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Intended to provide a natural and positive way to introduce young children to the stories told by different ethnic groups, this paper suggests a series of language activities that adapt folktales from around the world for classroom use to enable young children to read the stories for themselves. The paper notes that these activities are particularly appropriate for children of minority groups whose feelings of self-worth can be increased as they find themselves reflected in the stories they and their classmates are reading and enjoying. These stories can also become the backbone of an emergent literacy program or can be used to enhance the curriculum in early grades. In the first section, a story from Kenya ("The Magic Stone") has been rewritten in predictable language and procedures are given to make this into a big book to be used for shared book experiences. The next section describes a collection of small group activities, using a variety of folktales from different ethnic groups (including "The Fisherman and his Wife" from Germany, and "The Magic Orange Tree" from Haiti). The final section suggests additional ideas appropriate for the theme on wishes, based on folktales that include "The Story of the Stone Lion" from Tibet. Four figures are included. An appendix contains "The Magic Stone" story. A reference section contains 26 academic references, a list of 12 folkstories about wishes, and a list of 17 predictable folkstories and modern tales. (SR)

an: ED381775; docTypes: Guides - Classroom - Teacher; pubTypes: Electronic Resource;