Week 5--Folk tales From Around the World

Lately I have noticed this class as a whole has had some problems listening when either me or Mrs. Larsen is speaking and I wanted to find a more imaginative way to help the kids know they need to listen so they can get instructions.

I found some great ideas in a book called "Creating Meaning Through Literature and the Arts; An Integration Resource for Classroom Teachers." It gave the idea to have students listen to grass grow or to the clock tick. It also suggested having a call-and-response phrase. The kids already know the "[Teacher] 1-2-3, eyes on me. [Students] 1-2, eyes on you" call and response and I needed something quicker, so I came up with "[Teacher] Tick! [students] Tock!"

That worked very well, and we'll see if it stuck next week. 

We then located ourselves and on a map and I showed the class the places on the map where the next two stories were from (China and the Philippines). I split the class into two groups (the classic 1-2-1-2 way) and then I had Mrs. Larsen choose two narrators, one from each group (to ensure that they would be able to read the story).

Each group got a story from another country. One was "The Empty Pot" by Demi.

And the other was "A Crocodile's Tale" by Jose and Ariane Aruego.

We had the students read the stories and then create a short performance for the class. Originally my idea was to have them perform it so the class would be able to hear two different stories from different parts of the world, but I underestimated the time that it really took. 

However, I am always amazed at how creative these kids are. They have incredible imaginations!

Having those big groups made it very hard to act out the story when coordinating so many kids in such a short amount of time. I also found that having the student narrators were tricky because they were unsure of when to keep telling the story and when to stop to let me work with the kids.

I was also very grateful to have Becky Wallin there to observe what I did and give me pointers afterwards. She pointed out that my overall objective needed to be more clear and present in the whole lesson. Part of my objective was to have them work on their own fairytales that they are writing (although we didn't actually have time in the end to do it) and that weakened the overall objective. I needed to focus more on the theme (folk tales from different countries) for my objective and let the kids write their stories during their writer's workshop time.

I'm also going to incorporate more theatre core concepts into the curriculum. It's a tough balance to get the core curriculum in there AND weave them together with drama concepts.

I'm starting to really understand the life of a teacher. Woof.

Week 4--Poetry and Fairytales

Today the goal was to introduce some poetry and get the kids started on their individual fairy tales! They need to get writing them so we can start rehearsing them!

First we started by comparing the story of Sleeping Beauty (I used the Disney version)

to a poetry version by Ken Nesbitt:

Sleeping Beauty pricked her thumb,
started feeling overcome.
Probably she would have died
as the witch had prophesied,
but the fairies had her blessed
so she just got beauty rest.
For a hundred fifty years
she missed balls and film premieres,
till Prince Charming came along
singing out a cheerful song.
Kneeling down he kissed her cheek
hoping that she'd wake and speak.
Sleeping Beauty raised an arm
reaching for the snooze alarm
and her waking words were these:
"Just need five more minutes please."

We did a dramatic reading of the poem where I had kids choose words to make them sound more interesting in the poem and then I recorded them doing it (a curriculum requirement).

[I'll upload it once I have permission slips back]

Then, to introduce the fact that they are going to be writing their own fairy tales, I had a few students roll these dice and we made up a story about the characters, place, and problem that came up.

Then we played a game I wish I could take credit for (my friend, Alicia came up with it) called FairyTale Telephone. Each student writes down one thing for each category, folds down the paper, and then passes it to the next student. He/she then writes something down for the next category and then passes it to the next person, etc. By the end, they should have a variety of things written down that make for a very interesting story! Here's a few that they came up with:

And by "snack," the 2nd Grader meant "Snake"

From here, the kids then kept the one they ended on and they will be able to use it in their story writing. They are free to change whatever they want about the paper they ended up with, but this gives them a starting point in case they don't have anything to start with.

Overall, I think this activity turned out pretty well. I am always amazed at what kids come up with in dramatic readings. They always choose the hardest words like "prophesied," but then the come up with a way of saying it or an action to go with it that makes it pretty darn creative!

The Fairytale Telephone activity didn't go quite as smoothly as I had planned, but it did work. I think I needed to instruct them better and maybe it would've been a bit smoother. The last part (the "Problem") was definitely the hardest, but I knew that was coming. So Mrs. Larsen read a few of the problems I already came up with and most of the kids picked a problem from there.

If nothing else, it helped the kids understand the elements of a fairytale more so they will be more successful in writing one. I'm really excited to see what they come up with. I really think they are going to surprise me with their creativity!