Out of This World! Class Summary 3/14/16

with Michelle Cameron

Fairy Tales Retold

We had some wonderful retelling of fairy tales today:

• The Fairy Godmother and the pumpkin in Cinderella
• The beanstalk (twice!) and the Giant in Jack and the Beanstalk
• The witch in Hansel & Gretel
• The old woman in Rapunzel
• The father in Sleeping Beauty

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There were some particularly fine touches to these stories, including:

• The freedom to make traditional characters differentand to
  change the story
• The use of strong verbs
• Some wonderful description
• Employing the vocabulary of a fairy tale
• Some unique layering of one of the stories

We talked about unreliable narrators and how we grow not to trust them due to clues the author inserts in the story. We also had a brief conversation on the use of “said” in a story. Often in school, kids are taught that “said is dead” – but anyone who reads knows that isn’t true! We touched upon when it’s appropriate to use “said” and that, while other words can be used, it’s a good phrase to identify the speaker.

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The Power of Time

I began a discussion of the power of time by asking who had trouble getting up today. I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn that almost everyone did!

So I asked – if you woke up one morning and found you had the power of time, what could you do? Their answers:

• Go back in time
  
• Go forward into the future
• Stop or slow time
• Speed time up

They spent some time at the end of class beginning a story in which they (or their characters) have the power of time.

I’m looking forward to hearing what they bring in next week!

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