TARGET: ELEM: fairy tales

[Linda Taylor <ltaylo61@MAINE.MAINE.EDU>]

Thank you for so many great ideas for fairy tales!  At your request, here
is a list of suggestions I received.  Sorry this is so long, but they are
wonderful ideas.


This just popped in my head... how about making sack puppets with those
little popcorn sized bags.  You could be the nararator while small groups
take turns acting out the story and saying lines of the important
characters.


About 20 years ago when I was in 2nd grade my teacher read us the
Gingerbread Man over a period of about 4 days.  On the 5th day she brought
in
ginger bread men for each of her students and let each of us
decorate our own with frosting and such.  I'll never forget
it and it was so much fun.  This may be something that you
would want to do with your precious little 1st graders!  Good
Luck...

At my elementary school I had a puppeteer who came in and did puppet shows of
fairy tales.  She was excellent.  You might have students make puppets of
their favorite character.

See the books TRANSITIONS  and INVITATIONS by Regie Routman.  They
contain excellent lessons for fairy tales that go along with effective
instructional practices.  There are also suggested titles for picture
books.  The books are produced by Heinemann of Portsmouth, NH.  Any
good book store or university book store can special order if not in
stock.

 I always read The Little Red Hen with first graders and serve them each a
piece of bread or cake(depending on the version of the story you use. You
could offer butter on the bread.


He introduced the story with a sensory table....things he picked out from a
dollar store. After he gave us an intro to the story we had to guess how the
different things on the table might relate to the story. (The Snow Queen was
the example and he had netting to look like ice, a plastic reindeer with
"fuzz" that we all passed around to pet, plastic ice crystals, snowflake
ornaments, mints for us all to eat - to get the sensation of a kiss from a
snow queen, and ice in a bag that he passed around so we'd see how cold her
house was.) Then we read the fairy tale out loud, went over the components
of a fairytale and acted out the Snow Queen. After that we came up with our
own fairy
tale as a class and acted that out. Then we divided into groups of five and
made our own group fairy tales and acted them out for the class.

Finish a first line to a fairy tale "Once upon a time...." and have
students illustrate that line.

Draw and color bookmarks.  Then laminate.

Divide into groups and make paper bag puppets of the characters and present
a show to the class.

Have students with the help of the teacher create a fairy tale museum in
the library.  The kids bring in things from home such as a leaf from Jack's
stalk, the pea from the princess, and so on.  They can write a description
of their object and which fairy tale it went to. Set up an exhibit roped
off with a big sign.

Draw their favorite fary tale character.  Then cut them down as much as
possible and glue all over an appliance box.

Have students create a fairy tale book using the teacher as the main
character and then adapt it to the school.  Give to teacher as a Christmas
gift.

Have fun!!