Fairy Tale Unit

The Fairy Tale unit was very interesting to me for a couple of reasons. First I had never read the Brother’s Grimm versions of Fairy Tales. So I really didn’t know that Fairy Tales originated from these versions that were dark and scary. I had always thought that Fairy Tales were from Disney but it was actually opposite most of the Disney versions were derived from Brother’s Grimm. I was shocked when I was reading the original versions of Little Read Riding Hood, Snow White, Cinderella, and The Little Mermaid and all of the rest of the Fair Tales. All of these Fairy Tales didn’t seem like innocent and happy Fairy Tales I’m used to hearing. They were actually kind of scary and disturbing. These are definitely too dark and scary for elementary children to learn about. So they could just learn about the newer Fairy Tales that aren’t so scary.
There are lots of different lesson plans and ideas you can get from the Fairy Tales unit. For a lesson plan I could read a Fairy Tale to the class and they could re-create their own version of it or add different endings this would be creative. I could also have a Fairy Tales theme week in class where the children learn about different Fairy Tales all week. They could also do plays or re-enactments of Fairy Tales. They could write poems about Fairy Tales and this could be a part of a poetry Fairy Tale theme. They could work in groups to write poems and have a contest to see who made the most creative/funny Fairy Tale. They could also do paintings or drawings of their favorite Fairy Tales.

Some common elements in the Fairy Tales were:
The magical theme
Young Vs. Old
Princes and Princesses
Beauty Vs. Ugly
The saving element
Main characters usually hero’s
Getting married as a common theme
Poor Vs. Rich


This is a good website for children to read online Disney versions of different Fairy Tales.
http://disneydigitalbooks.go.com/?CMP=KNC-DDBCinderellaGoogle&s_kwcid=TC16777cinderella%20storySb5298545675


This is a good website for different Fairy Tales.
http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/Folklore/Literature/Tales/Fairy_Tales/