Stage Three
Traditional Tales
Megan Gibbons, Auburn North PS
Text type focus: Narrative
Grammar Focus
Range of verbs – thinking, feeling, action, being and having.
Develop complex sentences using conjunctions in 1st position
ie When she was walking the ….
Continue building noun groups to build descriptions and using adjectival clauses to build
descriptions.
Outcomes
RS3.7 Critically analyses techniques used by writers to create certain effects, to use
language creatively, to position the reader in various ways and to construct different
interpretations of experience.
RS3.8 Identifies the text structure of a wider range of more complex text types and
discusses how the characteristic grammatical features work to influence readers’ and
viewers’ understanding of texts.
WS3.9 Produces a wide range of well-structured and well-presented literary text for a wide
range of purposes and audiences using increasingly challenging topics, ideas, issues and
written features.
 Uses a range of verbs– thinking, feeling, action, being and having.
 Uses noun groups and adjectival clauses to build descriptions.
WS3.10 Produces text clearly, effectively and accurately, using the sentence structure,
grammatical features and punctuation conventions of the text type.
 Uses complex noun groups to build descriptions.
 Uses adjectival clauses to build descriptions and complex sentences.
 Uses conjunctions in the 1st position to develop complex sentences.
English Stage 3
September 2004
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 and Megan Gibbons, Auburn Nth PS
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/
Page 1 of 4
Traditional Tales
Resources
Inside Stories – Mimosa Shortland – David Hornsby
 The Three Little Pigs
 Jack and the Beanstalk
 Little Red Riding Hood
 Cinderella
 The fisherman and his Wife
Roald Dahl – Revolting Rhymes
Jon Scieszka
 The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs
 The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly stupid Tales
Babette Cole
 Princess Smartypants
 Prince Cinders
English Stage 3
September 2004
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 and Megan Gibbons, Auburn Nth PS
Page 2 of 4
http://www.curriculumsupport.nsw.edu.au/
Traditional Tales
Teaching and Learning Activities
1. Build vocabulary. View a number of traditional tales. Brainstorm and list text type specific
vocabulary that may be found in the texts, ie castle, queen. Students name and list as many
traditional tales as possible.
Read the big book: The Three Little Pigs.
2. Introduce the range of verbs. Read a traditional tale and play the verb game. Discuss the
different types of verbs ie thinking, feeling, action, being and having, relating. Read the story
and have children put their hand up every time they hear a verb. Discuss the frequency of
verbs. Each sentence must have at least one. Have a student recording the verbs. Begin
to categorise the verbs together and complete independently. Discuss the types of verbs
that narratives contain ie more thinking and feeling.
3. Describing a scene using saying and thinking verbs. Using Jack and Beanstalk as
stimulus students will use the picture on page 19 as the focus for using thinking and saying
verbs. Students work in pairs. One writes a sentence for the giant, the other writes for the
hen.
The hen
shouted
“you’re squeezing me too tightly!”
Sayer
saying verb
what is being said
Highlight how to use speech marks.
4. Repeat activity this time using thinking verbs.
The hen
realised
that the giant was not very nice.
Thinker
thinking verb
what he thought.
Note: this work can be done on large strips of paper so it is easy to add new information.
Keep paper for next activity.
5. Add noun group/adjectival clauses to sentence from previous activities. Students keep
their own sentences but now work in groups of three. Each student adds noun groups to
their own sentences.
The hen,
who was overworked shouted
“you’re squeezing me too tightly!”
Sayer
adjectival clause
saying verb what was said.
In groups of three the students use their sentences as the base for readers’ theatre. Each
group decides and discusses who is the hen, giant and narrator. Have each group perform
their work.
6. Each student writes a paragraph that describes the scene using the past lessons as a
base. Students listen to the work of others, discuss the appropriate choices of language
(especially the variety of verbs that have been used and noun groups).
7. Discuss how to build characters through extended nouns groups. Look at examples from
traditional tales including Vasalisa.
English Stage 3
September 2004
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 and Megan Gibbons, Auburn Nth PS
Page 3 of 4
http://www.curriculumsupport.nsw.edu.au/
Traditional Tales
Assessment
Students describe the wolf in The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs. Discuss own choice
of verbs and use of noun groups in a writing conference.
Additional Activities
Read the big book Little Red Riding Hood and Roald Dahl version of Little Red Riding Hood.
Complete a compare and contrast chart – listing the key events and then the differences in
language used (especially the variety of verbs that have been used and noun groups).
Discuss how the characters are portrayed differently through the different noun groups and
verbs used.
English Stage 3
September 2004
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 and Megan Gibbons, Auburn Nth PS
Page 4 of 4
http://www.curriculumsupport.nsw.edu.au/