Storytelling KIDS!
Everyone has a story! What's yours?
Character
Use the link below to create your own superhero character!
Non-Human Characters
Some of these stories are traditional, meaning that the story is very important and storytellers have been telling the story for a long time. For example, in West African nations such as Ghana, stories of Anansi the Spider illustrate the importance of wit and intelligence and have been told for generations.
Setting
The setting is the time and place of a story. List as many places as you can (zoo, park, etc.) and choose whether it's past, present, or future (an afternoon after school, in the year 2050). Think about how the place will affect your character and what it might make them do (when it is hot, he goes swimming).
Capture Your Story's Setting
To help you think about your setting, try writing a haiku about a place you know. A haiku is a poem with three lines. The first line has five syllabus, the second line has seven syllabus, and the third line has five syllables.
Here is an example. This is a translation, originally written in Japanese by Natsume Soseki.
Over the wintry
forest, winds howl in rage
with no leaves to blow.
Problem or Challenge
Read the stories below and try to figure out what each scientist's challenges were!
Henrietta Leavitt
This scientist was born in America in 1868. She was college educated and because her family was financially well-off, she was able to take an unpaid position at the Harvard College Observatory. However, because she was a woman, she was not allowed to use telescopes and was assigned with studying photographic plates and performing calculations. Adding to her challenges was the loss of her hearing shortly before working at the Observatory. She was the first person to develop a standard rule for measuring a star's distance from earth. She is also responsible for creating a rule to determine a star's actual brightness.
Isaac Newton
This scientist was born in England in 1642 and was raised by his grandmother. Although not a stellar student, he attended law school when he got older. This was quite expensive, so to pay for school he worked as a servant. Later, he purchased a book on mathematics. He was confused by and didn't understand the book and decided he would try to learn whatever he could about math and science. He is best known for his three laws of motion and as the discoverer of gravity.
Plot
What would happen if you told the story of Cinderella or Abraham Lincoln backwards with the ending first?