THEME: CULTURALLY DIVERSE FAIRY TALES

THEME: CULTURALLY DIVERSE

FAIRY TALES

Topic: Elements of Fairy Tales

Goal: Recognize and appreciate diverse environments through the use of fairy tales.

Identify differences and similarities between culturally diverse fairy tales. Reflect on how

environments affect culture and traditions.

Books Used in Lessons:

The Three Little Howlers* by Anneke Forzani, illustrated by Sarah Skalski

The Three Little Sun Bears* by Anneke Forzani, illustrated by Peter Schoenfeld

The Three Little Pigs (optional)

These books are available in English-only and in many bilingual editions with text in

English and one other language. Please visit Language Lizard (www.LanguageLizard.

com) to see a full list of available languages.

Snapshot of Unit:

• Discussion, KWL chart “What do you know about fairy tales?”

• Make predictions based on illustrations.

Multicultural Fairy Tales Lesson Plans

• Vocabulary and word identification games.

• Listen to a reading of the stories.

• Make connections to the stories by answering literal, inferential, and evaluative

questions.

• Sequence and retell events from the stories.

• Identify important elements of the environments in which we live.

• Create a class book to show how each student’s environment shapes them.

Background Information & Discussion Points for Facilitator:

The first lesson is an introductory lesson for a unit based on culturally diverse fairy tales.

The facilitator should incorporate students’ background knowledge of fairy tales; however

the facilitator should not assume that students have been exposed to fairy tales. The facil-

itator should be aware of the various cultural backgrounds of the children.

It may be interesting to show the illustrator notes to the students when conducting The

Three Little Sun Bears and The Three Little Howlers mini lessons (see Appendix A & B). The

illustrators incorporated specific elements that reflect the cultures and environments

where the stories take place. Students might otherwise miss these details.

Unit Plan:

Grade Level:

Kindergarten-3rd grade

(Note: The activities in this unit can be tailored to suit the needs of the specific group of

children, at the discretion of the facilitator.)

Time Frame: These four lessons are designed to be used together over a few days.

The introductory and conclusion lessons are 30-55 minute lessons and the mini-lessons

are 20-25 minute lessons.

Objectives:

Knowledge:

• Learn and identify elements of a fairy tale.

• Compare and contrast culturally diverse fairy tales.

• Learn about the environments of the sun bears and howler monkeys.

Multicultural Fairy Tales Lesson Plans

Skills:

• Discuss how our environment affects our culture and traditions.

• Use language to explain and describe the differences in environments for the

stories.

• Retell a story using words and pictures.

• Compare and contrast diverse texts.

• Enhance comprehension strategies using literal, inferential, and evaluative

questioning.

Attitudes:

• Appreciate different environments and traditions.

• Foster an understanding of how the environment that surrounds us affects our lives.

Essential Questions:

• What is a fairy tale?

• What effects does the environment have on a story?

• How does an environment affect culture and traditions?

Materials and Resources:

• The Three Little Sun Bears by Anneke Forzani, illustrated by Peter Schoenfeld

• The Three Little Howlers by Anneke Forzani, illustrated by Sarah Skalski

• Photocopies of key events/illustrations from the story

• Vocabulary flashcards

• Supplies for class book

Linkage and Integration Across Subject Areas:

Social Studies/Geography: Locating different environments across the globe.

Art: “Our Environment Shapes Us” class book.

Writing: Venn diagram, class book captions.

Additional Extension Activities for Facilitators:

Facilitators may wish to extend lessons to include math and science connections. They may

consider activities such as the following:

Multicultural Fairy Tales Lesson Plans

Math: Measuring, calculating distance between various environments.

Science: Further investigation of plants and animals identified in each book.

See the end of the lesson plans for a more complete list of extension activities.

Vocabulary to be developed in this lesson:

Fairy Tale Vocabulary Sun Bears Vocabulary Howlers Vocabulary

• Plot

• Moral

• Problem

• Solution

• Characters

• Setting

• Rainforest

• Coconut palm

• Siberian tiger

• Sun bear

• Ferocious

• Kapok tree

• Orchid

• Calabash tree

• Pepian

• Howler monkey

• Jaguar

• Señor

Procedure:

Lesson 1: Introduction to Fairy Tales

Introduction:

1. Begin the lesson by posing the question: What do you know about fairy tales? As a

whole group, conduct a KWL (Know, Want to Know, Learned) on the board or a piece

of chart paper. The facilitator should use this as an assessment tool to gauge stu-

dents’ background knowledge. Encourage students to share and discuss fairy tales

they know.

2. If the facilitator sees that students have background knowledge on the subject, the

facilitator should instruct the students to turn and talk with a partner and discuss:

What do these fairy tales have in common? Use guiding questions like: Who is in the

story? What does the story make you think about afterwards? Is there a problem?

What happens in the story?

Vocabulary Development:

3. Using the list for fairy tales above or any additional words as the facilitator sees fit,

elicit known vocabulary on the topic of fairy tales.

4. Present new vocabulary to the children. Using flashcards and/or pictures, invite the

children to read each word. Ask the children if they know the meaning of the words and

encourage them to provide an explanation of the word if possible. The facilitator may

Multicultural Fairy Tales Lesson Plans

need to elaborate or provide additional explanations of some words and say the words

in sentences so the students can hear them in context. The facilitator may ask the

children to create their own sentences containing the words, encouraging the children

to make personal connections with the words. If there are bilingual children in the

group, it may be possible to ask them to say some of the words in their language(s).

5. The facilitator should keep the fairy tale vocabulary visible to students on a word wall

or on the board, so that the facilitator can refer back to the terms throughout the

lesson.

Reading:

6. For this lesson the facilitator may wish to do a reading of the “traditional” fairy tale of

The Three Little Pigs. The facilitator may also choose to have the students give a brief

retelling of The Three Little Pigs. Based on the prior knowledge of the students, the

facilitator should choose between these two options as it would be beneficial to have a

point of reference and comparison for the culturally diverse texts. In addition, if there

are children from other countries, the facilitator could ask if they have a similar story

that they know of in their country.

7. As a whole group, create a story web that depicts the elements of The Three Little Pigs,

using the fairy tale vocabulary words above.

Example:

Multicultural Fairy Tales Lesson Plans

Use the vocabulary words on the web to summarize The Three Little Pigs. The facilitator

may need to prompt the children to connect the elements to the story.

Discussion to Encourage Reflection and Response:

8. The facilitator should wrap up this introductory lesson by telling students that the

group will be reading two fairy tales that have similar plots to The Three Little Pigs.

Facilitator should show the covers of The Three Little Sun Bears and The Three Little

Howlers. Ask students to make predictions about the books based on the titles and

covers.

Lesson 2: The Three Little Sun Bears Mini-lesson

Introduction:

1. Begin the mini-lesson by showing the students the cover of The Three Little Sun Bears.

Check for prior knowledge by asking students to summarize their predictions based

Multicultural Fairy Tales Lesson Plans

on the previous lesson: Looking at the cover and title, what might be the elements of

this fairy tale?

Vocabulary development:

2. Using the list for The Three Little Sun Bears above or any additional words as the facil-

itator sees fit, elicit known vocabulary on the topic.

3. Present new vocabulary to the children. Facilitators should use pictures and images

either from the book or from the internet to support student understanding.

4. The facilitator should keep both the fairy tale and sun bears vocabulary visible to stu-

dents on a word wall or on the board, so that the facilitator can refer back to the terms

throughout the lesson.

Reading:

5. Read the book The Three Little Sun Bears with the children. The facilitator may choose

to read the book aloud to the children, engage in choral reading (facilitator and chil-

dren read the story together in unison), or see-saw reading (facilitator reads one sen-

tence, children read the following sentence and continue alternating reading after

each sentence). It is important to read with appropriate tone, pace, inflection, and

expression to engage the children as much as possible.

6. Throughout the story, explicitly draw children’s attention to the illustrations to pro-

mote comprehension of the text.

7. The facilitator should point out the illustrations that correspond with the vocabulary

words for this story.

8. Encourage children to make connections (orally, using mime, in writing). Connections

may be text-to-self (what does the child notice from the book in relation to their own

lived experiences?), text-to-text (what does the child notice from one book/story to

another book/story?), or text-to-wider-world (what does the child notice from the

book in relation to real world historical or current events?). Facilitator should encour-

age students to make connections back to the “traditional” telling of The Three Little

Pigs from the previous lesson. The children may need to be prompted to make those

connections.

Multicultural Fairy Tales Lesson Plans

Discussion to encourage reflection and response:

9. Facilitate discussion with the group of children using literal, inferential, and evalua-

tive questions. The facilitator may wish to select questions from the following list and

adapt questions based on students’ ages.

Literal Questions

(Readers use information directly from the text to answer this type of question. Facilitator may

ask students to point to specific areas in the text to support their response.)

i. Who are the characters in the story?

ii. What is the setting of the story?

iii. How is the setting of the story different from your environment?

iv. Why did each sun bear want to build a house?

v. Where do the sun bears live?

Inferential Questions

(Reader must use the information in the text to deduce the answer. Facilitator may ask stu-

dents to point to specific areas in the text to support their response.)

i. How do you think the sun bears felt with the tiger at their door?

ii. How does the setting of the story affect the plot?

Multicultural Fairy Tales Lesson Plans

Evaluative Questions

i. How can hard work be beneficial?

ii. How does your environment affect you?

iii. How does the setting of the story change the characters, homes, and plot?

Group Work Activity:

10. Art and Oral Language Activity – Verbal Retelling

Provide children, in groups of 3-4, images from the story. Prompt the groups to

sequence the story, verbally retell the story, and identify elements of the story. Encour-

age and prompt students to use fairy tale specific vocabulary learned in the introduc-

tory lesson.

Conclusion:

11. Facilitate a discussion with the group. Ask the students to share how the setting of The

Three Little Sun Bears affected the story elements. Ask the students how the hard work

of the third bear paid off. The facilitator should wrap up the discussion by informing

the students that they will be reading another telling of The Three Little Pigs in the next

lesson.

Multicultural Fairy Tales Lesson Plans

Lesson 3: The Three Little Howlers Mini-lesson

Introduction:

1. Begin the mini-lesson by showing the students the cover of The Three Little Howlers.

Check for prior knowledge by asking students to summarize their predictions based

on the previous lesson: Looking at the cover and title, what might be the elements of

this fairy tale?

Vocabulary development:

2. Using the list for The Three Little Howlers above or any additional words as the facilita-

tor sees fit, elicit known vocabulary on the topic.

3. Present new vocabulary to the children. Facilitator should use pictures and images

either from the book or from the internet to support student understanding.

4. The facilitator should keep both the fairy tale and howlers vocabulary visible to stu-

dents on a word wall or on the board, so that the facilitator can refer back to the terms

throughout the lesson.

Multicultural Fairy Tales Lesson Plans

Reading:

5. Read the book The Three Little Howlers with the children. The facilitator may choose to

read the book aloud to the children, engage in choral reading (facilitator and children

read the story together in unison), or see-saw reading (facilitator reads one sentence,

children read the following sentence and continue alternating reading after each sen-

tence). It is important to read with appropriate tone, pace, inflection, and expression

to engage the children as much as possible.

6. Throughout the story, explicitly draw children’s attention to the illustrations to pro-

mote comprehension of the text. Engage the children about items in the story that

might be unfamiliar to them. Point out connections between these items and the set-

ting. Draw attention to differences and similarities between the cultural elements of

the story and the cultural elements of the classroom.

7. The facilitator should point out the illustrations that correspond with the vocabulary

words for this story.

8. Encourage children to make connections (orally, using mime, in writing). Connections

may be text-to-self (what does the child notice from the book in relation to his/her

own lived experiences?), text-to-text (what does the child notice from one book/story

to another book/story?), or text-to-wider-world (what does the child notice from the

book in relation to real world historical or current events?). Facilitator should encour-

age students to make connections back to The Three Little Sun Bears and to the “tradi-

tional” telling of The Three Little Pigs from the previous lessons. The children may need

to be prompted to make those connections.

Discussion to encourage reflection and response:

9. Facilitate discussion with the group of children using literal, inferential, and evaluative

questions. The facilitator may wish to select questions from the following list:

Literal Questions

(Readers use information directly from the text to answer this type of question. Facilitator may

ask students to point to specific areas in the text to support their response.)

i. What are the characters in the story?

ii. What is the setting of the story?

iii. How did each howler monkey build their house?

Multicultural Fairy Tales Lesson Plans

Inferential Questions

(Reader must use the information in the text to deduce the answer. Facilitator may ask stu-

dents to point to specific areas in the text to support their response.)

i. How do you think the howler monkeys felt with the jaguar at their door?

ii. How does the setting of the story affect the plot?

Evaluative Questions

i. How can hard work be beneficial?

ii. How does your environment affect you?

Group Work Activity:

10. Art and Oral Language Activity – Verbal Retelling

Provide children, in groups of 3-4, images from the story. Prompt the groups to

sequence the story, verbally retell the story, and identify elements of the story. Encour-

age and prompt students to use fairy tale specific vocabulary learned in the introduc-

tory lesson.

Conclusion:

11. Facilitate a discussion with the group. Ask the students to share how the setting of The

Three Little Howlers affected the story elements. Ask the students how the hard work

Multicultural Fairy Tales Lesson Plans

of the third monkey paid off. The facilitator should wrap up the discussion by asking

the students to make connections with the previous cultural story that was read.

Lesson 4: Final Fairy Tale Lesson

Introduction:

1. Begin the lesson by asking the students to summarize both stories that were read

in the mini-lessons. The facilitator should prompt students to utilize fairy tale spe-

cific vocabulary in their discussion, focusing on similarities and differences between

stories.

2. Create a venn diagram for The Three Little Howlers and The Three Little Sun Bears. (If

the facilitator does not have both texts, substitute one for the “traditional” telling of

The Three Little Pigs.) As a whole group, determine the similarities and differences

between the two texts.

3. Ask students to discuss how the setting affects the elements of the story. Facilitators

can prompt the group by focusing on the characters, materials the characters used,

and the natural environment. Facilitator should remind students to refer back to the

differences that they identified if they are stuck.

Procedure:

4. Facilitator should pose the question, “What is unique about our environment?” Stu-

dents should brainstorm in groups of 2-3 and identify elements of their environment

such as animals, trees, climate, flowers, etc. Facilitators should probe deeper with

students and hold a discussion about how this affects our culture and traditions (our

food, our homes, our activities, etc.).

5. Facilitator should pose the question, “How would the story be different if the setting

was our environment?” For younger grades the facilitator may need to prompt more

by asking questions like: What type of animals would be in the story? What would their

houses look like? What would they eat?

Group Activity:

6. “Our Environment Shapes Us” Collective Book (Art Activity): Inform students that

they will create a collective book entitled Our Environment Shapes Us, containing infor-

mation and pictures about themselves and their environment. Each child can create

an individual page of the book. Encourage the dual language students to include words

in their language(s). A template for students may be helpful to facilitate this activity;

teachers should design the template based on the individual needs and grade levels

Multicultural Fairy Tales Lesson Plans

of their students. Encourage children from other countries to represent their home

country. The facilitator may wish to carry out this activity as a digital book using a

website such as https://bookcreator.com. Encourage students to include family mem-

bers by allowing time for students to brainstorm with parents and guardians. Children

should share their stories with the class after the book is complete. Draw attention to

similarities and differences between families and cultures.

*Option* The facilitator may wish to have a writer’s celebration and invite families in

for a reading of the class book.

Conclusion:

7. Facilitate a discussion with the group. Ask the children to explain what they learned

about how environment affects culture and the way people live. At this point, the facil-

itator may want to revisit essential questions to determine whether the children have

understood the main ideas of the lesson.

Assessment:

Facilitator Observation: Children’s engagement and interaction with the lesson, engage-

ment in discussions, engagement with facilitator designed tasks.

Facilitator Questioning: Higher and lower order questioning (i.e., literal, inferential, and

evaluative questions).

Facilitator Designed Tasks: Making predictions, vocabulary games, reading fluency activ-

ities, art activity, discussion.

Accommodations/Differentiation:

Differential modes of Representation: Illustrations, flashcards, pictures/photographs.

Differential Questioning: Use of higher and lower order questioning (i.e., literal, inferen-

tial, and evaluative questions).

Differential Product/Response: Written responses, oral responses, art responses.

• Provide extra wait time and language scaffolds/supports for students who need

them (e.g. showing pages from the book, sentence starters).

• All students (but especially English language learners, or ELLs) will benefit from

pictures accompanying the vocabulary to be learned in the story.

• For ELLs, it may be helpful to allow the child to take home the dual language book

either before or after the lesson. It can then be read at home in the home language

Multicultural Fairy Tales Lesson Plans

before class engagement which will promote students’ confidence in talking about

the book in class. If possible, ask the parents to record the book being read in the

home language. The book and recording can then be brought into school so that

other students can see and hear some of the home languages spoken by their

classmates, deepening their appreciation for language diversity. Note that the

student can also use the QR code in the front of the book to listen to an English

recording of the book before class to increase their familiarity with the English

vocabulary.

Extension Activities:

Writing Activity “Now You Try”: Students can write their own version of the story based on

their current environments or the environment of their home country. Encourage paren-

tal involvement by having students brainstorm trees, food, and other elements of their

home country environment to include in their story. Have children share their stories with

the class and discuss the culture-specific elements of the story.

Writing Activity “Blurb”: Summarize the stories into a “blurb” that would be on the back

of the book.

Writing/Art Activity “Recipes”: Based on the recipe and ingredients for Pepian in the

illustrator notes of The Three Little Howlers (see Appendix B), students can write their

own recipes from their families or cultures and compile a class cookbook. They should

highlight unique ingredients to share knowledge of their heritage with others in the class.

Multicultural Fairy Tales Lesson Plans

Science: Students can conduct a research project by choosing a plant or animal men-

tioned in any of the stories. They can research origin and location and present more in

depth information to the class. Alternatively, the students may choose to research a plant

or animal from their country or culture, to incorporate in the class book and present to

the class.

Drama: Students can work in groups to role play key events from the story of their choos-

ing. The class could work together to put together a production of one of the stories.

Geography Research: Students can find the location from the story on a globe. Students

can conduct research about the culture, environment, people, and languages of the coun-

try. Students could also do more research on rainforests, and identify similarities and

differences of rainforests in various parts of the world.

Math: On the last pages of the books, weights of the animals are listed in pounds. For

students familiar with the metric system, students can learn and practice conversion.

They may also compare weights of animals to pets or wild animals commonly found in

their environment. Students may also measure and calculate distance between locations/

regions mentioned in either of the texts and their home country or current residence.

Lesson plans created by Emily Grant and Katie Vander Neut.

Appendix A

Illustrator Notes for

The Three Little Sun Bears

Page 2:

• The trees on page 2 are Poderapus Neriifolus, which are common in South and

Southeast Asian rainforests.

• https://www.britannica.com/place/Southeast-Asia/Plant-life

Pages 4 & 11:

• The pink flowers on page 4 are Rhododendrons, which also grow in parts of South

and Southeast Asia. These flowers also appear on page 11.

• https://www.pacifichorticulture.org/articles/vireya-rhododendrons-return/

Pages 12 & 19:

• Squashed fruit on pages 12 & 19 includes rambutan and jambu fruit which are both

sweet fruits from Southeast Asia.

• https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/wildlife_practice/profiles/mammals/

sun_bear/#:~:text=Sun%20bears%20are%20excellent%20climbers,%2C%20

termites%2C%20and%20other%20insects.

Page 16:

• The border (top) of page 16 features Tropical Pitcher Plants which can be found in

the rainforests of Southeast Asia

• https://www.britannica.com/plant/Nepenthes#ref1248102

• The border (bottom) of page 16 has a Brachydiplax chalybea dragonfly (also known

by several other names, including Blue Dasher) which can be found throughout

much of Southeast and East Asia

Page 19:

• On page 19, the lanterns in the bear’s cave are hanging lanterns from China that

are commonly used in celebrations, but also put up for decoration and to provide

light

• https://studycli.org/chinese-culture/chinese-lanterns/

Note to reader: The links above were active at the time of the publication of this lesson plan. If

they become inactive, you may need to search online for examples.

Multicultural Fairy Tales Lesson Plans

Appendix B

Illustrator Notes for

The Three Little Howlers

Ingredients for Pepian

On page 13, the howler monkey is cooking Pepian, a traditional Guatemalan spicy stew.

Ingredients depicted below are based on “Mirna’s Pepián do Pollo”.

Tomatillos - have papery shells (like Chinese lanterns); like a green tomato.

Pepitas - pumpkin (or another hull-less) variety of seeds; have a white fibrous outer husk;

tender seeds.

Pasilla Chile - dried form of Chilaca chile pepper; dark color, blackish purple; 2,000 sco-

ville units

Chayote Squash (Güisquil) - squash, very traditional; introduced globally in Columbian

exchange

Guajille Chile - dried mirasol chile; dark warm red color; second-most used in Mexican

cuisine

Multicultural Fairy Tales Lesson Plans

Flora & Fauna in the book

Throughout the book, traditional plants from the Central American rainforest are

depicted, including:

Kapok trees

Calabash trees

Bromeliad plants

Orchids

Appendix C

Vocabulary Flashcards

Fairy tale Vocabulary Sun Bears Vocabulary Howlers Vocabulary

Plot Rainforest Kapok tree

Moral Coconut palm Orchid

Problem Siberian tiger Calabash tree

Solution Sun bear Pepian

Characters Ferocious Howler monkey

Setting Jaguar

Señor

“This is an amazing resource! . . . This book will be so useful to so many!”

– Caia Schlessinger, President of NJTESOL/NJBE

“A tremendous resource that is practical and contains relevant literacy lessons rooted in best practice.”

– Lisa Gordon, Adjunct Professor, Department of Literacy, West Chester University

“This book is a celebration of diversity in a global age.”

– Laura Harrison, Elementary School Teacher

Building Bridges with Bilingual Books

and Multicultural Resources

A Practical Manual of Lesson Plans, Literacy Games, and

Fun Activities from Around the World to Celebrate Diversity

in the Classroom and at Home

The tools you need to embrace diversity in the classroom and at home!

Multicultural education expert Anneke Forzani gives you the tools to...

Ÿ Build culturally responsive classrooms

Ÿ Create positive connections with dual language children & families

Ÿ Teach children about other languages & cultures

Ÿ Support literacy development among English language learners

Ÿ Foster a welcoming and inclusive learning environment

This manual in cludes:

• Comprehensive Multicultural Lesson Plans with themes of: Cultural Awareness and Diversity;

Folktales, Fables, Myths, and Legends; and Holidays/Festivals

• 10 Simple Ways to Use Bilingual Books to Promote Literacy and Language Awareness

• 10 Games from Around the World

• Foods and Crafts from Around the World

• Diverse Language Proﬁ les

• Unique Holidays to Promote Multiculturalism and Literacy

• Community-Building Handouts

• Online Resources and Links

• Special Bonus Material

Building Bridges with Bilingual Books and Multicultural Resources is available now

at www.LanguageLizard.com/Bridges, bookstores, and ebook distributors worldwide.

Anneke V. Forzani, Founder of Language Lizard

Dr. Heather Leaman, Professor in Master’s of Education Program

Paperback ISBN: 9781951787004

Ebook ISBN: 9781951787011