Since ancient times, humans have sought explanations for the mysteries of nature's beauty and variety. Like other kinds of folk stories, pourquoi tales can be considered parables about how humans and animals originated or why they look or behave the way they do. Pourquoi tales have high appeal, are generally simple and straightforward in structure, and represent diverse cultures and regions. They are an excellent choice to teach the conventions of story, enhance reading comprehension, and promote multiple expressions and performance for students. The variety of activities supports the depth of understanding about language and how it works while experimenting with a variety of instructional techniques for different purposes. This article briefly defines the characteristics of the genre and highlights active strategies for using the tales in the curriculum so that students can be "up front and center" on the literacy stage, performing through song, digital art, and drama. (Contains 2 figures.)