Things You'll Need:
- Notebook paper
- Pencils
- Colored pencils
- Books about Johnny Appleseed
- Internet sites about Johnny Appleseed
- Printing paper
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Step 1
Read the book "Johnny Appleseed" by Steven Kellogg out loud to your class. Two other books you can use are "The Story of Johnny Appleseed" by Aliki or "Johnny Appleseed" by Jane Kurtz. After you read the book discuss it with the class. Discuss some of the elements of a folk tale. The characters solve problems in unusual, hard to believe ways. The character Johnny Appleseed is a strange character. Ask the children to talk about some of the traits he has that make him different. Most of the time, the characters are stronger, smarter and larger than most people.
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Step 2
Now hand out two pieces of paper. Tell the children to write down some of the character traits of Johnny Appleseed. This gives them an idea of how to begin to describe a character. Tell them to imagine that if an apple from a tree that Johnny Appleseed planted could talk what tale would it tell? The apple could be a character in your tale of apples and Johnny Appleseed. Imagine another scene in which Johnny Appleseed meets a family and a young girl tells about how he visited her family and gave them seeds to plant apple trees. Or it could be a young boy that describes the visit and how he planted the seeds and they grew into an apple orchard. Tell the kids to create a character for the tale and write down the description of the character. You need to exaggerate and fantasize about what this character said and did.
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Step 3
How does this character look? Is it an animal, apple boy or girl? Is she tall, short, thin or fat? If it is an apple, is it green, yellow, bright red, or big or small? Detail is what makes the character memorable. Does she have a big red nose or large hands and feet? Drawing the character on paper is a good way to help visualize her. Now you want to describe the personality. Is the character angry, helpful, kind, funny, smart or wise? Even the apple can have these emotional characteristics for the story. Characters must have feelings about the story they are telling. Are they proud, ashamed, sad or joyful? Write it down.
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Step 4
What do you want your folktale to say? What is the message? Since you are writing about Johnny Appleseed and his journey you want to gear it to that message. The apple character, for example, is telling about the wonder of seeing apple orchards grow and apple products developed by the pioneers. The girl is telling about meeting Johnny Appleseed and how he showed her how to plant apple seeds to grow trees. Perhaps he asked her to go with him on his journey and she went with him for a few months so she tells about the journey with him distributing apple seeds. A boy tells about how they used to make cider with the apples they grew. What is the moral or lesson of the story? One online website the children can use to read folktales and get ideas for writing is AmericaFolklore.net.
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Step 5
Each story should have a plot that has a beginning, middle and end. The tale should have some action or conflict to make it interesting. Again, it should have the lesson or moral of the tale. It can be that apples were an important food that helped pioneers survive or the growth of apple trees was a mystery of nature. Be sure to have the children write these details out before writing the story. Now have the children write the story on the blank piece of paper using the notes from their brainstorming session. Once the story is written you can have them type the finished document in Microsoft Word and print it out. Read the stories aloud and critique them. They should be at least one or two pages.
