Topic: a naughty little girl goes for a walk in the woods and enters an empty home... I've chosen the Amanda Askew version of the classic fairytale (curiously not well known in Italy) as it is hardback and has large illustrations.
Amanda Askew version
Age: 3-7
Vocabulary: Goldilocks, bears, mummy, daddy, baby, forest, house, kitchen, bowl of porrige (I'm 'chunking' this one without explanations!), livingroom, chair, bedroom, bed, too hot, too cold, too hard, too soft, too big, just right.
Procedure:
Preteach those adjectives by asking them to sing your hello song softly and 'hard' and then whilst being hot and cold.
Flashcard time: drill Goldilocks, bear, and the rooms and furniture. Recycle house and forest and the family if you think it is necessary.
Read the story with plenty of actions, especially for the 'too hot.. too cold... just right' parts. Check understanding in L1 if necessary. On follow up readings you will need these actions for eliciting those non pre taught words during the flash card game.
Table time! Ask the children to draw a picture that represents the story. It could include, a house, a forest and most importantly a little girl and 3 bears.
Call the children back for circle time. You could review the family finger song.
Watch and sing the chorus of the video with actions. I'm a big fan of this series by Debbie and Friends.
Extensions:
This story is begging for a matching activity. Or they could draw the right bear in the right chair...
An absolute classic of a fariytale. It's got more than one version but it's likely your children will know it already. I'm using the ladybird book. The pages are small, but the pictures are nice and clear.
Topic: Little Red Riding hood goes to granny's house via the forest, but stops to talk to a big bad wolf.
Age: I've been doing it with 3-7 without too much trouble (although the smaller ones couldn't quite get their tongues around Little Red Riding Hood).
Vocabulary: mummy, daddy - I swapped the hunter for daddy - granny, little red riding hood, forest, bed, cake, house, flowers, the big bad wolf. Also 'What big eyes you have' 'What big ears you have' and 'What big teeth you have' along with 'All the better to see/hear/eat you with!
Procedure:
Sing your hello song like a little girl and a big bad wolf!
Drill the character flashcards. In subsequent lessons you can drill the other important words). I like to accompany the characters with their own action so I can use it to elicit them while I tell the story. Little Red Riding Hood takes a lot of drilling so try drilling it backwards. (Hood. Riding Hood. Red Riding Hood. Little Red Riding Hood). The littlest students are probably not going to manage the whole phrase.
Now start telling the story, pointing to the pictures and miming all mimable words. I changed the words to make it simpler, you can find them below...
"Once upon a time, there was a small girl and her name was Little Red Riding Hood. She lived in a house next to a big forest. On the other side of the forest in a small house lived Granny. But in the big big forest lived a big bad wolf. One day Mummy says 'Little Red Riding Hood will you take some cake to granny?' 'OK' says Little Red Riding Hood. 'But remember' says mummy, PLEASE don't stop in the forest and PLEASE don't talk to the Big Bad Wolf (BBW).' 'Ok says Little Red Riding Hood (LRRH)."
"LRRH is walking in the forest when she meets the BBW. (deep voice) Hello LRRH! (high voice) Hello! How are you? - (deep) I'm fine thank you. Where are you going LRRH? -(high) I'm going to granny's house.
The wolf has an idea. "Why don't you pick some flowers for granny?" "That's a good idea," says LRRH, so she stops and picks a big bunch of flowers, and the wolf runs really fast to granny's house.
deep voice - "Knock knock knock. Hello!" "LRRH?" Thinks granny. "No! It's the BBW!" And granny hides under the bed.
The wolf comes in. 'Hello? Hello? There's nobody here! He has a plan. He puts on granny's hat. He puts on granny's coat and he gets into granny's bed and waits for LRRH.
"Knock knock knock! Hello Hello!" - "Come in!" - "Oh Granny! What big eyes you have!" - "All the better to see you with my dear" - "Oh granny, what big ears you have!" - "All the better to hear you with my dear" - "Oh granny! What big teeth you have!" - "All the better to EAT you with my dear!" And the wolf jumps up but the hat falls down over his eyes (I can't see any thing!) and granny says 'Quick! LRRH come under the bed!"
Here comes daddy! He runs into the house. He sees the BBW and.... SWISH! He kills the wolf. But where's LRRH and where's granny? Here they are! Under the bed! They say 'Thank you daddy!'. And they eat the cake. Daddy says, "LRRH remember! PLEASE don't stop in the forest and PLEASE don't talk a BBW!"
Now you've told the story you can do an activity... like colouring the characters the right colours.
This one is good as it has the letters to colour as well.
Then it's back to circle time for a last flashcard game like Say Yes!! when you see....and the video.
This is an absolute treasure of a video and the tune has stayed in my head for weeks. I like to sing just the chorus and encourage the kids to do the actions with me.
Extensions:
Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes is a good song for teaching parts of the face. You can sing it getting faster and faster, or you can sing it and clap in the place of a new word each time. I changed mouth for teeth, just to help with the story's vocabulary.
The Three Billy Goats Gruff is a great story for group storytelling whether with pictures or without. The range of voices and repetitive speech is perfect for VYL but also older kids. I have done this with 7-8 year olds who loved it nearly as much as the 4 year olds.
Topic: Three goats want to cross a bridge but an angry, hungry troll wants to eat them.
Age: 4-8
Vocabulary: Goat, troll, bridge, big, middle/medium, small, angry, hungry (I like to add thirsty to the lesson) 'Who's that tippy tapping on my bridge?' 'I'm hungry and I'm going to eat you.' 'Please don't eat me!'
Procedure:
Sing If You're Happy and You Know It to review/introduce the adjectives happy, angry, hungry and thirsty. Suggested lyrics: If you're happy happy happy, clap your hands. If you're hungry hungry hungry, eat a banana. If you're thristy thirsty thristy, drink some water. If you're angry angry angry, stamp you're feet. If you're happy happy happy, shhh be quiet!"
Introduce the story using the front cover. Count the goats. Show how there was BIG goat, middle goat and small goat using gestures. Start the story. The goats are hungry and they want to eat the long green grass, BUT under the bridge there lives an angry, hungry troll who likes to eat goats.
The small goat goes first. Get everyone to tap the noise of the goat's hooves on the floor/tables lightly. STOP roars the troll. "Who's that tippy tapping on my bridge?" I say this twice whilst clapping it encouraging the children to repeat with me. Now squeaky voice for the small goat. "It's me! Small goat." On later tellings I elicit the word small from the students. Big booming voice again and rub your tummy. "I'm hungry and I'm going to eat you!" Clap it out and repeat twice, whilst encouraging the children to say it with you. Back to small goat, who squeaks with hands praying. "Please don't eat me!" (Children must repeat this bit really well or the troll is not satisfied ;). I finish the conversation"I'm only small. Wait for my brother, middle goat. He's much bigger than me!" "Ok go ahead" grumbles the troll.
Repeat for middle goat. Big goat arrives and speaks with a BIG voice and on cue says! "Oh no you won't." Then with your hands gesture the horns and charge. SPLASH the troll falls into the water and is swept away. The goats are happy and eat lots of grass. The small goat becomes a BIG fat goat. If you have the Steven Carpenter version then go around and point out the the troll floating away down the river, because he's very small.
Extensions:
This makes a great worksheet for all VYL, although the four year olds will need help to complete it.
In follow up lessons I drew a bridge and photocopied it and the students added the characters for me.
Another great activity is a sorting activity with shells, buttons, bottle caps or other objects into the three categories or big, medium an small.
If a worksheet seems easier then make a photocopy with three boxes of different sizes and ask them to draw something big, small and medium sized in the right box.
I've watched a lot of 3 Billy Goats Gruff videos on Youtube and this was my favourite. The children won't understand much of the speech but the drawings and music are lovely. The students have all got very involved when watching this video.
