Fairy Tales - Setting! 3/31/16

For our next lesson in Fairy Tales, we wanted to review the elements of a Fairy Tale, and then focus in on one element in particular - the setting.  In order to create a Fairy Tale setting in the classroom, the teachers and I wore old fashioned aprons to become like the classic Mother figure in most stories - and the best thing was - when the students walked into the classroom this is what they saw:

As soon as the kids walked in they were exclaiming " Whoa!! Whats that?? It's a Bean Stalk!! Look at the footprints!!!" It automatically put them in an excited and anticipatory mood for our lesson! 

Next the teacher and I talked about how worried we were that little Jack had gone missing - having left nothing behind but some beautiful golden eggs. We asked the students if they had any idea what could have happened to Jack, and they started pointing towards the ceiling and talking about the giants in the sky! 

So we decided the best way to figure out what had happened was to read the story - so we headed to the story telling spot in front of the fire, and the teacher and I swapped back and forth telling the story (it is considerably longer than the ones we read last week - and switching back and forth helps me model different story telling techniques and allows the teacher to jump right in and try them out.) 

After reading the story, the students were asked to identify the elements that make up a fairy tale that they noticed within the story - they did a great job, not only with the obvious characters and setting, but remembering the special features, like magic, and the number 3. 

Once back in their seats we lead them through a mad libs like work sheet. We told them that we were going to change one of the most important parts of the story of Jack and the beanstalk - The Beanstalk!!! They had to choose something else that was magic that was given to them - and when it is buried, they had to pick what it would transform into - one of my examples was that I received magical Jell-O beans, and it turned into a huge Jell-O stalk that I had to figure out how to climb! 

This is the worksheet of one of the students: 

Ethan received magical candy that grew into a gigantic Marshmallow Plant!! The next step in our day was creating a "Set" that showed our new magical part of Jack's Story:

Ethan beginning work on his Marshmallow Plant to the sky!

Almost finished - Note the magic candy at the base and the puffy marshmallows all over the plant!

Getting creative with materials in Mrs. Meyer's class! 

One thing we wanted to do was to challenge the students to go further with their "sets". Instead just using a puff of cloud and a single pipe cleaner, we wanted them to try and create a mini world - I am excited to post updates of these little sets next week - when the students have had  a bit more time to complete them. 

Due to an all school meeting we were unable to get to 'set building' in Mrs. Schuster's class, and Mrs. Paulson's class will have this lesson the next week on Tuesday.  I am looking forward to having a bit of time to talk with the teachers about what they thought of this lesson and how we will move forward from here. 

Filling out the worksheet was easier for some students than others, but the technique of walking through it together, I believe, made it more successful than if we just would have handed them out and had them work on it individually. They also had to address the challenges that arose in the story from the kind of "Beanstalk" they chose - how do you get up and down? How does that change the story? Can in be chopped down? What happens when the giant tries to climb down it?

I think this could also be used as a good transition for the students to work in groups to create a life size set for their stories.


**Edit: A few more fun pictures!