FOLKTALE EXAMPLES IN LITERATURE FREE
FOLKTALE EXAMPLES IN LITERATURE CRACK

After wrapping up her story, she smiled and said, “My story is a little bit like the Three Billy Goats story, but it’s not the same.” Other original story characters emerged during the children’s dramatic play, like a “Spiderman wolf” and a “cautionary fairy” but the new stories retained elements of folk tales, such as a challenge to overcome and a repeated catchphrase.Īfter teachers introduced musical refrains of some of the stories’ catchphrases, we were impressed to see that, with a little practice, children were able to sing and play these short tunes on small xylophones and use them when retelling the stories.

The pigs encountered a monster that lived under the bridge. Luna told a story in the sand area about three pigs crossing a bridge.

FOLKTALE EXAMPLES IN LITERATURE CRACK

In Johnny’s story, the smallest billy goat gets “caught in the crack of the bridge,” and his parents, the bigger goats, save him. He was one of several children who had begun to invent tales inspired by the original story. One morning, Johnny built a bridge out of unit blocks and narrated a new tale. For example, The Three Billy Goats Gruff was enacted on our West Room bridge, which lent a great deal of authenticity to the activity and made the story come to life for the children. Children really enjoyed sharing the stories as plays and confidently delivered repeated phrases from the stories, like “Who’s that tripping over my bridge?” Furthermore, we capitalized on areas of our classroom environment that lent themselves to the retelling of certain tales. We also provided a slightly more structured way for children to act out the stories: staging them as brief plays at story time. Sometimes children played out the storylines with their peers, taking on the role of their favorite character.

FOLKTALE EXAMPLES IN LITERATURE FREE

For example, spools of golden thread like Rumpelstiltskin’s and three differently sized bowls like those Goldilocks encountered allowed the children to have hands-on experiences with the stories during free play. To encourage the children’s investigation of these stories, we set out miniature versions of scenes from the tales along with items that could represent characters and relevant props. As anticipated, children in our class were intrigued by characters like Goldilocks from The Three Bears, the troll from The Three Billy Goats Gruff, the mischievous title character of Rumpelstiltskin, the hard-working Little Red Hen and the wolves from The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood. Studying these tales would also provide opportunities to build children’s language comprehension, sequencing and vocabulary-all important pre-reading and writing skills.

We hoped exposure to the tales would help children develop their understanding of a narrative form (including a beginning, middle and end), cultivate vocabulary, build listening skills and stimulate their imaginations. After all, folk tales often have a gripping storyline and compelling characters that captivate young listeners. With all of this in mind, the teachers in West AM chose to explore folk tales in our classroom this year, introducing children to a different folk tale at story time each week. When delving deeply into stories with young children, we offer them chances to play the parts of characters, encourage them to verbalize their interpretations of the narrative, allow them to create alternate endings or even spin a unique tale using their own imagination. Thoughtfully choosing a book, offering opportunities for repeated readings of a story and providing props that can be used to represent the characters and objects in the tale help set the stage for this type of exploration. “The ability to engage children in a story so deeply that they adopt its literary language, explore the motivation of the characters, try out multiple ways of being in a character’s role is effective in promoting children’s literacy and language growth,” writes early literacy scholar Lea McGee in her essay “Book Acting: Storytelling and Drama in the Early Childhood Classroom,” which appears in the book Literacy and Young Children: Research-Based Practices. Young children love to listen to stories, and as early childhood teachers, we realize the value of quality children’s literature and the many ways it can be used to enhance children’s learning. By Nandini Bhattacharjya, Head Teacher, and Betsy Koning, Teacher

Folktale examples in literature