Stories and Resources
Welcome to the storytelling resources page! Whether you're looking for some good stories to have a go at telling, or some more more stories to match the ones you've heard in school, this is the page for you.
Note for teachers: some of our stories have lesson plans and/or ideas for use in your classroom.
Click here for our archive of teacher's resources.
Our Written Story Archive
Snail Tales has written out some of their retellings of traditional tales especially for you. If you decide to retell one of these stories, you could have a go at using your own words like a real storyteller! But if you are going to use the exact words we've written, it's polite to tell your audience where you found them.
A special treat for Little Birds: want to know the real ending of the story with the beautiful broccoli-eating witch's maid? Click here to read the tale of Puddocky!
This term you can:
- Read about King Arthur's cousin, Sir Guingamor
- Join cunning Hercules on his eleventh labour
- Pick up some performance poetry with The Pea and the Princess
- Help Anansi's children rescue their father from being a kestrel's dinner
Or delve into the Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime with one of our own interpretations of these ancient creation myths...
- The Singing Tortoise
- Echidna
- Coral Creeper
- Pindari and Mowan (another special treat for Little Birds!)
- The Frogs and the "I AM"
Other Story Collections
We've also made a list of some websites we think are great sources of traditional tales. Perhaps you'll recognise some stories you have already heard us tell, and be able to see how we made them our own. These are traditional stories so you can re-tell them in your own words to your heart's content - but again, if you do use the exact words that you find on these sites, make sure that you know who wrote them down and tell your audience whose version of the tale you are using.
Fairy stories and traditional tales: http://www.fairystory.org
American folktales: http://www.americanfolklore.net/sindex.html
Mike Lockett, the Normal Storyteller: http://www.mikelockett.com/home.php
Research and Find Your Own!
Storytellers are always researching to uncover great traditional tales. There are zillions from all over the world - we know of at least 1,001 from Arabia at least!
If you're looking for a story with a particular theme or setting, use the search box below. We have worked with Google to make sure that your results are tailored to traditional tales.
