As part of the TRACE.hr project, a workshop on interpreting folk literature was held with sixth-grade students of Pučišća Elementary School, involving nine participants. After reading various short stories, fairy tales, anecdotes, legends, and traditional tales from the island of Brač, the story “In Tailor Rujun’s Place, Prague Teeth and Dog Fur”, recorded in the area of Bol, was selected.

The students discussed the dilemmas that keeping secrets can bring and reflected on what to do when a secret troubles us, yet revealing it might hurt someone—whether to confide in oneself, write the secret down, share it with nature, or even tell it to a pet. They also identified unfamiliar local words and then used them in new contexts. In the creative part of the workshop, they made illustrations inspired by the story’s motifs and created a kamishibai, through which they collaboratively retold the text. The activity was further enriched by recording audio and video material.

The story was then compared with the fairy tale “Emperor Trajan’s Goat Ears”, where students recognized similarities in the central motif of a secret and its revelation, as well as differences in characters, helpers, and symbols. Special emphasis was placed on understanding the core idea of both stories—that the truth cannot be hidden forever.

Inspired by the texts they had read, the students created their own stories, retaining key elements such as an unusual character, the motif of a secret, and a moral, while developing a deeper understanding of their own experiences and universal life questions.