As you may know, I love stories for teaching children. They engage them, give context to the concepts of a class, and give them a springboard for creativity. This is a new one for me, and frankly I haven't used it yet; but I'm sharing it here anyway, along with my ideas for using it! It's a folktale that may be found in several versions. This telling of it is my own.

Once upon a time, a little pine tree lived in the woods. It didn’t have any leaves; instead, it had needles.

One day, the little pine tree wished it had leaves like the other trees.

"I don’t like needles,” cried the little pine tree. “All the other trees in the woods have pretty leaves, and I want leaves, too. I want leaves even better than theirs --I want gold leaves!"

That night, when it became dark, the little tree went to sleep. A fairy came dancing by, did her magic, and gave the little pine tree gold leaves!

The next morning, when the sun came up, the little tree woke up, rustled its branches, and discovered its new leaves of gold.

It was so happy! “I am so pretty now!” exclaimed the tree. “There’s no other tree with gold leaves like mine!”

A man came by with a bag, and saw the gold leaves. Thinking the leaves could make him rich, he plucked them all off of the tree, put them into his bag, and took them away.

Then the little tree had no leaves at all. The poor little tree cried, "I don’t want gold leaves again. I wish I could have glass leaves instead."

That night, when it became dark, the little tree went to sleep. The fairy came dancing by again, did her magic, and gave the little pine tree glass leaves!

The next morning, when the sun came up, the little tree woke up, shook out its branches, and discovered its new leaves of glass!

It was so happy! “I am so pretty now!” exclaimed the tree. “My glass leaves sparkle in the sunshine! And there’s no other tree with glass leaves like mine!”

Just then, a strong wind came up. It blew and blew mightily. The glass leaves all fell from the tree and shattered on the ground.

Again the little tree had no leaves. It felt very sad, and cried, "I don’t want gold leaves, and I don’t want glass leaves. I want green leaves, just like the other trees have.

That night, when it became dark, the little tree went to sleep. The fairy came dancing by again, did her magic, and gave the little pine tree green leaves!

The next morning, when the sun came up, the little tree woke up, swished its branches, and discovered its new green leaves!

It was so happy! “I have glossy green leaves!” exclaimed the tree. “Now I'm just as beautiful as all the other trees!”

A goat came by. The goat saw the green leaves on the little tree, and feeling hungry, ate up all the leaves.

Again the little tree had no leaves. Then the little tree cried, "I don’t want any leaves. I don’t want gold leaves, glass leaves, or green leaves. I want my needles back again!”

That night, when it became dark, the little tree went to sleep. The fairy came dancing by again, did her magic, and gave the little pine tree back its needles.

The next morning, when the sun came up, the little tree woke up, stretched out its branches, and discovered it had its needles again. Then the little pine tree was very happy, and never again wished for leaves.

Ideas

This is a story with a clear form, delineated by patterns of recurring ideas. I've emphasized the form in my use of language, and highlighted key repetitions in colors. Here, let's look at music/movement possibilities for these thematic ideas, on several levels.

Refrains
The story involves five repeating ideas, each of which occurs four times:
1. Dark night falling, and the tree going to sleep;
2. Morning sun rising, and the tree waking up;
3. The fairy coming by;
4. The tree feeling sad and crying;
5. The tree feeling happy.

Each of these events delineates form. By keeping music and movement ideas the same for each occurrence of these, the story's structure becomes a musical structure in time, sound, and movement, as well as literary outline.

Thus, you might have the class perform specific movement and/or music for each of these -- "night falling," "sun rising," etc... You might lead the children to create their own ideas for movement and/or sound (vocal or instrumental). For example, provide them a musical idea (something you play, or a short melodic refrain for them to sing) for "night falling," etc., from which they create movement to reflect the music and the idea.

Separate Ideas
Three variable ideas occurring just once are:
1. The gold leaves, and the man who steals them;
2. The glass leaves, and the wind that blows them away;
3. The green leaves, and the goat who eats them.

These suggest differentiation of sound and movement qualities -- perhaps the glory of the new leaves is the same each time, but different instruments, movements, and/or piano improvisation could convey contrasts between the rude theft of the gold leaves, the shrill shattering of the glass leaves, and the goat munching the green leaves.

Movement Ideas
Additional movement ideas include the tree rustling, shaking, swishing, and stretching its branches each morning; and the fairy or fairies dancing each night.

Music Concepts
Because I like to organize my classes around focal music concepts, and shape stories around them, I treat stories as vessels for musical content. I think of this one, for example, as full of potential for exploring things like:
- Ascending/descending melody (day/night, happy/sad, respectively);
- Major/minor versions of the same melodic idea (as above: day/night, happy/sad);
- Four rhythmic patterns and corresponding movements could come into play. For example, these could distinguish the fairies' four appearances (walking majestically on a low level with the heavy gold leaves, skipping and lifting the glass leaves up high to see them shine in the moonlight, swaying like tree branches with the green leaves, tip-toeing or prancing on prickly ground carrying the needles. These could embody rhythms in compound meter in 6/8, for example -- the full measure duration of a dotted half note, the trochaic (long-short) rhythm (quarter eighth), the beat (dotted quarter note), and the divisions (eighth notes), respectively.
- Similarly, the loss of the three kinds of leaves could involve three rhythmic ideas. Let's think of simple meter as an example: the gold leaves are plucked and bagged at the multiple of the beat (twice as slow); the glass leaves are blown and shattered at the division of the beat (twice as fast); and the green leaves are eaten at the beat.

For all of these, of course, it's easy to create short, simple melodic refrains for the children to sing, movements (created by you and/or them), and instrumental improvisation (theirs and/or yours).

Context
Context is everything. Decide first what you want to teach, and how; then shape and implement the story accordingly. Teach the children your chosen key concept(s) through listening, rhythmic movement, improvisation, singing, and theory games, if appropriate. Use the story as just one step along the line -- whether it's your first step from which the concepts are drawn and explored, or the last step as the culmination of a lesson.

(A perk: the story carries a positive message about individuality, self-acceptance, and persistence on the journey!)

Want more ideas?
Visit the "Try This" Archive!