The Wolf's Side of the Story

Retell a fairy tale the child knows by heart — but this time from the side of the character nobody ever asks.

  1. Tell or read a very familiar tale in the usual way (The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk).
  2. Pick the “other” character — the wolf, a bear, the giant. Hold up a toy or a spoon as a microphone and say: “Now we’re going to hear the wolf’s side.”
  3. Ask three questions, one at a time, and wait for answers: “What did the wolf want?” “What did he see when he got to the house?” “What would he say happened?”
  4. Retell the story together starting with “Hello, I’m the wolf, and here is what happened to me…” Take turns adding a sentence.
  5. Ask the pigs’ side again: “Would the pigs agree? What would they say?”
  6. Close with: “Same story, two sides. Whose side did we hear first?”

Variation: Use a real moment from the day instead of a fairy tale — “Tell me what happened at the sandpit. Now tell it the way Maja would tell it.”

Requirements

  • Space: Anywhere comfortable — sofa, bed, car
  • Surface: Not applicable
  • Materials: A familiar fairy tale (book or from memory); optional soft toys or a spoon "microphone"
  • Participants: 1 adult + 1 child; works well with siblings taking different characters
  • Supervision: Light — adult co-tells the story

Rationale & Objective

Five-year-olds are just becoming able to hold two versions of one event in mind. In Selman’s account of social perspective-taking, children of roughly 5 to 9 move into understanding that people in the same situation can see it differently because they want and know different things — the step that later makes fair conflict resolution possible. Fairy tales are an ideal training ground because the child already knows the plot, so all their thinking can go into the new viewpoint; Jon Scieszka’s picture book The True Story of the Three Little Pigs is the best-known example of the device. Research also links story exposure to social understanding — Mar, Tackett and Moore (2010) found that preschoolers who were exposed to more children’s storybooks scored higher on theory-of-mind measures. The exercise directly rehearses the subdomain’s measurement describes a situation from another person’s perspective when prompted, and supports the EYLF aim that children “become aware of fairness” and listen to others’ ideas.

Progress Indicators

  • Early: retells the usual story with the same hero; says the other character is “just bad”; needs the adult to supply what that character wanted
  • Developing: names what the other character wanted or felt (“he was hungry”); adds one or two sentences in that character’s voice with prompting
  • Proficient: tells a short version from the other side with a beginning and an end; can say how the two sides differ
  • Advanced: spontaneously offers the other side of real-life events (“maybe she thought I was finished”); invents a third viewpoint (the pigs’ mother, the woodcutter); notices that understanding a side is not the same as agreeing with it

Safety Notes

  • No physical risks
  • Keep the moral clear for a 5-year-old — understanding why someone did something does not make a hurtful action okay
  • When using a real conflict, wait until everyone is calm; a child who is still upset will hear “tell her side” as being told they are wrong
  • Never use the game to make a child justify someone who frightened or hurt them; those situations need adult protection, not perspective-taking
  • Skip scary characters at bedtime for children prone to nightmares

Hints

  • Playfulness: give the character a ridiculous voice and a grievance — “Nobody ever asks the bears how THEY felt about the broken chair!”
  • Sustain interest: keep a list on the fridge of characters you have “interviewed”; move on to picture books, cartoons, and the family pet’s view of the vacuum cleaner
  • Common mistake: turning it into a lecture about who was right. Stay curious and funny; the aim is seeing two sides, not handing down a verdict
  • Limited space: needs no props at all — perfect for the car, a waiting room or the walk to preschool
  • Cross-domain: builds narrative language and “because” sentences (language); draw the same scene twice, once from each side (art); act it out with toys (pretend play)
  • Progression: adult tells the other side → child answers the three questions → child tells it with help → child tells it alone → three viewpoints → apply to a real event from the child’s day

Sources

  • Selman, R.L. (1980), The Growth of Interpersonal Understanding — developmental levels of social perspective-taking
  • Mar, R.A., Tackett, J.L. & Moore, C. (2010), “Exposure to media and theory-of-mind development in preschoolers,” Cognitive Development
  • Scieszka, J. & Smith, L. (1989), The True Story of the Three Little Pigs — picture book retelling from the wolf’s viewpoint
  • CASEL framework — Social Awareness (perspective-taking, understanding others’ viewpoints)
  • EYLF (Australia) Outcome 2 — children respond to diversity with respect and become aware of fairness
  • Polish preschool core curriculum (Podstawa programowa wychowania przedszkolnego) — social area, respecting the rights and individual needs of others