Last month with our Birds & Eggs theme and this month’s Bugs & Crawly Things we enjoyed these Make & Play fable stories. The stories look short but they are packed with literacy and meaningful lessons! Learning life lessons through literacy is a wonderful way to make connections with children and make learning memorable and fun.
[xyz-ihs snippet=”Thank-you-for-reading-“]
Learning Life Lessons Through Literacy
Learning life lessons isn’t easy for any of us but it’s so important that we introduce ideas and concepts to children when they are young so they can learn from others. We want what’s best for our children and if they can learn kindness and care for others at a young age it would be so beneficial to everyone. Learning life lessons through literacy is fun intentional. Using the fable story puppets from Mother Goose Time is a developmentally appropriate way to introduce life lessons.
The Ant and the Grasshopper
Would you rather be an ant or a grasshopper? Why? Hmm. Maybe we’ll ask this question again after the story.
I introduced the story at circle time. I read through it, pausing to talk about the vocabulary and discuss the meaning.
It’s always fun to ask a child if they know what a word means. You might get a great answer! Also, you can find out what a child knows. In the Ant and the Grasshopper, here are some of the words we encountered:
- content
- toiling/moiling
- chat
- store
- recommend
- present
- continued
- collected
- prepare
- necessity
Not sure what word means? Look it up! I learn a lot with my group too. I had to look up “moiling”. Here’s the definition:
Now we’ve all learned something new!
Along with vocabulary, the kids can also learn an important life lesson. The moral of this one is: It is best to prepare for the days of necessity.
After introducing the story, the kids are anxious to cut out their puppets and tape the sticks on.Then they can tell the story themselves or play with the puppets as desired. The Make & Play cards always give suggestions if they are needed.
Retelling stories and creating stories are important literacy skills for young children. These fable puppet sets are an engaging way of building those skills.
Something as simple as an envelope for their story set is exciting! Each of the kids took home their own story set in an envelope.
The Fox and the Crane
Now here’s a lesson that’s good for all ages – Treat others as you would like to be treated.
The story of the Fox and the Crane came on the day we learned about blue cranes. 
This story uses some imagination and creates interesting pictures in the mind. A fox and crane become friends? The fox invites the crane to come and visit? He prepares soup? Well, that’s interesting.
Fun characters that usually are not friends. What is going to happen?
The vocabulary we explored:
- decided
- become
- prepared
- cunning
- flat
- lap
- shrewd
- nevertheless
- narrow
Such great conversations result from these little stories! My 3-5-year-olds understand a lot – don’t underestimate their abilities!
The play prompt challenge extends the literacy with hands-on, sensory, fine motor investigation. We didn’t get to it, but we’ll probably try it this summer.
This activity was also an opportunity to observe scissor skills. Check out the work of this 3-year-old! I was so impressed! Sometimes it seems like progress just happens overnight and it’s thrilling to see.
[xyz-ihs snippet=”MGT”]