Traditional Tales - Telling a Good Tale

Pupils explore what a traditional tale is. They use the story of the Three Little Pigs to describe elements of a traditional tale. They then work in groups to describe and compare elements of other tales in this genre.

Pupils sequence and retell the story of the Gingerbread Man, giving reasons for their choices. They explore how to improve sentences and aim to apply this in their own writing.

Pupils focus on the main story characters of the gingerbread man and the fox, talking about their feelings and thoughts at different parts of the story. They make a ‘wanted poster’ using description of the characters.

Pupils learn about the traditional African story character, Anansi. They work on a group challenge to predict the next part of a story, with each group presenting ideas to the rest of the class. They talk about their own experience of playing tricks.

Pupils focus on sequencing the story of Anansi and Tiger. They are introduced to a ‘story mountain’ writing frame to record the plot of the story within a structure. Pupils role play the story as an aid to understanding structure.

Pupils read a different Anansi story and compare it to Anansi and Tiger. They explore Anansi’s character and develop vocabulary to describe his feelings. Pupils describe and compare how Anansi felt at two points in the story.

Pupils are given a purpose for writing a traditional story. They use the story mountain to remind themselves of the elements required in the story. They take part in a shared writing session to create the first paragraph of the story.

Pupils refer back to the shared writing of the first part of their story and then plan the rest of their stories, recording their ideas on writing frames. They take part in role play to develop ideas of how Anansi tricks the other animals in the story.

Pupils use their story mountain writing frame to begin to write their stories, referring to the agreed success criteria. The teacher will observe and feedback to support and extend pupils’ learning during the writing process.

Pupils continue to write and complete their versions of a traditional story, adding a simple ending. They read and reflect on their stories, improving if appropriate. They reflect on their learning throughout the sequence. A visit from the Headteacher or Literacy Subject Leader will be arranged to celebrate learning and praise the pupils for rising to the challenge set (to respond to the purpose for writing).