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Speakaboos offers many interactive Aesop fables as part of our storybook library. Easily find fables for children to enjoy.

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TPT

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Fables (Reader's Theatre, Lessons and Writing Activities) Common Core aligned

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Fables Reader's theatre, lessons and writing activities aligned to the common core! I am super excited about this unit and I know you will be too! This Fables packet is loaded with great activities to do with your

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Fables Investigate fables while teaching close reading strategies in a fun and engaging way. This unit will assist teachers in teaching fables in the classroom. Students will learn that a fable is a story passed down from generation to generation and is told to teach a lesson.

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the ants and the grasshopper - aesop fables

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The Ants And The Grasshopper - Aesop Fables on the App Store

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Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about The Ants And The Grasshopper - Aesop Fables. Download The Ants And The Grasshopper - Aesop Fables and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

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The Crow And The Pitcher - Aesop Fables on the App Store

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Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about The Crow And The Pitcher - Aesop Fables. Download The Crow And The Pitcher - Aesop Fables and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

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the hare and the tortoise - aesop fables

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The Hare And The Tortoise - Aesop Fables on the App Store

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Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about The Hare And The Tortoise - Aesop Fables. Download The Hare And The Tortoise - Aesop Fables and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

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Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about Starfall I'm Reading. Download Starfall I'm Reading and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

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Little Bob's Storybook for iPhone - The best collection of children audio books: comics, fairy tales, fables on the App Store

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Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about Little Bob's Storybook for iPhone - The best collection of children audio books: comics, fairy tales, fables. Download Little Bob's Storybook for iPhone - The best collection of children audio books: comics, fairy tales, fables and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

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Villain = Trickster

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Fables  - Comparing Attributes Across Stories

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Fables  - Comparing Attributes Across Stories

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https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=593315713

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Fables are short allegorical tales that typically feature anthropomorphic animal characters, though plants, objects, and natural forces may also appear as characters. In classic fables, the main character learns from a key mistake and the...

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Who doesn't enjoy teaching fables? Kids [and their teachers] love these short stories. You can use fables to teach summarizing, theme, and even that pesky multimedia standard. Sprinkle in a few fable-based plays for readers theater, skits, or full-blown plays. What's more? Fables provide the perfect introduction to narrative writing.

Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening - All in One Place!

After teaching fables for decades, I finally decided to pull my resources into one place. My complete fables unit has opportunities for reading, writing, and speaking. Let's take a peek at a few ways you can enjoy teaching with fables.

Teaching Fables with Narrative Texts

Fables are fun-tastic for introducing literature standards!

Answering Questions (RL.3.1, RL.4.1, RL.5.1) - Fables are great for making inferences and more. The Reading and Writing Fables unit includes ten one-page fables. Corresponding reading comprehension questions ask students to answer inferential questions, find meanings of words in context, describe story elements, and more.

Summarize (RL.3.2, RL.4.2, RL.5.2) - These short stories are simple to summarize. For younger kids, use this tried-and-true formula: somebody-wanted-but-then-so. Bigger kids are ready for more thorough analysis. Tie their summaries to the story arc used for narrative writing. This way, summarizing reinforces writing processes and vice versa. In the fables unit, you'll find three summarizing foldables and one template for integrating the story arc.

Find a Theme (RL.3.2, RL.4.2, RL.5.2) - A clear moral provides the first step in finding a theme. The process scaffolds naturally. Third graders pinpoint a moral, or lesson. Fourth graders find a theme from connected details. Fifth graders analyze a character's response to obstacles. Fables work well in every case.

Analyze Multimedia Elements (RL.3.7, RL.4.7, RL.5.7) - Illustrations and videos are easy to find. Here's your opportunity to teach this elusive standard! Click here to try this portion of the unit for free.

The file includes three one-page texts of "The Tortoise and the Hare." With the first text, no illustrations are provided. For the second, students see a life-like illustration. The third text uses the cartoon illustration shown above. In the activity, students analyze how their perception of the characters changes with illustrations. Finally, they view Disney's Silly Symphony version and analyze again.

Teaching Fables with Dramas, or Plays

Students have a blast acting out fables. But plays are not just for acting. In addition to seven plays, the unit includes pages for comparing prose (narratives) and drama (plays).

Teaching Fables with Writing

In my experience, there's no better way to start a narrative writing unit than with fables. Simple plot structure and clear character traits are easy for kids to develop. You can read more in my blog post on writing fables.

Reading and Writing Fables includes everything you need to teach reading, drama, and writing. All materials are organized in a handy website. Check out the preview here.

Enjoy teaching fables!

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Teaching Fables - Reading, Writing, and Speaking Activities - Enjoy Teaching

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Who doesn't enjoy teaching fables? Kids [and their teachers] love these short stories. You can use fables to teach summarizing, theme, and even that pesky multimedia standard. Sprinkle in a few fable-based plays for readers theater, skits, or full-blown plays. What's more? Fables provide the perfect introduction to narrative writing.

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Fables first! I begin my narrative writing unit with fables. Kids choose a moral, think of a situation that will teach it, and develop animal characters with human traits. After a little instruction on dialogue, structure, and technique, they're ready to write an effective short story.

Analyzing Elements of Fables

Videos really grab students' attention! This year, I chose The Grasshopper and the Ants. After that, we read a short text version of the same story, followed by "The Fox and the Crow."

We analyzed the characters, setting, and plot to write generalizations about fables:

Characters are usually animals with human traits. (Note: When animals are personified, the name of the animal is capitalized.)

Settings are not specific. Much of the time the setting is simply the countryside.

The beginning of a fable introduces the characters and setting (exposition), the middle provides a brief story (rising action and climax), and the end wraps it up with a lesson (resolution).

Fables are short pieces of prose. They are written in paragraphs and sometimes use dialogue.

Fables are entertaining, but their main purpose is to teach a moral, or lesson.

Today I'm discussing writing with fables. For more on teaching with fables, visit my earlier blog post.
For their initial planning, kids focused on the moral first. They explored a variety of proverbs then chose lessons for their stories.
Click here to download this list of proverbs. Would you like the entire unit? Check out Writing Fables. The entire unit is also available as a part of the Reading and Writing Fables Bundle.
My students generated a plot by thinking of a short series of events that would teach the lesson. Then they considered which animals exemplified human traits needed for their characters.

Writing Dialogue

Not all fables have dialogue, but this is a great place to teach it. I used a PowerPoint presentation to show my students how to use direct quotes in their writing.

Improving Writing Techniques

To improve writing early in the year, we focused on writing good beginnings and endings, beefing up our word choice, and using different sentence beginnings.

Introduction (Exposition)

The introduction, or exposition, introduces the characters and setting. Kids can be inched toward stronger beginnings through examples.

Example 1: Some Ants put grain away for the winter. A Grasshopper came over.

Example 2: All summer long a colony of Ants gathered grain and stored it for the winter. As they worked, a Grasshopper, carrying his fiddle, hopped over to watch them.

Conclusion (Resolution)

Looking at the ends of fables, kids notice that the last paragraph wraps up the story, providing resolution. The moral is either implied or stated. Having a character state the moral is more effective than just listing it.

Word Choice

"Choose specific nouns, active verbs, and effective transitions." (If I had a dollar for every time I remind my students of this...) As we look through the sample fables again, we notice words that are specific to the characters, setting, and plot.

For transitions, students listed a few terms that would help their readers move through the text. At this point in the year, I let them use simple transitions, such as next, meanwhile, and in the morning.

Varying Sentences

I simply asked my students to be sure the beginning of each sentence in a paragraph began differently. We talked about a few simple strategies to achieve this: add a transition term or use a synonym. They'll learn more about varying sentence structure and length as the year goes on.

Drafting, Editing, and Finalizing

Time to write! After finishing their drafts, they checked their fables with this self-editing sheet (and then asked a friend to check it too).

Of course their masterpieces had to be published. They wrote final drafts, added illustrations, and hung them for all to see at our open house.

Even reluctant writers can achieve success with fables. They're short and sweet - - - a perfect beginning to your effective narrative writing program.

You can get my weekly blog posts delivered to your inbox. Just follow me on Bloglovin'. Enjoy!

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Fables First - Beginning Narrative Writing - Enjoy Teaching

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Fables first! I begin my narrative writing unit with fables. Kids choose a moral, think of a situation that will teach it, and develop animal characters with human traits. After a little instruction on dialogue, structure, and technique, they're ready to write an effective short story.

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samples of student-written fables

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Teaching Character, Being Civil, & Learning To Write While Having Fun