Exploring America with TALL TALES.

Introduce the art of storytelling with this super-fun theme unit! Plus: Two reading comp reproducibles, on pages 74 and 76.

Before You Start

Set up a reading display using as many tall tale books as you can find, as well as books about life in early America. Then, create a K-W-L chart (what we Know, what we Want to know, what we Learned) and get your class thinking about the new unit. Ask your students: What tall tales do you know? What makes a tale "tall"? Record their answers, listing as many characteristics of the genre as you can. Then, set goals for the unit. What do the children want to learn? Your class may want to learn new tales and the true stories behind them. Other goals might include writing and performing your own tall tales or other classic tales!

Reading Tall Tales

A good book to start with is Mary Pope Osborne's American Tall Tales (Knopf, 1991). Read a few tales aloud and talk about their characteristics. Then put students into small groups. Each group can choose a story, read it carefully, and present it to the class. They can do choral readings, miniplays, puppet shows, or read the tale aloud and show poster-sized illustrations. A second group can present questions to the tale "experts."

Tall-Tale Map of America

Map the travels of your tall-tale characters! After reviewing the key or legend on a map of the United States, give each student a photocopied map. Talk with them to decide upon symbols for each character. For Sal Fink you could use twine or string to represent the rope she used to tie up the pirates, for Johnny Appleseed use real apple seeds, and for Paul Bunyan, the lumberjack, use toothpicks. Pecos Bill could be represented with star stickers, as he's from the Lone Star state. Ask students to paste the symbols associated with each character on the corresponding state or states, as you read each story.

Comparing Characters

Make comparing and contrasting fun with Top-5 Posters. Divide the class into small groups and ask each group to create a poster of a tall-tale hero or heroine. Each poster should include a drawing of the character and a list of "Top 5" characteristics or achievements, such as Paul Bunyan's tree-chopping skills or Sal Fink's alligator-riding. When they are finished, hang the posters and gather round to discuss and compare. Which characters are strong? Which ones are fast? As a fun game, challenge students to quickly rearrange the posters into different groups, asking, for example, "Which characters used tools?" Arrange your posters on a hallway bulletin board for everyone to learn from.

Life Cycle of Trees

Reading about Johnny Appleseed and Paul Bunyan gives you a wonderful lead-in to studying trees. Begin by opening an apple and studying the seeds. Then, learn about adult trees by studying tree rings. Visit Kid's Earth and Sky at www.earthsky.com/Kids/tree-rings.html to learn about tree rings. Then have students draw tree rings to match their ages. Brainstorm with the class all the ways in which trees are important to us. Ask the students to record these ways (trees make oxygen, are used for furniture, paper, etc.) in the rings.

Campfire Tales

Tell your own tall tales around a class campfire! Invite the class to sit in a circle. Make it extra fun by taking it outside and providing GORP as a snack. Start a story with an exaggerated sentence: "Long ago, there was a girl named Francine who could see across the ocean." Ask a student to volunteer the next line. Each child adds one exaggerated detail. By the time the story ends it will be one whopper of a tall tale!

Super Similes

Help your students to understand similes and hyperbolic language with this easy exercise. Ask each student to write down a few qualities that make them unique, using a complete sentence. Next, each child should add "as" or "like" to their sentences. For example: "My hair is as red as a fire truck on fire." When students read their sentences the room will fill with laughter!

Writing Home-State Tales

End your unit with a celebration of your state. Write your own tall tales based on local geography, industries, and lore. Begin with a visit to a local museum. Collect your tall tales into a book or onto a class Web site.

The Tale of Sal Fink

A long time ago, maybe 200 years ago and way before you were born, keelboats were used to transport goods up and down the Mississippi River. They were rowed by men with great bulging muscles. Then there was Sal Fink. She was stronger than them all. People said Sal's strength came from her father, who was as strong as a horse and as rough and tough as an alligator. Sal's mother, Peg, was a great hunter. She taught Sal how to hunt the wildest animals in the deepest woods. Once Sal came head to head with an angry mother bear who wanted to protect her cubs. Sal had no choice but to fight She killed the bear with her bare hands and adopted the motherless cubs. Another time, Sal fought an alligator and rode down the Mississippi on its back. Not even fifty river pirates could stop her! The sneaky pirates jumped her from behind and tried to hold Sal for ransom. They tied her up and put her in a deep dark cave. Sal stayed quiet but once the pirates were asleep, she broke free, used the ropes to tie up the pirates, picked up the treasure, and carried it all the way to town on her back. Tall Tales adaptations from Teaching Tall Tales (Scholastic 1998)

ThemeUNIT

YURIKO GRAY

The Tale of Paul Bunyan

Long, long ago, in Maine, a very unusual baby was born. Baby Paul Bunyan weighed 156 pounds! When he slept, his tossing and turning caused the roof to shake. By the time Paul grew up, he could fell a dozen trees with one swoop of an axe. When he yelled, "Tim-berrr!" the smaller trees would fall to the ground. One day, Paul decided to head out to Wisconsin's timber country. On his way, he met a giant blue ox. (Why was she blue? It had something to do with the Blizzard of Blue Snow a few winters before.) Paul adopted her and named her Babe. A logger needs a strong animal to pull the logs to the mill and Babe was the strongest ever seen. The road to the mill was uneven and unsafe, so Paul harnessed Babe to the road and she pulled it straight as an arrow. Another time, Paul had Babe put out a forest fire. She swallowed a nearby river and sprayed like a waterfall. Paul and Babe worked their way through Minnesota, over to Washington, Oregon, and California. Texans say Paul dug the deepest oil wells in the state. In Arizona they say he dug the Grand Canyon in one day, and decorated the walls with crayons. Where is Paul Bunyan today? Wherever he is, Paul Bunyan is sure to leave his mark.

Using Levers for Tall-Tale Strength

Tall-tale heroes often have super strength. Show your students where real super strength come from: Leverage! You can create a fixed pulley by having one or two students hold a rolling pin (with moveable handles). Tie a yard of waxy dental floss around a large book or similar object. Then, give each student a chance to lift the object using the pulley. The student should sit on the floor and pull the end of the string. The books will rise easily even if the child uses only one hand.

The Tall Tale of PECOS BILL

Who was the greatest cowboy ever to ride on the Texas range? Well, that would be Pecos Bill. Pecos Bill was raised by wild coyotes until he was ten and he could ride horses and rope cattle better than anyone. He roped every bull in the state. He even lassoed a cyclone. Bill was famous for taming a wild mustang named Widowmaker because all the men who tried to ride him died in the attempt--except Pecos Bill. The tamed Widowmaker made Bill promise never to let anyone else ride him. Soon after, Pecos Bill spotted a beautiful woman riding down the Rio Grande River on the back of a giant catfish. Slue-Foot Sue could rope and ride as well as Bill, and sing and play the guitar. Bill fell in love and asked Sue to marry him. Sue said she'd say yes if Bill let her ride Widowmaker. Bill was reluctant but he finally agreed. In her wedding dress, Sue jumped onto Widowmaker, who kicked and bucked harder than ever and sent her flying over the moon. Bill was heartbroken and howled so loud all the coyotes in Texas joined in. He took his trusty rope and threw a lasso way up in the night sky, and brought her down. In Texas that summer, it was so hot that the chickens were laying fried eggs and people were sweating dust. Sue and Bill put their ropes together and lassoed the handle of the Little Dipper. They pulled as hard as they could and tipped the Little Dipper just enough to pour cool water all over Texas.

The Tall Tale of

Johnny Appleseed

In 1774, a baby named Jonathan Chapman was born who would grow up to be none other than Johnny Appleseed himself. That day a rainbow filled the sky and the beautiful colors lit up the apple blossoms in the orchards. When he grew up, Johnny resolved to spread apple trees across the nation. For almost fifty years he roamed the American wilderness planting apple seeds. He created apple orchards in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana. Johnny dreamed of a land covered with blossoming apple trees, a land where apples were plentiful and no one went hungry.

Johnny lived outdoors, sleeping under the stars. His feet were so tough he could walk on pine cones. He made his clothes from sacks and wore his tin cooking pot for a hat. Settlers were amazed at his toughness. He could go weeks without a meal. Wild animals were instantly tamed when they met Johnny Appleseed. A timber wolf traveled with him, gentle as a puppy. Some say he walked as far south as Tennessee and as far west as the Rocky Mountains, planting apple seeds all the way.

He died in 1845, resting peacefully under an apple tree. If you visit an apple orchard at night, you'll see his ghost looking after the apples.