Creativity and Democracy

Huh? How in the world can these two words have anything to do with one another?

In group story creating of course!

The last class we had (Rollie Pollies) for two years, was VERY interested in the story of the Three Little Pigs. However, whenever we tried to go beyond felt and book stories, they lost interest.

NO LONGER!!

We are well on our way to creating our very own version of this story. Five of the eight children in our current class came from the Rollie Pollies, and the other three children jumped quickly on the bandwagon.

Here is our process.

FIRST - we read several versions of the story over, and over, and over, and over... for the first weeks of school. We started with the felt version I had been telling them in the Rollie Pollie class. Since they knew the story inside and out, I had them involved in the telling of the story, and eventually they each received pieces to place on the felt board themselves. We also read, the Three Gators and the Big Bottom Boar (this quickly became the favorite) by Helen Ketteman, the Three Little Pigs by James Marshall, the Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas and Helen Oxenbury, and the True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka.

SECOND - It's time to write our own! Now that the children understood that each of these stories came from the same idea, we were ready to discuss what our version would be!

CHARACTERS - Our first discussion was about WHO would be in our story. Every child was given the opportunity to contribute, and all ideas were written down, even the repeats. Right away, it was very clear who they wanted to be the "bad guy"- the Big Bottom Boar from the Three Little Gator version. However, there were multiple options for the sibling characters: gators, wolves, and pigs. I drew the combinations on pieces of paper, and the children were each given a sticky note to vote on their choice. We ended up with a tie and had to revote. 

DEMOCRACY! "control of an organization or group by the majority of its members." (Google) 

We used this opportunity for a little lesson in government: each member has a voice, and the decision is made by the largest amount of votes. 

THIRD - SETTING - Where is our story going to take place? What is the location? Again, we discussed the possibilities and narrowed down to four options, drew them on paper, and voted. 

We are waiting on the vote of one more student to see which option will win. 

WHAT'S NEXT? 

1. What will the three homes be made of?

2. What phrases will the characters repeat.

3. Discussion of beginning, middle and end.

4. Writing the story!

5. Do we make it into a play?