Then, using sentence starters from classic folk and fairy tales, we played Paper Telephone (using one sentence to inspire another sentence or two and then folding the first sentence over and passing it to someone else to write the next sentence, and so on) and created our own stories, with varied results - some humorous, some tragic, and some confusing - much like traditional fairy tales. Enjoy them below!
Story #1
Once upon a time, there lived a king and queen who had almost everything they could possibly wish for. And once upon a time, there was a cunning thief. The thief stole everything the king and the queen got. The king ordered his men to find him and bring the thief back to the king. When the thief was brought to the king, the king asked why he had stolen from him. The thief cried and begged, explaining that his family was poor and starving. The king ordered him to be cast into a vat of boiling crocodiles. "Yay," the king says.
Story #2
On the edge of a great forest lived a poor woodcutter with his wife and his two children. One day, the two children came across a magical dog who could talk. The dog asked them if they had ever seen the magical tree where all animals speak. "Lies," they shouted to the dog. "You just want to use us for food." "No, I didn't lie. I'm good," he says. "Then jump in the lake and sacrifice yourself to save everyone," said the king. "Okay," he said. But at the last minute, no one had to sacrifice themselves at all because a huge friendly dragon came to save the day.
Story #3
Time was, Anansi the Spider had six sons... His sixth son was his favorite, and he always gave the best stuff to his sixth son. But one day, the other sons started getting angry and threw tantrums. They were so mad that they decided they would never speak to him again and demanded that their brother be thrown out of the house. Little did they know that he had already dug tunnels under the house to a secret place where he could live. But little did he know how to build structures with integrity...
Story #4
Rapunzel lived all alone in a tall, dark tower. She looked in the corner only to find mice eating her only snack. She was nice enough to give them more. The mice, with their newfound sense of control, soon became very ravenous. They also became smart. Then became dumb again. But it was okay because they had other talents - drawing, running, and singing like birds. These were incredible talents they later used in life.
Story #5
Once upon a time, there live a kind and beautiful princess named Izta. Then her brother came and set a bomb in her room. Luckily, the bomb misfired, and instead of wrecking everything, plants exploded out of it and took over her room. The flowers exploded and grew so big, the flowers broke through the roof and made a jungle. But something was awry, for these plants soon turned carnivorous. "Life sucks," the plants said.
After finishing our collaborative stories, we played around with a free, online, GIF creation website called BrushNinja. We ran out of time but managed to create some fun GIFs, including a couple fairy tale-inspired ones.
