How to Use a Simple Story To Teach Many Things

Storytelling can be the foundation for active engaged learning to occur in your classroom or home. Obviously, it will improve language and communication skills, but there are many other basic skills that can be taught by using a simple story as a foundational lesson.

In this article, I'll show you how to take an old folk-tale, The Enormous Turnip, and use it in your homeschool or classroom setting. The stories simple plot is about how a very old man cannot pull an enormous turnip from the ground, so he enlists the aid of first his wife and then a long string of characters/animals to help him. It's an example of a repetitive tale, but one that is not boring, but gets funnier as it goes along. It will actively engage beginning readers but I've used it for much older children with the same results. With older students I change it up, but "inventing and letting them invent" a wider variety of characters to assist in the turnip pulling. e.g an alien from Mars, a rock star favorite, or a lemur from the rainforest and we set the story in the rainforest.

But back to our basic story. First step in using story to teach, is to gather the students in a circle around you. I insist upon the circle. It can be a circle around a table, but I prefer a circle around a chair with the teller in it. Come close to each other, it enhances the story, the eye contact essential for connection when telling a story and your connection to your listeners.

If you have a flannel board (a great and nifty thing to make), place the letters of the title of the story across the board to focus on the "written word". I then always begin my stories with a question. It immediately sets your listeners/students to thinking. Aha..thinking is good! I listen to their responses, after asking them to hold their hands up one at a time, so I can be sure not to miss their answer and to encourage them to listen to others so that others will listen to them when it's their turn. Aha...communication and listening...those are good!

The question I ask for this story is Have you ever eaten a turnip? If possible, I buy a turnip to bring to class and tell them that later we will "taste" the turnip. Tasting is good, it reinforces learning to adding another sense to the learning layers. The more senses we engage when teaching, the more effective the learning. Sight, sound, touch, smell, taste. I try to use all or as many as possible when teaching.

After carefully listening to the many answers you will get about turnips, gently encourage them to listen to a story about a giant turnip and then proceed to tell the story using a natural, expressive style. I know people are afraid to try telling a story and so they read it. But telling is the better alternative. This story is a good example for a beginning story to tell. It's simple and has a easy story skeleton upon which to "hang" the story.

When we use expressive communication skills of enunciation, phrasing, fluency, facial expressions, emphasis of voice, then our students/listeners will use the same expressions as they begin to retell the story, thus enhancing their own expressive communication. And in narrating the story using sentence structure, proper grammar, and story sequencing, your listners will follow the same pattern in their own stories, thus reinforcing those basic language arts skills in their own story making.

I proceed through the story, encouraging the students to hold their comments until the story is over, but encouraging them to join in as they recognize the repetitve phrases of the story. When we are finished, they will "know" this story.

The Enormous Turnip

Once upon a time old Grandfather found a turnip seed. He immediately went to his garden, dug a big hole and put the seed in. As he covered the seed with lots of dirt, he sang this song,
"Grow sweet, grow strong, grow big."

That turnip sure did grow big allright! It grew and grew and grew until it was ...enormous. When the turnip was as big as it could get, Grandfather decided to pull it up and make turnip soup. Yumm. Well, he leaned over and he grabbed that huge turnip top and he began to pull. He pulled...and pullled some more....and pulled some more.. but that turnip would not budge, not an inch. Hmmmph..

He called Grandmother to come and hlep. Well Grandmother grabbed ahold of Grandfather,, like this (I demonstrate) and she began to pull on Grandfather...and Grandfather pulled on the turnip. He pulled and pulled and pulled but..that turnip would not come out.

So Grandmother called their grandson to come and help. The grandson grabbed Grandmother around the legs and he pulled on Grandmother. Grandmother pulled on Grandfather and Grandfather pulled on that turnip. He pulled and he pulled and he pulled and still that turnip would not come out.

So grandson called for the dog to come and help....(same sequence of events as above)
So the dog called for the cat to come and h elp..(repeat pulling sequence)
So the cat called for mouse to come and help..(again repeat the pulling sequence, but now the kids are really getting into doing the Pulling part, perhaps acting out their own pulling and saying the words right along with you.)
But here's what happens now..

and Grandfather pulled and pulled and he pulled, and--kerplop--up came that turnip..finally!

And Grandfather turned to his helpers and wiping the sweat from his head..he calmly said.

"At last, turnip soup"

The end. This simple story can be varied in a zillion different ways. I know having done so with any number of groups of kids. But now the fun learning continues.

For pre-readers, I provide a set of flannel board characters for this story, made from printing out the various characters, an old man, an old woman, etc. For art project, I make copies of these character sets and let the kids color and cut out their own set to use. I glue them on to cardstock to make them more durable for repeated uses. There will be repeated uses! Or you can glue popsicle sticks on them and make stick puppets also.

I then encourage the students to retell the story to a partner. In doing so they are using word recognition skills and comprehension skills. For readers I provide a simple outline of the story from which they can "learn" the vocabulary, thus adding new words to their wordboxes. (another lesson on building beginning reading vocabulary linked here) Of course for non readers and readers alike, the idea of using the flannel board or puppets to retell the story involves sequencing skills, essential for reading and reading comprehension.

After everyone has had fun making their characters (art), telling the story (language arts, reading)-I then engage them in a science lesson about growing turnips. You could plant your own turnip seeds, comparing that big turnip with those little seeds! Turnips are very easy to grow outdoors and fun to watch. Of course, just about this time...we bring out the turnips to taste. Most kids will dislike the taste, but not all. I offer raw slices with a bit of salt and some cooked with potatoes to tone down the flavor. Add plenty of garlic and butter...(for you the teacher!)

Additional learning activities using this one simple story:

Word fun session: What words other than enormous could you use to describe the turnip. (synonyms like big, giant, etc or adjectives like purple and white, rough)

Gym activity: Acting out the pulling of the turnip in one long line, with everybody being different characters..and having a gigantic tug of war with "the turnip"..and of course everyone falling back together when the turnip goes kerplop..Provide a soft landing area!

What has happened in this learning activity that would not have happened in a traditional academic setting where the student simply read or attempted to read the story? By engaging all of their senses in the story, you have really connected the story to their learning processes. For preschoolers, beginning readers, and lower elementary students, you have encouraged them to use words to communicate and then by bringing in the words on the flannel board or in printed story..words to read, thus bridging that divide between the spoken word and the written word.

Once students "learn" that spoken words become written stories..they will want to learn to read, half the battle of teaching reading. I really recommend students having a basic set of stories that they have learned to tell, and to read. Let them tell their stories, over and over, as many times as they are interested in it. Other good stories for this type of activity are simple familiar ones, like The Three Bears, The Three Pigs, Three Billy Goats Gruff. But any good story can be adapted to fit this flannel graph method. Use your imagination and your favorite stories.

The library has entire sections of folk and fairy tales and story telling anthologies with lots of stories. Make them part of your homeschool or classroom lessons every day. You'll be amazed at how they beg..for storytime!