Writing a Family Folktale/Parent Extension When people retell a story for many years, it can become a folktale. Some folktales explain why something happens or how it came to be. A retold story that teaches a lesson, or moral, is called a fable. It could even resemble one of Aesop's Fables if there are animal characters. A Tall Tale is an often-repeated story that stretches the truth into an exaggeration. Have your students collect family folktales. They can modify the folktale to become a fable or a tall tale. Houses and buildings have "folktales" too. Only after the Chapel of Our Lady of Light was completed in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1874, was it discovered that there was no room to build a conventional stairway from the chapel to the choir loft. An unknown carpenter appeared and built the spiral stairs with only a hammer, a saw and a T-square. He solved the limited space problem by soaking the lumber in tubs of water so that he could contour it, creating a stairway unsupported by a central post and with two complete 360 degree turns. The sisters gave credit for this miraculous solution to their prayers to St. Joseph. How would you find out how this much-repeated story got its beginning?

* This lesson plan was adapted from Walk Around the Block by the Center for Understanding the Built Environment, 1992; pages 64-65.

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