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Tales from Europe |
Three Little Pigs |
Hansel & Gretel |
Nail Soup |
Lazy Jack |
Old Woman & The Vinegar Bottle |
Just Say Hic |
Three Little Pigs (Germany) Background The Three Little Pigs is a popular and very well-known tale. This tale falls into the motif K891.1.1 (MacDonald, Sourcebook). Besides the German version, there are English, Appalachian, and African-American versions. In the English version, there are houses of straw, sticks and bricks, and the story line is very similar to the German. In the Appalachian tale, the houses are made from chips, cornstalks, and bricks. The wolf tries to get into the pig's house by first asking that his nose be allowed in, then his paws, etc. The pig pretends he hears hounds coming and hides the wolf in a churn, which he then pours boiling water into (MacDonald, Sourcebook). In the African American version, there are five pigs that used brush, sticks, mud, plants, and rocks as materials with which to build their homes. The fifth pig roasts the wolf after tricking him into the chimney (MacDonald, Sourcebook). Suggested Lessons and Activities 1. Compare the Three Little Pigs to a spoof such as Sciezka's The True Story of the Three Little Pigs or The Three Wolves and the Big Bad Pig. Encourage the children to write their own spoof of the Three Little Pigs or another well-known folktale. 2. Sing the Three Little Pigs Rap. 3. This story may lead into a discussion of how houses and buildings are made. Have the children experiment by offering them many materials with which to make their "homes." Which homes hold up the best? Citations There are many sources of this tale. Please see the bibliography or your local library's catalog for possible sources. Hansel and Gretel (Germany) Background Hansel and Gretel is another German tale, and there are many versions to choose from when telling or reading this story to a class. This story is of type 327A and includes the following motifs, according to the Storyteller's Sourcebook: - Trail of pebbles (R135) - Gretel tricks the witch into an oven (G526, G512.3.2) - Return home by riding on a duck (B469.4) In a variant from Belgium (of motif G412.1.2), the siblings eat pieces of the wolf's house, and he chases them. This happens three times. Then, he asks a duck to carry him across the river. Suggested Lessons and Activities 1. Have students make their own "gingerbread" Hansel and Gretel book to learn about characters, setting, plot, etc. I have a cover (a gingerbread house), one page for the beginning, one page for the middle, and one page for the end of the booklet. For each section, the students list the characters, the setting, and one or two sentences about the events that happened in that section. You could also have the kids bind these into books and use the opportunity to discuss book binding and proper book care. 2. Make a gingerbread house. 3. Make a Hansel and Gretel Board Game. 4. Discussion - What else could the children use to find their way back to their house? Do you think they should have returned home to their father? What would you do if you found a house made of candy? If you could made a house of food, what type of food would you like it to be made of? 5. Nutrition discussion - Candy house. What are good foods to eat? Why should you eat healthy foods? Another possible story to use (not a folktale) : The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food. Citations There are many sources of this tale. Below is one of my favorites: Marshall, James. Hansel and Gretel. New York: Dial, 1990. Nail Soup (Sweden) Background This story is K112.1 motif (MacDonald, Sourcebook). There are variants from many different cultures, including Sweden, France, Switzerland, Japan, Ireland, Haiti, and Scandinavia. One well-known variant, Stone Soup (K112.2) is a Russian Tale in which soldiers trick villagers into donating food items to make soup from three stones (MacDonald, Sourcebook; Brown, Stone Soup). Suggested Lessons and Activities 1. Compare and discuss the different versions of the tale. 2. Prepare "stone soup" with the students. If you are in a classroom, you may want to plant some of the vegetables you will use in the soup and discuss gardening. 3. Discussion - Teamwork and cooperation. What are some things that you could do in groups of several people that you would not be able to do alone? 4. Share Ed Young's Seven Blind Mice and the Elephant. Prior to reading the story, blindfold several students and have them feel a part of a lawn ornament or another complex object. Each student should feel a different part. Have them draw a picture and tell the class what the object is. Then, reveal what the object is and share the story. 5. Work as a team towards a common goal. The goal could be anything -- collecting can goods for a charity, saving pennies to buy something for the school or "adopt" an endangered animal, writing and producing a play, building something. Citations Yolen, Jane. Favorite Folktales From Around the World. New York: Pantheon, 1986. Many other versions/editions are available Lazy Jack (England) Background Lazy Jack is a humorous tale from England. It is the story of a boy who is forever saying the wrong thing, only to be told to say something else. He then says the "something else" in the next situation in which he finds himself, only to find out what he has said is wrong. According to MacDonald, it is type J2461, "What should I have said (done)?" (Sourcebook). Lazy Jack is motif type J2461A. It is similar to other stories, such as Jack and the King's Girl (Appalachia), Epaminondas, How Pat Got Sense, Silly Saburo (Japan), Discreet Hans (Grimm), Jack the Fool (Ireland), Soap! Soap! Soap, Just Say Hic (type 2461.2), and many others (MacDonald, Sourcebook). Suggested Lessons and Activities 1. Compare to similar tales in other cultures. For example, I usually make a chart on the board and have the students discuss how the tales are alike and different in specific ways -- characters, setting, plot, country of origin, etc. 2. "Act out" the tale. 3. Write your own version of a story with this type of motif. 4. Sequencing activities (Example - story clothes line, sequencing pictures, etc.) Citations Chase, Richard. Jack Tales. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1943. Old Woman in the Vinegar Bottle (England) Background This is a story of a woman who lives in a vinegar bottle and is always complaining and wishing for more. A fairy comes down and grants her wish, but her next home is never quite good enough. This repeats itself until finally she asks for too much and is returned to her original home. This tale is type B375.1. Similar tales include "The Fisherman and His Wife" in which the fisherman returns a fish to the water, and the fish grants him a wish. His wife tells him to ask for increasingly wealth. Finally, when she asks to be God, she is returned to her original state (MacDonald, Sourcebook). Other variants include tales from Grimm, the Netherlands, and England. Suggested Lessons and Activities 1. Discussion of other folktales with the "greed" theme. (Includes tales such as "Roly, Poly Rice Ball," "Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock," "Nail Soup," and "Being Greedy Chokes Anansi"). 2. Discussion - What would you wish for? Do you think she should have wished for all of these things? What do you think would have happened if she stopped at the second to the last wish? Citations Henderwick, Mairi. The Old Woman Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle. New York: Viking, 1972. Just Say Hic (Turkey) Background The background on this tale is similar to " Lazy Jack." Suggested Lessons and Activities See activities for "Lazy Jack." Citations MacDonald, Margaret Read. Twenty Tellable Tales. New York: H.W. Wilson, 1986. |
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c. 1998 by Deborah Angiolieri Comments to: debbi@csonline.net Deborah M. Angiolieri Elementary Library Media Specialist Franklin Area School District Franklin, PA 16323 United States of America Address, main page: www.oocities.org/Athens/Agora/8623 Addrees, this page: www.oocities.org/Athens/Agora/8623/europe.html c. 1998 to present |