Fantastical Foldables!

We are studying different "fantastical" genres in class (myths, legends, folktales, fairy tales, tall tales).  All of these are along the same lines, but have some unique features that make them different.  Explaining these subtleties to 11 year olds is rather....tricky.  So, taking my cue from Mor over at A Teacher's Treasure, I had my students create these foldables.  (she did hers on Mean, Median, Mode...so I changed it up, but still was inspired by her awesome foldables)

To begin, we read an informational article about mythology and its various characteristics.  After discussing them, the students then began to work on the foldable.  There were four separate sections.


1.  Myth -- this was for the definition of a myth
2.  Symbolism -- students wrote why symbols might be included in a myth
3.  Creation of myths -- why were myths created in the first place
4.  Morals in myths -- why were lessons or morals a big part of myths




 The wrote the answers to these questions on the top flap of the foldable.  

Then, the students divided the inside of the foldable into 8 parts (2 for each of the four sections).  We read a myth called First People, about how summer came into the world.  The students then looked for the elements in this myth.  They wrote them out in the sections as shown.

Afterwards, we read The Flight of Icarus.  The students then, in partners (using their partner pals), found the elements of a myth in that story.  The entire project had them talking about myths, discovering what exactly made a myth a myth, and finding evidence in text.  There was so much going on with this easy little foldable....I can hardly contain my excitement for it all!  ;)

Here is the final product.











I created a template for you to use in your class.  I would make copies for the kids to use as a guide OR just project the one copy up on the ELMO/overhead projector (to save paper....that one is for Lindsay ;) )  They can then create the actual foldable on blank SQUARE paper.   One word of warning, when you print it out, the lines will not reach the edge (due to printing margins...darn!) but that is ok.  The kids should still be able to follow it well enough.   I am working on ones for legends, tall tales, fairy tales, and folktales as well.   Once I get those completed, I will let you all know!