This week we started our new Unit of Inquiry which is Storytelling! Although I am nearing the end of my full-time teaching, I am enjoying planning for this new unit. I will try to keep this week’s blog post short and sweet.
Unit of Inquiry:
As a provocation to our new Unit of Inquiry, Storytelling, I provided each table group with various pictures associated with fairy tales and legends. This included wizards, magic wands, step mother and step sisters, king, queen, princess, prince, witches, dungeons, castles, glass slipper, fairy godmother, raven, sun, and many more. Students were asked to work together to make inferences on what their next U of I would be. We then sat down and discussed that our new U of I is Storytelling. Students will continue to engage in two types of storytelling: fairy tales and legends.
Each week, we will focus on one main fairy tale. This week we focused on Chicken Little!
As a formative assessment, students brainstormed fairy tales they knew and what fairy tales have in common.
On another day, I read the original story of Chicken Little to the students. As a follow up activity, they worked in groups to identify the elements of the story: Beginning (characters and setting), Middle (problem), and Ending (solution).
It was a very nice week, in terms of weather, as I took the students outside on our school ground to introduce legends. We discussed the importance of legends to Indigenous peoples and that traditionally they are retold and shared orally. I read Strong Stories Coast Salish: The Sun and the Moon by Celestine Aleck and illustrated by Cole Good. The students discussed how legends can be a way of explaining how something came to be or can provide a lesson. I also informed the students that Indigenous peoples legends are sacred to their culture and those who hold the power and responsibility of sharing a legend, most likely an elder, carries a lot of weight to not only make sure it is retold accurately but that it isn’t told by any who are not allowed. My SA informed me that any legends that are authentically sourced by Indigenous peoples that are published or shared orally can be retold orally to others.
My favourite lesson from last week was the students creating their own ending to Henny Penny, an alternative version to Chicken Little. I read Henny Penny to the students and then they were instructed to work in groups to draw and write what happened to Henny Penny and her friends after getting trapped in Foxy Loxy’s home. Students had the choice of either acting it out or retelling their ending in a community circle. Below are some of their creativity and imagination!
This past week the students were Duck Ambassadors which meant they presented to various classes in our school about duck and egg hatching facts. The students adore the ducklings and have enjoyed their time with them in our classroom. We will be saying good-bye to them this upcoming week. I’m planning on having the students create their own good-bye cards. A fun activity we engaged in was putting two ducklings in a tub of warm water at once and watching them dive to eat peas and mixed greens. So cute!
Thanks for reading my blog post!
-Ms. Mah