WHO ARE THE FOLKS AND WHAT ARE THEIR TALES?
Grades 2-3

I will tell you all about folktales.

I will tell you who the folks are.

I will tell you what their tales are.

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What are folktales?

Folks means people.

Tales means stories.

Folktales are "PEOPLE STORIES."

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There are many kinds of folktales.

Some folktales make us laugh.

Some folktales teach us lessons.

Folktales are fun.

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Where do folktales come from?

Folktales come from many places.

Folktales come from all the countries in the world.

The people in those countries like to tell folktales.

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How old are the folktales?

Most folktales are very old stories.

They started as "talking stories" and were not written down at the beginning. Talking stories are called "oral" stories.

Some folktales are hundreds of years old.

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Why have some folktales lasted
for such a long time?

The people have been telling the folktales for a very long time.

The grown-up people told the stories to the children.

Then the children grew up.

When those children were grown-ups, they had children of their own.

They told the same stories to their own children.

That is how the old stories have lasted for so long.

We do not usually know who made up the folktale at the beginning. If we know the name of the author, we call them literary tales.

 

WHY DID PEOPLE LIKE TO HEAR FOLKTALES?

Most folktales are very old.
The folktales helped people in many ways.

l.Entertainment

Long ago there were no television or radio.

There were no movies.

There were books, but most people could not read.

Children and their parents would love to hear
folktales.

It was entertainment, like dancing and singing.

2.Teach good living values

Most children did not go to school.

Many folktales taught good lessons in how to live a good life.

Some people were afraid that if their children did not do good things that their children would be punished. So they wanted their children to have good values.

3. Pretending that better things could happen.

Most people long ago were very poor.

They worked hard.

They had no hope that things would be better for their children.

Many folktales were about poor people who became rich. It was not likely that this could happen to these poor people. But when they listened to a folktale, they pretended that these things could happen.