Year 4 Week 14 Writing (Short stories with a moral)

Monday – Analyse a fable

Listen to the fable ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’ on BBC radio

or read the story below:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/english-ks1--

ks2-aesops-fables-the-boy-who-cried-wolf/zdsft39

Let’s look more closely at this story.

The Boy who cried Wolf

There was once a boy who looked after sheep. The farmer told the boy to

watch the sheep carefully because there were wolves around. The boy

became bored. One day, he played a trick on the villagers. The boy cried out

that there was a wolf attacking his sheep, even though there wasn’t. The

villagers came up the hill to save the sheep. When they got there, there was

no wolf. The boy laughed at them. “You must not tell lies!” said the villagers.

Soon the boy was bored again. He shouted, “Wolf! Wolf!” The villagers

rushed up the hill to save the sheep. When they got there, there was no wolf

again. The boy laughed at them again. “You must not tell lies!” shouted the

villagers. They went back down to the village.

Later that day, a wolf did come into the field. The boy shouted and shouted,

“Wolf! Wolf!” This time no one came to help, and the wolf ate all of the

sheep. The moral of the story is, ‘If you tell lies, people won’t believe you

when you do tell the truth.’

Read below - Story Structure (The Boy Who Cried Wolf)

Bare Bones of story More details

Opening A boy looks after sheep.

He is told to watch them carefully.

The boy is bored whilst watching the sheep.

He is very imaginative.

Event/Build-up The boy shouts for help.

The boy shouts, “Wolf, wolf!”.

The villagers come to help.

The boy laughs at them.

They tell him off.

Problem The boy shouts for help again.

The boy shouts, “Wolf, wolf!” again.

The villagers come a second time.

They tell him off again.

They think he doesn’t tell the truth.

Resolution The boy shouts for help a third time.

The boy shouts, “Wolf, wolf!” again.

The villagers don’t believe him and nobody comes.

Ending The wolf eats all the sheep.

The boy is telling the truth this time.

If you tell lies, people won’t believe you when you tell the truth.

Story Road

Opening - The boy is bored whilst

watching the sheep. He is very

imaginative.

Event/Build-up - The boy shouts,

“Wolf, wolf!” The villagers come to

help. The boy laughs at them. They

tell him off.

Problem - The boy shouts, “Wolf, wolf!” again. The villagers come a second time. They tell him off again. They think he doesn’t tell the truth.

Resolution - The boy shouts, “Wolf, wolf!” again. The villagers don’t believe him and nobody comes.

Ending - The boy is telling the truth this time but the wolf eats all the sheep. So, if you tell lies, people won’t believe you when you tell the truth.

Task: From the list below, choose a moral you would like to

have in your story, or make one of your own up. Write it

down.

Remember – A moral is a lesson about right or wrong to be

learned from the story.

Slow and steady wins the race.

If you lie you may not be believed when you tell the truth.

No one is too small to help someone bigger.

Practise makes perfect.

Don’t put off something until the next day.

A friend in need is a friend indeed.

Treat others as you would like to be treated.

Don’t always follow the crowd.

If you see someone in need, help them out.

Nobody likes a show off.

Be kind to others and they will show you kindness back.

Appearances can be deceiving.

People who try to trick others can be tricked themselves.

Even the strongest need help from the weak.

The key is that a moral is a lifelong lesson or an

overarching rule to live by. It is not a specific lesson that

only applies in certain situations. ‘Always brush your teeth

before you go to bed’ is not a moral – it is too specific.

Tuesday – Plan a fable

Let’s remind ourselves of the features of a fable.

It is a short fictional story.

Main characters are often animals (but can be people or

objects) with human qualities (e.g. clever, wise, funny,

kind, selfish).

Teaches a moral or lesson about life.

Usually one to three characters.

One character sometimes has a bad trait that leads to

his or her downfall .

Dialogue is used to help tell the story or state the moral.

Can be funny and entertain the reader.

Sometimes uses characters that are unlike each other or

natural enemies (e.g. Huge lion and tiny mouse, the sun

and the wind, the fox and the crane, the cat and the

mouse).

We will follow these steps to create a fable:

Step 1: Determine the Moral of the Story

This will be the focus of your story and come at the end of the

resolution.

Step 2: Pick Your Characters and Setting

Choose two animals or objects to serve as your main

characters. You can also pick non-animal characters, like the

wind, the sun, the sea, or even an object like a pot. Your

characters do not need names. They will be called what they

are: the fox, the wolf, the sun, and so on. It can take place in a

forest, city or even a school for animals. Or perhaps it takes

place at the bottom of the ocean, or on Mars. The choice of

setting is yours.

Step 3: Pick Your Characters’ Traits

Whatever characters you choose, they will each need a defining

trait that will play a big part in the story. Many animals are

traditionally associated with human qualities. For example, a

wise owl; a crafty fox; an industrious bee; a tricky spider; or a

strong ox.

Step 4: Shape the Conflict

What kinds of conflicts could the characters get into? Choose

one simple conflict that will demonstrate their personality

traits. For example, in The Tortoise and the Hare, a footrace is

the perfect setting in which to contrast one character who is

slow but determined and focused, with another character who

is a fast runner but is boastful and easily distracted from his

goal.

Look at how I’ve taken the story of ‘The Boy Who Cried

Wolf’ and used the plot as the basis for a story with new

characters, setting and conflict. If I was stuck for ideas, I

could use this type of model to help.

Fable Planning Sheet – EXAMPLE 1

Moral: If you lie to people, then no one will believe you when you tell the truth.

Plot: Goose and Dog

Opening (Introduce the main characters and

setting) Goose lives on a farm – thinks only of herself , often gets bored - likes to trick Dog

Main Characters and their traits A. Goose – lies and makes up stories, selfish, unkind B. Dog - looks after animals, brave, trusting

Event/Build-up (Build up and develop the

plot or the problem) Goose tells Dog that Cow is stuck in the pond - Dog rushes to help – but it’s not true - Goose laughs Problem (What is the problem?) Goose tells Dog that Sheep has got stuck on a fence - Dog rushes to help - not true again- Goose laughs –keeps telling lies Resolution (How is the problem being solved

or sorted out?) Goose spots a fox going into the hen house - tells Dog but Dog won't believe Goose

Setting: farmyard Ending/consequences (The problem is

solved. Leads to the moral of the story) Goose rushes back to hen house to find Fox has eaten the hens and then Fox eats her too.

How is this story similar to ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’?

Answer: Just like in the ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’, the Goose – rather than the

boy – keeps calling for help – to the dog - instead of the villagers. Eventually

the dog doesn’t believe her any more – just like the villagers don’t believe the

boy – and all the hens get eaten in the end – rather than the sheep.

Idea – I’ve taken the same story as above and changed the

moral of the story and the characters’ traits. Look below at

how the story has changed now.

Fable Planning Sheet – EXAMPLE 2

Moral: Treat others as you would like to be treated.

Plot: Goose and Dog

Opening Goose lives on a farm – thinks only of herself , often gets bored - likes to make fun of Dog

Main Characters and their traits A. Goose – Makes fun of people, selfish, lazy, supposed to look after hens B. Dog - Helpful, brave, trusting

Event/Build-up - Goose tells Dog there’s a special bone in the mud near the pond. Dog tries to find it but gets covered in mud instead. Goose laughs at Dog. Problem - Goose tells Dog that there’s another dog that wants to be his friend, but he must somehow get over the fence to the other farmyard. He does this but breaks the fence. Goose laughs again. Resolution – Goose notices hens have gotten out of the barn. Tells Dog to find them but he doesn’t believe her. Tells Goose to find them herself. The hens get angry that Goose is ordering them back to barn. Pluck out all her feathers. Goose looks very silly with all her feathers gone.

Setting: farmyard Ending/consequences Goose is laughed at by everyone when she gets all the hens back. She realises that she should treat others as she would like to be treated.

Task: Make a plan for your fable. Use the Fable Planning Sheet or

draw your own plan on paper. Extension: Draw/write a story road

to go with your plan as well.

Extension - Story Road

Opening

Event/Build-up

Problem

Resolution

Ending

Wednesday – Write the opening, event and problem of a

fable.

Let’s look at how to begin.

Some good starting phrases I could use are:

One ________________ day…

There was once…

A man…

A woman…

A boy…

A girl…

A ________________...

Under the blue sunny sky…

Under the blue glistening sea…

On a warm, sandy beach…

In the cold darkness of space…

I will use the following features to guide my writing:

Main characters are animals with human qualities

One to three main characters Teaches a moral or lesson about life

One character has a bad trait that leads to his or her downfall

Dialogue is used to help tell the story Can be funny and entertain the reader

I will use example 2 of my plan. I’ll give it a title and then

start with my opening…

The Dog and the Goose

There was once long ago a goose who was very selfish and

loved to make fun of Dog. She lived on a farm and was in

charge of looking after all the hens. She was often bored so

she would think up ways to get Dog to do silly things. Then

she would laugh at him.

Now that I’ve introduced the characters and setting, I’ll

move on to my first event…

To trick Dog, Goose first told him that there was a special,

incredibly tasty bone near the pond. Upon hearing news of

this, Dog raced to the pond and starting digging ferociously

for the bone! But before long, he realised that there was

nothing buried in the ground and gave up. He went into the

barn and Goose took one look at him, and roared with

laughter. “Oh Dog, you look so ridiculous! You’re completely

covered in mud! I love it!!” With that, Dog sadly scampered

away to sulk outside.

Then on to the problem…

The next day, Goose told Dog that there was another dog

from the next farm who wanted to play with him, but that he

would have to somehow get over the fence to get there. Dog

was very lonely as there were no other dogs on the farm. So

upon hearing this, he immediately raced to the neighbour’s

Animal characters

with human traits

Dialogue is used to

help tell the story Time connectives

help to begin each

part of the story

fence and tried to get through a small opening. But it was so

small that he had to try and make it bigger. He scratched and

pushed and pulled, but couldn’t make the hole bigger. He

tried again, but this time the entire section of fence came

crumbling to the ground! “Oh no!” he thought, “I’m in big

trouble now!” Goose raced to the scene and saw the broken

fence, letting out a tremendous laugh of approval that lasted

for over an hour! “Oh sorry Dog, I must have been mistaken!”

she blurted, “I guess there wasn’t really another dog to play

with!” Dog was heartbroken and sadly trotted off,

whimpering to Goose as he went. “It’s not funny!” he

sobbed.

Look at how I used my plan for the general framework of

the story. Then used dialogue to add interest and humour.

Let’s look back at our features checklist to see if we’ve used

any of them.

Main characters are animals with human qualities

One to three main characters

Teaches a moral or lesson about life One character has a bad trait that leads to his or her downfall

Dialogue is used to help tell the story

Can be funny and entertain the reader

We don’t know the ending so we don’t need to tick off

everything yet.

Task: Using your fable plan, write the opening, event and

problem for your story on paper or a computer.

Remember to use capital letters to begin sentences and punctuation such as

full stops. Also inverted commas around any dialogue. Try to include lots of

great describing words.

Thursday – Write the resolution and ending of your fable.

Today we’ll bring the story together and end with the

moral.

The resolution…

Later that day Goose noticed that the hens had gotten out of

the barn. She told Dog to go and bring them all back. But by

this time Dog didn’t believe a word she said to him and

replied, “No, not this time Goose. How could I ever trust you

now?” So Goose had to go and try to round up all the hens.

But the hens were enjoying their new found freedom and

were quite annoyed with the bossy Goose telling them what

to do. So rather than march back to the barn, the hens

surrounded Goose and plucked all her feathers out! “Help,

help!!” she shouted. But it was no use. Before long, all her

feathers were completely gone and she looked like a saggy-

skinned pink turkey without feathers, rather than a goose!

Now to the ending…

Eventually, Goose rounded up all the hens and took them

back to the barn. When all the other creatures in the barn

saw her they let out a huge roar of laughter! Goose went to

the pond and saw her reflection, and realised how silly she

looked. After being laughed at so much, she felt bad about

how she had acted towards Dog earlier. She then began to

understand that we should treat others as we would like to

be treated.

The end.

Let’s look back again at our features checklist. I can now

check all of them off.

Main characters are animals with human qualities

One to three main characters Teaches a moral or lesson about life

One character has a bad trait that leads to his or her downfall

Dialogue is used to help tell the story Can be funny and entertain the reader

Task: Complete the resolution and ending for your fable.

If you have finished your story, re-read and edit to check spelling and

punctuation, or make other improvements.

Friday – Edit your story

Re-read your story. Check that you have used capital letters

and full stops. Check that you have used inverted commas in

the right places for dialogue, and that the story makes sense.

Also that you have included lots of fantastic verbs, adverbs

and adjectives. Look at the features checklist to see that you

have included most or all of the features. When you have

finished, ask someone else to read your brilliant story!

Extension: Do a piece of writing in any style about something

you’ve learned this year.

The main characters are animals with human qualities.

There are usually one to three characters. It teaches a moral or lesson about life. One character has a bad trait that leads to his or her downfall.

Dialogue is used to help tell the story.

It can be funny and entertain the reader. If you have finished editing yesterday, either write a good

copy of your story, change some parts of the story to make it

different, or you may do a piece of writing in any style about

something you’ve learned this year.

End of Year 4 Week 14 Writing