For Ages 8–11

Children will draw on their knowledge of story structure and fairy tales to write their own. Events from their own lives become the basis for personalized fairy tales that can be published, read aloud, or performed for others.

Time
60–90 minutes

What You Need

• Common Fairy Tale Elements
• Fairy-tale picture books
• Common Fairy Tale Situations

Children will review familiar books and movies to become familiar with elements of fairy tales. As they create their own personalized fairy tales, they practice writing skills and expand their knowledge of plot, character, and setting. By reading or acting out their tales, children practice oral presentation and literacy skills.

Here’s What To Do

1. Begin by asking the children to share the names of various fairy tales that they know. Remind them to think of books, television programs, and movies with which they are familiar. If they need some ideas, look at this list of fairy tales together.
2. Ask the children to describe these fairy tales. What do they have in common? What do they notice in all fairy tales? If desired, refer to the Common Fairy Tale Elements handout or look through fairy-tale books.
3. Explain to the children that they will be writing their own fairy tales. They can work alone, with partners, or with an adult. They will choose events from their own lives or lives of someone they know, and create fairy tales based on the situations.
4. Begin by brainstorming what their fairy tales could be about. If the children need some ideas, share with them the list of Common Fairy Tale Situations.
5. In their fairy tales, children will need to develop characters, the plot (including beginning, middle, and end), and the setting. Children can handwrite their stories or use a word processor.
6. Read the fairy tales out loud to make sure they make sense. Does the story flow logically? Is there a beginning, middle, and end? Is anything missing from the story? Make any needed changes.
7. After reading, discuss if their new tales sound similar to any fairy tales they have read. How are their tales like other fairy tales? How are they different?
8. When the fairy tales are complete, have children illustrate them.
9. Take time to share the fairy tale with others!

More Ideas to Try

• Read fairy tale books or look at them online.
• Act out the new fairy tales. See an example here.
• Make puppets or paper dolls to retell the tales.
• Children can also make comics of their tales using this Interactive Comic Creator.

Glossary

Plot
The sequence of events in a story.

Setting
The time and place in which a story takes place.

This activity was modified from the ReadWriteThink lesson plan “Fairy Tales from Life” available online at http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=42.

Clipart copyright 2009 JUPITERIMAGES, and its licensors. All rights reserved.