School-Age: Fairytales

I feel like it is a safe assumption that most librarians enjoy, or at least see the value of, fairytales. Most of our first stories we heard as children were fairytales and many of them have been retold in many languages and cultures. 

1. Reading
We read "Prince of a Frog" by Jackie Urbanovic. It's funny and is a wonderful read-aloud, as well as a perfect book to introduce the story of "The Frog Prince".

2. Discussion + Booktalk
We talked about what a fairytale was. Most of them had heard of "Cinderella" or "The Three Little Pigs", but they did not know that they were called 'fairytales'.

I also introduced the term 'fractured fairytales' into the discussion. We talked about what the word 'fracture' means. I asked if they knew anyone who had broken a bone and, if so, had they heard it also called a 'fracture'. Then, I related it back to fairytales, saying a fractured fairytale is when you break down a fairytale and reorganize it or rewrite it so that it is a little bit different.

Some examples:
1. "The Boy Who Cried Bigfoot!" by Scott Magoon = "The Boy Who Cried Wolf"
2. "Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion" by Alex T. Smith = "Little Red Riding Hood"
3. "The Three Ninja Pigs" by Corey Rosen Schwartz = "The Three Little Pigs"

3. Activity
We played a game of fairytale trivia. I made trivia cards that had four clues on each card. Each card was about a fairytale and the four clues started vague and became more detailed. The kids had to guess what fairytale I was giving them clues for.

Examples:
3a. Clues:
1. The character steals gold from giants.
2. A character spends all his mom's money at the marketplace.
3. He buys some beans.
4. The beans are magic and grow into a gigantic beanstalk.
Fairytale: Jack and the Beanstalk

3b. Clues:
1. This princess has trouble sleeping at night.
2. She is a guest at a castle.
3. The queen of the castle does not believe she is a princess.
4. They place a pea under her mattress.
Fairytale: The Princess and the Pea

3c. Clues:
1. There are three goats in this story.
2. The goats are looking for food.
3. They try to cross a bridge.
4. There is a troll that lives under the bridge that threatens to "Gobble them up!"
Fairytale: Three Billy Goats Gruff

We had 12 different fairytale trivia cards that we had for the activity. I loved stumping them with some that were a little harder (like "Three Billy Goats Gruff" or "The Little Red Hen"). We had some harder (less known) fairytales/folktales mixed in with some very familiar ones like "Cinderella" or "Rapunzel".

4. Craft
We made our very own frog princes. I found a craft from Red Ted Art of frog princes made from paper plates. I painted paper plates green before the program and folded them in half. Then, I found frog parts from Kids Love Craft. I printed off the frog parts on green paper and we cut out the pieces before the program. We gave the kids glue dots and let them attach their frog parts to make their very own frog prince!

Notes: I enjoyed hearing about all the fairytales the kids remembered. Kids versions of fairytales are fabulous. As for the trivia and the craft? The kids LOVED guessing the fairytales. Some of them were amazing at it and clearly knew their fairytales. I'll have to work to make the clues harder next time. They also loved the craft and many of them were using it like a puppet when the program ended.