LESSON 6.1
Why Tell Stories?
Grades 1-3
Have you ever told someone about a funny thing that happened to you? That’s storytelling. Stories can be funny, exciting, or even scary.
Today, we’re going to make a fantasy. Let’s pretend YOU are the hero! You’ll always be “I.”
The TWO Parts of a Story:
Every exciting story needs a hero (that’s YOU!) and a troublemaker.
The troublemaker can be a person, like a grumpy man, a runaway kite, an alien, or even a storm.
Task 6.1.1 – Individual
Draw a barbell on a piece of paper. Use something round, like the lid of a jar, to make each barbell end. Put I on the right circle and troublemaker on the left. What we have is like the ends of a barbell. We can call this the “Barbell of Communication.”
Task 6.1.2 – Individual
Next, we will put the barbell shape into a box shape. Notice that the top row has the Barbell of Communication plus two more boxes: because and Why. Ignore those for now.
| Barbell of Communication | Because | Why | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hero | a Troublemaker | |||
The Third Part of a Story
A story usually has a problem to be solved. You, the hero of the story, must use your smarts or bravery to solve it. By the end, the problem is fixed, and we learned something along the way.
Thus, the middle box of the Communications Barbell should be had a problem with or had a problem when.
It will be the “bar” on the “barbell.” For now, ignore the boxes on the right.
| Barbell of Communication | because | Why | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hero | had a problem with | a Troublemaker | ||
Now we will label the parts of the barbell:
LH – this is the left-hand of the barbell.
VP – this is the “bar” on the barbell. VP stands for verb phrase.
RH – this is the right-hand of the barbell.
| Barbell of Communication | because | Why | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LH | VP | RH | ||
| Hero | had a problem with | a Troublemaker | ||
Task 6.1.3 – Individual
Draw and fill in the LH – VP – RH of a chart like the one above.