Fairy tales

This lesson will begin a unit on fairy tales for young learners. It will begin with assessing what first graders know about fairy tales. Children will learn about the original version of The Three Little Pigs.

A lesson plan for grade 1 English Language Arts and English Language Development

By Audra Penrod and Vivian Lages

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Related topics

• Learn more about English language learners, The Three Little Pigs, fairy tales, language arts, literature, sequence, stories, story sense, and vocabulary.

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Learning outcomes

Students will listen to the story The Three Little Pigs and answer questions about it based on characters, setting, and sequence.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

1 hour

Materials/resources

• Teacher will need the original version of The Three Little Pigs. Here are some suggestions:
  • The Three Little Pigs by Paul Galdone
  • The Three Little Pigs by Patricia Seibert
  • The Three Little Pigs by Steven Kellogg
• sentence strips
• poster board (optional)
• story paper or other paper to write and illustrate
• picture card attachment (cut out each picture to make individual cards)
• kwl chart attachment
• fairy tale fact sheet attachment
• vocabulary sheet attachment (cut out each word to make individual cards)
• question sheet attachment
• sentence sequence sheet attachment

Pre-activities

• Have a variety of different fairy tale books displayed throughout the classroom where students can see them and look at them. This could be a great reading center. This may be something you can set up a week ahead of time.
• Begin the unit by asking students what they know about fairy tales. Ask students if they know what a fairy tale is. Write down some of their ideas on the board or on a piece of chart paper (see attachment for example).
• Share the Fairy Tale Fact Sheet with students. This can be copied onto poster board so that all your students can see them. Ask students if they can think of any examples that might go with these “facts.” (example: Princes are found in Sleeping Beauty and Snow White.)

Create a circle map (see example under the “Technology Resources Needed” section) or other brainstorming map. The focus of this map will be “fairy tale characters” (written in the center of the circle map). Ask students what kinds of characters they would find in a fairy tale. This background will prepare students for the story The Three Little Pigs. It is essential to revisit the original story because some students (including English Language Learners) may have never been exposed to this story.

Activities

1. Explain to the students that the class will listen to a familiar fairy tale.
2. Introduce one vocabulary word at a time by saying it and holding up its picture. Next, hold up the corresponding vocabulary word card. Place both cards for each word side by side in a pocket chart or tape them to the front board.
3. Read the story The Three Little Pigs to students. As you read the story, focus on the characters, their attitudes, the setting, and the sequence of the story using the question sheet.
4. After you read the story to the students, have a pocket chart available for the sentence strip sequence activity. (If you do not have a pocket chart, you can tape the sentence strips to the front board.)
5. Use the Sequence Sentences sheet to make sentence strips for the sequence activity. I suggest that you draw pictures for each of the sentences. This will be helpful if you are doing this unit at the beginning of first grade or if you have students who are unable to read the sentences on their own.
6. Put all sentence strips out of order on the pocket chart. As you read each sentence out of order to the class, track the print with your finger.
7. Let students come up to the board and put the sentences in order. You may want to ask the class which sentence happened first and place that on the pocket chart first. Another suggestion would be to place the first sentence and the last sentence before putting the other sentences in order.
8. After students have put the sentences in order, have a student come to the board or pocket chart and read the sentences to the class. Having pictures make this easier for the child that may not be able to read these sentences, but is able to tell the sequence using the pictures.
9. You may want to review the story with questions. Look at the question sheet attachment for question ideas.

Conclusion activity:

1. Pass out a piece of blank story paper to each student. (The top half of paper has space to draw a picture. The other half has lines for students to write in.) If you do not have story paper, you may use regular writing paper and pass out paper for students to draw a picture with as well.
2. Students will write about their favorite part of the story, explaining why it was their favorite part. Students will draw a picture related to their sentences.
3. To conclude the lesson, ask for volunteers to share their work. Display all students’ work on a bulletin board or outside in the hall for all to see!

Assessment

• During the reading of the story, students will answer questions orally.
• Sentence Sequence activity - students in whole group will put sentences and matching pictures in the correct order.
• Writing activity - Students will write sentences about their favorite part of the story and explain why it is their favorite part. Students will also draw a picture that goes with their writing.

Supplemental information

There are wonderful books that would go well with this lesson and other lessons on fairy tales.

• Literature Pockets: Folktales and Fairy Tales by Jo Ellen Moore and Jill Norris
• February Monthly Reproducibles Grade 1 (The Education Center, Inc. TEC 940)
• 12 Fabulously Funny Fairy Tale Plays by Justin McCory Martin
• Easy-to-Read Folk and Fairy Tale Plays by Carol Pugliano

Modifications

Modifications have been included in the body of the lesson.

Work with ESL teacher to introduce fairy tales prior to the lesson (acceleration). The ESL teacher can also teach the critical vocabulary to the English Language Learners prior to the lesson.

Alternative assessments

The assessments provided in this lesson are appropriate for advanced English Language Learners. No alternative assessment is needed.

Critical vocabulary

sequence, chin, “huff and puff”, chimney

Comments

Feel free to add other activities to these lessons.

The supplemental resources we added to the lesson are great teacher resources to enhance the unit.

This lesson plan was developed during the English Language Development Standard Course of Study lesson planning institutes hosted by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and LEARN NC, June and July, 2004. It includes specific strategies, instructional modifications, and alternative assessments which make this lesson accessible to limited English proficient students. Please note that this lesson has been aligned with the goals and objectives of the N.C. English Language Development standards.