Amazing Activities to Teach Fables in the ESL Classrooom



Fables have so much to offer. They typically feature animals as the main characters, acting in similar ways to how you expect humans to. Fables always end with a moral. Here we bring you five amazing activities that you can use to help you teach The Lion and the Mouse.


1.   KWL grids

Teachers can use KWL grids for all sorts of lessons. They encourage students to write down what they know, what they want to know and what they have learned. So, before reading the fable of the Lion and the Mouse, ask children to complete the first two sections. Once you have read through the fable, they will be able to fill in the final column, showing what they have learned. Our teaching pack to complement this fantastic fable contains a ready-to-print grid you can use with your students.


2.       Adjectives

How are you feeling? What does he look like? Which dress should I choose? These types of questions are frequently asked, and they all require adjectives in response. Once you have read the story to your ESL class, ask them to consider which adjectives describe the lion and which the mouse. You could use our adjectives worksheets to go along with this.

Antonyms also work brilliantly in this respect. Give them the choice of two opposites and ask them to highlight the one which best describes the character. For example, tall or short, brave or timid. In pairs, you could ask the children to choose two adjectives for one of the characters and tell their partner, who should then guess whether they were describing the lion or the mouse.



3.       Verbs: is, can, has

Using a variety of verbs when learning the English language is vital. After reading the story, encourage your students to pick a character: the lion or the mouse. They should then think about things the lion/mouse is, can do and has. For example, for those students who chose the mouse, they could describe him as being scared, to begin with and later brave, when he freed the lion. This section is the perfect follow-up activity to the adjectives work detailed in point 2. The second verb ‘can’ will then be followed by other verbs which the characters are able to do, although in their infinitive form, e.g., the mouse can nibble. Finally, the verb ‘has’ could be used to discuss the physical attributes of the characters, such as the lion has a mane.


4.       Compare and contrast

When it comes to characters within fables, they are often enormously different. In this case, the lion and the mouse, on the surface, are two extreme contrasts, especially when it comes to size. Furthermore, you expect that a lion will be loud and powerful, whereas a mouse will be quiet and weak. However, in this story, it is clear that actually both characters can be brave at times. A Venn diagram is a great way to compare two characters, with the intersection (the part where the two circles overlap) containing words, phrases and actions which are relevant to both parties.


5.       Thoughts and feelings

Getting inside the minds of a story’s characters can give readers a greater insight into their motivation for doing certain things. We advise doing this through drama to make it come to life. Act out scenes from The Lion and the Mouse in groups or as a full class. Shout out freeze at certain moments and ask questions, such as How are you feeling? and Why did you do that? To encourage your students to delve deeper into the characters’ thoughts and feelings. Your kids could then write down words, phrases or sentences linked to this within thought bubbles included in our teaching pack.

 

 


Engage your students with this wonderful fable of The Crow and the Pitcher

Use this wonderful story as a basis for teaching important vocabulary, reading and writing skills to your kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade students. This is an excellent resource for ESL and EFL classrooms too! Your students will be drawn in by the story and you will love the important skills they are learning. The Crow and the Pitcher activities in this unit work on vocabulary, retelling, summarizing, story elements, reading comprehension and so much more! These NO PREP printables will save you time without sacrificing the rigor of your lessons.





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