Fact Versus Fiction

What You Need

• Paper
• Pencil
• A tall tale (see below)
• Crayons
• Stapler

What You Do:

1. You can find a variety of tall tales on the American Folklore site. As you read, point out some of the exaggerations and encourage her to point out others. Discuss how an exaggeration is fiction, something that isn’t true.
2. Now have her write a fact about herself. She might write about something she can do. “I can swim four laps.” Or she can write about how she looks. “I have long black hair.” Explain that facts are things that are true.
3. Have her number lines 1 through 10 beneath her fact.
4. On line 1, have her write her first exaggeration. On line 2, have her exaggerate even more, repeating up to line 10. She could increase the number of laps that she can swim (forty instead of four), or change where she is swimming (across the Atlantic Ocean), or add an element that makes it more complex (while towing the Titanic).
5. Help her write and illustrate a storybook full of tall tales. Staple some pages together, and have her write a fact and an exaggeration on each one. By illustrating each exaggeration, she will further see how exaggerations differ from the real world.