Fairy Tale Teaching Ideas
Fairy tales are stories that have been passed down from generation to generation, most dating back to the Middle Ages. Whether you teach an elementary class or home-school your children, these stories will add greatly to your lesson plans because they teach valuable morals and ideals. No matter what fairy tales you choose to teach, you can emphasize the important lessons of these fun stories in varied ways.
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Perform a Play
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Having your pupils act out your chosen fairy tale provides a fun way to get the children involved and help them feel empathy for the characters they play. This is also an easy way to gauge, based on how they portray their characters, whether your children truly understand the story.
The Movie and the Book
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Have your pupils read the printed version of the fairy tale first, then let them watch the movie afterward as a reward. After the children have experienced both forms of the story, instruct them to write out a list or make a Venn diagram of the similarities and differences between the two versions. Discuss why certain things are different and what main message both the book and movie are trying to convey.
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Write Fractured Fairy Tales
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Have your pupils choose their favorite fairy tale and write a "fractured fairy tale" by changing the story in any way they want. They can change the ending, create new characters or tell the story from a different character's perspective. Children love putting their own twist on stories, and this activity will get their creativity going while helping them understand the main points of the story.
Fairy Tales Around the World
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Choose a story that has foreign versions, such as Cinderella, which has a Chinese version called Yeh-Shen. Have your pupils read both versions of the story and then compare and contrast them. Discuss different values emphasized in different versions, the similarities of the stories and how the characters are alike and different. This will help your pupils understand the differences in culture through literature.
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- Photo Credit Cut glass image by Yuriy Rozanov from Fotolia.com
