In folktales, snow is often categorized by the elderly, and of course. The year has come and gone. The spring and the growing and the harvest. All that there is time for is . Yes, there are many creatures of the snow who play, elves, gnomes, jack frost: nimble creatures who act like snowflakes, twirling unpredictable and lightly through the air. Drawing harsh and jagged lines, sometimes tricking people, as elves and fairies normally do. But a trick in the wintertime has more severe consequences than those in the summer.
Here in the cold there are less illusions, less mushy reality. Winter is a world of crystals, fractals, which cut the light apart. If we learn to slow, to keep our little fires burning, save and savor what we can, we can find a deep and ancient wisdom in the ice.
Literacy, writing, history: Write your own winter fable
This project can be changed based on age and what you are already working on in literacy. I am writing this for high school aged students.
Begin by asking the student what they associate with winter.
Begin with three folktales. There are tons, but here are a few. Consider where the folktales are from and give a bit of background about the culture and who transcribed the story. Here are several from different cultures:
The Snow Maiden: Russian
La Bafana – Italian
Perchata – Germanic
Skadi – Norse
Oshiroi Baba – Japanese
Beira Queen of Winter – Scottish
Grandfather Frost – Russian
Rainbow Crow – Lenape
Wendigo – Algonquin
Create a story map with themes that the reader comes up with. This can look like a venn diagram. I love to draw these themes. It might also be interesting to look at how Vladamir Propp uses equations to map out stories in “Morphology of the Folktale.” The student should find these connections for themselves, but some ideas could be ephemerality, themes of age, isolation, darkness/light.
Question to answer: How does the main character in each story encounter these themes?
What does the student want to teach about winter based on their own experiences?
What wisdom do they already have about the season?
The students should choose one of the themes they have mapped to work with. Imagine a story where a character challenges that wisdom. What happens to them when they encounter the winter theme you have chosen? How do they survive? And if they don’t, how does their story get passed on?
Write a draft, read it outloud and rewrite it. New things always come up when you read your work aloud.
*optional but fun: add some artwork to it, draw, paint, or collage an aspect of the story.
Bending Tree Education 