Storytelling Kits

One of the additions my school has made to the Lucy Caulkins Writing Workshop is a month-long Fairy Tales/Storytelling Unit. I've mentioned it before and unfortunately I am not allowed to share the actual documents. I can share some of the activities I enjoy however and this is one of them.

We kick-off the unit with a Fairy Tales rotation day. Each teacher chooses a different fairy tale and simple retelling activity. The classes rotate through the different stories so they get exposure to many different stories and get materials for their storytelling kits.  This year we had to cut out the activity because we were short on time but my kids had a blast. I think one year we should all choose the same fairy tale and each read a different version of it to demonstrate how fairy tales change with each retelling. There are like six million different versions of Cinderella. My favorite is Princess Furball by Charlotte Huck.

Anyway, I tend to bend the rules a bit and I don't stick to traditional fairy/folk tales. Two of my favorite stories to use for storytelling are My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza and Rabbit Stew by Donna Kosow.

They are wonderful introductions to trickster tales and they are great to compare and contrast. I made some simple puppets for each story and the kids added them to their retelling kits. Which are just large manilla envelopes. 

We also have been recording information about the key elements of fairy/folk tales in a booklet:

Here they are hard at work:

During center time, the kids have been using the booklets and puppets to retell the stories during Buddy Reading. Over, and over, and over...

And some video...

We started Paper Bag Princess today--LOVE. Can't wait to share!