By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
First-grade students at Union City Elementary School concluded their fables and storytelling unit with an action-packed “Fable Olympics” event recently, bringing classic tales to life through creative games and hands-on activities.
The event was a culmination of weeks spent reading and exploring timeless stories. Included among those tales were: The Maid and the Milk Pail, The Dog in the Manger, The Goose and the Golden Egg, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing.
Also read were: The Fox and the Grapes, The Little Half-Chick, The Crowded Noisy House, All Stories Are Anansi’s, and The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
Throughout the unit, students learned to identify key parts of a story — character, setting, plot, and resolution — and discovered that each fable carries an important life lesson, known as the moral.
To reinforce these lessons in a memorable way, teachers designed the Fable Olympics, where each game was inspired by one of the stories read in class.
Students had a blast participating in a variety of games, including:
- Balancing “milk pails” (cotton balls) on their heads, just like the dream-filled maid in The Maid and the Milk Pail.
- Egg-and-spoon relays, where students carried eggs from a nest to a bucket, reflecting the greedy farmer’s story in The Goose and the Golden Egg.
- Unraveling a giant web, inspired by All Stories Are Anansi’s, testing students’ teamwork and patience.
- Shooting grapes into a bucket, a nod to the determined (and slightly sour) fox in The Fox and the Grapes.
- Collecting hay in a fast-paced race based on The Dog in the Manger, where the class with the most hay won.
- And of course, a Peter Rabbit chase, celebrating the mischievous bunny from Beatrix Potter’s beloved tale.
Points were awarded based on performance, including how many grapes or eggs students successfully transferred within three minutes, and which class collected the most hay or completed tasks the fastest.
The Fable Olympics combined physical activity with literacy in a fun and engaging way. They also helped students deepen their understanding of story structure and moral lessons through experience.
“Watching the students connect the stories they’ve read with real-life challenges was amazing,” said Angie Conley, one of the event organizers. “They weren’t just playing – they were retelling, remembering, and applying what they learned.
“The day ended with proud smiles, a lot of laughter, and maybe a few cotton balls stuck in hair — proof that learning can be both meaningful and fun.”