Fairview/Miss Jewell students learn the difference between folk tales, fables, and fairy tales

By WENDY SLEDD
Special to the Leader-Press 

Folk tales, fables, and fairy tales…do you know the difference?  Fairview/Miss Jewell Elementary first graders in teachers Jamie King’s and Brandy Oliveras’ class are reading fairy tales, fables & folktales, learning the difference between these types of stories and then writing their own stories incorporating the features of each one.
“I love when we learn and read fables,” King said. “We read the original versions and then other versions. The kids loved reading the Three Little Pigs by Paul Galdone and then reading The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs told from the wolf’s perspective.  Brandy Olivares brought in a bundle of straw, sticks, and a brick for the students to get hands-on experience with the different materials the pigs used to build their houses.”
The Three Little Pigs is a fable. Fables are short, traditional narratives that always have a moral. They have mainly animal characters who speak and act like human beings. These may or may not have an author.
“We thought it would be fun to write our own fable after we learned the features of a fable,” King said. “Students learned that the setting is outside, only two or three characters, the characters act like people, usually has a character with a weakness, a villain, and has a moral.”
Students started with graphic organizers to brainstorm their stories. Some drew pictures to illustrate their ideas and some shared their ideas through handwriting. The students added details to help organize their stories and then wrote their first drafts, refined them, and then shared the fables with the class.
Each student most enjoyed a different part of the lesson. 
“I liked that we were able to pick the characters and setting,” said student Potoa’e Davis said.
“I liked I was able to write my own (story),” said student Anna’nya Aziz.
“I liked drawing the pictures,” student Cole Bustos said. 
The writing lesson meets Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills requiring students to compose fiction text. Students will also learn about folk tales and fairy tales and create their own. Folktales are traditional stories that have been orally passed from one generation to another. They do not have an author and are anonymous. These can have added or subtracted elements as they are being told and retold from the perspective of a particular teller.  
Fairy tales are made up and are works of fiction and have an author. They have magical creatures such as dragons, witches, or fairies. In fairy tales, the major characters are the victims, and they are subject to sufferings which are usually resolved with the help of minor characters like fairies and other mythical beings. These stories do not have a moral.