Lesson
To recite a story with an important moral and have children either recreate this story or make a similar on that follow the same themes.
Recommended Ages
Preschool to early elementary
Prep
Choose a story with an important lesson at the end. For this example, Lowanu the Wise Woman was chosen. This story from China can be found here. This story was chosen because it involved children helping the main character, making it relatable to the young class, and it was a less popular Chinese mythology story so there was a greater chance of the children not hearing about it.
Once you have chose your story take 3 pages of white computer paper and fold them in half to create a book. Write the story and illustrate it within these pages.
Background
The story chosen for this Lesson plan was Lowanu the wise woman. This story is a Village wise woman who was young for that title. One day children of the village saw that the sky was falling, this was happening close to their spring festival and if the sky continued to fall the town would be disgraced. The children seeked help from Lowanu and she sent the back into the village to collect the missing piece of the sky. The children were unsuccessful and went back home discouraged. The next day at the spring festival they saw Lowanu had replaced the missing pieces of the sky with bright lights (symbolizing stars). The sight was beautiful and everybody cheered
Materials
White computer paper. Enough for each student to have 3 pieces.
Pencils, colored pencils, crayons and markers
Stapler
Directions
1. Introduce the themes of the story you have picked and talk about what goes into making a good story discussing plot, characters and other elements.
2. Bring out your copy of the story and read to the class, showing the illustrations in between each page turn.
3. Ask class what was important in this story, what they can learn from it and what their favorite part was.
4. Hand out three sheets of white computer paper to students, pencils, colored pencils, crayons and markers
5. Have the students either recreate this story or create a similar one based of the values and structure of this story
6. Constantly check in with students to see how they are progressing.
Some students will take the initiative and not need much help. Other students may need you to help them move their story along.
This doesn’t mean you should give them a story to draw but instead go up to them and Ask questions like “Who is our main character?” “What is happening to them in this story?” okay what happens after that?” “and what happens after that?” “How does this story end?” Some students may need you to write their ideas down on the paper, but have them illustrate their story.
7. If there is extra time have allow any students to volunteer and share their story.