A Pourquoi Tale About Why Bats Hang Upside Down

Read the short definition at the top of the sheet aloud first, so your child knows what kind of tale it is. After reading, talk about what the main character learned before your child writes the lesson.

Read a pourquoi tale about why bats hang upside down after Bat asks Sloth for help and tell its lesson. A pourquoi tale is a made-up story, not a science fact, about why something in nature is so. Its lesson is what it teaches. The directions on the page read: Read the pourquoi tale. Then, turn the page and answer the questions. On page 2: Use the pourquoi tale. Fill in chart boxes 1 to 4. Then, circle the best answer to questions 5 and 6. Then, answer question 7 on the 4 lines. The answer key covers the questions on page 2.

Yes, both. We made it for 3rd Grade fables, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens with myths, fables and folktales. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

A fable is a short story, often about animals, that teaches how to act, like the goat who learns the grass is not greener next door. A folktale is a story people pass along by telling it aloud. A myth explains something in nature with a powerful being, like the giant who made the mountains.

A pourquoi tale is a made up story, not a science fact, about why something in nature is so, like why the zebra has stripes. In a trickster tale, a clever character wins by fooling others, the way little Mouse fools Elephant. A tall tale tells of a hero with exaggeration, like Bess throwing her lasso so high that it tickled the sun.

Ask what the main character wanted, what they did and what happened because of it. The lesson usually sits in that last step. Then have your child point to the sentence in the tale that shows it, since the last question asks for one detail.

Yes. All 12 myths, fables and folktales sheets have an answer key, with the chart answers, the two multiple choice answers and a sample lesson with a detail.

A fable is a short story, often about animals, that teaches how to act. A folktale is a story people pass along by telling it aloud. A myth explains something in nature with a powerful being, like a giant who made the mountains. All three end with a lesson children can find (RL.3.2).

No. Every fable, folktale and myth on these sheets is an original ClassWeekly story, so children meet new characters and have to work out the lesson for themselves.

Ask three questions in order: What did the character want? What did they do? What happened because of it? The lesson usually lives in the last answer. Then have your child find one sentence in the story that shows it.