a bit hectic without her.

We finished by talking about the differences between the 3 genres and the elements we saw in each performance. When we talked about each one, I displayed the corresponding poster on the board and I think that helped solidify the differences in the kids minds.

It was sure an eventful class!

Week 1: Intro to Fairy Tales!

Today was my first day at Silver Crest Elementary in Ms. Kawakami's class!

It was so fun to walk in and see a glimpse of what Ms. Kawakami's relationship is like with her students. You can tell from this last picture that they fully respect her and love learning from her. I was impressed right away with her easy-going and fun attitude towards her students, and yet they knew they were expected to behave too!

I could tell from the start that Ms. Kawakami is a GREAT teacher!

Today my objective was just to get the kids thinking about fairy tales and opening their minds to the different kinds of fairy tales as well as the parts of a fairy tale. So I started out with a variation of the game "Telephone." Instead of having the kids pass a bit of information down the line vocally, I had them pantomime an object down the line. I split the class into two and then put each group into a line. Then I had everyone but the first people in each line turn their back while I showed them the object (my objects were a pencil and a set of car keys). The kids loved how much the objects changed and having to guess what they were at the end of the line.

Pantomime telephone was a great way to help students see why fairy tales, folk tales, and fables have so many different versions! Because the stories were told orally in the beginning, each storyteller would change the story ever so slightly and that's why we have different versions of so many stories!

After talking about this idea with the students, I read them one of my favorite stories out of this magical book:

I chose "Aladdin" because the story is fantastic and it is quite different from the Disney version. In this version, Aladdin doesn't pretend to be a prince and Jasmine is kidnapped by an evil magician so Aladdin has to travel halfway across the world to find her. The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous and really make the story come alive.

So because I knew most of the kids were familiar with the Disney version, I asked the students what the difference was between the two stories. I was definitely surprised at the students' insight. They picked up on a lot of subtleties I didn't expect them to get!

I also had them answer some questions about the who, where, why, and when of the story as well as I pointed out some of the key elements of fairy tales found in this story of Aladdin.

THEN I introduced my "Magic Wand" and I did an activity called "Fairy Freeze" where I had them walk around like different characters in the story (i.e. the evil magician, Jasmine, Aladdin, and the genie in the lamp). Then I had them choose their favorite to walk around as and see who their classmates chose to be.

I think this was a great way to introduce what we'll be learning about in the next few weeks as well as the element of drama. The kids were delighted and LOVED the activity even though it was simple enough. I can't wait to see what the next few weeks bring!