The students can create paper bag crafts of some of the most popular characters in the fable stories. For example, for the Lion and the Mouse fable, paint a paper bag gray for the mouse and orange-yellow for the lion. Glue yarn around the bottom fold to create a mane. A mouth and a triangle shape for the nose can be cut from the folded bottom of the bag. You can glue paper ears, eyes and pipe cleaner whiskers in the appropriate places. The children can also create sock puppets by bringing in old socks and decorating the toe end to look like an animal from one of the stories. You can have the children work in pairs or groups on their puppets and they can do a short skit for the class with their puppets.
You can have the children work on art projects that reflect what the moral of a particular fable is. Each child is given a piece of construction paper with a moral written on it from one of the stories. Each child then has to create a collage using magazine cutouts, which reflect that moral in our modern-day society. This can also be a collaborative project completed in pairs or groups. Another idea is to create hanging fable art to decorate the classroom with. Give each child a paper plate with a short moral written along the top edge of the plate. The children then decorate the rest of the circle with the characters from the specific story. Hole punch the plates, tie with lengths of string and hang the plates from the ceiling.
Have the children come up with a moral lesson of their own, perhaps something their parents are always telling them. Each student is given a small blank booklet with space to draw illustrations and space to tell the story on each page. The students come up with a story for their own moral and individually present it to the class. Encourage the students to fill as much of the page as possible with colorful illustrations. Another idea is to have the students create a shoe box diorama of the setting that their story takes place in. Have the students bring in a shoe box and provide them with the necessary art supplies to create their diorama.
For very young students in preschool and kindergarten, focus on one or two stories at a time and have them work on crafts for that specific story. For example, if the story is the Tortoise and the Hare, you can have the children create turtle crafts, such as bottle cap turtles, and rabbit crafts, such as bunny ear crowns. You can then use the characters in the story and apply it to other lessons, such as learning about the letters T and H. You can also use bunnies and turtles to discuss animals and their environments.