Folk and Fairy Tales

When Albert Einstein was asked how to develop intelligence in young people, he answered: "Read fairy tales. Then read more fairy tales." It may also be true that exposure to fairy tales helps develop imagination.

Sample some of the following activities to learn more about folk and fairy tales.

Places To Go | People To See | Things To Do | Teacher Resources | Bibliography

Places To Go

The following are places to go (some real and some virtual) to find out about folk and fairy tales.

Folktales from China
Travel to China and read Chinese folk tales. Then travel to Japan and experience Japanese folk tales.

Myths and Fables from Around the World
Travel the globe and read folk tales, fairy tales, and myths from different countries.

Visit your school or public library and check out all the versions of Cinderella from cultures around the world. Have your students compare them. There's Mufaro's Beautiful Daughers by John Steptoe, The Rough-faced Girl by Rafe Martin, The Egyptian Cinderella by Shirley Climo, The Korean Cinderella by Shirley Climo, The Turkey Girl : A Zuni Cinderella by Penny Pollack, Yeh Shen : A Cinderella Story from China by Ai-Ling Louie, Ashpet : An Appalachian Tale by Joanne Compton, as well as the tale by Charles Perrault. And then there are the slightly wacky versions such as Cinder Elly by Frances Minters, Cinder Edna by Ellen Jackson, Cinderella Bigfoot by Mike Thaler, Cinderella Penguin by Janet Perlman, Cinderhazel by Deborah Lattimore, and Princess Furball by Charlotte Huck. Don't forget Bubba the Cowboy Prince by Helen Ketteman where Bubba, the over-worked, underappreciated step-brother of Dwayne and Milton is magically transported by a Fairy God Cow to the Big Dance.There, Bubba falls in love with Miz Lurleen but has to rush off at midnight. She tracks him down by using the smelly cowboy boot he left behind. It's a satisfying read.

While you're at the pubic library, check out some of Shelley Duvall's Fairy Tale Theatre videos. They are wonderful. The Three Little Pigs starring Jeff Goldblum and Billy Crystal as two of the little pigs is a jewel.

The Moonlit Road
Take a walk down this spooky, moonlit road to experience folk tales of the American south.

People To See

Brothers Grimm
Spend some time with Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm. They were wonderful storytellers.

Aesop's Fables Online Collection
Meet Aesop. He was real person who lived sometime between 500 and 600 BC. He is famous for his moralizing fables. From this site, you can read full text of all the fables. Have students read Aesop and then have them read Jon Scieszka's Squids Will Be Squids which is his collection of very funny fables.

Hans Christian Andersen
Get to know Hans Christian Andersen. Did you realize that he wrote The Little Match Girl, The Ugly Duckling, The Snow Queen, The Little Mermaid, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Princess and the Pea, and more? All in all, he wrote 169 fairy tales. Here are additional full text Andersen tales.

Things To Do

Aaron Shepherd - Folk Tales
Read folk tales from around the world.

Read Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Garner. Does "The Duckling That Was Judged On Its Personal Merits And Not On Its Physical Appearance" sound better than the traditional title?

Stories to Grow By
Read folk and fairy tales from around the world. There are teaching materials and activities to go with many of the stories.

Childrenstory.Com
Read fairy tales online.

Fairy Tale Trivia Quiz
Take a fairy tale quiz and record your score.

Snow White
Kay Vandergrift of Rutgers University has written extensively about the many versions (there are 36 versions!) and aspects of Snow White. Read her hypertest version of Snow White to learn about "the fairest of them all".

Have your students read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka. It's a great book to teach the concept of point of view because this tale is told through the eyes of the wolf (who claims that he is not big or bad and that he was framed). Have students rewrite other fairy tales from the view points of different characters in stories.

The Little Red Riding Hood Project
Study 16 versions of this classic tale.

The Cinderella Project
Study 12 versions of Cinderella.

Fairy Tales
Find full text of dozens of fairy tales from Aladdin to the Wolf and the Seven Kids.

Stories, Folklore, and Fairy Tales Theme Page
Find curricular resources for the study of folk and fairy tales. There are also links to instructional materials like lesson plans which will help teachers provide instruction in this theme.

Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts
Find 15 versions of Cinderella, 5 versions of the Emperor's New Clothes, 9 different kinds of Frog Kings, and more.

Folk Tale of the Month
Read a new folk tale each month.

Folk and Fairy Tales
Browse through this list of several hundred tales and discover one you’ve never heard of. What about The Cat’s Elopement or Cannetella or The Star Dollars?

Teacher Resources

Lesson Plans/Webquests

UEN - Heritage: Legends, Fairy Tales and the Native Americans of Utah
UEN - Narrative: An Almost Familiar Fairy Tale
UEN - Descriptive Modern Tall Tale
Tales to Live By (pdf)
An extensive lesson plan geared to 1st grade.
Folk Tales from Around the World
The Realm of Fairy Tales
Embark on this webquest for 4th and 5th grade students and explore the world of make-believe.
A Tale to be Told
Realm of Fairy Tales
A New Twist on an Old Tale

Bibliography

Betts, Louise. The Classic Grimm's Fairy Tales. Philadelphia, Pa. : Courage Books, c1989.
Carter, Angela. Strange Things Sometimes Still Happen :Fairy Tales from Around the World. Winchester, MA : Faber and Faber, 1993.