Adding Actions and Adjectives: Storytelling Worksheet

For the past 15 years I have been working with students, teaching them the art of Oral Tradition. They choose their own folktales and through a number of written assignment and interactive games they add their own voice to the tale. Our final goal is an end of year Storytelling Festival for their families, friends and community members.

Last week I used a new worksheet I created with my fourth and fifth grade storytelling students to help their stories come alive. 

Below are some of the changes/additions the students made in their stories; they are capitalized and in bold font.

• They walked down the path and found a SHALLOW stone well.
• They QUICKLY tumbled down the shallow well.
• Once there was a GRAND Chinese ruler who had a cat he treasured above all other animals.
• The ruler gave a BROAD smile as he realized that his children were his wisest advisers of all. 
• She FIRMLY held out her needle
• “I see how fast you DEVOURED my mother’s butter.”
• It told the boy about strange, VICIOUS stone giants and GHOSTLY flying heads
• “I really should not say,” said the SNEAKY clam.
• Beaver thought of a plan, a very BRILLIANT plan!
• The oldest brother PROUDLY counted his bothers.
• The youngest brother had a CREATIVE idea.
• There once was a COLORFUL garden, filled with flowers STRETCHING toward the sun.
• The girls SWIFTLY ran off.
• They SLOWLY TIPTOED towards her.

I give you permission to use the worksheet in your storytelling work, however, I respectfully ask that you do not remove the copyright information and credit the source. Permission does not include using it in any other print material, i.e. books, workshop handouts, blogs, e-books, etc. Please feel free to contact me with any questions. 

If you would like the worksheet in a .doc file I will be happy to email it to you. You may reach me at storybug@aol.com . If you do use it I would be delighted to know how it worked for your students. You will find additional handouts and games I created for my storytelling troupes in my award-winning book, Story by Story: Creating a Student Storytelling Troupe .

Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think about this new worksheet. *Note: I monitor blog comments to avoid spam so you will not immediately see your note until I approve it. 

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Karen Chace 2017 ©

This blog post was researched and compiled by Karen Chace. Permission for private use is granted. Distribution, either electronically or on paper is prohibited without my expressed written permission. For permission please contact me at storybug@aol.com. Of course, if you wish to link to my blog via your website, blog, newsletter, Facebook page or Twitter please feel free to do so; I greatly appreciate your support and personal integrity.