Title of Lesson or Unit: Storytelling

Type: ■ Primary Intermediate Graduation Media

Big Idea(s):
 Language and story can be a source of creativity and joy.
 Stories and other texts can be
shared through pictures and words

First Peoples Principles of Learning

 Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on
reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place).
 Learning involves patience and time.
 Learning is embedded in memory, history, and
story.

Curricular Competencies: What students will DO Concepts & Content: What students will KNOW

• Use personal experience and knowledge to connect to stories and

other texts to make meaning

• Recognize the structure of story  structure of story

• Use language to identify, create, and share ideas, feelings, opinions, and
preferences  oral language strategies
• Plan and create stories and other texts for different purposes and
audiences  metacognitive strategies
• Explore oral storytelling processes
 the relationship between reading, writing, and
oral language

Materials & Technologies Pre-Class Preparation

Students will use the following materials, tools, equipment:

The teacher will need to make the following preparations prior to the
class(es)
• Book: Sharing Our World- Animals of the Native
Northwest Coast • We will have talked about oral storytelling
• A variety of stuffed animals • Students will have a solid understanding about
• A variety of fabric in many colors Elements of Story (characters and setting) and
• A variety of “loose parts” (objects kids can add to Structure of Story.
their stories) • We will have talked about the Indigenous Animals
• Building materials (wooden and foam blocks) and what they represent.
• The students will have had practice drawing
pictures and telling a story about what they have
drawn.
 LESSON (Teacher Action/Student Action)

• I will start the lesson by reading the book Sharing Our World- Animals of the Native Northwest Coast (5 min)
• We will talk about the different animals (characters) in the book and where they might live (setting). (5 mins)
• I will then give the students an opportunity to pick an animal from the variety of stuffed animals provided. We
will go around in a circle and the students will introduce their animal and give their animal a name. (10 mins)
• After the students have had a bit of time to play and explore with their animals, we will come back together
and brainstorm a list of possible settings in which the animals could live. (10 mins)
We will go out in nature and build animal habitats. Students will use their imaginations when creating these
habitiats. For example, if they choose a salmon as their character, they may use leaves to act as a stream and
pinecones for the rocks. I will explain to the students we are focusing on building the animal habitats to suit the
needs of the stuffed animal they have choosen.
• Now that the students have a character (their stuffed animals) they will be given fabric, building materials
such as wooden block and foam blocks, and loose parts to create a setting for their character. (20 mins)
• Once the students have created their settings and are able to connect their character to the setting they will be
encouraged to create a story. (10 mins)
Students will then put their stuffed animals in the setting/habitat they have created using materials found in
nature. They will take a picture of their animal and then be able to explain what materials they used from nature
and what the materials represent.
• The students will share their stories with a partner (5 mins)

Assessment/Evaluation Adaptations/Modifications

• I will observe students listening, observing and oral
language strategies.
• I will observe whether the students are understanding
that a story needs to include a character and setting.
• I will evaluate students on their ability to form a
connection between their character and setting.
• I will video the students telling their story orally.
• For those students who are choosing to write out a
simple story, I will see if they have included a character
and their setting.
• This is a lesson that will hopefully be manageable for
ELL students, students with special needs and students
from a refugee background.
• If these students are not understanding the concepts, I
will have them work with a partner or observe a friend,
just to develop language around what we are learning.
• I will encourage students who are struggling to make
connections to characters and settings to just focus on
one of the elements of stories. This may look like the
students playing with stuffed animals and giving them
names or building a structure out of materials.

EXTENSIONS/POSSIBLE CROSS-CURRICULAR CONNECTIONS

• Encourage students who finish creating their story early to write it out or make labels as a visual.
• Students who finish early can connect their stories with a friend and see what it would look like if their
characters were in a new setting.
• Have students act out their story as if they were the character.
• Have students think of a place in the community where they have been and draw their character in that setting.
The writing I have added in Blue, is to incorporate a Waldorf inspired theme to my
lesson. The Whister Waldorf School mentions how “We try to use materials
from nature wherever possible – pinecones, tree branch building
blocks, driftwood, river pebbles, flowing silk play cloths and
beeswax all make up our play materials.”