Writing a story about work
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Age group
Students ages 6 and 7
When
March and April
Time required
6 hours 30 minutes
Broad areas of learning
Citizenship and Community Life (QEP 2011)
Activity summary
Students will associate the concept of work and saving with the lessons and morals of two La Fontaine fables. Next they write and illustrate their own story, in the style of a fable. They finish by associating illustrations made by other students with sentences from the story.
Financial and cooperative skills
- Understanding that money is earned by working
- Understanding the benefits of saving
- Teamwork
Competencies
Subject-specific competencies
Subject | Competencies | Progressions of learning |
|---|---|---|
English |
| Apply newly learned concepts into reading and writing |
Visual arts | To produce individual works in the visual arts (QEP 2011) | To use personal ideas inspired by the stimulus for creation (QEP 2011) |
Cross-curricular competencies
- Uses creativity (QEP 2011)
Preparation
Students associate the morals in la fontaine fables with the concepts of working and saving.
Time required
120 minutes
Task 1
Think about the morals in 2 fables
Task 1 objective
By the end of this task, students will be able to identify the moral in a fable and interpret the text.
Instructions
- Explain what a fable is to the students.
- Ask the students if they know any fables.
- Work with the students to examine 2 fables found on the Internet.
- After examining each fable, ask the students to summarize it in their own words.
- Ask the students to explain the moral of the fable, and add to their explanations if necessary.
- After examining the 2 fables, ask the students to find a common theme.
Developement
Students make up and illustrate a fable with work and saving as their theme.
Time required
90 minutes
Task 1
As a class, write a fable about work and saving
Task 1 objective
By the end of this task, students will have collaborated with a classmate to write a fable about work and saving.
Instructions
Instructions for Primary Cycle 1:
- Suggest to the students that they work together to make up and write a fable about saving and working.
- Brainstorm with the class to find a moral for the story.
- Brainstorm to come up with the characters that could be used to explain the moral of the story. For example, the squirrel is an animal that saves by storing food for the future
- Fill out the Fable Outline, which can be found in the writing notebook, with the students
- Outline the fable on the board, using class input—students can share ideas by raising their hands. The teacher puts these ideas into sentences and writes them on the board.
- Once the text is complete, divide the class into 4 teams.
- Hand the sentence slips out to the students, and discuss how they are to be used.
- Each team should copy the fable onto the sentence slips. Team members should divide up the work so each slip contains at least one sentence.
- Collect the sentence slips from each group and put them into a separate envelope for each team.
Instructions for Primary Cycle 2:
- Suggest to the students that they work together to make up and write a fable about saving and working.
- Brainstorm with the class to find a moral for the story.
- Brainstorm to come up with the characters that could be used to explain the moral of the story. For example, the squirrel is an animal that saves by storing food for the future
- Fill out the Fable Outline, which can be found in the writing notebook, with the students
- Write the fable, using the sentences created by the students.
- Once the text is complete, divide the class into 4 teams.
- Hand the sentence slips out to the students, and discuss how they are to be used.
- Each team should write the fable on the sentence slips. Team members should divide up the work so each slip contains at least one sentence.
- Collect the sentence slips from each group and put them into a separate envelope for each team.
Time required
60 minutes
Teaching material
Task 2
Illustrate the fable written by the group
Task 2 objective
By the end of the task, students will be able to produce drawings that illustrate scenes from the fable the class has written together.
Instructions
- Give each student a copy of the Diagram found in the writing notebook, printed on heavy white paper
- Each of the teams formed in Task 1 takes the sentence slips from its envelope.
- Each student takes one slip and illustrates the sentence on it by drawing in the space provided on the diagram.
Evaluation
Students correctly associate sentences from the fable with the illustrations.
Time required
30 minutes
Task 1
Read and understand a story
Task 1 objective
By the end of the task, students will be evaluated on their reading comprehension and reading ability.
Instructions
- Give each team an envelope containing another team’s sentences and illustrations.
- Ask the students to correctly associate the sentences with the illustrations.
3 suggested methods- Give a sentence to each student so they can find the right illustration among those on the diagram. Allow time for the students to locate drawings before you go through the exercise and associate sentences and illustrations.
- Suggest a cooperative approach, in which the team chooses strategies for associating sentences and drawings.
- Give each student all the sentences and drawings (4 can work on this simultaneously) and direct them to associate them correctly. This will allow you to check and evaluate their work.
Reinforcement
Students tell their story to classmates.
Time required
120 minutes
Instructions
- Form teams of 4 students.
- Ask each team to prepare to present their fable, they can present it by miming it with one student reading the sentences and the others acting them out or they can simply read their fable aloud.
- Each team will use the drawings that were made to tell its fable to another class.