Tall Tales

Objectives

• Students will use the Internet to do research and inquiry on tall tales.
• Students will learn about several tall tale characters.
• Students will create a Venn diagram to compare and contrast two tall tale characters.

Description

This Web site was created by a teacher in New Jersey so that other teachers in her school district could use it to teach about folklore. It is part of Millville, New Jersey's school district's Web site.

Suggested Activities

• Students can visit other areas of the Web page to learn more about tall tales. Have them answer questions about the characters by choosing Questions at the bottom of the main page. They can also click on Lesson 3 from the main page to learn about what makes a tall tale. Students can also use the Tall Tale Story Frame at the bottom of the Lesson 3 page to write their own tall tales.

Level Activities

• Have students connect to http://www.americanfolklore.net/paulbunyan.html, which contains various Paul Bunyan tall tales. Then ask them to click on one of the tales, read it, and :
draw their own illustration of the tale.
work in a group to create a play that tells the tale they chose in their own words.
pretend they are one of his parents. Have them write a letter to a friend describing their son, his giant size and what he did in the tale they chose. Remind them that exaggeration is used in tall tales so they can use it in their letters as well.