7 Ways to Use Fairy Tales in the Classroom

Who loves a good fairy tale? I know I do and I also know that my students love them, too. There are plenty to choose from, multiple versions of them, and so many great learning opportunities wrapped up in one. So, besides simply reading and responding, what else can we use fairy tales for? Read on to see topics you could address with a simple fairy tale.

1. KEY DETAILS
As with any text, fairy tales can easily be used to work on finding key details. Aren't the characters, setting, and plot in a fairy tale a lot more engaging than most other stories? Students are still practicing the skill, but are enjoying the story simultaneously. I like using graphic organizers for students to practice writing down key details in the story. I also like taking a commonly known fairy tale and shortening it (or finding an already shortened version - check out KidsGen for some shorter versions that you could read aloud, print, or adapt even further - they also include videos). Once I have a shortened version, we can then practice our close reading and answer questions for students to go back into the text to find. You know, the usual! ;) The Fairy Tale Unit on Teachers Pay Teachers includes close reads as well as graphic organizers and you can get a sample of the graphic organizers for free below.

This free pack of graphic organizers will help you get started on key details with your students. Click the image to grab it.

2. STORY ELEMENTS
Fairy tales are a little unique in that they have a few other elements that set them apart from other fiction. Yes, we have characters, setting, problem, and solution, but we also sometimes have "magic," and always a "happily ever after." Adding in those extra elements makes learning all of them that much more special. Hang posters throughout the room with these fairy tale elements. They will help us remember them through the recall questions, but once students are beyond that, they can use these story elements to answer higher order questions as well as create their own. The posters below are FREE on Teachers Pay Teachers. Click HERE or the image below to get your set and hang them up, ready to go in your classroom.

How to Use These Posters:
- hang them up and use them for student reference
- read aloud parts of the story and ask students which story element it belongs with. You could also provide written cards and students can sort them as a learning center/station.
- hang them up or attach them to a binder ring to place within a writing center for students to use while writing their own fairy tale (more on that later).

Paired with this fun graphic organizer, students can analyze and break down fairy tales they are reading or they can use it to write their own (again, more on that later).

3. COMPARE AND CONTRAST
We know that fairy tales have a lot in common, so let's compare! Using a simple venn diagram will have students using those fairy tale story elements we already learned about and thinking about what these stories have in common and what sets them apart.

4. RETELLING/SUMMARIZING
We all know the kid(s) who summarize by telling you the WHOLE story without leaving out any detail, right? I can't be the only one that has seen that! Summarizing is a skill we use throughout our entire lives and we practice it starting in Kindergarten! Fairy Tales are amazing stories to use to practice this skill. There are opportunities for puppet shows for your younger grades and, what I like to call, The Ultimate Retelling Challenge for your upper grades. Students retell a story either by writing it or acting it out. Read about it on this excerpt from The Fairy Tale Unit on TpT:

Here's a couple of my lovely theater students using puppets to retell a fairy tale.

5. READER'S THEATER
I. Love. Reader's theater. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Fairy tales are exceptional stories to use for reader's theater because there are so many different ones, they are easily modified for any reading level, and students love them. Not only that, but Disney has helped a lot in this area, too. Odds are, most of your students have seen or at least heard of the Disney movie of Cinderella or Snow White or Sleeping Beauty, so even if they aren't great at acting out a part, they have a character they've actually SEEN to refer to. The Fairy Tale Unit on TpT has 5 reader's theater scenes as well as 5 reader's theater monologues at varying levels of reading difficulty. This is also a fun time to add in costumes (again... sucker for theater...).

Here are some of my students watching another student perform a monologue. Gotta love those costumes!

6. CREATIVE WRITING
Now that students know the key details of their favorite fairy tales and they know what makes a fairy tale, it is SO exciting to have students write their own. By exposing students to multiple fairy tales, they'll have an idea of varying characters and different problems and solutions. I've had some students come up with every detail brand new, but I have also had students that combined their favorite parts of various fairy tales to make a brand new mashup of sorts. Both are awesome and both are showing the creative side of your students while using this new found style in story telling. Below is a game I call "Roll a Fairy Tale." Students roll the dice and develop their story that way. There's never the "I don't know what to write," issue with this game and it is a fun addition to any writing center. They just choose a sheet (character, beginning, middle, end, finish the story, or how did this happen?), roll a die, and basically fill in the blanks. This is included in The Fairy Tale Unit on TpT.

7. CREATIVE APPLICATION
We just used our fairy tale knowledge to write our own, but there are so many other opportunities for students to be creative with fairy tales. Here's a bullet list of just some of these opportunities:

- For younger students, dress up in costumes for retelling purposes or have them create their own crown.

- For older students, play the Creative Castle Card Game where they write about or draw a castle with combinations of various fairy tales.

- For any grade level, have students discuss, write, or act out "What If..." questions, such as "What if Cinderella didn't make it back before midnight?" There are many of these included in the Fairy Tale Unit on TpT.

- Read fractured fairy tales, such as The Stinky Cheese Man and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and have students write their own taking a fairy tale and twisting it around. This is GREAT for teaching point of view!

Here are some GREAT fractured fairy tales to go with your unit. I absolutely LOVE The Stinky Cheese Man.

- For older students, have them write and perform their own fairy tale reader's theater or have them write a skit to have others perform. This is also really fun for those fractured fairy tales. I had a student write a monologue from the point of view of "Awake Beauty," a princess who was given the curse of never being able to fall asleep. LOVE kids' creativity!


For everything you see in this post and MORE, check out The Fairy Tale Unit in my TpT shop! And definitely make sure you snag those free posters and free graphic organizers to use with all these other fun ideas for using fairy tales.

My New Year's Resolution

So, readers, we are a week into 2016. How do you feel? My body is trying to adjust to waking up to an alarm again, washing my hair on a regular basis, and not eating whenever and whatever I want. This was easier 10 years ago, let me tell ya.

I have a love-hate relationship with New Year's Resolutions. I always make a professional/classroom one that I'm pretty good to stick to at least till April (I mean May is like another December, am I right?), but the personal ones I make fall short. I know the reason for this is because I consume myself with my job. This isn't a bad thing because I adore my job. But I always try to do a resolution for me and I rarely follow through.

This year, however, I felt I needed to make a change in myself. You see, I am a book LOVER. My problem with books is though is similar to my problem with Netflix and video games. When I read my books, it consumes me and I binge-read. Well, as a teacher, let's face it... I don't have all the time in the world to binge-read. I'll read a few pages at 11pm and fall right asleep. Now in the summer, it's different. I devour books like there's no tomorrow. But I feel like a part of me is missing during the other 9 months of the year.

So here's my resolution. I will put my phone down earlier at night. I will turn off Netflix and the video games and TpT (so hard!) and I will pick that book up earlier in the evening.

I found this reading challenge floating around Facebook over the Winter Break and it's totally manageable for me. I finally tracked down the image as belonging to Modern Mrs. Darcy. The promise I'm making myself though is that I will not read all 12 books over the summer. I will start now and try to aim for a book a month. I owe this me-time to myself.

Teachers, our job is an amazing one. Our job is also a stressful one. Make time for yourself this year. You deserve it.

Make Your Masterpiece Sunday

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope everyone had a marvelous holiday yesterday. I'm still enjoying the holiday weekend myself. :)

This post is a combo post! A Make Your Masterpiece post and a Sunday Scoop! Enjoy!

Last week the ladies hosting the fabulous TpT Seller Challege issued week 3's challenge: Make Your Masterpiece. I was SO insanely busy at the theater last week that I had to wait till this weekend to even get started! I teach at a community theater and the summer is the busiest time for the kids. I've been working 12-14 hour days at the theater all week! But only one more week left. I got this!

Anyway... this week's challenge:

As some of you know, I have a series of packs that supplement the Reading Wonders series for Kindergarten. I used them daily last year teaching Kindergarten, however, I did not start creating them until Unit 5! Half way through the school year. Well, I will be teaching second grade next year and I have been debating whether or not to create Units 1-4 for my store. The answer came quickly in a question from a buyer on my store. She said that she loved my previous units and was wondering if I could create the missing units. Although it was a lot of work that I will not personally get to use next year, I could not disappoint her and the other teachers who purchase the Wonders units! So, I created Unit 1!

Includes:
Sight Word Cut and Paste
Sentence Builders
Sentence Starters
Poetry Activities (12 total)
Flash Cards and Practice Cards (black and white and in color)
Phonics Activities (8 total)
Phonics Board Games (3 total)
Labeling Activities (highly differentiated)
Handwriting Activities
Writing Activities (with picture dictionary)
Blank Lesson Plan Sheets
Pre-made Lesson Plans
Binder Covers (variety in black and white and in color)
Essentail Question Posters (full page and half page, black and white and color)

UNIT 1 ONLY BONUS CONTENT included!!!

Unit 1 includes some bonus content that I'm thrilled to share! I will leave it as a surprise though. But here's a hint: Unit 1 is the beginning of the year unit... so the bonus content is only something that can be used at the beginning of the school year!

Click any of the images above to check it out in my store! It will be on sale through Wednesday July 8th!

And now, for my favorite linky of course:

Think About It Thursday: Summer Reading

I'm linking up with Comprehension Connection again this week for the Think About It Thursday linky because the topic is summer reading! Ah, summer reading...

My "to-read" list is ALWAYS a mile long and I can never seem to read books fast enough to knock through my list! However, it is always satisfying to add a book to my reading list and even more satisfying to say that I finished it and I loved/hated it. :)

My summer has already kind of started because this year I was a student teacher. Because the university's school year is shorter than elementary school, I finished on April 25th. So I am almost done with my first summer reading book:

I am excited to share this list with you! Please comment and leave recommendations of books if you have them. I am always adding to my never ending "to-read" list!

1. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

About two weeks ago, the library in my county was having a book sale, getting rid of books for almost NOTHING! I got there late so they were picked over, but it was better that way because the man came in and said, "Whatever you can fit in these brown paper bags you can have for a dollar." Needless to say, I grabbed up a few bags. I would up leaving with almost 70 books (mostly for my classroom) for $3! One of the books I picked up has been on my "to-read" list for a very long time, so I decided to start it. I am almost finished with it already and it is awesome! I was just telling my husband that last night when I was reading it, I literally let out an audible "Oh no!" and had to put the book down after looking at the clock and seeing 1:45 am... So far... it is one I have difficulty putting down.

2. From STEM to STEAM by David A. Sousa & Tom Pilecki

Starting June 17th, I will be teaching a middle school and high school summer camp at the college in my town. It is the first time I am teaching there and want to make a good impression. This is an all day camp of which I will be responsible for the morning sessions. I am in charge of teaching the Arts portion of this STEAM camp and want to make sure I am integrating the arts into the other sessions they are working in: Science, Math, and Technology. This book was lent to me and so far is GREAT for my purpose.

3. The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer

Another book I picked up at the library sale, The Executioner's Song is another old "to-read" book of mine. It's a heavy hardback book with almost 1100 pages... totally my style. ;)

4. Written in My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon

I saved the best for last, although I will probably be reading this book the day it comes out on June 5th! I am a HUGE fan of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. It has been 5 years since the next installment and it comes out in a couple of weeks!!! There is also a TV show starting on STARZ very soon and I am SO READY. I am not a person who re-reads books often because I feel like there are so many things I want to read that I don't want to "waste" my time with one I've read before. But this series is one of my two exceptions (the other being The Bronze Horseman series by Paullina Simons... seriously, look it up. It will blow your mind.). I am beyond thrilled for this one and will probably knock it out in a couple of days.... CAN'T WAIT ANY LONGER!

So there ya have it, folks! My summer reading list! If I knock out Written in My Own Heart's Blood as quickly as I think I will, I may be adding another to this list... I just haven't decided on it yet. ;)

Happy reading! And happy summer!!