What+are+folktales?

===What are folktales? What makes folktales fascinating for children to read? What are fables? What might children learn from studying fables? === Click the Edit button (far right side of screen) and paste your content in the space below. Make sure to Save changes before exiting.

What are folktales? What makes folktales fascinating for children to read? What are fables? What might children learn from studying fables? written by: Deborah Caudill A folktale is a traditional story or legend that has been passed down from one generation to the next by word of mouth and has become part of that community’s tradition. In simpler terms, a folktale is a story (tale) of the people (folk). Traditional folktales have no known author and the stories may change from one storyteller to the next, each telling the story in his/her own words. Children can easily recognize a folktale by the words “Retold by” on the title page referring to the author. This tells them that the story they are about to read is based on a folktale that is being told to them in the words of the particular author. These tales are usually told to explain or understand nature or to teach a lesson by including a moral at the end of the story. Folktales are all similar in their setting which can be anyplace, with setting descriptions such as “In a faraway mountain village” or “On the shore of a lake”; and can take place anytime, with phrases such as “Once upon a time” and “Long ago”. Folktales contain an introduction of the main characters, the setting, and problem or conflict followed by the development of many obstacles before reaching a climax and finally, upon solving all problems, comes the conclusion where “they live happily ever after”. The good are rewarded and the bad are punished. Folktales are action packed from beginning to end which holds the child’s interest throughout. There are several different types of folktales. **Cumulative tales** are stories that are simple with not much of a plot and using repetitive phrases throughout until a climax is reached. These are great stories to tell to young children because it is easy for them to join in and become involved in the story because of the repetition. An example of a cumulative folktale which is also a traditional song is //There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.// The story begins when the old lady swallows a fly without knowing why. She then begins to swallow a series of animals, each a little larger than the last, to catch the one she swallowed before. The lines at the end of each verse: “I don’t know why she swallowed the fly. Perhaps she’ll die.” can be learned quickly by its repetition and easily repeated by the listeners who are thrilled to be a part in the telling of this silly tale. **Talking beast tales** are stories in which animals act and talk like people. These are the most common to all cultures with each culture using their favorite animals as characters. For instance, the rabbit and the bear are common to the African American culture. One of many examples is //Zomo the Rabbit,// retold by Gerald McDermott, a trickster tale from West Africa about a clever rabbit named Zomo who wants to be wise. The Sky god will give him what he wants if he can perform three difficult tasks and Zomo uses his cleverness to win in the end. A favorite animal of Native American tales is the coyote. //Coyote: A Trickster Tale from the American Southwest,// retold by //Gerald McDermitt,// is a Zuni folktale that tells of Coyote who wants to sing, dance, and fly and in this story begs the crows to teach him how to fly. The crows who get tired of a bragging coyote, teach the trickster coyote a lesson. Children are sure to enjoy the humor and mischief involved in any of these beast tales. **Drolls or humorous tales** are meant to be fun and full of nonsense. These stories are just plain silly. The characters usually make many mistakes and readers and listeners alike will find themselves shaking their heads with lots of giggles at the antics of the characters. //Mr. and Mrs. Vinegar// is one such tale, retold by many authors, of a couple living in a picklejar that breaks, beginning a series of unfortunate events. **Realistic tales** are stories with no real magic or exaggerated events and have characters that could have been real. //Dick Whittington and His Cat,// retold by Marcia Brown, is the legend of an English boy in medieval times who trades his cat for jewels and gold. The Dick Whittington stories are ones that could easily be based on true stories. **Magic and wonder tales** are known by children as fairytales or stories of wonder and magic. They can take place in enchanted lands and have characters such as fairy godmothers or talking mirrors. They delight the child with their magic. Most children know the stories of these characters. One such character, Cinderella, is found in many versions from various cultures that may change in setting, clothing, or actions to go along with that culture, but still preserve the basic storyline. And finally, **Pourquoi tales** explain the reasons why certain things in nature are the way they are. The French word “pourquoi” means “why”. Children are fascinated with the question “Why?” and so are thrilled to read these tales whether they seem real or not. //Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears// is an example of a pourquoi tale. It explains the series of events that led to the bothersome mosquito and that dreaded sound that many of us have all experienced in our ears at night: BUZZ-Z-Z! Folktales have always strongly appealed to children through their wonder and magic, their sense of what is right and wrong, and with good being rewarded and bad being punished. Children can learn and understand cultures that may be different from theirs. What child, young or old, would not love to repeat a silly rhyme, read a story full of enchanted animals, or find out “Why”? A fable is a short traditional story that uses talking, human-like animals or inanimate objects to teach a moral lesson. Characters may be a sly fox who outsmarts another character or roaring thunder or fierce wind who cause bad things to happen because of their strength. These stories teach children what they should or should not do through the words and actions of the characters, or through story events. The tales usually end with a moral or lesson to teach the reader and listener. Probably the most famous writer of fables is Aesop who wrote more than 600 fables that have been told and read throughout the world and are well known by children and adults today. However, the earliest known tale of talking animals was one from Ancient Greece about the hawk and the nightingale written about three hundred years before Aesop. Like folktales, fables are found in the story collections of every culture and are written with a lesson in mind. //Monkey and the Crocodile// is an example of a fable from India//,// about a clever monkey and his tricks to keep a hungry crocodile from eating him for lunch. “And the moral of this story is” …//The Ants and the Grasshopper// is one of Aesop’s most popular tales about a grasshopper who dances and plays all summer and fall while the ants prepare for winter. The grasshopper finds himself cold and hungry while the ants are kept warm and fed. “And the moral of this story is” … Another well known fable is //The Tortoise and the Hare,// a story of a slow but determined tortoise and a fast, over-confident hare who have a race. Children will be surprised at who wins in the end. “And the moral of this story is” … Many authors of today retell fables in their books. Well known children’s author, Arnold Lobel, has written a number of fables in his Caldecott Medal award winning book //Fables.// Full of short tales about talking pigs, a dancing camel, and an array of other animals, these fables each provide moral and wonderful illustrations that will delight the readers and listeners. Children all over the world learn what is right and wrong with each fable’s moral. Whether the lesson is not to be greedy, boastful, or dishonest, the lessons are clear and easy for any child to understand. These lessons transcend any culture and are effective real life ethical messages that children need to learn as part of their social education.

Lesson for Grade Two (Should take at least 4 days). Materials: Various folktales and fables from many cultures, writing paper and pencils, dictionary and thesaurus Procedure: Day One-Ask the students what they know about folktales and fables. Discuss the characteristics of a folktale and those of a fable. Read an example of each aloud to the students and afterwards ask the students what the lesson is to be learned. Have the students pair up and choose a few different folktales or fables to read together. Each pair should read two or three books. Day Two and Three-Tell the students that they will be writing their own folktale or fable. They need to think about what the lesson will be in their story. They will develop a short plot using at least three characters: two will be animals and one will be themselves. As they develop their story, they should use characteristics that describe how they really are and things about their own life (a hobby, a friend or family member, an event). They will illustrate their story. Day Four-As a class, we will share our folktales and fables.

Sources Aardema, Verna. //Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears.// Publisher: Penguin Group, 1992. Print. Adams, Pam. //There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly//. South Orange: Child's Play International, 2003. Print. Aesop. //The Ants and the Grasshopper//. Minneapolis: Magic Wagon, 2009. Print. Aesop. //The Tortoise and the Hare//. Minneapolis: Magic Wagon, 2009. Print. Bettelheim, Bruno. //The Uses of Enchantment//. New York: Vintage Books, 1989. 27, 42-45. Print. Brown, Marcia. //Dick Whittington and His Cat//. New York: Simon and Schuster's Children's Publishing, 1988. Print. Galdone, Paul. //Monkey and the Crocodile//. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1987. Print. Gammel, Stephen. //The Story of Mr. and Mrs. Vinegar//. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1982. Print. Lobel, Arnold. //Fables//. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1983. Print. McDermott, Gerald. //Coyote: A Trickster Tale from the American Southwest//. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1999. Print. McDermott, Gerald. //Zomo the Rabbit//. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1996. Print. Norfolk, Bobby & Sherry. //The Moral of the Story//. 1st ed. Little Rock, AK: August House, Inc., 1999. 14. Print.

Norfolk, Bobby & Sherry, and Saundra E. Norfolk. //Through the Eyes of a Child//. 8th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc., 2011. 204-236. Print.