WBR The Fisherman and His Wife Recommended for Grade 1
Title/Author: The Fisherman and His Wife by the Brothers Grimm
Suggested Time to Spend: 3 days (Recommendation: 1 hour a day for 3 days)
Common Core grade-level ELA/Literacy Standards: RI.1.1, RI.1.2, RI.1.3; W.1.1, W.1.8; SL.1.1, SL.1.2,
SL.1.4, SL.1.6; L.1.1, L.1.2, L.1.4
Lesson Objective:
Students will describe how the wife’s greed caused her and her husband to lose everything they were given by the enchanted fish.
Teacher Instructions
1. Read the Big Ideas and Key Understandings and the Synopsis below. Please do not read this to the students. This is a
description to help you prepare to teach the book and be clear about what you want your children to take away from the work.
Focus question
What is greed? Which character showed greediness? One key takeaway is that greed is a selfish desire to have more of
something. The wife was the greedy character because she is never happy with what she was granted and wanted more
from the fish.
Synopsis
There once was a poor fisherman and his wife who lived in a pigsty by the seaside. The fisherman goes fishing one day and
comes across a fish who was actually an enchanted prince. The fisherman went home to tell his wife about the fish and his
wife insisted he go back and ask the fish for something. First she sent the husband to ask for a snug cottage. They were
granted the cottage. The wife wasn’t happy enough with the cottage so she then sent her husband to ask for a castle. The
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WBR The Fisherman and His Wife Recommended for Grade 1
wife continually isn’t happy with what she is granted and continues to send the husband to ask for better/more glorious
things. In the end the husband and wife return home to the original pigsty they began with because the wife was too greedy
and upset the enchanted fish.
2. Go to the last page of the lesson and review “What Makes This Read-Aloud Complex.” This was created for you as part of the
lesson and will give you guidance about what the lesson writers saw as the sources of complexity or key access points for this
book. You will of course evaluate text complexity with your own students in mind, and make adjustments to the lesson pacing
and even the suggested activities and questions.
3. Read the entire book, adding your own insights to the understandings identified. Also note the stopping points for the text-
inspired questions and activities. Hint: you may want to copy the questions, vocabulary words and activities over onto sticky
notes so they can be stuck to the right pages for each day’s questions and vocabulary work.
Note to teachers of English Language Learners (ELLs): Read Aloud Project Lessons are designed for children who cannot read yet for
themselves. They are highly interactive and have many scaffolds built into the brief daily lessons to support reading comprehension.
Because of this, they are filled with scaffolds that are appropriate for English Language Learners who, by definition, are developing
language and learning to read (English). This read aloud text includes complex features which offer many opportunities for learning,
but at the same time includes supports and structures to make the text accessible to even the youngest students.
This lesson includes features that align to best practices for supporting English Language Learners. Some of the supports you may see
built into this, and /or other Read Aloud Project lessons, assist non-native speakers in the following ways:
These lessons include embedded vocabulary scaffolds that help students acquire new vocabulary in the context of reading.
They feature multi-modal ways of learning new words, including prompts for where to use visual representations, the
inclusion of student-friendly definitions, built-in opportunities to use newly acquired vocabulary through discussion or
activities, and featured academic vocabulary for deeper study.
These lessons also include embedded scaffolds to help students make meaning of the text itself. It calls out opportunities for
paired or small group discussion, includes recommendations for ways in which visuals, videos, and/or graphic organizers
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WBR The Fisherman and His Wife Recommended for Grade 1
could aid in understanding, provides a mix of questions (both factual and inferential) to guide students gradually toward
deeper understanding, and offers recommendations for supplementary texts to build background knowledge supporting the
content in the anchor text.
These lessons feature embedded supports to aid students in developing their overall language and communication skills by
featuring scaffolds such as sentence frames for discussion and written work (more guidance available here) as well as writing
opportunities (and the inclusion of graphic organizers to scaffold the writing process). These supports help students develop
and use newly acquired vocabulary and text-based content knowledge.
The Lesson – Questions, Activities, and Tasks
Questions/Activities/Vocabulary/Tasks Expected Outcome or Response (for each)
FIRST READING - read the entire fairy tale for the students’
enjoyment.
For the 2nd – 4th reading, have a child act out the fish and what
he says to the fisherman. Have some children act out with her
expressions when the wife is talking and have other children
act out his expressions when the fisherman is talking. It would
also be fun to have a student act out the sea and how it
changed throughout the tale.
SECOND READING: paragraphs 1-9
1. Why did the fisherman let the fish go? 1. He was scared of the fish. The fish talks.
2. If the fisherman and his wife live in a pigsty, what does this
tell us about them? 2. They live in a messy or dirty home.
3. Why did the wife want her husband to go back to the fish? 3. The wife wanted the husband to go back to the fish to ask for a
cottage. She wanted to take advantage of what a magic fish could
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WBR The Fisherman and His Wife Recommended for Grade 1
possibly give them.
4. How do you know from the story that the fish granted the 4. When the husband returned home, there stood a cottage.
wife’s wish?
5. The fisherman was worried that the fish would be angry if he
5. What does it mean that the fisherman’s “heart was very asked for something more.
heavy” as he went to ask the fish for another favor?
6. She thought it was grand.
6. What did the wife think of her new castle?
7. The wife wants to sleep and wait until the morning to decide if
7. What does “sleep upon it” mean? she is happy with the castle.
THIRD READING: Paragraphs 10-17
1. How did the wife feel about her new castle? What 1. She liked the castle, but it still didn’t make her happy. She
clues in the story tell us? wanted more.
2. Why did the wife send the fisherman back to the fish? 2. She sent him back to ask to be king.
3. 3. How did the wife feel about being king? 3. She liked being king, but not for long. She thought she
would get tired of being king and wanted to be emperor.
4. What does the husband think will be the outcome of 4. He thinks asking the fish to be emperor will come to be no
asking to be emperor? How is he feeling? good. The fisherman is very worried that the fish will be
upset.
5. Describe the sea as the fisherman approaches to ask 5. The water was black and muddy. The waves were rolling
the fish for his wife to be emperor. What feeling does about. The fisherman is nervous and worried feeling as
this description create? though they will be sorry for continuously going about
wanting more.
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WBR The Fisherman and His Wife Recommended for Grade 1
6. How does the wife feel about being emperor? What 6. Now she wants to be pope, so she wasn’t satisfied being
words does she use to let us know this? emperor.
FOURTH Reading: Paragraphs 18-end
1. As the fisherman goes back to the fish to ask if his wife 1. He was frightened because there were big waves, there wasn’t
can be Pope, why was he dreadfully frightened? After much blue sky but instead it was red, and there was a storm
students have answered the question, reread paragraph coming. He was trembling.
18 and have students act out how the fisherman was
feeling.
2. Why is the wife not satisfied being Pope? 2. She feels as though she needs full control over everything
including the universe.
3. If she is Lord of the sun and moon, what will she be able 3. She will be able to control the rising of the sun and the moon.
to control? She will control all things.
4. Has the weather around the fish and sea changed since 4. There is still a storm and the trees and rock shook. The sea has
the fisherman asked for her to be pope? Describe it. great black waves swelling up like mountains.
5. How is the fisherman feeling as he is approaching the 5. He is still scared because he was shivering as he approached
fish? How do you know? the fish.
6. Why do you think the fisherman returned home to the 6. The fish took everything away from the wife. The fish was
original pigsty that they lived in? trying to teach the wife a lesson about being greedy. People
need to be happy with what they have or appreciate what they
have and not always want better things.
FINAL DAY WITH THE BOOK - Culminating Task
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WBR The Fisherman and His Wife Recommended for Grade 1
Students create a flow map (from “thinking maps”) to depict the timeline of events and what the wife wished for each time she sent
her husband to the fish. They may write a sentence describing the wish or draw a picture of the wish (depends on their level). In
the last box of the flow map, students will see that her last wish did not come true. Then, students fill in the blank for the last
sentence.
First the wife Second she Third she wished Fourth she
wished for….. wished for…… to be …. wished to be ….
cottage castle king Emperor
Fifth the wife Sixth the wife Lastly, the wife
wished to be….. wished to be….. returned to her
same hut that she
Pope Lord of the sun had before her
and moon wishes were
granted.
The wife wanted something better each time she was granted a wish. The wife was showing greed.
Vocabulary
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WBR The Fisherman and His Wife Recommended for Grade 1
These words merit less time and attention These words merit more time and attention
Hath (para. 4) – and old-fashioned word meaning “has” Enchanted- to attract, hold the attention of by being pretty
Boon (para 4) – an old-fashioned word meaning a favor or interesting
Prince-a male member of a royal family Darted – to move quickly
Castle-a large building usually with high, thick walls and Wretchedly- very unhappy, ill, etc.
towers that was built in the past to protect against attack Seashore (para 3) –The land next to the sea or ocean
King-a male ruler of a country who usually inherits his Cottage- a small house especially in the country
position and rules for life Easy (para 6) – feeling pleased or satisfied
Dame – a woman Willingly-not refusing to do something , ready
Pigsty-a dirty or messy place Grand – impressive because of size or importance
Maiden – a young girl or woman who is not married Dolefully-very sad
Duke - a man of high ranking Sorrowful – feeling or showing sadness
Emperor – a ruler over many countries Emperor-a man who rules an empire
Pope – the highest church ruler Greedy - having or showing a selfish desire to have more of
something
Fun Extension Activities for this book and other useful Resources
Watch a video version of The Fisherman and his Wife to reinforce comprehension. Note: This is particularly supportive of
English Language Learners.
o Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4c9DwC2rX8
Students can also practice comparing and contrasting with the video version. A tree map could be used to depict the
differences in the wishes from the video and the wishes from the one read. See below.
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WBR The Fisherman and His Wife Recommended for Grade 1
The Fisherman and His Wife
Wishes from Brothers Grimm Wishes from the video told by someone else
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WBR The Fisherman and His Wife Recommended for Grade 1
What Makes This Read-Aloud Complex?
1. Quantitative Measure
Go to http://www.lexile.com/ and enter the title of your read-aloud in the Quick Book Search in the
upper right of home page. Most texts will have a Lexile measure in this database.
Most of the texts that we read aloud in K-2 should
be in the 2-3 or 4-5 band, more complex than the
580 L students can read themselves.
2-3 band 420-820L
4-5 band 740-1010L
2. Qualitative Features
Consider the four dimensions of text complexity below. For each dimension*, note specific examples
from the text that make it more or less complex.
Why does this woman continually want more or better Sleep upon it.
things?
Trembled that his knees knocked together.
Can a prince turn into a fish? What is the reality of
that? Why is this happening? Why is the wife continuously
sending the husband back to the fish?
Lesson- understanding how to be happy with what
you have.
Meaning/Purpose Structure
The story includes some archaic languageLanguage
which
Knowledge Demands
makes the text more complex.
Understand the role of a king/emperor. Some people
Willingly Hearken to me have government and others have royalty to rule.
Dolefully Understand who lives in castles when reading a fairy tale.
Muttered Can fish really talk?
*For more information on the qualitative dimensions of text complexity, visit
http://www.achievethecore.org/content/upload/Companion_to_Qualitative_Scale_Features_Explained.pdf
3. Reader and Task Considerations
Students will be vocabulary specific to kingdoms/royalty. For example, prince, maiden, king, castle and
emperor. The teacher can have photos of these to share with students. This will allow them to put a
picture with a definition.
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WBR The Fisherman and His Wife Recommended for Grade 1
4. Grade-level: 1st
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